As my first contribution to the Library of Congress’ Veteran’s History Project I filmed a local man, Mr. Bill Herring, in March ‘05. Mr. Herring was a PFC in the storied Tenth Mountain Division, seeing combat as a rifleman, helping his Division break through the Wehrmacht’s Gothic Line in Italy, 1945. His story was so compelling, and his recollections so vivid, that I decided to make a full-blown production out of it to give to his family and friends.

In addition to the material Mr. Herring provided, I scoured the Internet for other imagery and footage. I was able to download hundreds of stills from the Tenth Mountain Division photographic archive on the Denver Public Library’s Western History Collection. I also combed the photo archives of the online National Archives and the Library of Congress Veteran’s History Project site, among others. I even found some old newsreel footage on the Prelinger Archives, and purchased some others as a DVD box set off of eBay.

This is one man’s story… among millions. I feel thankful to have been there to capture it.

Mr. Herring was a delight to interview, his memories still tack-sharp, providing vivid details from exactly 60 years prior to the interview. Along with 70 minutes or so of interview captured during one very long night of shooting, he provided me with several mementos from his scrapbook to photograph or scan to include in the piece… snapshots, newspaper clippings, drawings, postcards, even actual shrapnel pieces from German artillery. Regrettably, he never showed me his most-prized possession: a German Luger pistol, although I did scan the requisition papers for it.

 

I have a few DVD copies of the piece available, free for the asking. As a WWII buff, I find all of this fascinating… someone else might take a few sittings to get through the whole thing. For the “Reader’s Digest condensed” types, click on a few of the Flash pieces above. Or here’s a ~9 minute piece of snippets from the DVD (Windows Media ~40MB).