Charles Stephenson

“The attitude of mind of the politicians about this question is astonishing. They are obviously frightened of the Americans laying down the law as to what is to happen when Japan is defeated to the various islands, ports and other territories. This appears to be quite likely if the Americans are left to fight Japan by themselves. But they will not lift a finger to get a force into the Pacific; they prefer to hang about outside and recapture our own rubber trees.”
― Charles Stephenson, The Eastern Fleet and the Indian Ocean, 1942–1944: The Fleet that Had to Hide

“The Jaws of the Sahara’ (Le fauci del Sahara)

But around me is a silence of death: a word seems to spring from the horizon: – Back! – Back to all of you who want to violate my secret, you who were not born in my restless dunes, you were not burned by my fire, taught not to wait, against the earth, the passage of my rage … Back! – And these words of challenge rose as knights armed with a deadly struggle, only a few men, naked, implacable as the expanse of sand and the scorching sun … and launched by the jaws of the great desert […]

Domenico Tumiati, ‘Le fauci del Saara’ in Tripolitania, 1911”
― Charles Stephenson, A Box Of Sand: The Italo-Ottoman War 1911-1912