Publisher's Synopsis
The Germans are developing an atomic bomb and so is the United States. They need uranium and so do we. We got some before Pearl Harbor, but some remains behind German lines. We need to take it for our use and to deny the Germans. Wild Bill Donovan's OSS has come up with a plan that requires traveling into German territory and taking the uranium ore back to the United States. If things go to plan the Germans won't resist, they will insist. It will be like stealing Hitler's Mustache from under his nose. All that is required to make the plan work is a pirate ship and crew. That shouldn't be a problem, right? The plan requires exceptional bravery and persistence from a ship's captain and Captain McKnight is the man for the job. The Captain must compensate for an early Liberty Ship defect, effectively turning lemons into lemonade. He will have to go through arctic storms, submarines and bombers on the Murmansk run taking supplies to Russia and a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. The book details the life of a seaman sailing to Murmansk both on ship and in port. Murmansk is a major German target. Being only 70 miles from enemy territory it is bombed all day every clear day. Foreign and domestic saboteurs make their best effort to disrupt the plans.The military initiates the plans and enlists the aid of the OSS. The OSS, still in its infancy, must find some very special people to pull off the heist. Wild Bill's friend and movie director John Ford is instrumental in recruiting the crew. The plans must also accommodate the author Ernest Hemingway's 'crook factory'. Major Joe Duckworth becomes the first pilot to fly a Hurricane Hunter weather mission into a hurricane.The novel explores emotions from the fear of combat to the joy of success, the love of one man for his country and family and the lonely isolation of another man leading to his downfall in language suitable for young teens.
