Miracle of St. Anna: In the end, evil cannot triumph
The day after Christmas 1944, 70 American GIs and 25 Italian partisans — civilian guerrilla fighters — held out for almost a day against a sudden massive onslaught by Axis forces on the mountain village of Sommocolonia, Italy. Vastly outnumbered, his position overrun, the officer in charge, 1st Lt. John Robert Fox, called in artillery fire on the house he was in, knowing the shelling would kill him. When the soldier on the other end of the radio told him so, Fox replied, ‘‘Fire it.’’ He was 29.
The artillery fire gave other units time to mount a counterassault and retake the village. When soldiers found Fox’s body, he was surrounded by a hundred dead enemy soldiers. The Axis offensive failed a few days later.
All but 18 of the brave men at Sommocolonia died, and the story of their gallantry almost died, too. For the Americans were black, Buffalo Soldiers of the segregated 92nd Infantry Division. The Nazis regarded them as less than human and had given orders that none of them be taken prisoner. The U.S. Army of the time regarded them as less than soldiers and not much worth saving. For many years, their story went untold, their bravery unremembered, except among the Italians they had fought and died to help.
Today attitudes are different. The U.S. military prides itself on being a model of integration and opportunity. There is an effort to try to make amends for the evils of the past. In 1997, it was determined that African-American soldiers had been denied Medals of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor, solely because of their race. Seven were given the long-overdue honor for their heroism; Fox was one of them.
Those long-ago events inspired the novel ‘‘Miracle of St. Anna.’’ It’s written by James McBride (2002, Riverhead Books). It’s the story of four black infantrymen trapped in a tiny, starving Italian village, surrounded by German soldiers. They have found and befriended a dying little boy. But the Nazis are coming. Headquarters refuses to send a rescue party. It’s desperate times.
Then the miracles begin. Amid desolation, hope blossoms.
This is a jewel of a book. It will leave a lump in your throat, and a renewed faith that even in the most evil of times, men and women can be extraordinarily kind, and good.
McBride says he wrote this book after listening as a boy to the stories told by men in his family who had fought in World War II. This book honors those hundreds of thousands of quiet heroes, those who survived the fighting and came home, went to work and raised their families, and those who lie forever in the fields of crosses in France and North Africa and other quiet graveyards thousands of miles from home.
The book is also a movie by Spike Lee, in theaters now.
