rapidfire Visit a Spy Novel S
hadow Patriots (Tom Doherty Associates, 2005), by Lucia St. Clair Robson, is a Revo- lutionary War spy novel. While a number of
historical intelligencers (the period term for spies) ex- isted, little is known about operative 355, called Kate in the novel. Robson writes 355 was the only member of the real-life Culpers’ spy ring to be arrested by the British and ultimately hanged. General George Washington ordered the ring’s establishment and often directed its operations. The ring’s name comes from the aliases Samuel Culper Sr. and Samuel Culper Jr. used by the group’s two main operatives. The novel occurs primarily in New York City and Philadelphia (below) and tells of the devastation of both cities. It’s filled with historical tidbits, from wig cages (to keep mice away from the flour used to whit- en wigs) to a fun French import, l’incroyable (a yo-yo). Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical
Park (
www.nps.gov/inde) encompasses 20 historic city blocks and includes Elfreth’s Alley, dating back to the 1720s. In New York, the Fraunces Tavern Mu- seum, used for years after the war as offices for the departments of Foreign Affairs, War, and Treasury, has an extensive collection of Revolutionary War art and artifacts housed in an 18th-century building on Pearl Street in southern Manhattan; it was also the site of Washington’s farewell to his officers. — Col. Glenn Pribus, USAF (Ret), and Marilyn Pribus
In Review
Kidnap in Crete: The True Story of the Abduction of a Nazi General. By Rick Stroud. Bloomsbury, 2015. $28. ISBN 978-1-4088-5175-3.
Commando raids and spy op- erations are popular stories in World War
II historiography, but few stories are as exciting as that of the successful ab- duction of a Nazi general by British agents on the German-occupied island of Crete in April 1944. With suspenseful narra-
tive, Rick Stroud tells how two fl amboyant special op- erations executive agents and a team of ruthless and colorful Cretan partisans kidnapped the island’s second-in-command, General Karl Kriepe, in a late-night roadside am- bush. They then bluff ed through 22 roadblocks and evaded aggressive German patrols for 17 days, until they could get the general to Egypt by boat. Stroud also describes
the 1941 German invasion of Crete in a nearly disas- trous parachute operation, the bitter fi ghting, the Cretan people’s stoic brav- ery in resistance, vicious German reprisals against the civilian population,
22 MILITARY OFFICER JULY 2015
and the creation of the much-feared Cretan resis- tance fi ghters, called the “Men of Darkness.”
The Hidden History of America at War: Untold Tales From Yorktown to Fallujah. By Kenneth C. Davis. Hachette Books, 2015. $30. ISBN 978-1-4013-2410-0.
Best-selling historian Kenneth C. Davis, creator of the “Don’t Know Much
About” book series, of- fers an intriguing view of American military history, using six battles to illus- trate obscure and over- looked historical truths that have infl uenced American military and national identity. He explains the victory
at Yorktown (1781) was only possible with French ground and naval support and illuminates why Gen. Dwight Eisenhower al- lowed the Russians to cap- ture Berlin in 1945. The Battle for Hue
(1968) brought the futil- ity of Vietnam into stark reality through television in the fi rst “Living-Room War,” while Fallujah, Iraq, (2004) unmasked the ever- increasing use of private military contractors to en- force U.S. foreign policy. — William D. Bushnell
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88