The following is an associated press article written in April of 1945, a month before the surrender of Nazi Germany on May 7, 1945 telling the story of a group of an U.S. infantry company displaying the Dixie Cross (Confederate battle flag) during the invasion of the Third Reich and accepting the surrender of a company of 103 German soldiers.
The story is an account written in a letter home by U.S. 1st Lieutenant Jack Shelton Harris of Richmond, Virginia (1922-2014). Harris would also later serve in the Korean War (1960-1963). His service to the U.S. military would include several awards: 3 Purple Hearts, 2 Silver Stars, 1 Bronze Star and the French Croix de Guerre.
So the next time a member of the divisive forces of hate and reaction (if they are alt-Left or alt-Right) try to equate the beautiful Southern Cross of Dixie as a "Nazi flag" you remind them that it was U.S. soldiers of Southern and Confederate descendant who were among the first REAL antifascists.
Some of the U.S. soldiers, tanks, and planes that freed Europe from the fascists, liberated the Nazi concentration death camps, and ended the Holocaust flew the Confederate flag. Nazism was defeated by Southern-born men whose grandfathers wore the hallowed gray and butternut of the Confederate soldier.
That's also major part of our shared Southern heritage and identity and the history of that flag too -- and one this writer is proud of!
Some of the U.S. soldiers, tanks, and planes that freed Europe from the fascists, liberated the Nazi concentration death camps, and ended the Holocaust flew the Confederate flag. Nazism was defeated by Southern-born men whose grandfathers wore the hallowed gray and butternut of the Confederate soldier.
That's also major part of our shared Southern heritage and identity and the history of that flag too -- and one this writer is proud of!
Have a wonderful Dixie Day, y'all!
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