What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown? (1983 TV Short)
Jeremy Schoenberg: Linus van Pelt
Quotes
-
Linus van Pelt : These are poppies. There's a legend that says where battles were fought, these white flowers all turned red, and in the center of each one, there was a cross.
-
Linus van Pelt : [Reciting "In Flanders Fields"] In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow/Between the crosses, row on row/That mark our place, and in the sky/The larks still bravely sing and fly/Scarce heard amid the guns below, we are the dead/Short days ago we lived, felt dawn saw sunset glow/Loved and were loved, and now we lie in Flanders Fields/In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow/Between the crosses, row on row.
-
Linus van Pelt : Charlie Brown, Marcie, Patty! You'll never guess where we are. We're at Omaha Beach! This is where it all started!
Patricia "Peppermint Patty" Reichardt : What started?
Linus van Pelt : This is where the Invasion was! This is where the Allies landed on D-Day!
-
Linus van Pelt : June 6th, 1944. This is the beach where the Allies landed in World War II. Thousands of men came ashore right here where you're standing.
Patricia "Peppermint Patty" Reichardt : Came ashore, from where?
Linus van Pelt : From across the Channel. It was terrible, I read that by 10:30 in the morning, over 3000 men had been killed or wounded.
-
Linus van Pelt : See, from up here, the enemy could fire right down on the invaders. Look out there, over there, that's where the Allies had built an artificial port. Two weeks after D-Day, a violent storm took the whole thing apart.
-
Linus van Pelt : Listen to this. When the first units of the 116th Infantry tried to land, they were met by a hail of fire. Within minutes of the ramps being lowered, one company was desolate. The assault on Omaha Beach was a shambles. The engineers assigned to clear the beach of obstacles suffered appalling losses, few of their surviving teams landed in the right places. For their heroic effort the engineers suffered 41 casualties. Meanwhile assault groups were being pinned down on the beach. As the tide crept in, exhausted troops were slow to rally, and even slower to move up the beach. Along the peril bank, the bodies of the living and the dead formed a solid, motionless belt 20 feet wide. By 9:30 A.M. the situation was so bad that the commander considered abandoning Omaha Beach. In all this confusion, isolated groups began to move up the block.
-
[last lines]
Linus van Pelt : [after leaving the cemetery] What have we learned, Charlie Brown?
[Charlie Brown looks at him]
Charlie Brown : [back at home] And that's what Linus asked me: "What have we learned, Charlie Brown?"
[Charlie Brown puts his picture in his photo album]
Sally Brown : I hope you don't mind my saying this, big brother, but you're pasting your pictures in upside down.
