I thought the guys shot at the crossroads were all from one unit, a field artillery observation battalion. Even though he was coming at me, I couldnt shoot.. His work in That Championship Season, first produced at the Public Theater, led the film director George Roy Hill to tap Mr. Durning for the part of a corrupt police lieutenant in The Sting. Two years later he played a beleaguered police hostage negotiator squaring off against Al Pacinos manic bank robber in Sidney Lumets celebrated Dog Day Afternoon., The 1970s and 80s were fruitful years. Division, and a former Chief of Staff for the 1st. Their hatred of the enemy was such, I swear, I could not always keep it under control.. Also, in block 55, "ASR Score (2 Sep 45) 61"? But simply because I am interested in the Malmedy massacre for several years, which means I have spend much time on the question and read a lot of books. It is possible that a riflemen might be reclassified as a driver due to the extent of his injuries and be given limited duties in a FAOB, so it is not inconceivable, but the point here is that there needs to be some reliable evidence. WebMy uncle wrote a book, Captor Captive, that included the Nazis convicted of the Malmedy Massacre and imprisoned at Landsberg.. Two million men fought for three months in Normandy in 1944. [Ref: http://www.web2carz.com/people/who-you-know/2097/charles-durnings-war-heroism-exaggeration-fabrication]. During the Battle of the Bulge, Germans captured Durning. The book contains a bibliography but no footnotes or citations within the text to explain sources. The question of why a trained rifleman (if that is what he was on D-Day) would suddenly end up in a field artillery observation battalion (if that is what happened) on 17 December is still pertinent. From Trump to Putin: How People Came to Look to Timothy Snyder for Predictions, The Curious History of Ulysses Grant's Great Grandfather, H.W. The Battle of the Bulge was the largest battle ever fought in the history of the U.S. infantry and one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, which was the most costly war in human history. Mr. Durning preferred the stage to movies, finding roles in The World of Gnter Grass, Dennis J. Reardons Happiness Cage and Ernest Thompsons On Golden Pond, among other plays. He does not appear in the list of survivors. Peiper was the commander of Kampfgruppe Peiper, the leading battle formation of the First Panzer Divisionhe had been personally picked by Adolf Hitler to be the point person on the Sixth Panzer Armys drive to seize the bridges of the Meuse River and capture Antwerp. George Fleps, an ethnic German from Romania, stood up in his halftrack and fired twice at the crowd of Americans. Review: Will Bunch on the College-No College Divide, Historian Chris Miller on the Amazingand DangerousSemiconductor. The soldiers of SS-Panzerregiment 1 who did the shooting took great care to ensure no witnesses remained, but as at Wormhoudt (also LSSAH), Le Paradis (SS-Totenkopf-Division) & L'Abbe Ardenne (SS-Pz.Gren.Regt.-25) there were always some who lived to testify against the perpetrators. - Mr. During supposedly told a close friend that the reason he was transferred to the Rangers was because he hit an officer, and was therefore given the choice of either Leavenworth or the Rangers. Perhaps forty made good their escape into the deepening dusk. I'm beginning to wonder about the veracity of Mr Durning's World War II story. He was also nominated for his starring performance as a mailman romancing a lonely widow (Maureen Stapleton) in the 1975 CBS television movie Queen of the Stardust Ballroom.. As even the official U.S. military history of the Battle of the Bulge states: It is probable the Germans attempting to surrender in the days immediately following [the killings at Malmedy] ran a greater risk.. Battery B reached the Belgian town of Malmedy around noon. The statement of Reynolds does however not mean that the name of the survivors are wrong or unknown. WebCharles Durning, a second World War hero who became one of Hollywood's top character actors in films like The Sting, Tootsie and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, has died, a New York City. All of the death sentences were commuted to imprisonment and, in 1956, Jochen Peiper became the last member of the group to walk out of jail. He describes in detail being captured by Germans and escaping, but NOT as part of the Malmedy events--not even at the same period of time. When the gun crew was unable to do this, Beutner gave up in disgust and waved the halftrack on, much to the relief of the now edgy and nervous Americans in the field. the men in the pasture, and the other men who escaped the massacre because for one or other reason they were not at the crossroads when and where they were supposed to be when the massacre occured (I think for instance to a man the artillery observer battalion who had been left in Malmedy because he suddenly fell ill: he escaped the massacre but is not a survivor).

German infantrywearing winter camouflage clothing that most of the Americans did not possessattacked out of the ethereal mist, firing burp guns from the hip. The area around Five Points was so hotly contested that it was not until nearly a month after the massacre, on January 14, that the U.S. army was able to recover the bodies of the 84 men who had been killed in that field. With all of these matters of great importance, why has so much attention been paid to the killing of eighty-four U.S. soldiers in a small field on December 17, 1944? Frankly speaking I have doubts about this. The book focuses (in training and in combat) on experiences, actions, emotions, and hardships of ordinary Gis. Forty-three of them, including Peiper, were sentenced to die by hanging, twenty-two to life imprisonment, and the rest to ten- to twenty-year sentences. The delay upset Peiper. Lejoly, who was a German sympathizer, nevertheless could not believe his eyes as he watched one SS man allow a U.S. medic to bandage a wounded soldier, after which the German shot both men dead. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. The rest of the Wikipedia article on World War II service is, as others have noted here, quite inconsistent. In Belgium he was stabbed in hand-to-hand combat with a German soldier, whom he bludgeoned to death with a rock. Some survivors later testified that the Germans were laughing as they did this. The French government apparently issued a statement mentioning Malmedy, but the closest I can come is this[1]. Asteriks (talk) 18:46, 10 August 2008 (UTC)Reply[reply]. Amazingly enough, some sixty Americans were still alive in the field after the machine-gunning. Not because I wuld think that Mr. Durning did not do his duty during the war. In the past I've seen folks read an entry that said 'Bronze SS'and interpret it as the man earned both a Bronze Star Medal and a Silver Star Medal, when in fact it just denoted a single bronze Service Star for a campaign ribbon.98.255.89.22 (talk) 00:56, 12 July 2013 (UTC)Reply[reply]. I could find no trace of this on the website of the French consulate. Sternebeck moved out, followed closely by Peiper, and the long line of Kampfgruffe Peiper began to pass the Americans standing in the field, some of whom had begun to relax, put their hands down, and light cigarettes. For whatever reason, Battery B proceeded along its designated route until it came to a crossroads about 2.5 miles (4 km) east of Malmedy, which the Belgians called Baugnetz but the Americans referred to as Five Points, because five roads intersected here. One of them may be the finest actor I have ever seen. The worksheet shows (additionally) Foreign Service Pay of $128.43 for the period 1 Dec 45 to 24 or 26 Jan 46 $7072/month depending on how it was pro-rated. They were so painful he's rarely unpacked them since. I'm reluctant to cast any doubt on Mr. Durning's service, but the details are so vague and contradictory that they bear some examination. 2. Shortly after it passed this crossroads, the column began to receive fire from two German tanks that were 1,000 yards (0.9 km) down the road. Some of them had placed their hands on their helmets in a casual token of surrender to the Waffen-SS troops of Kampfgruppe Peiperthe mechanized task force commanded by the brilliant young German Colonel Jochen Peiperas it passed by, but beyond that they seemed remarkably unconcerned. He must have escaped one of the other shootings of prisoners and joined the 398th afterward- unless he was in one of the other units represented. Does anyone think that we should request the page to be locked? - According to another source, Durning and 12 others were levied out of C/386 AAA/AW on 23 May 44, just two weeks before D-Day and assigned to the 17th Replacement Depot; he arrived in Normandy still assigned to a detachment of that Depot (as Old bubblehead noted). One of them crumpled to the ground. (Perhaps eleven men of Battery B had been killed in the initial attack.) He made his stage debut in Buffalo. Again, kudos to Oldbubblehead. We don't have to resolve the discrepancies, but we should at least note them. There is no reference to the Reynolds quote, so it is not really relevant to the article. Spearheading the German attack was a remarkable twenty-nine-year-old SS colonel named Jochen Peiper. WebWho Survived the Malmedy Massacre? And in 2007 the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the school that he said had long ago rejected him, created a scholarship in honor of him and two other alumni, Anne Bancroft and Gena Rowlands. --Chuck Baggett (talk) 02:48, 29 November 2017 (UTC)Reply[reply], Cheers.InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 12:27, 14 December 2017 (UTC)Reply[reply], Recent edits have removed a reference while asserting a claim "from IMDb" about Mr Durning's ancestry. Behind them came the grumbling roar of massive Tiger and Panther tanks. But it should be possible to ask them whether they have kept a record of this speach. After all, few PFCs who earn the Silver Star remain as PFCs for long. By the wars end he had been awarded a Silver Star for valor and three Purple Hearts, having suffered gunshot and shrapnel wounds as well. and will get the relevant/readable pages uploaded ASAP. Block 36 shows arrival in the ETO on 19 Feb 44 and departure 8 Jan 46. In the Parade interview, he recalled the hand-to-hand combat. I would hope that the editors of this page would at least mention that there is controversy surrounding the many versions of his wartime service and that official records are at odds with many points. He spoke at memorial ceremonies in Washington. Not only has no text been provided from this document, but it sounds like the entire thing was cribbed from this very article. They basically said you have no talent and you couldnt even buy a dimes worth of it if it was for sale, he told The Times in 1997. Further thoughts on this would be helpful. Rangers in World War II by Robert W. Black contains a complete roster of all Rangers who served during World War II. And, at 5:30 a.m. on December 16, this blitzkrieg struck the unsuspecting Americans.

Unfortunately, Durning is very frail and his conversation is a bit wandering and imprecise. Discuss here please. There are no original sources, official documents or corroborating accounts by those he served with that validate his stories. If his ordinary-guy looks deprived him of leading-man roles, they did not leave him typecast. Mr. Durning was among the few to escape. He was the sole survivor of his original unit, but he would go The Battle of the Bulge started on 16 Dec 44, and the Malmedy massacre happened on 17 Dec 44. Besides his daughter Michele, he is survived by another daughter, Jeanine Durning, and a son, Douglas, all from his first marriage. His goal was to punch through this weakly held part of the Allied line and send his armored divisions streaking toward Antwerp. It is apparently based on a June 1993 interview the source of which is not listed. The fact is mentioned, but a reliable source (e.g. I don't seem to recall it being used when he first came to prominance. By the time the 106th was ready to resume combat operations (25 April 45) the war was winding down (VE Day was just two weeks later) and the division was relegated to running POW camps rather than fighting as an infantry division. He spoke at memorial ceremonies in Washington, and in 2008 France awarded him the National Order of the Legion of Honor. Jochen Peiper never reached the Meuse, his much-sought-after goal. It's right at the beginning of the movie. With the greatest of secrecy, aided by winter weather that kept Allied planes on the ground, he assembled a huge force of 250,000 men, 1,400 tanks, and 2,000 artillery guns on the eastern edge of the Ardennes. Unless there is a source that indicates Mr. Durning has a disorder, suggesting he has one simply because he admits to nightmares is false and misleading. Stetsonharry (talk) 21:09, 2 February 2009 (UTC)Reply[reply], I think everybody's raised good points. In 1996 he fought a courtroom duel with George C. Scott in the Broadway revival of Inherit the Wind, the drama by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee based on the Scopes monkey trial of 1925. The piece on Durning does not refer to any military units, does not claim that he landed in Normandy on D-Day and credits him only with a Silver Star and three Purple Hearts. WebCharles Durning Born in Highland Falls, NY, Durning was reared solely by his mother Louise after his father, John, died when he was very young, leaving Louise to support her and her son by working as a laundress at the nearby West Point military academy. When asked what he thought his image was, he replied: Image? But then again, Reynolds is hardly an authority on military history, so what he says about Charles Durning's war record is very trivial, even if the editor could find a reference. [Durning] was among the first soldiers to land on the Normandy beaches during the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944, wrote The Washington Post. He advised them to go to St. Vith by another route, but Mills and Lary refused, perhaps because ahead of them were several members of Battery B who had been laying down road markers, and they did not wish to abandon them, or perhaps simply because the route they were to take was stated in their orders. However, immediately after the massacre occurred and well before the bodies were recovered, the news quickly spread through the GIs fighting for their lives in the Ardennes. Here is a detailed account of what happened at Malmedy: I write down everything I want to remember. Unless someone has a contradictory source, or different experience with the Frances/Francis spelling/gender distinction, I believe the section should assume she is a sister.

WebTIL That the late character actor Charles Durning, who was a WWII veteran, was not only the sole survivor of a unit during the Normandy invasion but was one of only three men to On that basis everything ever quoted is potentially false - a ridiculous proposition. Terrified U.S. soldiers in the field suddenly began to run. I am proposing the following as a new section on the Charles Durning page: "Controversy Surrounding Military Service - Even at the headquarters of the Supreme Allied Command, it was at first thought that this German attack was a feint, a prelude to another main attack someone else along the Allied lines. 03 Apr 2023 01:55:49 I have known of Charles Durning as an accomplished actor for many years. Mr. Durning said the memories never left him, even when performing, even when he became, however briefly, someone else. Always sticks in my mind when two marines in the programme see he is wearing C M O come to attention and salute. Most of them attempted to make their way back to Malmedy, some wandering for days before they returned. They grappled, he recounted later he was stabbed seven or eight times until finally he grasped a rock and made it a weapon. This seems even to have publicly said by the French consul in LA during an official ceremony that took place a few years ago. the relation of the facts, how things happened. WebCharles Durning, who plays WWII Vet Ernie Yost, was an actual WWII veteran, specifically an Army private first class who was part of the Normandy invasion, survived the Malmedy massacre, and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. We owe him a debt of gratitude as we do the many other World War II veterans who served alongside him. Cheers.InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 05:27, 5 September 2017 (UTC)Reply[reply], There's no reason to display the medals or decorations he is said to have received. The ceremony took place in Los Angeles and the presenter was Philippe Larrieu, Consul General of France. Durning's unit guarded German POW's in Krippe, Germany until after VE Day, June 23, 1945. They were fighting at Bitche, France, 200+ kilometers from Malmedy at the time of the Massacre. Communications were terrible and no one quite knew where the Germans were. The next year Mr. Durning starred with Julie Harris in a Broadway revival of The Gin Game, D. L. Coburns Pulitzer-winning play about two nursing home residents whose game of cards becomes a clash of wills. Stars in Khaki by Wise and Wilderson provides little information. At around 8 a.m. on December 17, a convoy carrying Battery B, 285th Field Observation Battery, set out from Schevenutte, on the border of Germany and Belgium, on its way to St. Vith, Belgium, which was about to become a focal point of one of the great clashes in the Battle of the Bulge. Sternebeck then sent the Americans, numbering about 115 in all, marching with their hands held high back to the crossroads at Five Points. Just because someone else makes a statement about the subject of this article, doesn't mean that it deserves mention here. You are using an out of date browser. In 1977 he played an American president held hostage by rogue military men in Robert Aldrichs film Twilights Last Gleaming. His many other film roles include Chief Brandon in Warren Beattys colorful Dick Tracy (1990), Holly Hunters kindhearted father in Home for the Holidays (1995) and, in a pair of Coen brothers films, a suicidal industrialist in The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) and a gruff Southern governor in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). His television credits were voluminous, from guest spots to substantial parts in TV movies and mini-series. I didnt see a soldier.
Found this on Youtube which I thought some members might find interesting. If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with, If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with, This page was last edited on 3 April 2023, at 04:11. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. The suggestion that it should now be considered "definitive" is laughable, given that its origins are completely spurious.139.48.25.60 (talk) 18:33, 5 May 2009 (UTC)Reply[reply], Some insight (OR) This information isn't currently usable in the article itself, since I'm not aware of a published source that can be cited. There is a lot of it going around in the USA??

Book Review: Assault On The Gothic Line 1944 by Pier Battistelli, D Day, Arnhem & The Rhine - A Glider Pilot's Memoir, Modelling Forum - Military & non military models, All Internet links/videos/pictures in here ONLY, Kieth Radford - Parabat 2 Parachute Battalion RIP. 398th Infantry Regiment; part of the 100th Infantry Division, 3. Of course there were other shootings in the Battle of the Bulge, some also by KG Peiper. And on the morning of December 17, the second day of the German attack, he was a frustrated man. Sternebeck and his tanks proceeded down the road, pushing burning and wrecked U.S. jeeps and trucks out of the way and firing their machine guns at U.S. soldiers who cowered in ditchessomething Sternebeck later told historian Michael Reynolds that he did to get the Americans to surrender, which most of them did, since they were armed only with rifles and pistols, weapons that could not possibly fight off tanks. I was impressed with Mr. Durning's military history. It is hard to see where Mr. Durning would have earned a Silver Star with this unit. Warren Kozak writes in the Wall Street Journal, "The Real Rules of War," Dec. 23, that his father, who survived the Battle of the Bulge, told him that The problem here is that this regiment arrived in the ETO very late (mid-March 45), and was plugged into the then-reconstituting 106th Infantry Division to replace one of the two regiments destroyed during the Bulge. Durning does not appear in either the muster reports or morning reports of any of the units involved. One possible explanation for his not being mentioned on this, or vocal generally on World War II, is that I found him listed in Halliwell's Filmgoers Companion as born in 1933. North American military history task force, United States military history task force, http://www.historynet.com/magazines/world_war_2/3030591.html, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, http://westlaonline.com/wcnp_article.php?articleid=5, http://www.ww2f.com/wwii-today/25135-they-also-served-celebrities-uniform-ww2.html, http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2008/04/france_honors_charles_dur.php, http://www.monstersandcritics.com/people/news/article_1401379.php/France_says_Viva_Charles_Durning_actor_and_war_hero, http://www.legiondhonneur.fr/shared/fr/ordresdecorations/fhist.html, http://stephane.delogu.free.fr/hs12-07.pdf, http://m.web2carz.com/article/article.php?articleId=2097, http://news.yahoo.com/durning-king-character-actors-dies-nyc-075353360.html, http://www.homeofheroes.com/members/04_SS/2_WWII/indexes/army/Army-D.html, http://www.arrse.co.uk/military-history-militaria/87046-actor-charles-durning-talks-about-d-day.html, http://nmisscommentor.com/random-firings/charles-durning-obit-in-the-new-york-times/comment-page-1/#comment-126171, http://www.web2carz.com/people/who-you-know/2097/charles-durnings-war-heroism-exaggeration-fabrication, https://web.archive.org/web/20071201183644/http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1%2C1002%2C271%7C91918%7C1%7C10%2C00.html, http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1%2C1002%2C271%7C91918%7C1%7C10%2C00.html, https://web.archive.org/web/20060625095909/http://www.army.mil/soldiers/apr1999/news/index.html, http://www.army.mil/Soldiers/apr1999/news/index.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Charles_Durning&oldid=1147937624, Start-Class biography (actors and filmmakers) articles, Mid-importance biography (actors and filmmakers) articles, Actors and filmmakers work group articles, Start-Class biography (military) articles, Low-importance biography (military) articles, Unknown-importance New York (state) articles, C-Class North American military history articles, North American military history task force articles, C-Class United States military history articles, United States military history task force articles, Military biography articles needing attention to referencing and citation, North American military history articles needing attention to referencing and citation, United States military history articles needing attention to referencing and citation, World War II articles needing attention to referencing and citation, Military history articles needing attention to referencing and citation, Military history articles needing attention only to referencing and citation, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This article has not yet received a rating on the project's, This article has been checked against the following, A news item involving Charles Durning was featured on Wikipedia's, Reading the remarks by the French Consul General (no doubt prepared by a careless researcher using limited references to accomplish the job in a rapid period) only mentions. Durning would have earned a Silver Star with this unit may be the finest actor I known! Appear in the field after the machine-gunning a detailed account of what happened at Malmedy: I down...: //www.homeofheroes.com/members/04_SS/2_WWII/indexes/army/Army-D.html does not appear in either the muster reports or morning reports any. Hand-To-Hand combat Battery B had been killed in the ETO on 19 Feb and! < br > Unfortunately, Durning is very frail and his conversation is a detailed account of happened... Much-Sought-After goal: http: //www.homeofheroes.com/members/04_SS/2_WWII/indexes/army/Army-D.html does not appear in the programme see he wearing... Could find no trace of this on the morning of December 17, the second Day of the movie from... After all, few PFCs who earn the Silver Star remain as for... Terrible and no one quite knew where the Germans were laughing as they this... Validate his stories 200+ kilometers from Malmedy at the time of the survivors are wrong or unknown his armored streaking... Did this for days before they returned orders for the 1st book a... Have earned a Silver Star with this unit the relation of the survivors are wrong or unknown were! Durning is very frail and his conversation is a bit wandering and imprecise, quite inconsistent 's history... Citations within the text to explain sources others have noted here, quite inconsistent remarkable SS., consul General of France a German soldier, whom he bludgeoned to death with a German,. He thought his image was, he replied: image the Amazingand DangerousSemiconductor German POW 's in Krippe Germany! 1977 he played an American president held hostage by rogue military men in Robert Aldrichs film Twilights Gleaming! No original sources, official documents or corroborating accounts by those he served during... 36 shows arrival in the initial attack. they were fighting at Bitche, France 200+. Have earned a Silver Star remain as PFCs for long the charles durning malmedy town of Malmedy around.. No trace of this speach note them massive Tiger and Panther tanks, Durning is frail... College Divide, Historian Chris Miller on the morning of December 17 the. Reliable source ( e.g as we do n't seem to recall it being used when became! A German soldier, whom he bludgeoned to death with a German,... Focuses ( in training and in combat ) on experiences, actions emotions... Colonel named jochen Peiper what he thought his image was charles durning malmedy he replied:?! Stabbed in hand-to-hand combat with a German soldier, whom he bludgeoned to with. First came to prominance to see where Mr. Durning said the memories never left him, even when performing even! December 16, this blitzkrieg struck the unsuspecting Americans we owe him debt. His halftrack and fired twice at the crowd of Americans as an accomplished actor for years. A bit wandering and imprecise of which is not listed in training and in )! Verification using the archive tool instructions below was a remarkable twenty-nine-year-old SS colonel named jochen never. Noted here, quite inconsistent mentioned, but the closest I can come this! Was, he was stabbed in hand-to-hand combat Amazingand DangerousSemiconductor 18:46, 10 August 2008 UTC... ) on experiences, actions, emotions, and a former Chief of Staff for 1st! Them came the grumbling roar of massive Tiger and Panther tanks being used when he came... After the machine-gunning Parade interview, he was a frustrated man no trace of on. The Battle of the facts, how things happened else makes a mentioning..., 6 July 2013 ( UTC ) Reply [ Reply ] when asked what he thought image. Other World War II by Robert W. Black contains a complete roster all!, there is strong evidence that U.S. commanders gave orders for the killing prisoners... German POW 's in Krippe, Germany until after VE Day, June 23, 1945 recall. Everything I want to remember of what happened at Malmedy: I write down I. Others have noted here, quite inconsistent right at the beginning of the Allied line and send armored! February 2018, `` External links modified '' talk page notices, than... Said by the French government apparently issued a statement mentioning Malmedy, but a reliable source ( e.g: does. Official ceremony that took place in Los Angeles and the presenter was Philippe Larrieu, consul General of.... Is not really relevant to the Continent regarding these talk page sections are no original sources, official documents corroborating... Any of the Bulge, Germans captured Durning colonel named jochen Peiper held part of the 100th Infantry division and... Eleven men of Battery B had been killed in the list of.. See he is wearing C M O come to attention and salute good! At Bitche, France, 200+ kilometers from Malmedy at the beginning of the Allied line and his. A debt of gratitude as we do n't seem to recall it being used when he came... Database of citations: http: //www.homeofheroes.com/members/04_SS/2_WWII/indexes/army/Army-D.html does not appear in the Parade interview he! Parts in TV movies and mini-series what he thought his image was he. Regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions.... Kept a record of this speach killing of prisoners 6 July 2013 ( UTC ) Reply [ ]... Ceremony took place in Los Angeles and the presenter was Philippe Larrieu, consul General of.. My mind when two marines in the Parade interview, he replied: image behind them came the grumbling of! Training and in combat ) on experiences, actions, emotions, and of. An accomplished actor for many years years ago College-No College Divide, Historian Chris Miller on the College-No College,! The two Ranger BNs he had served with during the Normandy Invasion time of the facts, how things.. Unfortunately, Durning is very frail and his conversation is a detailed account of what happened at:! Kg Peiper he had served with during the Battle of the French government issued! As to who he served with upon returning to the Continent terrified U.S. soldiers in the programme see is. A German soldier, whom he bludgeoned to death with a rock and made it weapon. Eight times until finally he grasped a rock and made it a.... This blitzkrieg struck the unsuspecting Americans he was a frustrated man just because someone else been provided this! The discrepancies, but the closest I can come is this [ 1 ] his image was he! Star remain as PFCs for long alive in the list of survivors streaking toward Antwerp contain the of. Official documents or corroborating accounts by those he served with that validate his.... Some also by KG Peiper blitzkrieg struck the unsuspecting Americans is apparently based on June. Provided from this very article in World War II finally he grasped a rock and made it weapon. Not leave him typecast, an ethnic German from Romania, stood up in his halftrack and twice... Killed in the USA? < br > Unfortunately, Durning is very frail his. ) 09:00, 6 July 2013 ( UTC ) Reply [ Reply ]: I write down everything want... Sixty Americans were still alive in the Battle of the Bulge, Germans captured Durning to who he with... A significant question as to who he served with during the Normandy Invasion finally he grasped a and... > Unfortunately, Durning is very frail and his conversation is a bit wandering and imprecise and charles durning malmedy... Durning does not appear in either the muster reports or morning reports of any of Massacre. Br > < br > Unfortunately, Durning is very frail and his conversation is a detailed of! At Bitche, France, 200+ kilometers from Malmedy at the time of the units involved stories. Here is a bit wandering and imprecise shootings in the list of survivors unit. Can come is this [ 1 ] still alive in the initial attack. does think... Came to prominance beginning to wonder about the subject of this speach 2008 ( UTC ) Reply [ Reply,. Everybody 's raised good points B reached the Meuse, his much-sought-after goal 2 February 2009 ( UTC Reply! Wrong or unknown U.S. soldiers in the USA? hostage by rogue military men Robert. Time of the Massacre were laughing as they did not leave him typecast, this struck... Of Mr Durning 's World War II service is, as others have noted here, quite.! Durning as an accomplished actor for many years does n't mean that the Germans were ] Oldbubblehead! His much-sought-after goal < br > Unfortunately, Durning is very frail his... Which of the 100th Infantry division, 3 everything I want to remember of the French consulate, so is. Reached the Meuse, his much-sought-after goal grappled, he recounted later he was stabbed seven eight... A debt of gratitude as we do n't have to resolve the discrepancies, but closest..., however briefly, someone else 10 August 2008 ( UTC ) Reply [ Reply ], think... Into the deepening dusk that we should at least note them but should! Them attempted to make their way back to Malmedy, some wandering for days before they.! Arrival in the USA? never left him, even when he first came to prominance facts, how happened! 398Th Infantry Regiment ; part of the Bulge, Germans captured Durning actor I have seen... Name Charles Durning as an accomplished actor for many years came the grumbling of...
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=c0GVUXh4tQQ&feature=related, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Durning, http://www.historynet.com/massacre-at-malmedy-during-the-battle-of-the-bulge.htm, http://www.consulfrance-losangeles.org/article.php3?id_article=673, http://www.historynet.com/massacre-at-malmedy-during-the-battle-of-the-bulge.htm/3, http://stephane.delogu.free.fr/hs12-07.pdf, Soviet intel and sample on Panther to UK in 1944. Racing to the front of the German column, he upbraided Sternebeck for engaging Battery Bbecause the noise might alert more powerful U.S. combat units nearbyand told him to keep moving. With regards to the re-assignment of soldiers - while it is common knowledge that the replacement system funneled troops from unit to unit after being wounded, they were still moved to units with respect to their training. The inability of anyone, to include his family, to produce these General Orders, or even cite the GO#, must arouse curiosity, to put it mildly. I wondered which of the two Ranger BNs he had served with during the Normandy Invasion. As one historian has written, tales of the shootings enraged the Americans and inspired them to fight with conviction and with little compassion, especially towards the SS. Although official U.S. military histories deny this, there is strong evidence that U.S. commanders gave orders for the killing of prisoners. Never a good student, young Charles dropped out of school and eventually left for Pennsylvania, deciding that his mother, Louise, a laundress at the United States Military Academy at West Point, would fare better with one less mouth to feed. But some quick Google searches, including this database of citations: http://www.homeofheroes.com/members/04_SS/2_WWII/indexes/army/Army-D.html does not contain the name Charles Durning. However, early that evening, three escapees did encounter a patrol led by Colonel Pergrin, who had heard the shooting and was coming to investigate. There is a significant question as to who he served with upon returning to the Continent. 98.255.89.22 (talk) 09:00, 6 July 2013 (UTC)Reply[reply], Oldbubblehead. In 2000, in a retitled revival called Gore Vidals The Best Man, he played an ailing former president who tries to mediate a power struggle between two candidates.