One of the many unique things about the 22nd Infantry Regiment is our connection to Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winning author Ernest Hemingway. Ernest Hemingway was a larger than life fellow and chased many experiences to influence his books. On that chase for adventure, Ernest Hemingway would find himself with the 22nd Infantry Regiment on Utah beach during D-Day.
Hemingway was good friends with the 22nd Regiment’s commander, Colonel Charles “Buck” Lanman. Meeting up in England before the D-Day invasion in Normandy Hemingway was able to attach himself to the 22nd Infantry Regiment as a war correspondent from Collier magazine. He would stay with the regiment through to the Battle of Hurtgen Forest and return to Cuba in March of 1945.
While the 22nd Infantry was liberating France, Hemingway wanted to do a little bit more than write about it. Hemingway led a group of local militia fighters in Rambouillet (a village 44 kilometers outside of Paris) to liberate Paris. Though he claimed to be the first to liberate Paris, (his beloved town from his youth) it seems his main focus was to liberate the
Ritz, a bar he spent the next week or so drinking at.
Though Hemingway would deny to the Army his involvement, his personal stories and accounts would tell the story differently. Hemingway would claim to kill 122 “krauts” during his time from Normandy up through Germany. Though he told this to many of his friends, the claims were never proven or believed. Hemingway biographer Michael S. Reynolds wrote that the number of Hemingway’s wartime victims “increased in direct ratio to his drinking.”
Though Ernest Hemingway would move from the front line to the rear, he would end up with the 22nd during the bloody battle of Hurtgen Forest. His experience there would influence his first book after the war, Across the River and Over the Trees.
Though Ernest Hemingway’s time in WWII is a mixture of recorded truth and legend, there is no doubting that it was with the 22nd Infantry Regiment. He has woven himself into our history along with many other heroic and normal Deeds.
When the soldiers of the 22nd returned home from WWII they formed the 22nd Infantry Regimental Society. One of the first members was Ernest Hemingway. When he was invited to the first reunion in New York City he was unable to attend. Knowing that the soldiers would not have refrigeration where they were at, he sent them a smoked turkey to enjoy while they told war stories.
Ernest Hemingway sent a smoked turkey to the 22nd Infantry Reunions every reunion until his passing. After his passing the reunions carried on the tradition and serve a smoked turkey every reunion in memory of this. When Ernest Hemingway passed, his 22nd Infantry Society membership card was found in his wallet.
Drink Like Ernest Hemingway:
Josie Russell Cocktail
Ingredients:
· 4 1/2 oz. rum
· 12 oz. hard apple cider
· 2 oz. fresh lime juice
· 2 tsp. sugar
Served:
Fill a pitcher with ice, add all ingredients, and stir well. Serve on ice in Collins or highball glasses, garnished with lime wedge or peel. Serves two to three.
The “Hemingway” Daiquiri
Ingredients:
· 22 oz. White Rum
· 1 TSP Grapefruit Juice
· 1 TSP Maraschino Liqueur
· Juice of ½ Lime
Dripped Absinthe
Served:
Prepared in ice water slowly dripped over a sugar cube, set above an absinthe spoon and dripped into the absinthe until it’s as sweet as you like.
Hemingway’s Bloody Mary
* There is a story that Hemingway may have been the first to make the Bloody Mary because of his “Bloody Wife” who would not let him drink while under the care of doctors.
Ingredients:
· 1 Pint Russian Vodka
· 1 Pint Tomato Juice
· 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce.
· 1 oz of lime juice
· Celery Salt, Cayenne Pepper
Death in the Afternoon
Ingredients:
· 1 ½ Shots of Absinthe
· 4 oz of Champagne (give or take)
Comments