Word: 314th
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...castle stands deep within the Ardennes Forest, and in it dwells an aging nobleman who broods over his ancient lineage, his child-wife, and his priceless art collection. It is also occupied by the 314th Replacement Cadre, a foul-spoken band of American fighting boon-dogglers, including a cowboy, an Indian, a composer, a Negro intellectual, an art historian and an ex-preacher. The cadre is commanded by a sex-and-glory-hungry major. It is December 1944, the Germans are preparing to launch the Battle of the Bulge, and the castle bars the road to Bastogne...
...minds of all, the castle is the symbol and focus for uneasy atavistic dreams of combat. Then the big guns begin to sound. Out of the falling snow, through a village straight out of a Breughel painting, comes the American army in headlong retreat, and the misfits of the 314th find themselves the only organized defense short of the Meuse. Bumbling and burlesquing the role of soldiers, they fight. For what? A confused dream, a bit of bread, a friend, a stone wall, a laugh...
...drunk scenes that spin with laughter and nausea. There are battle scenes crackling with the unreality of sudden death. And at the end, the Germans scale the castle walls, while the gargoyles scream and drops of blood blossom like roses. Superbly and movingly, the men of the absurd 314th Replacement Cadre die. For what? Perhaps four hours' stemming of the German onslaught...
...named because this is the University's 314th year, replaces the Album, which was abolished by the Student Council last year because it was a persistent money loser and was always late. The Council abolished the Freshman Red Book, a Yardling annual, at the same time and for the same reasons...
...Class of 1950 will receive no Class Album; nor will '53 be buying the usual Freshman Register and Red Book this year. "314," covering this, Harvard's 314th year, and a revamped Freshman Register will replace the three lately deceased publications, George J. Feeney '50, Editor of '314," announced last night...