
The Last Mission of the Wham Bam Boys
Courage, Tragedy and Justice in World War II
- 257 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
The Last Mission of the Wham Bam Boys
Courage, Tragedy and Justice in World War II
About this book
Before the Nuremberg Tribunal, there were the civilians of the small German town of RĂźsselsheim, who were tried in the first World War II War Crimes Trial.
In August 1944, the nine-man crew of an American bomber was forced to bail out over Germany. As their captors marched them into RĂźsselsheim, a small town recently bombed to smithereens by Allies, they were attacked by an angry mob of civiliansâfarmers, shopkeepers, railroad workers, women, and children. With a local Nazi chief at the helm, they assaulted the young Americans with stones, bricks, and wooden clubs. They beat them viciously and left them for dead at the nearby cemetery.
It could have been another forgotten tragedy of the war. But when the lynching was briefly mentioned in a London paper a few months later, it caught the eye of two Army majors, Luke Rogers and Leon Jaworski. Their investigation uncovered the real human cost of the war: the parents and a newlywed wife who agonized over the fate of the men, and the devastating effect of modern warfare on civilian populations. Rogers and Jaworski put the city of RĂźsselsheim on trial, insisting on the rule of law even amidst the horrors of war.
Drawing from trial records, government archives, interviews with family members, and personal letters, highly-acclaimed military historian Gregory A. Freeman brings to life for the first time the dramatic story. Taking the reader to the scene of the crime and into the homes of the crew, he exposes the stark realities of war to show how ordinary citizens could be drawn to commit horrific acts of wartime atrocities, and the far-reaching effects on generations.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Notice
- Dedication
- Contents
- Principal Characters
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: Black Sorrow
- Chapter 2: Dreams and Nightmares
- Chapter 3: Winding Down
- Chapter 4: Rookie Run
- Chapter 5: Welcoming
- Chapter 6: Stations of the Cross
- Chapter 7: Running South
- Chapter 8: Deep Regret
- Chapter 9: Investigations
- Chapter 10: âI Will Reveal Nothingâ
- Chapter 11: The Trial
- Chapter 12: A Slip by the Censor
- Chapter 13: âIt Was Not My Taskâ
- Chapter 14: âConduct So Brutalâ
- Chapter 15: Verdicts
- Chapter 16: âNorm Knewâ
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Copyright