Frankfurt Guard | |
Fictional Character | |
The Man With the Iron Heart POD: May 29, 1942; Relevant POD: May, 1945 | |
Type of Appearance: | Direct POV (one scene, unnamed) |
Nationality: | United States |
Date of Birth: | c. 1927 |
Occupation: | Soldier |
Military Branch: | United States Army |
In 1946, a 19-year-old US Army conscript guarding the American compound in Frankfurt in occupied Germany failed to properly search an entering GMC Deuce-and-a-Half, driven by a German Freedom Front "Werewolf". The guard saw tampons and other feminine products, and, embarrassed, let the truck through. The Werewolf quickly drove down a road and detonated a radium-bomb. The guard survived with a couple of cracked ribs, but developed radiation poisoning in short order.[1]
The attack marked the second time the German Freedom Front delayed the planned trial of several Nazi political and military leaders. At a Congressional hearing back in Washington, Representative Jerry Duncan (R-Indiana) alleged that the guard could have been more alert and saved the enclave. Secretary of War Robert Patterson insisted that, had the guard refused entry to the truck, the Werewolf would have simply detonated the bomb at the gate, with the same effect. Duncan realized this reasoning was sound, and shifted gears to ask whose fault it was that the GFF had radium in the first place.[2]
Literary comment[]
Whether the guard succumbed or recovered is unrevealed. Although he is a fairly significant character in his brief part of the story, the text does not give him a name, but always calls him "the guard."
References[]
- ↑ The Man With the Iron Heart, pgs. 261-264.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 265.
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