Gallic Shrug
The storied Annals of French War Heroes grow by one as the French bestow high honors on a phony D-Day paratrooper, even though they were shown the documented truth.
Lowell, Mass., native/Derry, N.H., cop Howard Manoian retired to Ste. Mere-Eglise in 1985, where he is revered by the locals and has long earned free drinks, regaling tourists and reporters with tales of jumping into bitter combat with the 82nd Airborne.
The sad part is, he actually deserves honors … for coming ashore at Utah Beach on D-Day in the 33rd Chemical Decon Co., serving in a supply dump, and being injured and wounded several times in the service of his nation … just not with any glamorous leaps into darkness or desperate house-clearing ops. Boston Herald, which is among the many newspapers he snowed in the past:
“The military records leave no doubt that he never served in Normandy as a paratrooper,” said researcher Brian Siddall of Ithaca, N.Y., citing numerous reports and payroll records listing Manoian in the 33rd Chemical Decontamination Company throughout 1944.
Siddall, 47, nephew of the 82nd’s Cpl. Quent Siddall, who was killed on D-Day, said, “To give the award to someone who has misrepresented his service for the past 30 years diminishes the value of the award.”
…
Reached by phone in his home near Ste.-Mere-Eglise, Manoian acknowledged serving in the chemical unit, but stood by his paratrooper claim: “I was in basic training in the Chemical Warfare Service. After that I went into the paratroopers. The French government did a lot of research on me. They cleared everything.”
OK, here’s one of the records that was provided to the French.
Here’s actual paratrooper David Bullington of Dyesburg, Tennessee, regarding the multiple versions Manoian has told:
“You don’t land in three different places in one jump and walk away,” Bullington said. Noting that he lost a lot of friends that day, Bullington added, “I don’t like to see someone claiming to be a paratrooper to grab a little bit of glory for doing what real paratroopers did in Ste. Mere-Eglise. It’s a slap in the face.”
And here’s the Gallic Shrug:
Though queried by the Herald and the researchers regarding discrepancies in Manoian’s past accounts, the French government still plans to award the Legion of Honor to the retired Derry, N.H., cop. Manoian is to be honored today at the Airborne Museum in Ste. Mere-Eglise, said Troy Darr, a spokesman for a U.S. military task force planning today’s 65th anniversary events.
Alexis Berthier of the French Consulate in Boston said the Grand Chancellery of the Legion of Honor is aware of the issue. But he said, “Mr. Manoian will receive the Legion of Honor based on the confirmed and established elements of his service, not on the contested ones. It is established that Mr. Manoian participated in the Normandy campaign and was wounded in action on French soil.”
OK, we’ll go out with some of the gripping tales, plus D-Day links:
Lowell native Howard Manoian’s thrilling tales of combat as a D-Day paratrooper have been widely quoted, and vary widely:
Dec. 14, 1984, Chronicle-Telegram (Elyria, Ohio): “Howard Manoian, a member of the 82d Airborne Division, parachuted into the French village of Ste. Mere Eglise. He landed in a field near a German patrol and escaped death because a young Frenchman . . . hid the soldier in his small stone cottage . . . ‘I owe that Frenchman and his family my life,’ said Manoian.”
May 15, 1994, Dallas Morning News: “Howard Manoian’s airplane overshot its target by 20 seconds, so he landed in the town cemetery. ‘Yeesh, I jumped over the fence in a hurry,’ he said. ‘I didn’t want to be buried there.’ After a short firefight in the town square, he and his comrades chased a squad of Germans . . .He saw the last German peddle away frantically on a bicycle . . . ‘I told my guys, ‘Let ‘im go’ . . . Years later, Mr. Manoian met a former German soldier, Rudy Escher, who talked of barely escaping on his bicycle.”
June, 4, 1994, The New York Times: “ ‘Our mission was to take a bridge and hold it. It took me nine hours to go three kilometers zigzagging. When I got there I had the shock of my life. You couldn’t walk on or off that bridge without stepping on bodies. My company had 46 percent casualties in two days.’ Howard Manoian, 82d Airborne Division.”
Aug. 8, 1999, The Boston Globe: “Hereabouts, he is prized as the genuine article, one of a dwindling class of aging D-Day paratroopers . . . ‘I lasted 11 days before getting shot,’ he says, waving a tattooed arm. On June 17, 1944, Manoian and his men were clearing snipers . . . ‘I had my men lay a barrage and went inside to get the sniper. . . . There was a German lying on the floor. . . I figured he’s dead . . . I put my hand up and he fired. The bullet went through my hand.’ A few minutes later, shrapnel struck him in both legs.”
Feb. 11, 2003, New York Post: “Howard landed in a cemetery, looked up and saw his pal, Jack Steele, floating toward the church of Ste. Mere Eglise. ‘Two German soldiers were on a parapet,’ Howard recalled. ‘They fired at Jack, hit him in the foot. Jack faked death.’ ”
June 2006, Stars and Stripes: “They put me in the duck to go out on a hospital ship to England. Whoopee – a nice vacation. Until the 13th of September. I healed up, went back to my outfit and we jumped into Holland four days later.”
About that last claim of jumping in Operation Market Garden, the National Archives search produced a record that the Chemical Decon corporal, who suffered a compound fracture of his middle finger in the supply dump, was hospitalized in England until November of 1944. Regarding “his pal, Jack Steele,” the famous paratrooper who dangled from the steeple had been regretably unavailable to vouch for the truthfulness of Manoian’s account for 34 years by the time Manoian told that story.
D-Day links:
Speaking of phonies, Gelernter at WSJ heaps scorn on the hypocrisy of war-bashing boomers belatedly in love with the Great Generation they rebelled against. He’d like to see the real war taught to children. World War II is an incredible complex political, military and moral story only partially illuminated by misty memorialization of the Greatest Generation variety, which prefers a sanitized and simplified morality tale much abused as a stick to beat those who must make the difficult political, military and moral decisions today. via Powerline, who adds some Reagan commentary.
I’d like to cite that wretched dirge of an 15-hour World War II documentary by Ken Burns as a case in point.
Castle Argghhh!!! digs into his archives to do the honors with D-Day, Note From A Friend; D-Day, The Decision; Currahee, The Airborne Goes In; D-Day, H-Hour (photo post); D-Day, We Weren’t Alone; D-Day The Supreme Commander Waits; D-Day, In The Air Above The Beaches; D-Day, The Navy On The Beaches; and last but not least, all of the Medals of Honor awarded for action on June 6 of any year.
Mudville didn’t have a D-Day post at last check, but will soon, now doubt. While you’re waiting read Mudville’s nod to the Midway anniversary just past.
Surber celebrates Google’s D-Day observance. It’s the 25th anniversary of Tetris! Whatever that is!
Sorry, I was living in a different decade.
HotAir with some vid, The Day The West Freed Itself From Tyranny.
Maggie’s Farm with S.L.A. Marshall’s after action on Omaha.
Gateway notes that Obama appears to have suspended his America-abasement agenda at the Normandy observances.
Everyone’s favorite Frenchman, The Dissident Frogman, opens fire on the panoply put on by Obama and Sarkzy.
Related, not so different, Weekly Standard, What Obama Could Learn from Elie Wiesel. Yeah, I hate to say it, but when I saw he was stumping at Buchenwald about how we have to stand up to evil, I thought about all the times he didn’t want to do that. And all the times still unfolding and yet to come.
RealClearPolitics rounds up D-Day commentary. Crickets over at Memorandum at last check, a reflection of the deathly silence in the blogosphere in general.
Post your favorite D-Day book and film selections in comments, preferably with commentary and critiques, and I’ll create a Normandy Invasion section in Crittenden’s Boutique Right-Wing Warmonger’s Bookshop.
OK, I’m going back to my summer hiatus. Regards this morning to the unembellished heroes of D-Day, including my neighbor Ed, gunner’s mate aboard USS Augusta, flagship of the Normandy fleet, which fired the first salvo that morning. On the subject, here is the Herald’s other D-Day story, on the unsung 5th Ranger Battalion:
Sixty-five years after he stormed a small, bloody section of Omaha Beach in the early overcast hours of D-Day, retired Boston firefighter James Garabee and his unheralded group of Army Rangers are receiving their long-overdue moment in the sun.
“I’m going back,” said Gabaree, 84, of Newburyport, before boarding his flight to France this week.
His unit, the Army’s 5th Ranger Battalion – which fought beside the storied 2nd Ranger Battalion, featured in the film “Saving Private Ryan” and highlighted by history – will be recognized today for the lives they lost on the beach, in a battle that was one of the turning points of World War II.
“This time they’re finally going to acknowledge some of 5th Rangers,” said Gabaree, who added his unit has been overshadowed in the public eye by the 2nd Rangers. “This time they’re going to acknowledge us. There’s a great honor in that.”
Topics: France, history, military
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:57 am Comments (2) on Saturday, June 6, 2009
2 Responses to “Gallic Shrug”
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June 6th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
[...] on. Nevertheless, the significance should always remain a source of our national pride (via Jules Crittenden): The people of the occupied nations of 1944 would have a difficult time I suspect in relating to [...]
June 6th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
This guy’s attempt at “stolen valor” is pathetic.
I pretty much enjoyed the WWII Ken Burns thing. I was pleasantly surprise that the series didn’t pull any punches about the atrocious conduct of the Imperial Japanese Army. I figured PBS would portray them as Hollywood did in Tom Cruise’s Last Samurai movie.