Perhaps my WWII history is a tad rusty. According to this stirring Memorial Day story in the Houston Chronicle, not only did some good old American boys capture the Nazi flag flying over the Reichstag, they did so under sniper fire on May 28, 1945 - 21 days after the unconditional surrender of Germany and 28 days after the Soviets had already captured the Reichstag and famously raised their own flag in a famous picture.
There's also the whole widely-debated issue of Eisenhower ordering American forces to halt at the Elbe 70 miles from Berlin and to allow the Soviets to capture Berlin (which they had encircled by late April with the intent to keep American forces from sharing in the glory).
I sent the writer a kindly-worded e-mail that I thought perhaps the details in the history books didn't quite connect to the version of events in his story. Unless I'm wrong, and in which case I'll happily admit it if someone can point me to U.S. troops fighting around the Reichstag (whether on May 28, 1945, or any day earlier).
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/outlook/3202374
May 28, 2005, 8:20PM
SOUVENIR OF WAR
A flag that won't fly this holiday
Young private braved snipers to bring symbol of evil down
By JOHN EUDY
SIXTY years ago today, a north Houston boy born in Madisonville, Texas, was crawling across the slate roof of the Reichstag building in the heart of Berlin. Nazi snipers tried to pick him off , before he reached his objective. Twenty of his own buddies were laying down enfilading fire that kept them from stopping PrivatePvt. R.C. Woods, Bobby to his friends, from reaching his goal.
A flag can was the symbolize all that can be is good and right about a nation, but in the case of Germany it had become the international sign of all that is evil and bloody about a nation: the Nazi flag.
Bobby Woods wanted that flag, and he wanted if off the towering flag pole as his personal statement that World War II was over. He wanted it as a souvenir that indicated democracy had triumphed over the pure evil of a nation and a people besotted and enthralled by their leader -- Adolf Hitler.
Experts from the Antiques Road Show program tell me that this is no ordinary Nazi flag -- of which there are hundreds of original examples. No! This was the ultimate symbol of the threat that almost conquered the world. It was a piece of cloth that waved and flapped over the government that spawned the worst regime of propaganda, genocide, mass murder and grandiose plans for a perverted world order ever seen by the modern world.
Bobby Woods wasn't thinking in those terms when he cut the rope holding the flag in place and heard the screeching whirl of it over the automatic fire from both friends and foes as the giant flag collapsed across his crouched figure.
That day, both he and the flag came off that roof unharmed. It was no easy trip: The flag measured roughly 10 by 16 feet, more or less.
Twenty-two of Bobby's buddies signed the flag manufactured by REICHSKRIEGSFLG FAHNEN-KREISEL as proof that it was the actual one that flew over the Reichstag. Among many, the names included Pvts. Robert F. Scoglio, Moze Wiley, Max Chernisky and Sgts. Leo Litwak, William Evans and C.F. Love.
Bobby Woods and the flag also made it back home to Houston at war's end. His one moment of bravery under fire and his historic gesture was one of thousands in the closing days of the war.
Until now, he and the flag have been forgotten. He probably wanted it that wanted way. Woods -- like so many tens of thousands -- did their part to free the world from Nazi tyranny.
Bobby Woods put the flag away and resumed his life as an American citizen living in a free world. He worked for Tesco Corp., as an overhead crane operator. He supported and enjoyed his family and friends, and died too soon in 1968.
The flag has come down in the family to his nephew. When unfolded it looks as fresh and malevolent as the day it fell at the feet of the soldiers who helped conquer democracy's greatest foe.
The family would like any of the survivors who signed it that day, now so long ago, to know that they have honored their bravery by preserving the flag and by keeping it from the hands of those few misguided in our society who try to see some good in the Nazi regime that created it. The family wants the importance of the flag to be known to a wider audience, but only in the context of what it symbolized. Until then, it will remain folded into the duffel bag where Bobby Woods put it 60 years ago.
Sadly, if this overpowering flag were exhibited, it would be joined by many other modern symbols of tyranny. Those who saw it would more fully understand why those of us who observe Memorial Day must remain eternally vigilant.
Eudy is a writer living in Houston. He can be e-mailed at eudyeudy@airmail.net.