The Missing Pages: From the History Book of World War Ii

By Zed Merrill

This book contains fascinating behind-the-scenes stories that were left off the history pages of World War IIpersonal experiences and episodes that were never completely revealed before, sometimes on purpose, covered up or just plain fabricated. You will find this rare collection of war stories quite unusual and, in some cases, hard to believe. Stories that were discovered hiding just beneath the surface of recorded incidents, while others came from ordinary people who experienced the unusual, and often bizarre, that only those war years could provide.

Most certainly you will learn something you probably never knew before about these incredible events and the extraordinary people who were there and survived those times that changed the world forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Mar 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9781532017971

Zed Merrill

Zed Merrill was born in 1926 and raised in a small town in Oregon, enlisted in the Navy during WWII, married his high school sweetheart, and came home after the war to settle in Portland to enjoy successful careers in advertising , commercial art, television commercial and program production before retiring to concentrate on writing and producing more than a dozen national award-winning documentaries pertaining to little known events of the war. He has also written two other books about the war and one about his life as a kid growing up in a small town during the 1930's. Now in his nineties, and having lost his wife several years back, Zed is enjoying the upbeat company of his five adult children , and has no intention of leaning back and spending the rest of his days rocking on a porch swing . There's a couple more film projects he's working on and another book he's wanting to get started.

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Copyright © 2017 Zed Merrill.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-1796-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-1797-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017903022

iUniverse rev. date: 03/02/2017

Contents

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE INVADERS

THE SEARCH

THE LETTER

THE BULGE

THE SAILOR

THE FORGOTTEN

THE BALOONS

THE FRIENDS

THE BATTLE

THE SPY

THE DEFENDERS

THE BETRAYAL

THE FAMOUS

THE GREEK

THE PILOT

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DVD DOCUMENTARIES

I have never advocated war

except as a means to peace

-Ulysses S. Grant

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DEDICATION

Once again, I dedicate this effort to my family of four daughters and one son. They are, in this order from the oldest to the youngest, Cindy, Sally, Libby. Zed, Jr. and Tawny. Everyone of them have always provided support and assistance in whatever I set out to do.

And, of course, to my wife Norma who passed away a few years ago. She was always there when I needed that extra boost. Like her reminders, one of which was one of my all-time favorites: Why are you watching television when you should be working on that script?.

To this very special family I dedicate this book.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to thank those WWII veterans who willingly came forward with their experiences, some of which had been kept hidden since the war. This includes those family members who had just lost their father and turned over to me copies of letters, news clippings and photos. Plus, several veterans of the various military branches, which includes the U.S. Army Nurses and the U.S. Merchant Marine

To a couple of Portland area libraries that were excited participants in directing me to find what I was searching for. To the former movie celebrity who called me about my work and to the former Admiral of a famous U.S. aircraft carrier.

A very special thank you to author Bob Welch, whose excellent book American Nightingale, about one particular army nurse during WWII, is the subject for the short story here titled The Letter. His book had also been made into one of my award-winning film documentaries titled The Wounded Do Not Cry, which you will find more details about, as well as some of our other documentaries, in the back of this book.

To Kenneth Hathaway and Isabella Landig for their amazing story outline contributions that make The Friends one of the most incredible stories to come out of the war.

And, of course, a special thank you to Willie Brosseau. He did all the filming and editing on our many film projects over the past thirty plus years.

Once again to my family, whose constant encouragement from the sidelines kept me going over the years to help bring recognition to my fellow veterans who had been overlooked for what they had contributed in serving our country.

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INTRODUCTION

This is the third in a series of books I have written about World War II that reveal never before told stories about people and events that have almost been forgotten or have purposely, for some reason or another, been left off the pages of history.

Most all of the information found, I was able to research by hanging out in libraries, receiving letters from those who knew what I was looking for, and most importantly contacting those who finally revealed what had happened to them when nobody in authority cared. Their stories seemed to have simply been swept under the rug and forgotten—until now.

I’m proud to be a member of a particular WWII Navy unit you will soon read about that was practically unknown during the war. Even after the war, a friend of mine, a famous WWII Admiral, had never even heard of our unit and that goes for one former President of the United States, too!

We will forget no more.

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THE INVADERS

I was having my morning coffee break with a fellow WWII veteran friend of mine when he asked me if I was working on any new film or book project. I told him I was beginning to do research for the book you’re reading now, including an outline for a possible documentary based on the book. I added I was miles away from actually doing any finished writing. This is when he told me about the German submarines that bombed the east coast along the Carolinas when he was home on leave there in 1942.

You think I was going to pass up on this story?

With his help, I started digging through some research material and I did come up with some evidence to the fact that a German U-Boat surfaced off the shore of South Carolina and lobbed a couple shells toward the beach. That was about it.

But what I uncovered by accident was something entirely different—something that nearly knocked me out of my chair! And it had nothing to do with any German submarine firing it’s deck gun at some seagulls, or whatever. I dug deeper, emailed a couple of war historians here and there and pieced together an incredible story. And this is what you’re about to read. So, hang on to your chair, because here we go.

But first, we have to set the stage by reviewing some history.

Back on Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, the United States suddenly came under a devastating air attack. Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia, piloting a hijacked American Airlines Boeing 767 purposely crashed into the 80th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. A few minutes later, another hijacked plane, United Airlines flight 77 being guided by terrorists in the skies over Washington D.C. dove into the west side of the Pentagon military headquarters.

This sudden nightmare, which would become known in history as simply 911, killed more than 3,400 people and critically injured nearly 10,000. But what is not well known is that nearly sixty years earlier during World War II the United States was also unaware that a surprise and deadly attack was about to be launched by Nazi Germany on several American eastern cities. It was carefully designed by Hitler himself to destroy America’s will to fight. What was about to happen on July 29, 1942 had an uncanny resemblence to the 911 tragedy.

And if it hadn’t been for one particular moment it most certainly would have been far more destructive. So, let’s step back in time to July, 1942 for an incident that not many Americans have ever heard about.

Or, maybe we should say—weren’t meant to hear about.

Let’s begin with the most historic surprise attack on the United States. We all know when it happened. It was Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, when Japanese dive bombers struck the Pearl Harbor naval base in the Hawaiian Islands. A force of 360 planes bored down in three waves on battleship row and was met with only scattered American resistance. When it was over, the Japanese had sunk four battleships and heavily damaged, or sunk, another eighteen naval vessels.

More than 3,200 American lives, that included both military and civilian, were killed in the attack. Overnight, the raid on Pearl Harbor would bring America into World War II, an inferno that had been raging throughout Europe in Hitler’s favor since early September, 1939.

At the time of the Japanese attack, France had been defeated, Great Britain was bracing for a German invasion and Russia was on the ropes of defeat. It was early 1942. World freedom and democracy was now in its darkest hour. The United States was suddenly at war with both Japan and Nazi Germany. And one of the first items of business on Hitler’s list was the dictator’s eagerness to prove that the mainland of the United States, despite its distance from Europe, was vulnerable for an attack.

Hitler’s plan called for an invasion of well trained and well supplied saboteurs who would sneak ashore at night by submarine, and over a period of two weeks set out to destroy the heart of America’s might. But what Americans feared most immediately after Pearl Harbor was a Japanese follow-up invasion of the west coast—the Northwest to be exact. Oregon and Washington National Guard units were quickly sent to patrol their beaches, and major cities to the south like Los Angeles and San Francisco dug in for air raids. An example of how unprepared the United States was, only four Oregon National Guardsmen were sent to protect the mouth of the Columbia River—and had only one machine gun between them.

Among Hitler’s specific targets along the east coast were three large aluminum factories, a number of important hydroelectric plants, several major railroad lines and a list of critical bridges and canals. One of Hitler’s personal priorities was to destroy the New York City water system. His plan also called for the blowing up of three national structures that he knew would shatter the moral of the American people: The nation’s Capitol building in Washington D.C., the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty in New York City.

As America quickly mobilized for war, the German Military Intelligence Corps was secretly setting in motion Hitler’s plan for the sabotage offensive inside the United States. And American Intelligence didn’t have a clue of what was about to happen. After the war, facts were revealed that the German dictator at first was obsessed with the idea of sending a specially built long-range missile to bomb New York City or Washington D.C.

Sound familiar? Hitler knew it would be a one-way suicidal attack but was eventually talked out of it by his generals.

With Pearl Harbor smoldering in ruins, and most of the U.S. Pacific fleet destroyed, Japanese military forces wasted no time in launching a successful invasion of the Philippines. This was followed by more swift advances throughout the Pacific and Southeast Asia.

While this was happening, German military intelligence, under the Command of Lieutenant Walter Kappe, began making preparations for the American attack mission at the elaborate Nazi sabotage school near Brandenburg. According to Hitler, Kappe was the perfect man for the job, because he had lived in the United States for more than twelve years and he knew the country well, especially the eastern states. German intelligence had already conducted extensive and highly successful sabotage operations in helping to bring about the downfall of their Europeon enemies.

This mission meant sending well-trained and well-supplied saboteurs by submarine over the Atlantic Ocean onto American soil. It was going to be a monumental effort, and they were prepared to carry it out.

Finding the right men wasn’t easy. Kappe personally went to the Ausland Institute that had financed thousands of German expatriates who had returned from the United States. He poured through stacks of records to find just the right ones who had spent sufficient time in the states, could speak English the American way, and still be loyal to the Nazi cause. After more than a hundred interviews, Kappe finally selected eight men whom he thought could be successfully trained with the necessary tools and techniques to carry out a sabotage invasion against the United States.

During this time, the war entered the dark summer months of 1942. While all of Europe was nearing defeat to the Germans, the American Philippine Islands were falling to Japan. Bataan surrendered with 76,000 survivors making their infamous Death March into captivity—a nightmare that was kept from the American public until 1944. Already fallen to the Japanese was Wake Island, Guam and Corregidor. The Hawaiian Islands was the next obvious choice for the Japanese Imperial forces.

There were a few bright spots of hope for the United States in early 1942. Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, on April 18th of that year, did the unthinkable by taking off with a crew in a B-25 bomber from an aircraft carrier for practically a one-way flight to bomb Tokyo. The air strike did little damage, but the psychological effect on