Shadows of War — Mike Johnson

Shadows of War tells the story of World War II as few Americans know it.


In the mid-1930s a high school history teacher inspires a student to look beyond his small hometown. He becomes a Foreign Service officer, and they then anchor a World War II story that provides perspectives little known to Americans. A Romanian princess cares for more than 3,000 orphans and rescues more than 1,000 downed American flyers and tussles with the SS to keep the POWs from their control at considerable risk to herself. On air raids over , American crews must fly 1,200 miles on creatively named planes such as Wingo-Wango and Jersey Bounce at just 50 feet off the deck to launch attacks on the stoutly defended oil refineries at . In and a mild-mannered father of seven becomes a resistance leader after the Japanese invasion, and four gutsy nuns who serve as nurses try to stay a step ahead of the brutal conquerors.