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Show READING & WRITING by dwi?i Seuvel and Rchh Wljiun T -L HIS week marks the publication of what is probably the best book written about the war since Pearl Harbor and what is certain to be one of. the widely discussed books of the Fall season. It has the rather curious title of lhey were tx- pendable" although this title seems very appropriate indeed once vou get into the book and the author is V White, the well known American newst:per correspondent. corre-spondent. v'They Were Expendable" tells the tragic story of the Philippines in the words of the survivors of the heroic Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3. This is the daring N squadron that sunk a hundred times its own tonnage in enemy warships and that at the eleventh hour rescued General Mac- W. L. white Arthur safely from Bataan. Mr. White spent an evening talking with, or rather listening to, four of the squadron officers, Lieutenant Bulkeley and Kelly and Ensigns Akers and Cox, while they "shot the breeze" as the Navy calls casual turkey talk. Then he went back to his typewriter and put down what they had said. The result is the first great story of the war as seen by the men fighting in it. It is small wonder won-der that this immensely exciting book was immediately selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club and purchased by the motion pictures for a screen story. When Cavite was bombed into bloody flesh and rubbish, the MTB boats had already taken up their patrol along the shores of Luzon. Quite calmly the officers tell us that the instant trouble began they discovered discov-ered their entire gasoline supply had been sabotaged. It had been doped with wax so that their engines were likely to quit at the most critical moment. Also all their replacement parts, so vital for these motors, had been bombed out of existence. In spite of this, what they did to enemy shipping was something the ,-Japs won't soon forget. The high point of the story is how the MTB's got General MacAr-thur MacAr-thur and his technical staff safe to a rendezvous in Mindanao, sailing in pitch darkness in enemy waters . and without any means of naviga- lion. In tact, when a passenger admiral ad-miral found navigator Kelly taking his bearings with two fingers anglr at forty-five degrees, he could only murmur, "My God." "They Were Expendable" does not make for complacent readir'g These Navy officers pull no punches in their descriptions of what were on as Manila fell and the Army was forced to retreat first to Ba:.-.in , nd then to Corregidor. They didn't hesitate to point out where e were careless and where we bungled. Mr. White's book will make you , fighting mad, and it will make you sad. But it will also thrill you to - I1V- 'S -.-y ,l, In.. '" 1 -rM V read of the magnificent courage displayed dis-played by our men. Here is a st ry that will never be forgotten by the American people. After young Lieutenant John Hascy, author of "Yankee Fighter," was wounded in Africa he was the first American to shed blood for the Free French he had to undergo a serious throat operation and wasn't able to speak for four months. In the last weeks his voice has been improving rapidly as a result re-sult of daily exercise. Following the doctor's orders, he sings regularly in his shower every morning. He adds, however, that he would like very much to increase his repertoire, reper-toire, which to date consists of the only song he knows: "One Dozen Roses." |