Twelve Desperate Miles (44 page)

  
1
“docks, piers, and wharves”:
Joseph F. Meany Jr., “Port in a Storm: The Port of New York in World War II,” New York State Museum,
http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/research_collections/
research/history/hisportofnewyork.html
.

  
2
up to 575 employed:
Ibid.

  
3
Brand-new PT boats:
Robert Donovan,
PT-109: John F. Kennedy in World War II
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961), p. 31.

  
4
Upward of a thousand warehouses:
Meany, “Port in a Storm.”

  
5
“spiritual defeatism”:
“Defeatism held unjustified now,”
New York Times
, June 22, 1942.

  
6
“The best things”:
Ibid.
New York Times
, June 22, 1942.

  
7
“Happy Time”:
Karl Doenitz, “The Conduct of the War at Sea,” U.S. Navy Division of Naval Intelligence, January 15, 1946, p. 17 (available at
http://www.karl-doenitz.com/doenitzconductofwar.pdf
).

  
8
“We might as well”:
Bruce Felknor,
The U.S. Merchant Marine at War, 1776–1945
(Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Institute, 1999), p. 217.

  
9
“All the vacationers”:
Ibid., p. 206.

10
Coastal lighting restrictions:
Ibid., pp. 217–18.

11
The hardest nut to crack:
Ibid., p. 219.

12
“the losses by submarines”:
Ibid., p. 222.

13
“Has every conceivable”:
Ibid.

14
“defense work”:
War Shipping Administration to Standard Fruit, May 8, 1942, National Archives, RG 178, entry P1, box 4702, file 901-6571.

15
Named after the Italian village:
Mark H. Goldberg,
Going Bananas
(Kings Point, NY: American Merchant Marine Museum Foundation, 1993), p. 193.

16
“large enough for every element”:
Standard Fruit Company, “Through the Storied Caribbean to Unspoiled Tropic Beauty,” in the collection of Bjorn Larsson and available at
http://​www.​time​table​images.​com/​maritime/​images/​sta30i1.​htm
.

17
His first ship:
Standard Fruit Company, “The True Adventures of Captain John,”
Standard Fruit Company News
, May 1957, available in the Standard Fruit Company collection at the Tulane University Archives.
   For a few of Captain John’s many voyages, see, for instance, National Archives Microfilm Publication serial: “Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897–1957,” T715_8892, T715_3559, et al. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

18
even members of his own family:
Tim Koerner, interview by the author, March 4, 2010.

19
including munitions so dangerous:
“Curran asks mayor to get facts straight before criticizing pier smoking cases,”
New York Times
, May 13, 1942.

20
When John asked how things were:
Standard Fruit Company, “The True Adventures of Captain John,”
Standard Fruit Company News
, May 1957.

21
Quite frankly, Captain John:
“1918 rescuer of Doenitz sorry he didn’t kill him,”
New York Times
, May 5, 1945.

  
1
In fact, Marshall had recently sent him:
Stanley Hirshson,
General Patton: A Soldier’s Life
(New York: HarperCollins, 2002), p. 265.

  
2
curtained sleeping compartments:
Robert Henriques,
From a Biography of Myself
, (London: Secker & Warburg, 1969), p. 55.

  
3
“all talk was of fishing”:
Martin Blumenson, ed.,
The Patton Papers
(New York: Da Capo Press, 1996–1998), p. 81.

  
4
“I sometimes wondered”:
Hirshson,
General Patton
, p. 254.

  
5
“Get those goddamn tanks”:
Blumenson, ed.,
Patton Papers
, p. 80.

  
6
led them on their jogs:
Harry Semmes,
Portrait of Patton
(New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1955), p. 82.

  
7
“Here’s to the wives”:
Ibid., p. 81

  
8
His soldiers called him “The Green Hornet”:
James Wellard,
General George S. Patton, Jr
. (New York: Dodd & Mead, 1946), p. 52.

  
9
Patton’s father came from Virginia:
Semmes,
Portrait of Patton
, p. 4.

10
His education was unique:
Ibid., p. 7.

11
“select the weapon”:
Ibid., p. 37.

12
He also liked to see a salute:
Ibid., p. 42.

13
“the manly virtues”:
Ibid., p. 62.

14
“As the car approached”:
Ibid., p. 38.

15
Wasn’t their theater of action:
Ibid., pp. 38–39.

16
The two would spend:
H. Paul Jeffers,
Command of Honor
(New York: NAL Caliber, 2008), p. 37.

17
And the British were more than a little:
William B. Breuer,
Operation Torch
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985), p. 3.

18
“just fantastic”:
Ibid., p. 6.

19
Marshall felt that Brooke:
Ibid.

20
“there was a lively danger”:
“Eisenhower’s Report on Operation Torch,” declassified June 21, 1965; available at
http://www.american-divisions.com/doc.asp?documentid=138&pagenumber=1
, p. 3.

21
“a thousand miles south of London”:
Stephen E. Ambrose,
Eisenhower
, vol. 1,
Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983–1984), p. 181.

22
“Darkly depressed”:
Ibid., p. 181.

23
“the blackest day”:
Ibid., p. 181.

24
To Marshall and Eisenhower:
Ambrose,
Eisenhower
, p. 183.

  
1
“a doubtful liquid”:
René Malevergne,
The Exfiltration of René Malevergne
(unpublished diary), p. 23.

  
2
“Such an operation would be idiotic”:
Ibid., p. 28.

  
3
“If she burned the money”:
Ibid., p. 28. In fact, Germaine, who watched their finances very closely, would later scoff at the idea that she would burn money. “I hid it in a sack of beans,” she said.

  
4
“probably ten million Frenchmen”:
Ibid., p. 26.

  
5
“in a sort of cage”:
Ibid., p. 44.

  
6
“Do you think that the Légion”:
Ibid., p. 49.

  
7
left a message for his family:
Ibid., p. 53.

  
8
“compromised in the affairs of the Resistance”:
Ibid., p. 59.

  
9
“A lady of light morals”:
Ibid. p., 59.

10
“I was unstrung”:
Ibid., p. 68.

11
“That, being a French citizen”:
Ibid., p. 65.

12
“I ask you to stop”:
Ibid., p. 71.

  
1
“half alive with very few people”:
Martin Blumenson, ed.,
The Patton Papers
(New York: Da Capo Press, 1996–1998), p. 81.

  
2
“Dammit, Lucian”:
Lucian Truscott,
Command Mission, a Personal Story
(New York: Dutton, 1954), p. 59.

  
3
As a child wandering around:
H. Paul Jeffers,
Command of Honor
(New York: NAL Caliber, 2008), p. 9.

  
4
a little “dim”:
Robert Henriques,
From a Biography of Myself
(London: Secker & Warburg, 1969), pp. 84–85.

  
5
“officers who feel they have”:
Captain Harry C. Butcher,
My Three Years with Eisenhower
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1946), p. 47. 50
“Patton is a good fellow”:
Ibid., p. 47.

  
6
“Had supper with Ike”:
Blumenson, ed.,
Patton Papers
, p. 82.

  
7
“There were no taxies”:
Ibid., p. 82.

  
8
“was certainly not on their toes.”
Ibid., p. 82.

  
9
“if I have to go alone”:
Butcher,
My Three Years
, p. 50.

10
“It is very noticeable”:
Blumenson, ed.,
Patton Papers
, p. 82.

11
“damn fine fighting men”:
Truscott,
Command Mission
, p. 59.

12
“typical member of the English aristocracy”:
Ibid., p. 60.

13
“With gleaming boots”:
Ibid., p. 60.

14
“A dowager of sixty-five”:
Ibid.

15
“I think this is fortunate for me”:
Blumenson, ed.,
Patton Papers
, p. 82.

16
“I feel that we should fight”:
Ibid., p. 83.

17
“No wonder Ike’s so pleased”:
Butcher,
My Three Years
, p. 63.

  
1
rub elbows with:
Tim Koerner and Louis Koerner, interviews with the author, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Pass Christian, Mississippi, March 3 and 4, 2010. Louis Koerner has a photo of Captain John and William Bendix at Bendix’s home on Long Island.

  
2
An article in the
New Orleans Times-Picayune
:
“Veteran skipper plays Cupid in disguise as daughter weds,” clipping from the papers of Peggy Koerner, held by Louis Koerner. Date unknown.

  
3
probably conceived on the cruise:
Louis Koerner, interview with the author, March 3, 2010.

  
4
The holds were partitioned:
Bill Kimble, interview with the author, Pass Christian, Mississippi, March 4, 2010.

  
5
The smell of fruit would waft:
Details of the
Contessa
’s dimensions and costs come from Mark H. Goldberg,
Going Bananas
(Kings Point, NY: American Merchant Marine Museum Foundation, 1993), pp. 193–202.

  
6
Stripped of its swimming pool:
Kimble, interview.

  
7
HX 201 was composed:
www.warsailors.com/convoys/hx201.html
. Exact counts of convoys are sometimes hard to come by.

  
8
Collisions would turn out to be:
Bruce Felknor,
The U.S. Merchant Marine at War, 1776–1945
(Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Institute, 1999) p. 240.

  
9
the numbers of German submarines:
www.usmm.org/ww2.html
.

10
These ties sent up:
www.warsailors.com/convoys/hx201.html
; The recollections of convoy HX 201 from Arthur Searby (of the
Santa Isabel
) sent to Warsailors, a clearinghouse for information on WWII convoys. See also Felknor,
U.S. Merchant Marine
, p. 240.

11
Even at this pace:
Ibid.; convoy HX 201.html. Notes from the log of the commodore of convoy HX 201, W. de M. Egerton.

12
The destroyer also blasted “Hail Britannia”:
Ibid.; Searby, recollection.

13
Her April sinking:
Deposition of Harold Christiansen, May 21, 1942,
Amapala
file of the Standard Fruit Company Papers, Special Collections, Louisiana Research Collection, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University.

14
linked to an incident:
Thomas Karnes,
Tropical Enterprise: The Standard Fruit Company in Latin America
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1978), pp. 217–18.

15
German planes had pulverized:
Louis Chirillo,
I Knew a Lad
, “Swansea,” internet self-published reminiscence (
http://lou.chirillo.com/?page_id=7
), p. 26.

16
“all the men and women”:
John family history, “Cpt. John” file, Louis Koerner papers, New Orleans.

  
1
“the Legion seems to have adopted”:
René Malevergne,
The Exfiltration of René Malevergne
(unpublished diary), p. 113.

  
2
“Born of the idea”:
Ibid., p. 113.

  
3
“There was nothing for them to do”:
Ibid., p. 114.

  
4
“arrange your time as you like”:
Ibid., p. 117.

  
5
“he had followed my odyssey”:
Ibid., p. 119.

  
6
Malevergne began to assist the Americans:
Leon B. Blair, “René Malevergne and His Role in Operation Torch,”
Proceedings of the French Colonial Historical Society
, April 1978, p. 210.

  
7
Then, toward the end of the summer:
Malevergne,
Exfiltration of René Malevergne
, p. 136.