Press Release: "Europe"

A young Utahn peers over the ramp of a landing craft as it nears the Normandy coast, wondering if this is his last day. Another young man battles with his parachute as his bomber falls apart over Germany. A third shuffles in stunned silence as he becomes one of the first soldiers to liberate a Nazi concentration camp. Another Utahn’s eyes fill with tears as he sees the Statue of Liberty for the first time upon his return from the front.

 Sixty years after the end of World War II, the memories of Utah veterans who fought for the liberation of Europe remain vivid. The fear, the danger, the sorrow, and the relief of survival all come to life for succeeding generations as KUED presents Utah World War II Stories: Europe, the second installment in a landmark series honoring Utah’s members of “The Greatest Generation.”  The episode airs on March 7 at 7:00 p.m. on KUED.

“Most WWII veterans are in their 80’s and may not be with us long,” says the program’s narrator and writer Rick Randle, who has devoted his life to researching the war.  “It is important to honor them now by remembering them and telling our children and grandchildren of their terrific sacrifice.”

Most of them were mere teenagers – unfamiliar with killing and death -- when they went to Europe.  Lou Slama of Salt Lake City still chokes up when he remembers his best buddy dying in his arms.  “You know I cried like a baby,” he recalls. “It was disastrous to see him laying there…it was just like he was asleep. So Lieutenant Pollet came and said, ‘You gotta stay with it, you gotta remember…You kill ‘em first so they can’t kill you.”

Salt Laker Shig Matsukawa recalls the irony of serving in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a Japanese-American unit, many of whom were recruited from Japanese internment camps.  At enlistment the young men were classified “4C”, enemy aliens.  “So we were enemy aliens at that time. But nevertheless they asked for volunteers and they got way more than they needed,” recalls Matsukawa.  The unit, dubbed the Purple Heart Battalion for its high losses, was one of the most highly decorated units in the Army. 

The documentary also features aviators who daily risked their lives in dangerous missions over Europe. They blunted Germany’s ability to wage war and eventually established air superiority in Europe.  Thousands of planes and crews were lost.  Richard Burt,
Pat Patterson, Robert McGregor and Ray Matheny explain what it was like to bail out of a burning plane into German hands, uncertain how or if they would survive.  Burt of Bear River City was taken as a German prisoner of war, then forced to march nearly 1,500 miles towards Western lines in late winter with little food or water.

The rugged foot soldiers, who had to win the war on the ground, give first hand reports of the D-Day Invasion.  The late Steve J. Poulos, of Salt Lake City, had participated in the second wave of the D-Day invasion as part of the 29th Infantry Division.  In the documentary, he recalls swimming toward Omaha Beach.  “I was going down, down, down and wasn’t coming up,” he says.  He threw his machine gun in the water, took a bayonet and began cutting away his shoes and clothes to save him-self from sinking. “I didn’t know what to do,” he says.  “I had to do something…to protect myself. So I jumped onto an American soldier who was already dead and took his rifle.”   

Paratrooper Lou Slama, who jumped behind enemy lines in Holland, fought his way out only to face the Battle of the Bulge. Ernie Mettenett, former CEO of Utah’s Hercules Corporation and another Bulge infantryman, relates how he and his 99th Infantry Division became the first foot soldiers to cross into Germany over the Bridge at Remagen.

Some of the film’s most haunting moments come from veterans like Joel Shapiro, who tell what it was like to enter a recently liberated concentration camp in Germany.  Lee Tucker, a pilot with the 404th Fighter Group, describes stumbling into the Buchenwald death camp.  A young boy who greeted him took him to the furnaces that were still hot.  “It was really a terrible thing. I had nightmares,” he says. When soldiers saw what had happened at Buchenwald, they marched local townspeople through the camp so they could see what the Nazis had done.

“Whether it’s bailing out of a plane or walking through concentration camps, the trauma of war left a deep imprint in the minds of these men,” says producer Sally Shaum.  “I was constantly impressed that their memories are so alive with the detail of their individual experiences.  I was equally amazed at how young they were when they had those experiences.”

What kept many of the men going in the fight against the Third Reich was a simple will to survive coupled with the certainty they were fighting for a cause that was worth paying the ultimate price.

“There are a lot of guys with graves out there in Europe -- those are the guys who are heroes and fought for this kind of a freedom,” says Slama.  “That's exactly what kept a lot of the guys alive--the thought of coming back home and knowing we have just destroyed the army that wanted to control the world.”