STORIES FROM THE FRONTLINE
Firsthand accounts of soldiers across timelines.
From memoirs, novels, biographies and documentaries.
“I was mentally prepared to sustain serious injury or death, but before that day I never contemplated the reality of being captured by the enemy. I thought, "This is going to be hard on the folks," only to realize that I actually verbalized my thought out loud.
As the English-speaking officer and I walked side by side, he said, "War is terrible, isn't it?”
― Oliver Omanson, Prisoner of War Number 21860: The World War II Memoirs of Oliver Omanson
"Survivor’s guilt is still my strongest stressor. I make them privy to my emotional baggage to show them that they are not unique or weird. I tell them about my bombing missions with the Eighth Air Force during WWII and the day that my B-17 exploded over Berlin. How I am plagued with guilt over the loss of four of my crewmates that day.
What it was like being a POW for a year and how exhilarating it was to see Patton lead his troops through the barbed wire gates of our Stalag to liberate us."
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- Norman Bussel, "My Private War: Liberated Body, Captive Mind: A World War II POW's Journey."
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" I wasn’t a thug — I needed psychological help — but it wasn’t available. A lot of us returning soldiers had mental problems but were dismissed as "nutcases" or "off their rockers". I suffered similar violent outbursts for the next forty years and each time I had no memory of the commotion I had caused.
I am sure that there were thousands of men like me who had served in frontline units and were dealing with the same battle-induced trauma which today is recognized as the illness Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.
When I was demobbed, people didn’t talk about what was going on in their minds.
It just was not the done thing; you straightened your shoulders and got on with life. "
- Victor Gregg, The Telegraph