I am old enough to have had a father who fought in World War II. Because of graduate degrees he had, the Army put him in their chemical warfare battalion. These troops had to lug mustard gas shells around all over Europe, in case the Germans should violate their agreement not to use such weapons. The chemical warfare battalion did deploy other munitions that, I should think, would best be banned everywhere.

My dad was part of the Allied invasion that went from Sicily up the spine of Italy. During that campaign, there was a battle in which Allied troops had to slog uphill all day through mud to a hilltop on which there was a cultural heritage site. It was a monastery. The Allies bombed the site. It broke my father’s heart.

Documentary footage of the wreckage from that war shows piles and piles of rubble. Although Europeans did great work in restoration when hostilities ended, some cultural treasures were broken beyond repair. And of course, with every human casualty that died the world suffered an immeasurable loss. My dad did not speak of the war, but once did allow the saddest thing he saw in it was when some survivors of a concentration camp went out to get drunk, and got into some wood alcohol.

President Vladimir Vladimirovich, “V.V.,” Putin, has made a speech elevating the Russian fight at their Battle of Kursk. The ordeal the Red Army went through in that battle is truly beyond belief. Still, they could not have prevailed except that Hitler withdrew troops from Kursk in response to the Allied invasion of Sicily.

The American upset ice hockey victory over the Soviets to win Olympic gold at Lake Placid is memorialized in the film, “Miracle on Ice.” The documentary “Red Army” shows how that miracle happened. The Soviet team should have trounced the Americans; but their abusive coach crushed their spirit. That team was the Bolshoi Ballet on skates. Following Lake Placid, Americans hired Russian team members, but were so clueless about these skaters’ skills that some of the Russian players repatriated.

Mary Hall

South Hadley