The Last Mission of the Wham Bam Boys
eBook - ePub

The Last Mission of the Wham Bam Boys

Courage, Tragedy and Justice in World War II

  1. 257 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

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 Rüsselsheim, a small town recently bombed to smithereens by Allies, they were attacked by an angry mob of civilians—farmers, 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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Yes, you can access The Last Mission of the Wham Bam Boys by Gregory A. Freeman in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & German History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Notice
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Principal Characters
  7. Introduction
  8. Chapter 1: Black Sorrow
  9. Chapter 2: Dreams and Nightmares
  10. Chapter 3: Winding Down
  11. Chapter 4: Rookie Run
  12. Chapter 5: Welcoming
  13. Chapter 6: Stations of the Cross
  14. Chapter 7: Running South
  15. Chapter 8: Deep Regret
  16. Chapter 9: Investigations
  17. Chapter 10: “I Will Reveal Nothing”
  18. Chapter 11: The Trial
  19. Chapter 12: A Slip by the Censor
  20. Chapter 13: “It Was Not My Task”
  21. Chapter 14: “Conduct So Brutal”
  22. Chapter 15: Verdicts
  23. Chapter 16: “Norm Knew”
  24. Epilogue
  25. Acknowledgments
  26. Notes
  27. Bibliography
  28. Index
  29. Copyright