Synopses & Reviews
Threatened by each side in the Spanish Civil War with death as a suspected spy, decorated for saving an airmanandrsquo;s life in a bullet-ridden B-24 Liberator over Greece, war correspondent Henry andldquo;Hankandrdquo; Gorrell often found himself in the thick of the fighting he had been sent to cover. And in reporting on some of the worldandrsquo;s most dangerous stories, he held newspaper readers spellbound with his eyewitness accounts from battlefields across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
An andldquo;exclusiveandrdquo; United Press correspondent, Gorrell saw more than his share of war, even more than most reporters, as his beat took him from the siege of Madrid to the sands of North Africa. His memoir, left in an attic trunk for sixty years, is presented here in its entirety for the first time. As he risks life and limb on the front lines, Gorrell gives us new perspectives on the overall conflictandmdash;including some of World War IIandrsquo;s lesser-known battlesandmdash;as well as insights into behind-the-lines intrigue.
Gorrellandrsquo;s account first captures early Axis intervention in Spain and their tests of new weaponry and blitzkrieg tactics at the cost of millions of Spanish lives. While covering the Spanish Civil War, he was captured by forces from each side and saw many brave men die disillusioned, and his writings offer a contrast to other views of that conflict from writers like Hemingway. But Spain was just Hankandrsquo;s training ground: before America even entered World War II, he was embedded with Allied forces from seven nations.
When war broke out, Gorrell was sent to Hungary, where in Budapest he witnessed pro-Axis enthusiasts toast the victory of Fascist armies. Later in Romania he watched Stalin kick over the Axis apple cart with his invasion of Bessarabiaandmdash;forcing the Germans to deal with the Russian menace before they had planned. Then he saw twenty Italian divisions mauled in the mountains of Albania, marking the beginning of the end for Mussolini.
Combining the historianandrsquo;s accuracy with the journalistandrsquo;s on-the-spot reportage, Gorrell provides eyewitness impressions of what war looked, sounded, and felt like to soldiers on the ground. Soldier of the Press weaves personal adventures into the larger fabric of world events, plunging modern readers into the heat of battle while revealing the dangers faced by war correspondents in that bygone era.
About the Author
Kenneth Gorrell discovered the original manuscript of Hank Gorrell in a family attic. He is an associate with Booz Allen Hamilton and lives in Northfield, New Hampshire.