Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Remembering Pearl Harbor

Eighty years ago today, the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor without first declaring war.

"Mr. Vice President, and Mr. Speaker, and Members of the Senate and House of Representatives: YESTERDAY, December 7, 1941 a date which will live in infamy the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." ~ President Franklin D. Roosevelt, speech to joint session fo Congress, 8 December 1941.

They Japanese ruled the Pacific through the winter of '41-'42. However, in early June, 1942, The U.S. Navy decimated the Japanese fleet at Midway, sinking 4 crusiers. The Japnese Navy never recovered from that.

USS Arizona

7 December 1941


USS Arizona Memorial


Here's a good explanation of what went wrong on the U.S. side.





Sunday, December 5, 2021

Sgt. Dunn #15, Disrupt and Destroy cover reveal

I am thrilled to reveal the cover for the newest Sgt. Dunn Novel, #15, Disrupt and Destroy. My talented friend, David M. Jones, Jonesy, created it yesterday.

I'm hoping for a release next weekend. Check back to see the final edit status.

Description

The German 51st Mountain Corps is fortifying its position northwest of Bologna, Italy in the Apennines Mountains. Its two full divisions are on the front line against the Americans. U.S. Intelligence learns they are planning to launch a major offensive within two weeks. 

Master Sergeant Tom Dunn, who leads a squad of lethal U.S. Army Rangers, is directed to join forces with an experienced Italian partisan group working in the same area, the same group he and his men personally trained just one month ago in the book Bold Rescue. For the first time, he takes two weapons sections along. They are armed with the infantryman’s friends the deadly 60mm mortars, and bazookas. Once safely in the partisans’ cave headquarters, he and the partisan leader, Captain Giancarlo Sozzi, plan multiple attacks on the Germans and local infrastructure to disrupt and destroy their ability to mount the planned offensive. Can the combined Ranger and partisan forces succeed with two divisions right on top of them?

Dunn’s younger sister, Gertrude, recently graduated from the Office of Strategic Services training facility, The Farm, arrives in the Philippines. She settles in to her new location, Dagupan, where General Douglas MacArthur returned with an invasion force recently. She struggles to recover from over forty hours of travel and adjust to the large time difference. Filipina Isa Bondac, her handler, assigns a challenging task. Gertrude, as usual, solves problems. In her first action in the field, she is faced with a split-second life or death decision. Will she make the right choice?

Meanwhile, British Commando Sergeant Major Malcolm Saunders leads his squad into Germany to destroy a canal lock. The Germans are using the canal to transport important raw material and machinery parts from the Baltic Sea to the Elbe River. Can the British soldiers complete the mission and escape through Hamburg to the pick up point where their submarine home awaits? It’s only forty miles . . . across the German homeland.

In book fifteen of the Sgt. Dunn Novels, Munsterman weaves real WWII events into action-packed stories for our favorite Sgt. Dunn characters, revealing the courage and determination soldiers, resistance fighters, and OSS field agents demonstrated day by day.