Winds of Change by Gilbert Morris

Author:Gilbert Morris [Gilbert Morris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781585585793
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2012-12-30T05:00:00+00:00

FALL FROM GRACE

The year of 1942 had been, perhaps, the most traumatic the United States of America had ever suffered. They had come into the war unprepared and had learned how to fight. At the Battle of Midway, in June, the navy had badly beaten the Japanese navy, the biggest naval victory of the war. In Europe, General Dwight D. Eisenhower assumed command of the United States forces. At Guadalcanal, a tough marine force held off the Japanese, and in early November Allied forces landed in North Africa, where the British routed Field Marshal Rommel’s Afrika Korps.

And on the home front, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, the most renowned ace of World War I, had been lost at sea. He was, however, discovered with a few survivors, drifting in a raft after three weeks of surviving on army rations and one raw seagull.

America’s search for a war song had not been completed, and on November 5, the man that gave World War I a song, George M. Cohan, died. Cohan, born on the fourth of July, gave America the great song, “Over There,” to which the men in the ranks marched to war in 1918.

In the jungles of Guadalcanal, Will Stuart survived. The Japanese kept coming at them, battering at the lines every night and being thrown back, but every night Will knew that they would come again. Nighttime had become a terrible rhythm, like the breathing of a child frightened by sounds in the dark.

As dark closed in, Will crouched, holding his breath, looking around, peering through the darkness, waiting for the fanatical Japanese to come with their insane cries.

“You think they’re going to come at us again tonight, Sarge?” Private Willie Deason crouched beside Will in the foxhole. He was only seventeen years old, had run away from home, and lied about his age to join the marines. Now, Willie wished he were back at home in Kentucky. Will understood. And I wish I were home, too—so do all of us. Aloud he said, “They’ll come, and we’ll throw ’em back. You’ll be OK, Willie.”

All day long it had rained, and now Will and Willie, drenched and shivering, shaken by fever, looked out into the darkness, straining their eyes. Fever raged in most of the men, and Will knew that half of the squad would be in a hospital if they were home in the States. He counted the odds, knowing that though the division had thrown the Japs back time after time, the crisis was yet to come. He sensed in the atmosphere the hostile presence, the great Japanese task force moving down from the north, and knew that if they succeeded, the marines would all go down. Suddenly a vast crash of thunder rent the air, and at first Will thought it was more rain—then abruptly he realized this was not coming out of God’s heaven but was man-made thunder.

“Those are naval guns, Willie,” he said. “Come on!” They made their way through the jungle, groping, and saw out on the sea what looked like a fireworks display.

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