1

World War II: The European Theater Primary Source Analysis Activity

Instructions:

1. Consider the guiding question for the set of documents (documents 1-3).

2. Once in your groups, assign each member ONE document from your document set to read.

3. INDIVIDUAL WORK (8 minutes):

1. Each group member should read their document and answer the four questions below using the chart that correlates to their document on page 2. Answer the question set for YOUR ASSIGNED document! If you need help, ask me!

i. Who is writing? (author)

ii. Who is the author writing to? (audience)

iii. What is the authors OVERALL theme? What do they want readers to know?

iv. SUMMARIZE at LEAST THREE examples from the text that relate to the overall theme. YOU MUST UNDERLINE AND LABEL EACH PART OF THE TEXT YOU ARE USING FOR EVIDENCE (Example #1, etc.)

2. If you finish sooner than your group members, spend your extra time going over your document and your answers so you can better explain it to your group members.

4. GROUP WORK (20 minutes):

1. Once everyone is finished, each member should teach their document to the rest of the group. DO NOT simply read what you put for your answers. DO NOT let group members copy your paper. You must EXPLAIN your answers to your group members.

2. Use each group members teaching of their document to complete the rest of the charts on page 2.

3. On page 3, as a group, answer the guiding questions by completing the chart. For the prompt, answer the prompt with a thesis statement and supporting evidence. Each group member is responsible for filling in his or her own chart.

i. A thesis is a sentence that states your argument (your answer to the guiding question).

ii. For each thesis statement, write down THREE pieces of evidence from the documents that support the thesis statement. Use at LEAST one piece of evidence from EACH document in the set.

USE THE CHECKLIST BELOW TO ENSURE YOU FULFILL ALL ASSIGNMENT REQUIREMENTS. Put your papers in the order shown in the checklist, staple them together, and turn them in to me.

Requirement

Completed?

1. Complete ALL questions on charts on pages 2.

2. Attach YOUR assigned document from each document set with text you used for evidence UNDERLINED AND LABELED .

3. Complete ALL parts of the thesis/evidence chart on page 3.

Guiding Question Document Set (1-3): What were the experiences of soldiers in the European Theater of World War II?

Document

Analysis

#1

1. Who is writing? (author)

2. Who is the author writing to? (audience)

3. What is the authors OVERALL theme? What do they want readers to know?

4. SUMMARIZE at LEAST THREE examples from the text that relate to the overall theme. YOU MUST UNDERLINE AND LABEL EACH PART OF THE TEXT YOU ARE USING FOR EVIDENCE

a. Example #1-

b. Example #2-

c. Example #3-

#2

1. Who is writing? (author)

2. Who is the author writing to? (audience)

3. What is the authors OVERALL theme? What do they want readers to know?

4. SUMMARIZE at LEAST THREE examples from the text that relate to the overall theme. YOU MUST UNDERLINE AND LABEL EACH PART OF THE TEXT YOU ARE USING FOR EVIDENCE

a. Example #1-

b. Example #2-

c. Example #3-

#3

1. Who is writing? (author)

2. Who is the author writing to? (audience)

3. What is the authors OVERALL theme? What do they want readers to know?

4. SUMMARIZE at LEAST THREE examples from the text that relate to the overall theme. YOU MUST UNDERLINE AND LABEL EACH PART OF THE TEXT YOU ARE USING FOR EVIDENCE

a. Example #1-

b. Example #2-

c. Example #3-

Prompt:

What were the experiences of soldiers in the European Theater of World War II?

Thesis Statement

Evidence #1

Evidence #2

Evidence #3

DOCUMENT #1

Robert Edlin Recalls Fighting on D-Day (1944)

Our assault boat hit a sandbar. I looked over the ramp and we were at least seventy-five yards from the shore, and we had hoped for a dry landing. I told the [captain], "Try to get in further." He screamed he couldn't. That British seaman had all the guts in the world but couldn't get off the sandbar. I told him to drop the ramp or we were going to die right there.

It was cold, miserably cold, even though it was June. The water temperature was probably forty-five or fifty degrees. It was up to my shoulders when I went in, and I saw men sinking all about me. I tried to grab a couple, but my job was to get on in and get to the guns. There were bodies from the I I6th floating everywhere. They were facedown in the water with packs still on their backs.

I began to run with my rifle in front of me. I went directly across the beach to try to get to the seaway. In front of me was part of the II6th Infantry, pinned down and lying behind beach obstacles. They hadn't made it to the seaway. I kept screaming at them, 'You have to get up and go! You gotta get up and go!' But they didn't. They were worn out and defeated completely. There wasn't any time to help them.

I continued across the beach. There were mines and obstacles all up and down the beach. The air corps had missed it entirely. There were no shell holes in which to take cover. The mines had not been detonated. Absolutely nothing that had been planned for that part of the beach had worked. I knew that [this place] was going to be a hellhole, and it was.

When I was about twenty yards from the seaway I was hit by what I assume was a sniper bullet. It shattered and broke my right leg. I thought, well, I've got a Purple Heart. I fell, and as I did, it was like a searing hot poker rammed into my leg. My rifle fell ten feet or so in front of me. I crawled forward to get to it, picked it up, and as I rose on my left leg, another burst of I think machine gun fire tore the muscles out of that leg, knocking me down again.

As I moved forward, I hobbled. After you've been hit by gunfire, your legs stiffen up, not all at once but slowly. The pain was indescribable. I fell to my hands and knees and tried to crawl forwards. I managed a few yards, then blacked out for several minutes. When I came to, I saw Sgt. Bill Klaus. He was up to the seaway. When he saw my predicament, he crawled back to me under heavy rifle and mortar fire and dragged me up to the cover of the wall.

Klaus had also been wounded in one leg, and a medic gave him a shot of morphine. The medic did the same for me. My mental state was such that I told him to shoot it directly into my left leg, as that was the one hurting the most. He reminded me that if I took it in the ass or the arm it would get to the leg. I told him to give me a second shot because I was hit in the other leg. He didn't. I yelled at them, 'You have to get off of here! You have to get up and get the guns!' They were gone immediately.

This colonel looked at me and said, 'You've done your job." I answered, 'How? By using up two rounds of German ammo on my legs?" Despite the awful pain, I hoped to catch up with the platoon the next day.

DOCUMENT #2

Andrew Cooper Recalls Fighting in Europe from D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge (1944-1945)

I was moving along a hedgerow [on D-Day] to reach a group of men on the other side when suddenly I felt a tremendous blow to my right shoulder that knocked me to the ground.I knew that I had been hit but couldn't tell to much about the extent of the injury. The bullet in my shoulder and arm resulted in a broken bone and muscle damage and did not heal as quickly as was expected.

[Later on,] about the time I arrived back with my [platoon] the [situation] changed on all fronts. In the north the German armies had hurled their best fighting forces into a final counteroffensive in Luxembourg and Belgium. Thus began more than three months of bitter cold weather, river crossings, snow and mud, along with some of the hardest fought battles of the entire war.

I remember the bitter cold as we silently moved or took some other positions in locations where we could hear or see what the Germans were doing on the other side, and on our side since they too were sending out night patrols. Assignments such as these will never be forgotten and I pray to God that I will never again experience anything like "an infantry soldier night patrol."

I remember going into Belgium where a little later we became involved in two major battles. The enemy opposition was fierce and savage at times. Some of the very best of German troops had successfully broken our lines in that area earlier and mass confusion was not uncommon. Not only was the combat taking its toll of casualties, but the bitter cold ranked high with the enemy.Frozen feet or trench foot was no respecter of persons, and many were leaving daily for this reason, along with other physical conditions. Those of us who remained could not help but wonder when our time was coming. A soldier's shoes would freeze if he kept them off too long while changing socks (mine did on one occasion).

You were lucky to have a blanket, but if it got wet from the snow, it would freeze stiff before you could use it. I remember becoming so tired and weary from walking through knee deep snow drifts, but I kept on plodding.

I thought Normandy [D-Day] was enough to drive men insane, but during these days I remember seeing good men of all ranks and mental and physical condition breaking up under the pressure.

There were letters from family members and friends.As I began to read I suddenly realized that this was not the good news that I was expecting to hear. The first two lette