Smedley Butler's life and career epitomize the contradictory nature of American military policy through the first part of this century. Butler won renown as a Marine battlefield hero, campaigning in most of America's foreign military expeditions from 1898 to the late 1920s. He became the leading national advocate for paramilitary police reform. Upon his retirement, however, he renounced war and imperialism and devoted his energy and prestige to various dissident and leftist political causes.
“An absorbing story about how the Lincoln veteran George Watt managed to escape from Nazi-occupied Belgium.”—San Francisco Review of Books November 1943: American flyer George Watt parachutes out of his burning warplane and lands in rural Nazi-occupied Belgium. Escape from Hitler’s Europe is the incredible story of his getaway—how brave villagers spirited him to Brussels to connect with the Comet Line, a rescue arm of the Belgian resistance. This was a gravely dangerous mission, especially for a Jewish soldier who had fought against Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Watt recounts dodging the Gestapo, entering Paris via the underground, and finally, crossing the treacherous Pyrenees into Spain. In 1985, he returned to Belgium and discovered an astonishing postscript to his wartime experiences. “A story of what is best in human beings triumphing over what is worst.”—John Sayles, author of Yellow Earth “One of those rare little narratives that engage the reader from the first page to the last . . . It is about the human spirit and those willing to risk their lives for a stranger.”—Library Journal "A hell of an adventure story."―Ring Lardner, Jr., author of The Ecstasy of Owen Muir “This is one of my favorite books about World War II, and the first I have read that is about the Comet Line and the people who helped with running it.”—Armchair Interviews “This is an interesting and exciting account that provides a first-person examination of the plight of an individual airman, and insights into the scope, risks, and techniques of the Belgian and French underground movements.”—Col. Stetson M. Siler, USAF (Ret.)
The award-winning combat historian and author of Washington’s Immortals honors the Unknown Soldier with this “gripping story” of America’s part in WWI (Washington Times). The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is sacred ground at Arlington National Cemetery. Originally constructed in 1921 to hold one of the thousands of unidentified American soldiers lost in World War I, it now receives millions of visitors each year. “With exhaustive research and fluid prose,” historian Patrick O’Donnell illuminates the saga behind the creation of the Tomb itself, and the stories of the soldiers who took part in its consecration (Wall Street Journal). When the first Unknown Soldier was laid to rest in Arlington, General John Pershing selected eight of America’s most decorated veterans to serve as Body Bearers. These men appropriately spanned America’s service branches and specialties. Their ranks include a cowboy who relived the charge of the light brigade, an American Indian who heroically breached mountains of German barbed wire, a salty New Englander who dueled a U-boat for hours in a fierce gunfight, a tough New Yorker who sacrificed his body to save his ship, and an indomitable gunner who, though blinded by gas, nonetheless overcame five machine-gun nests. In telling the stories of these brave men, O’Donnell shines a light on the service of all veterans, including the hero they brought home. Their stories present an intimate narrative of America’s involvement in the Great War, transporting readers into the midst of dramatic battles that ultimately decided the conflict.
This book was donated as a part of the David H. Hugel Collection, an archival collection of the Special Collections & Archives, University of Baltimore.
