From Military Times:
“The story
behind Netflix’s WWII series ‘The Liberator’ — 500 days of combat from Sicily
to Dachau”
A chilling
black-and-white photograph freezes Lt. Col. Felix Sparks in time. Bodies
slumped against a wall, weapons still hot, smoking. Sparks' pistol raised
overhead, his other hand, palm open, signaling to stop the spontaneous
execution. His own troops were enraged as they arrived at Dachau concentration
camp to find piles of dead naked bodies in train cars and dying prisoners
behind barbed wire. Those same men, the Army’s 157th Infantry Regiment, part of
the 45th Infantry Division, had borne the war on their backs from Sicily to the
heart of Germany during more than 500 days of combat in less than two years.
Sparks, and the
regiment’s companies under his command, are now the focus of a four-part
animated series released on Veterans Day on Netflix, “The Liberator.” The
series, at times heart-pounding, other times full of a profound stillness,
presents timeless slices of the combat experience — fear, chaos, confusion,
bravery, despair, callousness, tenderness and camaraderie. But it also brings
forth issues of racism, the challenge of leadership and the internal battle to
retain one’s humanity in the face of utter savagery. But long before it was a
Netflix series, it was a book by the same name. And it was that photograph that
caught author Alex Kershaw’s eye, the catalyst for years of research to set
down the tale. An already accomplished author of six books chronicling World
War II, Kershaw was looking for his next story when he stumbled upon that
frozen moment. Next, it was a friendship with a veteran of the 45th ID that
drew him into the research. Finally, a fortunate trip allowed him to interview
Sparks only months before his death in 2007. Countless hours of research and
interview after interview peeled back more layers of not only Sparks' journey,
but the men who served alongside him.
The 157th
Infantry Regiment — and their respective division — were the most diverse set
of soldiers the war had seen. Drawn from more than 50 Native American tribes
and Mexican-American recruits, some who couldn’t speak English, the unit would
see more fighting than almost any other in the war. By the end of the conflict
the 157th IR would accrue nine Medals of Honor, 61 Distinguished Service
Crosses, 1,848 Silver Star Medals, 38 Legion of Merit Medals and 59 Soldier’s
Medals. Sparks would receive the Silver Star Medal for valor in combat. Of
them, Gen. George S. Patton would say they were “One of the best, if not the
best division in the history of American arms.” Army Times spoke with Kershaw
on the eve of the series release.
Editor’s note:
The following has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: You’ve
written at least nine books to date on World War II. What is it about the
conflict and the stories that continues to bring you back?
A: In the 70s
when I was young we had only two or three channels on TV. There was always a
movie on Sunday nights. “The Great Escape,” “The Dam Busters,” “Battle of
Britain.” I remember Veterans Day, or Remembrance Day in England was always a
huge deal. They’d show it on the news, all these rows and rows of World War I
veterans, and my dad would tell me about them because my grandfather had served
in the trenches. My mother’s father died in the British Navy in World War II.
So, she never really had a father. That stays in the family. You’re aware of
what it cost. Then I became a journalist after college, but in college I
studied history and we read everything but World War II. As a journalist I
eventually went down and did a story about the Channel Islands, one of the only
British lands occupied by the Germans during the war. Now, after 20 years of
writing about it, it gets into your blood.
Q: You met
Sparks during this process. Could you tell us more about him and what you
learned in researching the story?
A: First I
found the photo and learned some of the story, then I called up the 157th
Infantry Regiment Association and met Jack Hallowell. I started talking with
him, but still couldn’t work out a way to tell the story. So, I left it alone
for a year or two. Jack called me later and said Sparks was dying, so I went
out to Colorado to interview him on his deathbed — he died later that spring.
He was a very outspoken guy. The proudest point in his life was being a company
commander. He memorized all the names of his more than 200 soldiers, their
wives, children, where they were from. But he wasn’t overly familiar. He was a
hard ass and a stickler for discipline. But every guy who put his life on the
line for him knew he was going to look after them. He led from the front,
business all the time. He was very, very smart and very calm under pressure. The
universal fear in World War II for officers — and I think it’s still very
common — was how they were going to perform. Sparks was surprised when he could
keep it together when things got really hard. He didn’t like people abusing
their power. I’m still fascinated by him telling Maj. Gen. Robert Frederick,
the division commander, “You just got my entire company killed. You made a
decision and my guys paid for it.” But he did it. I think his men respected him
because he was prepared to stand up.
Q: The 45th ID,
and specifically the 157th IR, were very racially diverse units for their time.
How did Sparks handle the additional burdens his soldiers faced both at home
and abroad?
A: He’d grown
up in a region where he knew the discrimination that Mexican-Americans and
Native Americans had faced. He didn’t worry about their own abilities but he
did wonder, would they fight for Uncle Sam when Uncle Sam’s done nothing for
them? But from the beginning they fought as excellent soldiers.
Q: What did you
learn from Sparks and your research about the incident at Dachau?
A: Some of his
guys went crazy. A lot of them were very keen on handing out some kind of
vengeance. They went through the complex and kicked out anyone in an SS
uniform. But most of the actual camp guards had fled. The remaining SS were
frontline soldiers recovering from wounds and hadn’t been involved in the camp.
Sparks had left Lt. Bill Walsh in command of soldiers in the coal yard while he
went to inspect the rest of the camp. They didn’t know what they were seeing.
Walsh ordered the guys to start firing. Sparks rushed back and ordered the guys
to stop. He kicked the machine gunner and shoved him off the gun and said,
“There will be no firing unless I give the order.” Years later he said it was
something people couldn’t get their head around, something beyond what people
could process. They’d seen all sorts of horrific things, but that was very
disturbing on a profound level. Those memories of what human beings did to
other human beings and how depraved and dark humanity could be ... for the rest
of his life he was very outspoken about Holocaust denial and would get very
angry if anybody questioned if it ever happened.
Q: What do you
think of the Netflix series?
A: It was
amazing. I cried my eyes out and laughed very hard. They did a really, really
fantastic job. It’s entertaining, informative and extraordinarily accurate. The
irony is that before this if somebody told me they would turn one of my books into
an animated TV series, I would have thought it was an odd choice. Then again, I
became absolutely obsessed with World War II when I was nine or 10 years old
and found a stash of comics about the war in my grandparents' house. I just
devoured them. I remember my mom saying she saw me walking along a street and
worried I’d run into a street sign because I had my head buried in these
comics.
Q: Do you think
that the series might appeal to people who might not normally look for books on
World War II?
A: I hope and
pray that’s the case. The idea that a teenager or anybody from 16 into their
20s wouldn’t be interested in these stories would be insane, because these
stories are about them. I’m a blatant booster for anything that gets people
into history. And if this does, that would be amazing. If you’re a young
American and you don’t know about World War II, what was sacrificed, what was
earned, and understand what it really came down to, then you can’t know what it
means to be an American. The show is trending really high in Italy now, where
much of it took place. It’s just fantastic to think of a 15-year-old in Italy
learning about what happened there and who liberated their country. There are
plenty of young people who didn’t grow up with “Band of Brothers” or “Saving
Private Ryan.” It’s a different generation now. But with this they can really
learn what America did at its best.
^ I am about to
watch this on Netflix. It sounds really interesting. ^
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