Gordon developed a lifelong hatred of Sobel. “Until I landed in France in the very early hours of D-Day,” Gordon said in 1990, “my war was with this man.” Along with other enlisted, Gordon swore that Sobel would not survive five minutes in combat, not when his men had live ammunition. If the enemy did not get him, there were a dozen and more men in Easy who swore that they would. Behind his back the men cursed him, “f——ing Jew” being the most common epithet.

