Barney: A Soldier’s Story
In May of 1944, my Great Uncle Fredrick “Barney” Coalwell shipped off to England and a few months later was fighting in France in Company E of the Fourth Ivy Division. His parents, my great-grandparents, Minnie and Herbert (known as “Mom and Pop”), were living in Reno, Nevada. When Mom and Pop passed away, I inherited all of Barney’s letters. Some of those early letters written in 1944, spoke to the importance of staying in touch.
On July 6th, Mom and Pop learned from Barney that he finally had received his letters from home. They wrote to Barney in joy: “Don’t know who was the happier you or Pop and I when we got your letter today that you had finally caught up with our mail. Pop and I both cried with you in your happiness as I know the days must have been very long indeed without a letter from some one of us.” Barney writing from the front in France a few weeks later spoke of the importance of letters from home: “Haven’t received any more mail yet since I left England and am really looking forward to that.” Mom, Pop, and their sons Eldred, Vernon, and Barney wrote letters every day during the war. Fortunately, Barney’s letters have survived to tell his story. Looking at the pile of hundreds of letters that they shared we come to the realization how important it is to have a piece of home when you’re away. Barney, in a July letter, described why he couldn’t write as often as he likes. He had been on the front line but now “we are in the rear area getting a little rest” and could write. Before it was “hell on the other side.”
Unfortunately, students soon realize the last letters they read never reached Barney. He was dead. Mortally wounded in a battle east of Villedieu, France, he died in England shortly after. Family letters were returned to Reno marked “DECEASED RETURN TO SENDER.” Even worse came the fateful realization that none of his company survived. His commanding officer writing to Mom and Pop (from an army hospital after he was wounded and evacuated from the front himself) explained:
I have always felt that those who were wounded but did not return to combat were fortunate and those who did not survive, were spared a great deal of mental as well as physical agony. For in August, at Mortain, the 12th Infantry went through the bloodiest battle in all its history. Its battle in the Hurtgen Forest in Germany in November defies description in mere words. And in the Battle of the Bulge in Luxembourg in December 1944, for which it received the Presidential Citation, Company E was completely lost. Its 116 men and officers were either killed, wounded or captured on December 21. Not a man was left. That your son avoided that experience is something to be thankful for.
Every year since I began teaching, I have told Barney’s story. The fact that I was blessed enough to know Mom and Pop, and the deep love I have for my grandparents helps me to understand, and thus explain to my students, the significance of a son’s and brother’s death. Beyond my family’s story however, it tells a deeper one. It speaks to the loss of the over 400,000 Americans that gave their life in World War II. It is something I hope my students never forget.
