Vanishing Generation, Part 4 - Prisoner of War - Episode 4

Tom Grove, prisoner of war survivor, recalls the Battle of the Bulge, and says that is where he got his first combat injury. He was taken prisoner that day, after a German tank pulled up in front of the house they were in. His ammunition-bearer said they were not getting him. He then ran through a hole in the wall where a shell had gone off, and was killed.  Another who was there said the same, and ran out the same hole, but Ralph Carver reached out and brought him back in. They knew they would either be captured or killed. Grove says, "I chose not to be killed. I wasn't going to run out there and just get murdered." Continuing, Grove says that they broke in the front door, came in and started speaking in German. They were captured and made to march out in the street, and met some of the other guys who had been captured. He remembers, but wishes he could forget saying, "Oh, my God, I'm a prisoner of war."

Standards

• Along with the rest of the world, the United States and South Carolina experienced economic instability during this period. As a result, political instability and worldwide conflict consumed the world in the 1940s. Following World War II, the United States emerged as a world leader through political policies and economic growth.
  • 5.3.E Analyze multiple perspectives on the economic, political, and social effects of World War II and its aftermath using primary and secondary sources.
• This indicator was designed to promote inquiry into military and economic policies during World War II, to include the significance of military bases in South Carolina. This indicator was also developed to foster inquiry into postwar economic developments and demographic changes, to include the immigration of Jewish refugees following the Holocaust.
  • 8.5.CO Compare South Carolina and U.S. wartime contributions and demobilization after World War II.
• This indicator was constructed to facilitate inquiry into how economic conditions prompted an evolution of fiscal and monetary policy featuring significant turning points. This indicator also supports inquiry into the laissez-faire policies of the 1920s, the balance of free markets and government intervention of the 1930s, and the command economies during World War I and World War II.
  • USHC.4.CO Develop a comparative analysis of the motives for and outcomes of American policies regarding foreign intervention.

Resources