Book Preview 1905 24 December 2005 It was a picture-postcard Christmas Eve. Snow covered the ground. It had been snowing on and off all day, and it was gently falling now. The stained-glass windows of the ancient Church of St. Elisabeth glowed faintly from the forest of candles burning inside, and the church itself seemed … Read more
Book Preview When Byron J. Timmons, Jr., saw what was causing the airport-bound traffic to be stopped and backed up for at least a kilometer, he muttered an obscenity that was absolutely not appropriate for an assistant legal attaché of the embassy of the United States of America. The twenty-nine-year-old—who was six feet one and … Read more
Book Preview Danubius Hotel Gellért Szent Gellért tér 1 Budapest, Hungary When he heard the ping of the bell announcing the arrival of an elevator in the lobby of the Gellért, Sándor Tor, who was the director of security for the Budapester Neue Tages Zeitung, raised his eyes from a copy of the newspaper—so fresh … Read more
Book Preview As an American, Jean-Paul Lorimer was always annoyed or embarrassed, or both, every time he arrived at Vienna’s international airport. The first thing one saw when entering the terminal was a Starbucks kiosk. The arrogance of Americans to sell coffee in Vienna! With such a lurid red neon sign! Dr. Jean-Paul Lorimer, Ph.D.—a … Read more
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Book Preview In 1944, Vice President Henry A. Wallace was perceived by many-perhaps most-highly placed Democrats to be a genuine threat to the reelection of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was cordially detested by the Republicans-and many conservative Southern Democrats-both for his lib-eral domestic policies and his unabashed admiration of the Soviet Union. Perhaps equally … Read more
Book Preview Countess Maria Catherine Ludmilla Zhivkov, was united in holy matrimony to Captain Edward J. Banning, USMC, of Charleston, South Carolina, by the Very Reverend James Fitzhugh Ferneyhough, D.D., canon of the cathedral, in a 10:45 A.m. Anglican ceremony on 12 November 1941. It was the first marriage for both. Throughout the ceremony, the … Read more
Book Preview Headquarters, U.S. Army Luzon Force Bataan Peninsula, Luzon, Philippines 0915 Hours 7 April 1942 A Ford pickup truck turned off the Mariveles-Cabcaben “highway” into what was officially called “The Headquarters Area” but known universally as “Lit-tle Baguio.” The area held, in flimsy tropical buildings, the main ordnance and engineer depots and General Hospital … Read more
Book Preview Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands 0515 Hours 11 October 1942 First Lieutenant William Charles Dunn, USMCR, glanced up at the Pagoda through the scarred Plexiglas windshield of his battered, mud-splattered, bullet-holed Grumman F4F4 Wildcat. The Henderson Field control tower didn’t look like a pagoda, but Dunn had never heard the Japanese-built, three-story frame building called … Read more
Book Preview BUKA, SOLOMON ISLANDS SPRING AND SUMMER 1942 In the early months of 1942, a Major of the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps in Australia was forced to reconsider his long-held belief that he’d passed the point where the Army could surprise him. The Pacific & Far East Shipping Corporation’s freighter John J. Rogers Jr. … Read more
Book Preview 0455 HOURS 4 JUNE 1942 William Charles “Bill” Dunn, USMCR, of Point Clear, Alabama, was twenty-one years old, five feet six inches tall, and weighed 142 pounds; he’d been a First Lieutenant, USMCR, twelve, days, and a Naval Aviator not quite six months; and in all that time-in all his twenty-one years, even-he’d … Read more
Book Preview Oahu Island, Territory of Hawaii The Japanese Carrier Task Force charged with the destruc-tion of the United States Pacific Fleet began launching aircraft approximately 305 nautical miles north of Pearl Harbor. These aircraft proceeded in a single stream until they were about 12S miles from Pearl Harbor, where the stream split in two. … Read more
Book Preview THE CORPS is respectfully dedicated to the memory of Second Lieutenant Drew James Barrett III, USMC Company K, 3d Battalion, 26th Marines. Born Denver, Colorado, 3 January 1945, Died Quang Nam Province, Republic of Vietnam, 27 February 1969 and Major Alfred Lee Butler 111, USMC Headquarters 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit. Born Washington, D.C., … Read more
Book Preview In 1900, with the approval of the Dowager Empress of China, a Chinese militia, the I Ho Chuan, ( or “Righteous Harmony Fists,” hence “Boxer”) began, under the motto “Protect the country, destroy the foreigner!” to kill both Westerners and Chinese Christians. The German ambassador in Peking was murdered, as were thousands of … Read more
Book Preview Since General Douglas MacArthur’s departure for Australia from the Fortress of Corregidor in Manila Bay was in compliance with a direct order from President and Commander-in-Chief Franklin Delano Roosevelt, it was the General’s belief that the move was nothing more than a transfer of his headquarters. He believed, in other words, that the … Read more
Book Preview On the night of November 7, Obersturm fuhrer SS-SD Wilhelm Peis, a tall, pale, blond man of twenty-eight, who was the senior Sicherheitsdienst SS Security Service) officer in Marburg an der Lahn, received the following message by Teletype from Berlin, YOU WILL PLEASE TAKE ALL NECESSARY STEPS To ENSURE THE SECURITY OF REICHSh{INISl2, … Read more
Book Preview Alameda Naval Air Station Alameda, California April 4, 1942 Although there were four passengers aboard the U.S. Navy PBY-5 from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, most of the plane’s cargo weight was mailbags regular mail from the fleet, official mail from various Army and Navy headquarters all over the Pacific, some from even as far … Read more