Anywho, where am i going with this you may ask? WELL....i was reading the paper today (shocker) and i came across an article on the back page of the Daily Herald from 1944 (May 8th if ur curious.....) and there was a piece smack bang in the middle of the page which when read, came across as chirpy, happy, warm and lighthearted - but most importantly, overall, highly reverential! Now whats wrong with that you may ask? well nothing really....the article in question set the scene for its unsuspecting audience beautifully - the Italian countryside, an honest soldier hard at work, fresh from battle, covered in a thin layer of grime and beardy fuzz, exhausted but in high spirits, all very rousing and encouraging for civilians back home......Spielberg himself couldnt have done a better job in setting the scene!
...only the thing is....this article isnt talking about any old kind of soldier.....
its specifically dedicated to a sniper - and not only that, this article has been written simply to tell the world how GOOD this guy is at his job. Nothing else! He hasnt won a medal for his efforts - he wasnt part of any great battle which changed the course of the war - he's just a sniper...in the middle of Italy....picking off the enemy with ease and flawless dedication.
Now the way this guy is being portrayed and the story behind it is, to me at least, very interesting, and actually particularly poignant. If Corporal Eddie Mathews was in a Hollywood Blockbuster, Barry Pepper would be playing him -turn him into the All American Hero (theyd have to make him American....British peoeple in Hollywood are nearly always villains - or German - just ask Jeremy Irons and Alan Rickman) blonde hair, chizzled features, crucifix fixed firmly round his neck, with a frowny and quizzical far away look in his eye...like you just asked him to explain the inner complexities of String Theory...or something.
(see now why i asked if you'd seen Tom Hanks, Vin Diesel and this dude mooching round Northern France yelling out "OH!! MATT DAMON....WHERE THE FUCK YOU HIDING MAN???"....ok they didnt do that but if u havnt seen the film then you'll have to take my word for it). Right im gonna get to the point now (hooray i hear you cry)!
Basically, the thing that struck me about this article was (firstly)
1. The way this small, seemingly insignificant Corporal is raised onto the pedestal of 'hero of our time' for the number of knotches on his rifle butt......
(and secondly and MORE IMPORTANTLY)
2. How the words of the correspondant fail in any way shape or form to express any kind of sympathy (not that im expecting any...i mean it is WWII and it is the Nazi's....sympathy is thin on the ground amongst the press and public), or even recognition of the circumstances in which this man's victims are killed. I know its a warzone but the correspondant (as you will read) describes in relative cool detail how dedicated Eddie was in waiting for his unsuspecting victims and the poignancy of how these men died ...well...it kinda breaks ya heart just a bit. The main thought that struck me as i read it was "all he did was go for a pleasant walk, a cigarette.... you gave him a nickname ffs" And it just made me a bit sad! War can be a very cold business....but the press appeared happy to gloss over this with cheery and 'heartwarming' anecdotes about Eddie and his Girlfriend.....His apparant alloofness to the brutality of his job struck me hard!
I'm not making any grand statements or any real in depth academic revelations with this post....im just saying its sad and kind of tragic when you look at this story from the perspective of someone other than the man they're dedicating it to......(and i know that that perspective is coming from a dead guy so its bound to be bad...BUT STILL...)
Well have a read for yourself and you might see what i mean.....
Daily Herald May 8th 1944 pg4.
One-Shot Eddie: Gazed at Girl's Picture as he waited to Kill German
from Arthur Helliwell, Cassino Front, Sunday.
"Corporal Eddie Mathews had just come out of the Line. Two days growth of wheat-coloured stubble bristled on his cheeks.
A trickle of blood from a cut over one eye, where a piece of masonry hit him last night, zigzagged to his chin. He was dog tired and grimy after 12 days in Cassino, but he was cleaning his rifle. He grinned when he caught my eye. 'Always clean up my rifle before i start on myself' he said.
Mathews in a sniper. He can put 5 bullets into a halfpenny sized circle at a hundred yards range.
5 years ago he worked in a Hammersmith restaurant, and used to spend his surplus tips on shooting ranges in the funfairs. He did not know that his 'skill' at bowling over tin ducks and knocking celluloid balls off water jets would one day qualify him to carve a gunman's tally of notches on his riflebutt.
There are 13 notches. Each one represents a German killed with a single shot at ranges of between 50 and 500 yards.
Mathews once waited 10 days to kill a German sniper who was waiting to pick him off. On another occasion he watched a red haired German walking every morning for a week, in the orchard of a front line farmhouse before he got a shot at him.
'I got so used to him that i called him "Ginger", Mathews told me. 'He was cheeky. He used to stroll about whistling with his hands in his pockets. I couldnt get a decent bead on him because of the trees. One morning he stopped for a cigarette. Then i got him'.
The sniper's chief enemy is boredom. I beat that by propping up a picture of my fiancee by my side. We're going to get married when this show is over".
Just like Barry Pepper.....the image of the dedicated and brilliant soldier....but it leaves me cold everytime!
