2015-03-17

Albert Blithe, soldaten som överlevde

T.v. Albert Blithe (1923-1948?)
T.h. Albert Blithe (1923-1967)

I den excellenta tv-serien Band of Brothers (som bygger på Stephen E. Ambroses bok med samma namn) fokuserar episoden Carentan mycket på Albert Blithes öde. Efter en svår och nervös början lyckas soldaten att repa mod, för att kort därpå bli nedskjuten. Han avförs svårt sårad från fronten, hamnar på sjukhus och får sitt purpurhjärta (dekoration till den som sårats), för att fyra år senare avlida. Får vi veta.

I verkligheten klarade sig Pvt Blithe. Han skrevs ut från sjukhuset hösten 1945 — efter nästan ett och ett halvt år, så man kan förstå att det var en rejäl skada. Sedan växlade han mellan en civil och en militär karriär. I den senare rollen befann han sig i Europa 1967. Då fick han en akut och helt o-militär diagnos, som han några dagar senare dog av.
Fellow Easy Company Currahee veterans interviewed while writing the book and mini-series had believed that Blithe was wounded in the neck, and that he did not recover and as such Ambrose's book stated that Blithe had died in Philadelphia in 1948. [...] Though his family publicly corrected this error, not all editions of the book, or of the series have the correction
- Wikipedia: Albert Blithe
Yes, we got some things wrong. But I would remind our audience that it was pre-internet. We really made this in 1999 and the internet was in very early days. So it was very difficult actually to check some facts. Often, if there's an error in the show, like Blithe not dying, he survived the war. In our show, we say he died. Well, that's because the guys [soldater från E Company som pumpades på information om allt möjligt] told us that. They thought he died. And there was no way for us to double check it. Like, right now you can just type it up and go into Google and find his biography, you can find the US Army records and you would learn that no no, he didn't die. We didn't have that ability. That said, we tried or darndest to get things right. And we had this incredible advantage that we could go to the source.

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