The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II (59 page)

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Authors: Jeff Shaara

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BOOK: The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II

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In December 1944 he replaces Harold Alexander as commander of the Fifteenth Army Group, and in March 1945 while still battling German forces in northern Italy, he is promoted to full general. At age forty-eight, he is the youngest four-star general in the American army.

After Germany’s surrender, Clark commands American troops in Austria, where his no-nonsense diplomatic style puts him in constant conflict with his Soviet counterparts. In 1946, he transfers to London, where he continues to haggle over issues related to Austrian sovereignty and the Allies’ efforts to deal with the collapse of that country’s economy.

In 1947, he returns to the United States, settles in San Francisco as the commander of the American Sixth Army. He is nominated by President Truman as the first U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, but there are boisterous objections. The Italian campaign had resulted in the destruction of many Italian landmarks, including the complete obliteration of the monastery at Monte Cassino, which Clark had ordered. Whether or not he can be held culpable, the protests by Catholics in both the United States and Italy force Truman to withdraw the appointment.

In 1950, his memoirs are published, which provide a no-holds-barred examination of his life as a soldier, though of course he justifies his actions in every instance, a lightly veiled reaction to his many critics.

Two years later, Clark is named UN supreme commander in Korea, replacing General Matthew Ridgway. Clark oversees the peace talks at Panmunjom and succeeds both militarily and diplomatically in breaking the deadlock, which ultimately brings that war to a conclusion.

In 1954, Clark is named president of the Citadel, in Charleston, South Carolina, a position he occupies until 1965. He remains active after his retirement, serving as a popular and well-respected president emeritus of that institution. He dies in Charleston in 1984, at age eighty-seven, and is buried at the Citadel.

ROBERT MURPHY

The man responsible for much of the political labor between the Americans and the French in North Africa is rarely given credit for what he accomplishes in that post. Eisenhower recognizes that Murphy’s efforts allow a far more peaceful occupation of Morocco and Algeria than the army could have accomplished with force alone. Murphy is faulted by some in the State Department for being a champion of both Henri Giraud and Jean Darlan and is often dismissed by his peers in the diplomatic community, especially the British, who consider him only to be Eisenhower’s minion. It is an unfair criticism.

He continues to assist Eisenhower with the diplomatic delicacy required in North Africa and, in late 1943, is instrumental in engineering the surrender of Italy.

As Charles de Gaulle gains influence in North Africa, Murphy requests a transfer to another post, a gracious admission that he simply cannot handle de Gaulle.

After the war, Murphy assists Eisenhower once more, this time by helping to establish an Allied administrative government in occupied Germany. In 1952, he becomes U.S. ambassador to Japan, the first man to hold that post after the conclusion of the war. But Washington recalls him a year later, the State Department recognizing that his skills can be used to assist in the growth of the fledgling United Nations.

He retires in 1959, turns down an appointment as ambassador to Germany, believes that the energy required for diplomatic tap dancing is best found in younger men. He publishes his memoirs in 1964 and occasionally serves as a diplomatic adviser to Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. Murphy enjoys a comfortable retirement in New York City and dies in 1978 at age eighty-four.

PAUL TIBBETS

The pilot of the B-17 the
Red Gremlin,
who so often flies Eisenhower and Clark through the treacherous skies between London and the Mediterranean, does not remain in that theater of the war past 1943. Though Tibbets has proven to be an accomplished bomber pilot in numerous combat missions over Europe and North Africa, he receives a radically different assignment. Promoted to colonel, he is transferred to Wendover Field in Utah, where Tibbets begins to train as a pilot in the far-larger B-29 bombers. In spring 1945, Tibbets is transferred to the island of Tinian, in the western Pacific. He participates in several bombing runs on the Japanese mainland, and on August 6, 1945, he is the primary officer on one mission that will change history. He pilots the B-29
Enola Gay,
which drops the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

AND,

GENERAL DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER; GENERAL OMAR BRADLEY; SERGEANT JESSE ADAMS; CAPTAIN EDWIN SCOFIELD; GENERAL JAMES GAVIN; GENERAL BERNARD MONTGOMERY.

These men, as well as Patton, Rommel, and many others, will combine to create the most vivid historical event in the twentieth century. In June 1944, the world will wait breathlessly as the Allies launch the largest and most powerful military invasion in history. But that’s a story all its own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JEFF SHAARA is the
New York Times
bestselling author of
To the Last Man, The Glorious Cause, Rise to Rebellion,
and
Gone for Soldiers,
as well as
Gods and Generals
and
The Last Full Measure
—two novels that complete the Civil War trilogy that began with his father’s Pulitzer Prize–winning classic
The Killer Angels.
Shaara was born into a family of Italian immigrants in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, and graduated from Florida State University. He lives in Tallahassee. Visit the author online at
www.JeffShaara.com
.

ALSO BY JEFF SHAARA

Gods and Generals

The Last Full Measure

Gone for Soldiers

Rise to Rebellion

The Glorious Cause

To the Last Man

Jeff Shaara’s Civil War Battlefields

The Rising Tide
is a work of historical fiction. Apart from the well-known actual people, events, and locales that figure in the narrative, all names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to current events or locales, or to living persons, is entirely coincidental.

Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

BALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

eISBN-13: 978-0-345-49533-4

eISBN-10: 0-345-49533-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Shaara, Jeff.

The rising tide : a novel of World War II / Jeff Shaara.

p. cm.

1. World War, 1939–1945—Italy—Sicily—Fiction. 2. World War, 1939–1945—North Africa—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3569.H18R58 2006

813'.54—dc22 2006042936

www.ballantinebooks.com