OK CADETS PT-17 Stearman

Had two hoses from rear cockpit to the front cockpit

One was instructor to student communication tube

One was a relief tube.

If you had to use the relief tube make sure you did not use

the communication tube.

One end of communication tube had a funnel.

Was the funnel on instructor or student end of communication tube ??

Did instructor sit in the front or rear cockpit ??

Cadetat6

I got a phone call from Colonel Pergrin today and he is sending me a signed copy this book. I am really grateful and thrilled that he took the time to speak with me and to send me an autographed copy. One happy lady!

Book Description- Engineering the Victory

The Battle Of the Bulge, in December 1944, was Hitler and the Wehrmacht's last great battle of World War II in the West. After losing the war for the beaches and hedgerows of Normandy, and barely escaping with huge losses from the Falaise pocket, the German Army fell back to just West of the Rhine and the German border. Hitler and his Generals planned a massive counter stroke and marshaled the forces to make it work. Striking in surprise on December 16, 1944 in the weakly defended Ardennes, German thrusts moved quickly to put Allied forces on the defensive. The Battle of the Bulge was that ensuing great battle. In this book Colonel David Pergrin reaches out for the other stories of that battle. Assisted by the Army Engineer Association, he has gathered numerous battlefield stories, anecdotes, and experiences told by those who were there and who lived them. With his own battlefield experience providing an understanding of people in war, he has crafted an interesting book that tells those stories of engineers in battle. Many of the participants in that great battle have never been recognized for their exploits. The stories Dave Pergrin has collected in this book bring attention to engineer soldiers in combat and construction units who fought and died with their comrades of infantry, tankers, artillery, and the others - units that have not before been accorded their due. Weaving these stories and vignettes together into the framework of the overall battle, this book honors the many engineer soldiers, their companies and battalions, that contributed greatly to the allied to the allied defeat of the Germans.

My friend Vito also sent me this info regarding another book by the same author (see previous post under this book section).

A Ramble through My War - Anzio and Other Joys

by Charles F. Marshall

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Charles Marshall, a Columbia University graduate and ardent opponent of U.S. entry into World War II, was assigned in 1943 to army intelligence on the sheer happenstance that he was fluent in German. On many occasions to come, Marshall would marvel that so fortuitous an edge spared him from infantry combat—and led him into the most important chapter of his life. In A Ramble through My War, he records that passage, drawing from an extensive daily diary he kept clandestinely at the time.

Sent to Italy in 1944, Marshall participated in the vicious battle of the Anzio beachhead and in the Allied advance into Rome and other areas of Italy. He assisted the invasion of southern France and the push through Alsace, across the Rhine, and through the heart of Germany into Austria. His responsibilities were to examine captured documents and maps, check translations, interrogate prisoners, and become an expert on German guns and equipment—and, when his talent for light, humorous writing became known, to contribute a daily column to the Beachhead News.

The nature of intelligence work proved tedious yet engrossing, and even exhilarating at times. Marshall interviewed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s widow at length and took possession of the general’s personal papers, ultimately breaking the story of the legendary commander's murder. He had many conversations with high-ranking German officers—including Field Marshals von Weichs, von Leeb, and List. General Hans Speidel, Rommel’s chief of staff in Normandy, proved a fount of information.

Marshall’s chronicle unfolds all of these events, capturing the mounting tension and every variety of detail. Perhaps most moving is the author’s gradual realization of concentration camp conditions, first through reports and photographs and finally in a personal visit to Dachau. “The overwhelming evidence of what transpired . . . inoculated me forever against charges . . . no Holocaust had ever occurred,†he writes. Understandably May 8, 1945, seemed anticlimactic. Marshall stayed in Germany for another year after the war, supervising the screening of many thousands of POWs and refugees for discharge or arrest.

With powerful authenticity, Marshall’s memoir brings the experiences and mind of the twenty-eight-year-old junior officer sharply to life while also bearing the sage perspective of a man now in his eighth decade of life.

Praise for the book

“A fluent German speaker, Marshall was assigned to the intelligence section of the U.S. Army's Sixth Corps. He wound up in the hellhole of Anzio, entered liberated Rome, took part in the August 1944 invasion of southern France, and followed the advance through Alsace and across the Rhine into Germany. Throughout it all, Marshall kept the clandestine diary that forms the basis of this book. Marshall’s task was to assess captured German documents; often, his detachment actively explored liberated villages and towns, searching for papers that would shed light on the German army. His men also interrogated prisoners of war and integrated all their information into daily reports. . . . Conversations with generals, descriptions of concentration camps, and vignettes of soldiers and civilians [all] figure into this engrossing, perceptive memoir.â€

—Publishers Weekly

“A splendid memoir salted with humor, insight, and meditative wisdom. It belongs on the small shelf of WW II chronicles that make the reader feel ‘you are there.’â€

—John E. Dolibois, author of Pattern of Circles: An Ambassador’s Story

“A significant contribution to the literature on World War II. . . . I know of no published work that matches in intimacy and apparent reliability this account of such activities.â€

—Charles P. Roland, author of Courage Under Seige: Starvation, Disease, and Death in the Warsaw Ghetto

Charles F. Marshall was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1915. He is a graduate of Columbia University, the U.S. Army’s Armored Force Officer Candidate School, and its Military Intelligence School. He served in the army from 1942 to 1946, attaining the rank of captain. In 1994 he published the widely acclaimed book Discovering the Rommel Murder: The Life and Death of the Desert Fox. He lives in Holtsville, New York.

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This book can also be obtained through bookstores or send away for a signed, first edition copy from the author. $29.95 (includes shipping and handling):

Charles F Marshall

5 Laurel Lane

Holtsville, NY 11742

My new friend, Vito from the 36th Combat Engineers, sent me letter today with information regarding the book,

Discovering the Rommel Murder - The Life and Death of the Desert Fox

by Charles F Marshall

Here are some editorial reviews:

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The circumstances of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's suicide, forced on him by Adolf Hitler in October 1944 for his complicity in the attempt to assassinate the Fuhrer that previous July, are familiar. Less known are the details of how Marshall, then an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, discovered and publicized that story after the war's end. His book is partly a conventional, sympathetic biography of Rommel; it is also an interesting and useful memoir of Marshall's techniques in persuading Rommel's family and associates to talk about the Third Reich at a time when most Germans kept silent about the war. Marshall helped to recover information of historical significance that would otherwise have been lost. Photos not seen by PW.

Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Marshall claims to have broken the news to the world in 1945 that Rommel had not died of wounds, as claimed by Nazi propaganda, but had been forced to commit suicide. Marshall was the G-2 intelligence officer who first interviewed Rommel's widow. He originally wrote manuscript in 1945-46, but it was lost until now. While probably significant in 1946, this book suffers from trying to pull together the recollections of a 40-year-old story. Because there are no notes or bibliography, the reader has to take Marshall's word for events and conversations that happened long ago. One unexpected bonus is the final few chapters, which give an interesting account of life in occupied Germany at the conclusion of the war. Libraries with strong World War II collections may wish to purchase this, but most would be better off with David Fraser's Knight's Cross: A Life of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel (HarperCollins, 1993).

Randall L. Schroeder, Augustana Coll. Lib., Rock Island, Ill.

Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's heroic opposition to Hitler in 1944 cost him his life. In this intriguing, well-paced tale of a journalistic coup, Marshall, the first to discover the real events behind Rommel's death, tells how he learned the facts from Rommel's widow and delves into the great general's background and death. He arrived at his conclusions based on his intimate knowledge of men on Rommel's staff and his access to Rommel's papers, including letters from the general to his wife. Here, for the first time in paperback, is the exciting story of how the world learned about the way the "Desert Fox" met his death. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Charles F. Marshall graduated from Columbia University, the U.S. Army's Armored Force Officer Candidate School, and its Military Intelligence School. He served as a captain in the Military Intelligence Service of the U.S. Army during World War II and was decorated for his rapid exploitation of captured enemy maps, field orders, and pertinent documents. At the war's end, he supervised interrogation in POW, internment, and war crime camps. Now retired, he lives with his wife in Douglastown, New York. --This text refers to the Paperback edition

You can purchase this book from such places as Amazon.com or use the info below to receive an autographed first edition copy. Send $19.95 to (includes postage & handling):

Charles F Marshall

5 Laurel Lane

Holtsville, NY 11742

Even though I placed this on Bill Vander Wall's page, I thought it would be great to have a copy right here on the forum because of the history behind this flag.

Bill carried this very flag onto the beaches of the North African shores in November of 1942. As you can see, the flag made it through the war and is still in very good condition.

Bill had sent it home to this parents during the war and they took a pic with it then. When I spent a weekend with Bill and his wife in August, I took a pic of them with the flag almost 63 years later. It's quite a site. Fly on American Glory!