The experience of combat is perhaps the ultimate test for human beings. No other human activity creates such heightened emotions. No other human activity is so potentially final in its results. Humans often have a paradoxical relationship with combat and war; sometimes it is revered and other times despised. We use its euphemisms in describing athletic events (check out the headlines on any sports page). We see it glorified in our literature and condemned in our political speeches.

The sheer terror of knowing that the next one is going to have your name on it, when that goes on and on and on...you get a strange feeling in which you seem to become detached and you just think, well maybe this will end and maybe it won’t and maybe we’ll all be blown up and maybe we won’t... but who cares. And you learn to sort of live with it. It is just a matter of fate. You will either survive if the Lord is willing or you will not. So there’s really nothing you can do. And you just take it.

— Sidney Phillips, The War

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• Analyze combat testimonials from World War II.
• Identify the physical and psychological injuries that soldiers experience.

About the Author:

Greg Timmons has been a social studies teacher for more than 30 years. He has written lessons for and serves as an educational consultant to various PBS programs including Frontline, the NewsHour, and WashingtonWeek.He resides in Washington state and Montana.