Ship of Ghosts - James D. Hornfischer [249]
CHAPTER 56 (pp. 365 to 368)
OSS begins Thailand operation: “The Overseas Targets,” 403; Smith, Into Siam, 17; Reynolds, “The Opening Wedge,” 329, 339. Unbeknownst to the OSS, the codebreaking coup that produced the “Magic” intercepts of diplomatic signals gave Washington access to much of the information Donovan wanted out of Thailand. “The opening wedge for postwar American economic…”: Reynolds, 329. Training of OSS field agents: Smith, Into Siam, 48. Training of Thai auxiliaries: Ibid., 22, 25. “They can throw their weight in wildcats”: Ibid., 49. The Thai agents killed by the Japanese were Karawek Srivicharn or “Cary” and Sompongse Salyabongse or “Sal.” Smith, Into Siam, 168–169, 302. Pow reaches Bangkok: Ibid., 180–183. “A lamp had been lighted in the capital of Siam”: Ibid., 183. “Ruth”: Reynolds, 330–331; “The Overseas Targets,” 408. “A double life is not an easy one,” Smith, Into Siam, 233. The OSS agents in Bangkok were Maj. John Wester, a resident of Siam for eighteen years, and Dick Greenlee from Scarsdale, New York, who once worked as a tax lawyer in General Donovan’s New York law firm. They flew by British seaplane to the waters off Thailand’s southern coast and were spirited into Bangkok on a Thai Customs Department launch. See Reynolds, 336.
CHAPTER 57 (pp. 369 to 379)
Gus Forsman at Kanburi: Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 202, 207–215. “We learned, from these sources…”: Fillmore, Prisoner of War, 106. “Six years hell. We’ll be lucky…”: Forsman, 214. Outram Road jail: Daws, Prisoners of the Japanese, 254–255; Lomax, The Railway Man, 158, 163–164. “A warder’s boots would make a booming sound…”: Lomax, 161–162. “This was a place in which the living…”: Ibid., 164. Forsman at Outram Road: Forsman, 218–229. FDR’s death: Larrabee, Commander in Chief, 647. Maj. Gen. Lowell Rooks in Germany: Ziemke, The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, Chapter 15. POWs at Phet Buri (Cashew Mountain Camp) and Tayang airfield: Frank King, UNT interview, 147; Sharp, “Japanese Documentary,” 27; Roy Offerle, UNT interview, 153; Luther Prunty, UNT interview, 200–201 (calling the camp White Pagoda Camp, west of Phet Buri, where an airstrip was being laid); James Huffman, interview with the author; Lanson H. Harris, speech, Long Beach Yacht Club; Lloyd V. Willey, UNT interview, 203–204. “Anything to get the hell out of camp…” and other quotes: Harris, speech. “You never tell anybody you’re gonna escape…”: Huffman, interview. “This is really stupid”: Harris, speech. “You know, it’s been three years…”: Huffman, interview. Chinese dragon lore: Ingersoll, Dragons and Dragon Lore. “All of a sudden we looked up and here comes this clown…”: Harris, speech. This was the second week of June 1945, per John C. Reas, letter to Pat Bozeman, April 26, 1988.
Part 5: Rendezvous with Freedom
CHAPTER 58 (pp. 383 to 390)
“About twenty minutes later, here come these Japs…” and other quotes from Lanson H. Harris: Harris, speech, Long Beach Yacht Club. “They would nearly kill you with the smoke…” and other quotes from James “Red” Huffman: Huffman, interview with the author. Major Bartlett “captured fifteen armed German soldiers…”: Headquarters, ETO, U.S. Army, Certificate of Merit to Maj. Eben B. Bartlett Jr. Gallaher is referred to as “Virlen” and “Virlin” in other documents; re rank, Gallaher was promoted to sgt. on July 19; see OSS Records, Opero to Pattern, Aug. 17, 1945. Bartlett airdropped into Thailand: OSS, “Pattern Operational Report” (by Maj. Eben B. Bartlett