Kirjahaku

In 1915 when five year old Dominique's parents handed her over to an order of nuns to raise her, she could not believe what was happening to her, nor how her life would ever turn out. The magnificent Monastery that looks like a castle on the side of a mountain intrigues her, but all she really wants to do is be reunited with her brothers and sisters again. She missed riding the horses around the farm and playing with her dog on the meadow where they chased butterflies. She just knew her father would come back for her, but no matter how much she hoped it would happen he never returns. Being incredibly home sick Dominique escapes from the Monastery to search the mountainous Furlo valley of Italy for her home. Scared and alone she finds a small puppy she names Checkers to keep her company during her search. Regrettably the brave little dog is killed trying to protect little Dominique from a wolf attack. Found on a hill side battered and bloody a young couple takes Dominique to a hospital where she is reunited with the nuns that had missed her very much. Knowing now that she will never find her family, Dominique prepares to lead the life of a nun. After professing her final vows, Dominique begins her public life teaching school in Milan, Italy. It does not take her long to be come aqauainted with members of the Italian underground. She does her best to avoid getting involved with the patriots, but after one of her best friends from the convent is killed by a German Gestapo agent, her decision to join the underground is permanently cemented. With the help of four British Commandos Dominique's group destroys a bridge and rail tunnel that kills several German soldiers. Realizing her life is now in serious jeopardy, Sister Dominique asks to be transfered out of Italy where she will be safe. Finding out there is a small island in the South Pacific that is in need of a mission, Sister Dominque volunteers for the project. However before she can escape from Italy, she is captured by a dedicated Nazi gestapo agent bent on forcing a confession out of her for her actions with the underground. Failing to get what he desires, he allows her to leave but warns her if she ever returns he will be waiting for her. Arriving on the Island of Nusa Simbo the group of missionaries quickly set up a mission to work with the natives and employees from a local plantation. All is well until an Australian pilot crashes his damaged plane near the island. With his unwillingness to cooperate with the mission rules, he shoots down a Japanese patrol plane, bringing the rath of the Japanese Army. Everyone is forced onto a ship to be taken to a prisoner camp. Before the ship can arrive at the camp it is attacked and sunk by a United States Submarine. While trying to help get survivors in the flimsy life boats, Sister Dominique is attacked by a shark and seriously injured. The prisoners are transferred to many camps through out the South West Pacific before arriving at at camp about seventeen miles from Hiroshima. Sister Dominique and the other missionaries not only witness the bombing, but when they are liberated from the camp, they are allowed to help care for the hundreds of injured Japanese civilians. After the war, Sister Dominique testifies against Japanese war criminals and then works to help recover art work that was removed from the Monastery by the Germans when they occupied it. In the end as Sister Dominique turns one hundred years old, she reflects on her life and the wonderful people that she met along the way. This story will make you cry, it will keep you on the edge of your seat, and you will wonder at the bravery one woman can have in the face of such overwhelming odds.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor on Decvember 7, 1941, the United States Navy had no major fleet to battle the Japanese drive across the Pacific. In order to deal with Japanese expansion plans, America built a fleet of wooden fast attack boats that could battle the Japanese as they began driving East actoss the Pacific. The boats were armed with machine guns, torpedo tubes, small cannons, depth charges, and what ever other ordinance skippers could find to make their vessels more intimidating. The boats were powered by three Packard V-12 engines, allowing the eighty-foot boats to reach speeds of forty knots. The extemely shallow draft of the boats, allowed them to battle Japanese convoys in the shallow inlets and passages through out the many island chains of the pacific, where larger ships could not operate. Each boat contained a crew of thirteen to seventeen men, depending on the types of weapons each boat had. Every man on board a PT Boat was a volunteer, due to the extreme danger involved with their missions. The U.S. Navy searched far and wide, to find young officers that had experience handling high speed boats. The men on each boat were trained as a crew to make sure each boat had a qualified crew, that could handle the rigors of combat on the open ocean. Lt. Buzz Maddox, had worked in his fathers fishing fleet all his life, and had proved himeslf to be a good boat handler. After surviving the attack on Pearl Harbor and recovering from his wounds, Buzz volunteered for the PT Boat program. After completing the training course at Melville, Rhode Island, he and the crew of PT113 went to the Pacific to meet the Japanese head on. From island to island the gallant crews of America's PT Boats worked their way up through the Solomon Islands, New Guinea and the Philippines, battling the enemy until the end of the war. No matter where they fought, the crews all knew their war could end three ways, being killed in action, becoming a POW, or ending up in the shark filled waters that surrounded all the Pacific Islands. Although the men fought with tenacity, no one knew when their breaking point may come. Each man faced battle the same as a soldier in a fox hole, and each man had their own breaking point. Because of their speed and maneuverability's American sailor's called these light weight fighting machines Mosquito Boats. The Japanese simply called them Devil Boat's.