Welcome to "Shared Sacrifices."

SHARED SACRIFICES: THE UNSUNG LIBERATORS OF FRANCE IN WWII tells the little-known story of some individuals of the 6th Army Group's U.S. Seventh Army combined with the First French Army, comprising 24 divisions, in helping to win World War II in Europe.  The film examines the neglected history of these units in the popular treatment of the war as witnessed through the eyes of those whose lives were forever impacted by their valor. The documentary highlights the important roles these historically under-represented armies played which have been overshadowed by the dramatic story of D-Day to the west. It gives long overdue credit to the Seventh to become the first to cross into Germany and to the heroic sacrifices made by its volunteer nurses and support personnel, as well as to its overlooked African – Asian – Hispanic – and Native-American soldiers.

We present the role of French Forces in the liberation of France, a point of history that is largely dismissed in U.S. memory of the war. We explore the critical contributions of its African, Middle Eastern, Asian, and French Colonial troops, whose service and sacrifices were obscured in the French media during the war and in French history throughout most of the 20th century. 

The documentary begins in the Mediterranean with Operation DRAGOON in August 1944 and culminates with Germany’s surrender and the celebration of the end of the war on VE (Victory in Europe) Day – May 8, 1945.

SHARED SACRIFICES interweaves interviews with authentic war film and photographs from the U.S. Signal Corps, much of which has rarely been seen before. Historical headlines augment segues and enhanced graphic techniques add depth to the images. 

In addition to narration over archival footage and the reading of dramatic primary source letters, the film relies on a team of experts intercut with first-person accounts from French and American citizens who served in the war or who, as children, experienced its effects.

We examine the stories of heroic Congressional Medal of Honor winners who served in the Seventh Army through interviews with their children including Terry Kandle, son of Victor, whose widowed mother became a pacifist, Choctaw code talker Van Barfoot’s son, Col. Van T. Barfoot, Jr, and Hispanic American Lucian Adams through his daughter, Grace Adams Fawcett, who was dubbed “The Texas Tornado” for his speed and bravery. We hear from Sandra Holliday, the niece of African American Tank Destroyer Battalion leader Charles L. Thomas, who was denied the medal because of his race, and we meet Timuel Black who was relegated to serve as supply personnel despite his excellent education. We learn that blacks were not allowed to train in the same areas of camps, to shop, eat, sleep, or obtain R&R off base with whites, or even allowed to receive or donate the same blood. We meet Japanese American Kerry Cababa whose uncle, Ted Fujioka, enlisted in the valiant 442nd despite his parents' disapproval, and we learn about the division’s rescue of “The Lost Battalion” where the unit was decimated in the week-long, bloody battle to rescue 241 Texas soldiers surrounded in the Vosges Mountains of France. We explore the Congressional Medal of Honor Awards to Senator Daniel Inouye and to Barney Fushimi Hajiro in the 1990s to finally recognize their bravery. We explore the heroics of Chinese American Lew Yee June whose name was not even known when he was killed and whose 103d Infantry Division is now attempting to help him receive the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously. We meet Maj. Gen. Robert G.F. Lee, member of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance as well as the Chinese American WWII Veterans Recognition Project, two groups which successfully obtained the Congressional Gold Medal in 2018 for all these soldiers. We also examine the story of the only well-known Seventh Army CMOH winner – Hollywood film star Audie Murphy - and learn of his tribulations with PTSD and his efforts to assist succeeding veterans. 

SHARED SACRIFICES relates the experiences of the all-volunteer American nurses attached to the 7th Army, such as June Wandrey, who traveled and lived in proximity to the troops and faced grave situations in battlefront evacuation centers. In total, the nurses of World War II suffered 200 deaths and won 1600 citations for exemplary service, yet few know anything about their service.  

We intercut interviews from the Greatest Generation -- veterans, now in their 90s, including French resistance fighter Jules Castellan, the Seventh Army's Stuart Hirai of the 442nd, Jerry Gustafson, one of the 442nd's White officers, Bob Leslie, and Jim Murphy of the 103d who fought in the Vosges, and Fred Clinton as well as Col. Cranston Rogers of the 45th Infantry Division who liberated Dachau. We meet additional children of the 7th's veterans -- half-sisters Patricia Cunnally Lofthouse and Diane Zaboth Helland whose fathers fought side-by-side in the Vosges where one was killed, and Ralph Larson whose father Forest helped liberate Germany's gruesome Kaufering Concentration Camps surrounding Dachau. We learn of the beloved role of the medic through Baxter Fite, who reported on the condition of the prisoners he treated at Kaufering.

So often nations tally causalities as mere statistics, but SHARED SACRIFICES focuses on individual heroics and loss -- lives of children and widows whose loved ones never returned from war and the impact of that loss on their lives. We personally experience the heartrending stories of children of the fallen who relay what life was like growing up without knowing their fathers. Additionally, we learn about fathers who returned home safely and were expected to create normal adult lives but were indelibly scarred.

We visit the Epinal American Military Cemetery where French American citizen Jocelyne Papelard-Brescia heads “US Memory Grand Est France Association." Members adopt graves of the soldiers and participate in ceremonies to honor them, also conducting research to find the families and sometimes sponsoring trips for descendants to visit their loved ones for the first time over these 75 years.  We meet Joanne Rowman Morrisey who was never able to recover from the loss of her father, Theodore, until she was finally able to pay her respects to him at his grave.

We end the documentary with some additional poignant memories of the lasting effects of the heroics of the 7th Army and their French co-fighters so that their contributions to ending WWII in Europe will never be overshadowed again.

EXPERT INTERVIEWEES AND CONSULTANTS

Maj. Gen. Robert G.F. Lee, member of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance and Chinese Americans WWII Veterans Recognition Project.

Col. (Ret.) Krewasky Salter, Ph.D., former Director of the Smithsonian’s Museum of African American History and Cantigny's First Division Museum, and Author of THE STORY OF BLACK MILITARY OFFICERS, 1861-1948.

Barbara Brooks Tomblin, Lecturer and Author, G.I. NIGHTINGALES: THE ARMY NURSE CORPS IN WORLD WAR II. 

Mark Stout, John Hopkins University Global Security Studies, Author, FIRST TO THE RHINE: THE 6TH ARMY GROUP IN WORLD WAR II.

James Scott Wheeler, United States Military Academy Historian, and Author of THE BIG RED ONE, JACOB L. DEVERS: A GENERAL'S LIFE and WAR AND REMEMBRANCE: THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN BATTLE MONUMENTS COMMISSION. 

Lawson Sakai, 100th/142nd Infantry Divisions Historian.

Hans Zeiger, Former State Representative, Payallup, WA, Author of PUYALLUP IN WWII.