This Date in History: July 5

05

 

On Thursday, July 5, 1945, U.S. Army official executioners hanged U.S. Army Private John T. Jones and Private Henry W. Nelson for the crime of rape and Private Charles H. Jefferies for the crime of murder at the Peninsular Base Section Stockade in Aversa, Italy.  (The Fifth Field: The Story of the 96 American Soldiers Sentenced to Death and Executed in Europe and North Africa in World War II)

**********

Peter Cremer, Navy Lieutenant Commander, born March 25, 1911 in Metz, commander U-333, commander 31st U-Boat Flotilla, winner Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, author of U-Boat Commander: A Periscope View of the Battle of the Atlantic, died on July 5, 1992 in Hamburg, said of courage:

“A fighting man will allow matters to come to the crunch and accept the risks – and is usually buoyed by the feeling: it won’t happen to me.  But once he has been marked…and, barely recovered, returns to the fight, then things look different: he has experienced wounds and pain and knows he can suffer the experience again at any moment.  He knows that imminent death is not merely possible but indeed probable.”  (2,000 Quotes From Hitler’s 1,000-Year Reich)