Shooting War Page #6

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From October 1943

until the middle of December,

San Pietro was the scene of some of the

bitterest fighting on our Fifth Army front.

The Italian campaign had entered

its second phase,

to push forward again after

a static period brought on by heavy rain.

Huston came over

and he had a mission.

To make a coherent narrative

of one small battle

that would represent the entire war.

He realised that you have no control.

You shoot what you can get.

You can fire three rounds then drop.

But you can't get ten feet of film

in the same way.

If you had control,

you can do a lot with an Eyemo.

They gave him two battalions,

out of the 36 divisions, who were in rest,

and said, "Here it is,"

and he staged that whole thing.

He used film that we had shot,

actual battle film,

and he intercut it with what he had.

His stuff was much better than ours.

Ed Montagne has a veteran's

tolerance of Huston's tricks.

He used picturesque munitions,

he slammed the camera

to simulate explosions,

he even posed American Gls

as dead Germans.

But he scared the poor 36th.

That was a nervous outfit.

He'd have them going up a hill,

he'd take a grenade and throw it down,

and yell, "Grenade!" and they'd dive.

Some of the stuff was great.

I admire him for what he did.

But I resented the fact

that I would get critiques from New York.

"Major Huston's men were able

to do this. Why can't yours?"

I had the same people.

Didn't speak very well of me, did it?

Some of Huston's most moving footage

was of picking up the pieces,

of life reasserting itself

in the little town of San Pietro.

The people prayed to their patron saint

to intercede with God

on behalf of those

who came to liberate them

and passed on to the north

with the passing battle.

By 1944, the combat photographers

were everywhere,

even the China-Burma-lndia theatre.

To most Americans, that was

the war's most obscure corner.

Hidden behind high mountains

and deep jungles,

it was both a political

and logistical nightmare.

One route was called the "aluminium

trail" after all the planes downed flying it.

When Stilwell and Merrill

met to plan a mission

against the key

Japanese airfield at Myitkyina,

photographer Dave Quaid was there.

When General Stilwell flew off,

I went up to Merrill

and I said, "Hey, General.

"Do you mind if I join you guys?"

He said, "Come on along."

Technically, Quaid was AWOL

when he joined Operation Galahad.

He had no idea

what he was getting into.

So now we're on this trail that's basically

impassable. We had to cut steps.

Even the mules that can handle

any terrain could not handle this trail.

We ourselves carried

so much equipment,

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