Howard Brodie, a noted combat artist during World War II who went on to sketch some of the most famous courtroom dramas of the postwar era, including the trials of the Chicago Seven, Charles Manson and Patty Hearst, died on Sunday at his home near Parkfield, Calif. He was 94. The death was confirmed by his son, Bruce.
Mr. Brodie was a staff artist at The San Francisco Chronicle when he enlisted in the Army during World War II. He was sent to the South Pacific as a combat artist and covered the last days of the Guadalcanal campaign. After being assigned to the European theater, he sketched his way with the troops through France, Belgium and Germany. His work was featured prominently in Yank, the Army weekly. He never carried a weapon, but he came under fire on several occasions and worked as a medic when necessary. He was awarded the Bronze Star for Valor.
A strong draftsman, he conveyed the drama of men under fire as well as the routine of life in the field. One of his most disturbing sketches, of a German prisoner’s execution during the Battle of Bulge — the prisoner was part of a team that had infiltrated American lines posing as G.I.’s — was censored by the military.
“A defenseless human is entirely different than a man in action,” he later wrote, in a caption to one of the drawings. “To see these three young men calculatingly reduced to quivering corpses before my eyes really burned into my being.”
No comments:
Post a Comment