Ernest Hemingway's saviour identified

[NigelS]

A snippet from yesterday's Daily Telegraph (23/01/19) gives:

 

"An Italian soldier who unwittingly saved the life of Ernest Hemingway has been identified for the first time.

Historians believe the First World War soldier who bore the brunt of a mortar explosion that left the author badly wounded was Fedele Temperini, a 26-year-old private. Hemingway was 18 and serving as a Red Cross volunteer on the Austro-Italian front when he had his brush with death."

 

No mention of who the 'Historians' might be, or how they came to this conclusion.

 

NigelS

[michaeldr]

Three Italians seem to have been with Hemingway when the mortar shell 'hit within a few feet';

one died instantly, one lost both legs and a third wounded man was carried by Hemingway to a first aid dug-out

Details from Thoedore B. Brumbach's letter of 14th July 1918 to Dr Hemingway 

[michaeldr]

6 hours ago, NigelS said:

No mention of who the 'Historians' might be, or how they came to this conclusion.

 

quote: After a cross-Atlantic joining of research efforts, Italian historian Marino Perissinotto and I [James McGrath Morris] have been able to put a name to the soldier who saved Hemingway’s life.

from https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/hemingways-world-war-i-savior-is-anonymous-no-more/2019/01/18/d3dbbb32-0ea0-11e9-831f-3aa2c2be4cbd_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.51409767c051

[David Filsell]

Interesting piece, shame about the errors of fact in the US article

[NigelS]

Thanks for posting the details Michael (for some reason I couldn't enter the WP site using your link & the 'Free' access, but was able to get  it by 'Googling': "Washington Post Hemingway savior"). Puts some meat on the bones even if there are some errors.

 

Nigel

[michaeldr]

quote from the Washington Post article linked to above - "That left only one soldier in the vicinity of where Hemingway was wounded."
Presumably this means that the man who lost both his legs also (like Hemingway) survived; quite remarkable for 1918