Novelists Using Personal War Experiences

Kurt VonnegutJames Jones

Slaughterhouse-Five

• Billy Pilgrim, POW

• Dresden bombing• Feb. 13, 1945• 135,000 killed

• …so it goes.

Slaughterhouse-Five

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder• Stockholm Syndrome

Slaughterhouse-Five

View from the Bruhler Castle tower of the Frauenkirche, 1945

View from the Georgen Gate showing the ruins of the Frauenkirche and surrounding buildings, summer 1947

View of Dresden's Neumarkt and the Frauenkirche, August 1949

“Das hat der Feind gethan!”

-- Johann Wolfgang Goethe following 1760 siege of Dresden by Prussians

From Here to Eternity

• Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt• Sgt. Milt Warden• Pearl Harbor sneak attack• Dec. 7, 1941• 2,402 U.S. Military & Civilian Dead• 18 U.S. ships sank or damaged; 161 planes

destroyed• Japanese lost 64 dead, 29 planes & 6 subs

From Here to Eternity

Capt. Mose GrossAssistant navigator, USS Helena

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. A small boat rescues a seaman from the 31,800 ton USS West Virginia burning in the foreground. Smoke rolling out amidships shows where the most extensive damage occurred. Note the two men in the superstructure. The USS Tennessee is inboard.

Pearl Harbor bombing. Destruction. Smoke pours from the USS Shaw, bombed dry dock (right center) while in the foreground lies the capsized USS Oglala, a minelayer. To the left is the 10,000 ton cruiser, USS Helena, struck by an aerial torpedo on the starboard side. The concussion caused the Oglala, formerly berthed alongside the Helena to flood and she turned over after being brought to dock. At the extreme left, may be seen some of the superstructure of the USS Pennsylvania and at the right appears to be the USS Maryland burning

Jack H. Good

Navy Yeoman Second ClassUSS Vestal

The Vestal was tied to the Arizona when the Japanese attacked

Jack Good’s ShipPearl Harbor bombing. USS Vestal. This U.S. repair ship, twice bombed by Japanese fliers, was beached after the ship started flooding. The Vestal has since been repaired

Naval Air StationPearl Harbor bombing. Naval air station. This is the wreckage-strewn naval air station at Pearl Harbor following one of the Japanese sneak attacks on the morning of December 7, 1941. In the background, an explosion sends a mass of flames and smoke high in the sky

Interview with Kristin Vogel, Queens, New York,

Nov. 4, 2001 (part 1 of 2)

September 11, 2001, Documentary Project

From Here to Eternity

• We're poor little lambs who've lost our way, Baa! Baa! Baa!

• We're little black sheep who've gone astray, Baa--aa--aa!

• Gentlemen-rankers out on the spree, • Damned from here to Eternity, • God ha' mercy on such as we, Baa! Yah! Bah!

• --Gentlemen-Rankers by Rudyard Kipling