[Ads-l] Battle of the Bulge Quote

[Jonathan Lighter]

Life, Jan. 15, 1945, mentions Col. Abrams in the battle, but GB reveals no
instance of this utterance.

Likewise Apr. 16, 1945.

JL

On Sun, May 1, 2016 at 3:09 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com
> wrote:

> The April 30 1945 issue of "London Stars and Stripes" attributed the
> remark to a member of the 4th Armored Division named "Sgt. Constant
> Klinga of Brooklyn" and referenced earlier articles in "The Saturday
> Evening Post" and "LIFE" (both magazine have been digitized and I will
> search for the articles shortly).
>
> In addition, an instance appeared in an Associated Press article
> published March 6, 1945 in the "The Amarillo Globe" of Amarillo, Texas
> which was trickier to locate because it employed the euphemism
> "so-and-sos" instead of "bastards". The remark was attributed to an
> unnamed soldier based on the testimony of Corp. Newman L. Tuttle of
> Albert Lea, Minn. of the 101st Airborne Division.
>
> Date: April 30, 1945
> Newspaper: London Stars and Stripes
> Newspaper Location: London, Middlesex
> Article: No Celebrations in U.S. As Yanks, Reds Link Up
> Quote Page 4, Column 2
> Database: NewspaperArchive
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> The 4th Armored Division has been getting a big play in newspapers as
> the spearhead of Gen. Patton's drives and now the magazines are
> getting around to writing about it. Last week's Life magazine carried
> a long story about Lt. Col. Creighton Abrams, one of the 4th's heroes.
> The Saturday Evening Post ran a detailed article about the 4th by
> Collie Small, which it calls 'the story of the immortal 4th Armored
> Division's stampede to glory." The article, entitled "Rat Chase to the
> Rhine," traces the Division's activities from Normandy across the
> Rhine.
>
> There's one discrepancy between the Life and SEP accounts, however.
> The Post attributes to Sgt. Constant Klinga, of Brooklyn, the
> Division's classic observation about Germans: "They've got us
> surrounded again, the poor devils." According to Life it was "the poor
> bastards."
> [Begin excerpt]
>
>
> Date: March 6, 1945
> Newspaper: The Amarillo Globe
> Newspaper Location:  Amarillo, Texas
> Page Number 4, Column 3
> Article: 'They've Got Us Surrounded, The Poor So-and-Sos!'
> News Service: Associated Press
> Database: Newspapers.com
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> SALT LAKE CITY, March 6 (AP) —"They've got us surrounded, the poor
> so-and-sos."
>
> An American paratrooper said that at the siege of Bastogne in the
> Belgian bulge in December and his remark was typical of the spirit of
> the U. S. soldiers caught in what the Germans must have thought was an
> inescapable trap.
>
> The unnamed soldier's remark was recalled here today by Corp. Newman
> L. Tuttle of Albert Lea, Minn., a member of the 101st Airborne
> Division cut off at Bastogne for a week without food or ammunition.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Postscript: A snippet visible in "Words on war: military quotations
> from ancient times to the present" suggests that Constant Klinga died
> in action later in the war.
>
> Garson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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>



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