Hawaii Soldier And Nazi Beer Song For Wine Uncle Sam Lyman’s middle name was “Koa,” the Hawaiian word for soldier. I pulled out the following military correspondent’s story when researching my own World War II book. “While tank units were stopped by enemy fire during the Normandy Invasion, Lt. Lyman, doing reconnaissance on his own, located an enemy tank and directed tank destroyer fire on it. Then he entered a small French town and from the top of a building spotted another German tank. He saw its crew enter a farm house basement. Pistol in hand and all alone, he walked toward it. The Germans were singing a drinking song, Ich Himmel gibt’s kein Bier. “He yelled, demanding the crew to surrender. Receiving no reply, Lieutenant Lyman laboriously moved a huge boulder from a wall next to the building and rolled it down the steps. It slammed against the basement door. (BANG!). Then he burst in, pistol in hand. The basement was a wine cellar. The tank crew was drunk. “’Kamerad,’ they shouted, raising their hands. Lieutenant Lyman marched them up the cellar stairs. But because they’d surrendered graciously, he allowed each of the four crew members to have a bottle of wine. He captured their Mark IV tank intact. “Lt. Lyman later received a Bronze Star for helping our troops capture the town.” After the war I asked Uncle Sam if he knew the meaning of the words to the song they sang. “Yes, I’ve been studying German, these were the words: “In heaven there is no beer (no beer), that’s why we drink it there. And when we are gone from her, our friends will be drinking all the beer.” Teen-age me spoke up, “But they were drinking wine, Uncle Sam.” Nodding his head he answered, “I asked them about it later, “Perils of war, they said. We drank what we had. Didn’t know a wine song, so we sang to beer.”
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 06:56:14 +0000
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