Morton Chase

### Killed By

Being shot by Wafner. Then being resurrected by the Tar Serum before being mutated and killed again

### Date of Birth

December 19, 1923Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania United States

### Occupation

• US Army Paratrooper- • US Army Photographer

### Portrayer

Iain De Caestecker

> "Theirs at all lot of soldiers out there and their is only four of us"
>
> *Chase addressing the 3 other paratroopers of the problem they are facing in destroying the CielBlanc Church.*

Morton Chase is a supporting character in the 2018 live action film Overlord. Chase was a military photographer assigned to the 101st Airborne Division and was tasked to take pictures of his company and the 555 Parachute Infantry Battalion during the mission so they could be used as propaganda to boost morale in the Allied Powers. After the paratrooper's plane was shot out of the sky and only a few of them a ragtag group, including Corporal Lewis Ford, smokejumper Private First Class Edward Boyce and a handful of other survivors start carefully making their way on foot, behind enemy lines to destroy a radio tower of the CielBlanc Church.

## Biography

Morton Chase was born on December 19, 1923 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At a young age, Chase have a hug love of photography and became a photographer for the *Pittsburgh Post-Gazette* in 1942 before he was drafted in the United States Army. As a soldier, Chase became a military photographer taking photos from the front lines to propaganda to keep the American spirit. In January 1944, he was assigned to 101st Airborne Division and interview with paratroopers that had been training for 2 years and was taught how to jump out of airplanes. Two months later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt desegregated the United States Armed Forces in executive order 9981 in the will of manpower. So colored soldiers (Who were in segregated units) were folded in white units, and the smokejumpers of the 555th "Triple Nickels"  were folded in both the 82nd and 101st Airborne Division where Chase interviewed smokejumpers Charlie Dawson and Edward Boyce. The two tell him about what they have gone through to get where they are as soldiers in this country and show the white man that black soldiers can fight.

## Before D-Day

*"I'm a photographer. I heard the Sergeant say that you were in Italy before this?... It's a great frame. You mind if I snap a couple pictures of you looking out the window?" ―*Chase meeting Ford for the first time.

After working and training with the paratroopers for two months, Chase began to bond with the paratroopers more than he did with the other photographers. During the weeks prior to the D-Day invasion, Chase was assigned to a mission for Star and Strips of taking photos of Allied powers liberating France from the hands of the Nazis, and when he jumps with 101st eve of the Invasion, they wanted him to action photos and scenes from the frontline if he survives (However he wasn't given photos of how advanced the German Army is by the help by General Wilhelm Strasse).

On June 5th, 1944, the Allied forces launched their forces to prepare for Operation Overlord also known as D-Day, however Boyce along with this squad of 18 paratroopers are given a secret mission to take out a radio jamming tower located at the town center of the French village of CielBlanc. As the men prepare to jump behind enemy lines, Boyce scans to see the men some of them that he used to be smokejumpers with and has been through so much to this point about proving the white man wrong. He also spotted Lewis Ford, a paratrooper that transferred to the 82nd Airborne and is an explosive expert for their mission. Chase snaps a couple of pictures of the other paratroopers, he aims his camera toward Ford's face as he looks at a window in the front cockpit of the C-47 and quickly lowers his camera and kindly introduces himself, and tells Ford that he heard Rensin said that he was with the 82nd fighting in Italy before D-Day. Ford rudely told Chase to go back to his seat, which he did, and aims his camera back towards the other paratroopers. As the men talk to each other about what they are going to do when they get to Berlin, the ride of the C-47 becomes shaky, causing Boyce to drop his chain; Tibbet grabs it quickly and bullies him for having a lucky charm while Chase takes a photo it. Boyce asked Tibbet if he was finished running that Falmouth off his and gave the chain back or he would beat his ass on the plane. So he gives him his chain back said that he was just messing with him before Rensin shows up to remind them what is the mission and says there are gonna be a hundred and twenty Allied troops fighting on their way to the beaches but they can't without air support if the radio tower isn't by 06:00 am.

## Being in the Frontline

This formation saved the men as the flak destroyed a plane beside them. He took the time to remark to his white paratroopers who had doubted him since day one that he was going to show them a good time. Dawson, unable to hold his dinner, threw up on the floor of the fuselage before bullets from the AA guns pecked the floor of the C-47 and tore some men up like butter. This horrifies the men including Rensin and Ford because, a few days before Operation Overlord, the 101st, 555th, a couple of war photographers were giving more information about General Wilhelm Strasse although some men heard that the man was so intelligent that he upgraded the German Army weapons, vehicles, and even the soldiers to be ferior to the Allies. This myth became a reality and everybody including Tibbet were starting to panic but Rensin and Ford kept everybody calm, Paratrooper Private Mark Murphy was so scared that got out of his seat before he was pulverized and was dead before he hit the floor. Rensin continues to tell everyone to sit down and tells them this is why they were given this mission. The red jump light above the cargo door pop on and that is when Rensin orders the men to stand up and hook up. Tibbet, Chase, Boyce, Rosenfeld and what was left of the squad scramble to their feet and hook their chute lines to the anchor cable running along the ceiling of the fuselage. Tibbet Chase behind him, (Rosenfeld, Boyce, and Dawson last).

As the light flashes green, the plane catches fire, and then a huge eruption blows the cockpit door away sending it to a paratrooper's head decapitating him. The front of the C-47 is gone is nothing but a gutted, flaming mass of shredded steel, and half of the roof about the men is now a gaping hole. The anchor line renders it useless. Some men fatally fall toward the back, burning themselves to death. In a desperate attempt to save what's left of his men, Rensin tells everybody to manually deploy, Ford quickly unhooks from the jump line and helps Rensin push paratroopers, Grunauer, then Tibbet, Chase, some of the surviving paratroopers manage to jump out of the aircraft after the signal goes green.

## Landing

After surviving getting shot down, Chase was hanging from a tree and being surrounded by a German patrol of Waffen SS troopers. In an attempt to save him, Tibbet and Dawson who they two survived opened fire on the Nazi patrol with Tibbet's Springfield sniper rifle and Dawson's Browning Automatic Rifle. They successfully kill all of the Nazi's and help Chase cut free from his parachute. The three continue to walk deeper into the woods, where they hear two people approaching, three taking cover from the bushes. Tibbet uses a cricket chirp from the darkness (so does Ford) and uses the callsign by saying "flash" and then "thunder" and surviving paratroopers reveal themselves, three encountered Ford and Boyce and all of them share a moment of joy in their reunion. Tibbet being annoyed by Chase about telling his experience as an Army photographer that Tibbet calls him Annie Oakley. Chase brought a camera that had a flash, which caused Ford to ask him if he had scenic shots with it and ask if he could borrow it, instead throwing the flash around the woods replying that he was carrying a spotlight around his neck.

The lot of them continue to advance across the field, hoping to find more paratroopers. Dawson shared with his comrades that he wanted to author a book about fighting on the front lines of the war and was thinking that when the war was over, he was going to be an author and Boyce said he would buy one. Dawson asked Chase if they can team and he can show pictures in his book and that way both will have the profits before unfortunately, Dawson stepped on an advanced land mine created by Deathshead and was set off killing him instantly and leaving but a cloud of dirt and blood over the paratroopers. Everyone was in shock but Ford kept it together and yelled at somebody if they can hear. As Boyce gains his hearing, Ford tells everybody to fix the bayonets and use their lay taps on the ground, not so hard enough to set off a mine. So he used a bayoneted M1 Garand rifle and walked carefully to a safe spot. Survival is their utmost priority at the moment, but their mission is yet to be done. He tells Chase to get right on Dawson's tracks and tells Tibbet to his Springfield to use light taps. Not hard enough to set off a mine. He starts tapping the ground ahead of him, easing across the field with Boyce, Tibbet, Chase right behind.

## Meeting Chloe

*"Kind of looks like a jackal. Yeah, you know, Satan's dogs? Patrol hell. Rip the spirit right out of your body and take it straight to the devil."―Chase tells Tibbet that this dead animal is a jackal.*

As the squad takes a break from walking, Ford and Boyce have a short conversation about what happened to Dawson and talk about never seeing a landmine going off like that. Boyce says that he was there and then he wasn't. Ford replies that he is still alive and tells him to get his head right and they got a job to do. Tibbet and Chase stumble upon a dead animal carcass, which Ford notices when he tells Chase to turn off his flashlight and the three find it hard to identify. Chase suggested that the dead animal was a jackal because he read something like this from the Bible but not like an average one but Tibbet disregarded this. A distant noise catches Boyce's attention, so he signals to the men that something or someone might be nearby. They await the footsteps and meet a young French girl named Chloe Laurent. She runs in fear of the paratroopers, but they catch up and hold her at gunpoint, where she is forced to lead to CielBlanc. Boyce comforts her by saying that she will not get hurt, but she has no choice but to help the American paratroopers. All of them head to the village where the church is located, and at the entrance, Ford commands Boyce to keep an eye on Chloe while they check the premises.

As the squad takes a break from walking, Ford and Boyce have a short conversation about what happened to Dawson and talk about never seeing a landmine going off like that. Boyce says that he was there and then he wasn't. Ford replies that he is still alive and tells him to get his head right and they got a job to do. Tibbet and Chase stumble upon a dead animal carcass, which Ford notice when he told Chase to turn off his flashlight and the three find hard to identify. A distant noise catches Boyce's attention, so he signals to the men that something or someone might be nearby. They await the footsteps and meet a young French girl named Chloe Laurent. She runs in fear of the paratroopers, but they catch up and hold her at gunpoint, where she is forced to lead to CielBlanc. Boyce comforts her by saying that she will not get hurt, but she has no choice but to help the American paratroopers. All of them head to the village where the church is located, and at the entrance, Ford commands Boyce to keep an eye on Chloe while they check the premises.

## Getting in the House

As the commotion wakes up Chloe’s neighbor, Mrs. Lesner, who reports her to the German SS guards for being out past curfew. The guards start to emerge, making Boyce hide and find a way to be out of their sight while they inspect Chloe, who manages to talk her way out. He waits in the shadows until it's clear, then hustles to join Ford along the slide wall. Tibbet asks Boyce if Chloe tipped'em off, and answered him by saying that she definitely doesn't like the Germans any more than they do. Then Chloe respond in English that they are pigs and made sure the paratroopers weren't as well. Tibbet can't help but break into a huge smile at Boyce's expense and ripped on him for being French.

She lets the group take refuge in her house while they carry out their mission. A quick tour of the home is given to the soldiers just in case they need to hide, but Tibbet hears a noise from a room upstairs, so he asks Chloe about it. According to her, her sick aunt lives with her and cuts the topic short. She also has a little brother named Paul, who she takes care of after the SS killed her parents in cold blood.  The paratroopers settle in the tiny attic, where they gather their weapons and explosives and optimize their plan. A woman’s scream interrupts their meeting; the commotion outside is caused by SS troopers that are revealed to be part of the SS paranormal Division that was executing one of the village residents for an unknown reason. Chloe then explains that the killings have become a norm in their village since the Germans have taken over. She warns the group that they cannot stay at her place because of frequent inspections, but Ford says that they only need four hours, so she agrees.

## Finding the others

The group gets into an argument about delaying the mission, Chase suggests that maybe they should wait to see if one of their paratroopers shows up so they have enough forces to attack the Church. Tibbet agrees and said it's no sense to risk their life over one tower, but to their surprise, Boyce initiates the advance. In Rensin's words, he reminds them that the planes cannot provide air support to the bases unless they take the tower down, and Ford for once agrees with him. However, Tibbet continues to racially discriminate and bully him, discouraging the poor guy that he is not built for battle. Then is when racial tension begins to go off and the two men are about to have a fistfight and Boyce pulls a knife at him, so he backs off. Ford quickly deescalates the tension, and orders him to take Chase to go see if any other paratroopers have made it to the rally point. The angry Tibbet gets interrupted by Paul, who playfully asks him to have a game of baseball. He gets more hot-headed, so Chloe explains that Paul thinks all Americans play baseball, but he walks away and yells at Chase to move it, so he quickly grabs his M1 helmet, his M1 carbine, and even Dawson's burn-up journal thinking he had a promise he made from him.

## Finding others

That night, Tibbet and Chase depart to check on the German base when the German soldiers conduct another inspection in the village. The two huddled in the weeds and waited. Chase grabs Dawson's damaged journal back from the house and tries to finish it. He checks his watch and it is 3 am and there is no sign of other paratroopers. Tibbet and Chase start across the road toward the woods. The silhouette of the church against the misty glow of the moon beyond. No animals left. The two move along a trail of carnage leading to a silhouetted shape of a downed C-47 masked by Fire and Smoke. They wade into the debris field, moving among the smoking pieces of a dead plane. Tibbet commented the airborne part of General Eisenhower's Project Overlord is a shit-show. They continued to search the wreckage for anything they could use. Chase hypnotically asked Tibbet if the Allies forces if they don't get the radio tower down if the invasion happens. Then he applies that there is three out of four of them can bite it, and Eisenhower can sleep with a smile at night. He continues kicking away debris and spots a satchel. He opens It, pulling out some detonators, wire, and tetrytol blocks (they look like a C-47).

Then suddenly a hand reaches from the wreckage, and grabs Tibbet's ankle. Tibbet leaps with a terrified start and tries to move, but the hand holds firm. Then he sees that the hand belongs to a young paratrooper, no older than Tibbet, who lies among the debris, a propeller blade poking through his stomach. Literally. But he is alive. Chase hurry oversees the GI. He kneels down beside him. The young paratrooper tries to speak, but can only cough up blood. He is clearly dying. Chase opens his canteen and tries to give the GI a drink. The GI only coughs the water back up. Chase looks around, spots a med-kit and hurries the med-kit over and opens it up, pulls out a morphine needle, and sticks it into the paratrooper. Tibbet suggests that he should put the soldier out of his misery, but Chase couldn't make himself do it. So Tibbet leaned down and said to the paratrooper that is gonna with the pain before sticking out another needle, then another. The GI's breathing quickens; then slows, until it finally stops, his lifeless eyes frozen open. Like he said, this whole situation is a shit-show.

## Coming back

As the two men came back to the house, Ford told them that Boyce was going to get them, so he ordered them to stay in the house and both men were standing beside Wafner to keep an eye on him. Tibbet at the vent, scanning the town. Paul stands beside him, he bet 10 bucks that Boyce got himself garbed by the Nazis. As the two sit next to the window, Paul is wearing Tibbet's M1 steel helmet on his head just like him, Tibbet asks the boy if he got a dog to play with or something and holding a gun-shaped stick in his hands as he squints out the vent. He blows a bubble with his gum and pulls another stick from his pocket, giving it to Paul. Chase out of boredom takes a photo of the two and then takes a photo of a captured Wafner before he scared Chase out of his position. A pissed-off Ford comes upstairs confronts them and blames Tibbet for not letting Boyce come to them in time, but Tibet told Ford that he told them to wait at the bridge and they waited.

When Boyce and Rosenfeld get back to Chloe's house, Chase and Chloe tried to patch Rosenfeld while Boyce finally breaks down after holding his emotions inside the church. He, along with Rosenfeld, explained there was more going on than just a radio tower. Ford struggles to understand the words he is saying and realizes that Boyce has shifted his attention from the mission to the experiments. He shows Ford the serum, and they ask Wafner about it, but he does not disclose any helpful information, even as Ford and Tibbet torture him. Wafner is in a helpless situation, but he remains loyal to his roots, making Ford more aggressive. Boyce tries to stop him, but he gets hurt in the process, making him walk out of the room. Ford and Tibbet walk out of the attic floor. Paul is sitting on the floor looking at him and the two enter the kitchen. As the squad prepares to attack the church, Chase checks on Wafner, Ford orders Chase to get Wafner ready to travel so they can use him for a diversion to help take the radio tower. Ford asked Chloe if her family has a car and she said her father kept one in a garage down the street. Ford and Tibbet start to follow Chloe. Boyce follows to but Ford stops him saying that he has done enough running for one night and orders him to stay with Chase and Rosenfeld.

## Death and Gruesome Resurrection

*"He was asleep... He was asleep. Is it bad? Is it bad? Hey, Ed? Don't let me die, okay? I don't feel good... I don't feel good. Where's my camera?"* ―Chase last words before succumbing to his wounds.

As Chase checks on Wafner, he attempts to escape and the two were struggling over Chase sidearm until Wafner slams his elbow into Chase face making him losing his sidearm and gets fatally shoots in the chest twice. Still, with a sack over Wafner's head, he blindly shoots around, but he is stopped after the group comes up. Boyce isn't holding his own gun, can only charge Wafner, tackling to the floor punching that hood off his head, then wrestling away before Tibbet managed to help him to subdued Wafner. Ford, Rosenfled, and Rosenfeld rush up to the attic seeing Chase slumped on the floor, eyes fluttering and blood spreading over his shirt. Ford pulls up Chase's shirt, the wound is spewing blood. The three presses their hands against his wound. Before losing his final breath, Chase asks for his camera, and all of them dramatically witness his death. Enraged of seeing another soldier who he considered a friend, Tibbet kicks Wafner hard and shoved his M1911 in his mouth, tells Ford that he is gonna put a bullet in Wafner fat Kraut face. Ford remined him that they still need Wafner son Tibbet jerks him to his feet.

Boyce gets into the idea of injecting the serum into Chase, thinking that it would save him. In a matter of minutes, Chase gets up and is in prime condition. He asks for water and managed to consume a whole canteen filled with water and even pokes his bullet wounds and is numb from the pain. Additionally, he gets stronger after the injection, which confuses everyone in the room. After some time, Chase mutates; his body slowly disfigures, he buries his face in his hands, crying out like he's trying to squeeze some pain away and when his bone structure has changed. Chase looks like a monstrous version of himself. He leaps beyond humanly fast and he turns violent, then he has a chokehold of Boyce asking what did he do to him. Ford, Tibbet, and Rosenfeld fight to pull Chase away from Boyce but he flings them across the attic. His eyes turn red as if he is about to transfer into something before Ford shoots him several times and he falls still on the floor.

Wafner then reveals that he and his men's mission was in order to advance their Nazi empire, he along with the SS paranormal Division were sent to Cielblanc by Deathshead to develop a virus that can bring people back from the dead and turn them into some sort of undead shambler fighters calling them the "Thousand Year Reich*.* As they discuss this, Chase gets up; before he could attack anyone, Boyce knocks him to the ground and pounds his head to death and Chase's black blood spatters across Boyce's face and uniform. This left Tibbet surprised and in shock because he never realized how brutal Boyce can never want to piss him off again. The commotion makes the perfect time for Wafner to escape unnoticed. He comes down from the attic and grabs Paul upon his exit. A group of SS soldiers comes to his rescue and takes Paul hostage.

## Legacy

Chase's death left the remaining paratroopers horrified, Boyce proposes infiltrating the base and destroying the tower from the inside, which would also destroy the laboratory. The other privates support him, and Ford grudgingly agrees. After destroying the Tower and the church, Boyce shipped his camera back to Stars and Stripes and said he did not die in vain and was a good photographer.