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Popular Historic “Facts” That Are Actually False

Khalid Elhassan March 15, 2021 36 min

Bridgerton's depiction of Queen Charlotte, and her depiction in a contemporary portrait. Oprah Magazine

Eddie Slovik’s 1942 wedding photo. History Net

17. A Determination to Desert

Eddie Slovik was sent to France in August 1944, where he was assigned to Company G of the 28^th Infantry Division’s 109^th Infantry Regiment. On the way to join his unit, Slovik came across a Canadian military police unit and ended up staying with them for six weeks. He finally reported to his assigned unit on October 7, 1944, and promptly decided that serving in a front-line infantry company was not for him. The following day, he asked his company commander for reassignment to a unit in the rear.

Slovik threatened that he was prepared to run away if he was assigned to a rifle unit on the front lines. His captain told him that if he did that, it would count as desertion, denied his transfer request, and assigned him to a rifle platoon. The next day, October 9^th, Slovik deserted. He walked several miles towards the rear until he reached a headquarters detachment. There, he approached one of their cooks and provided him with a prepared note, confessing to desertion.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.