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Guests of the Kremlin
On April 18, 1942, 16 B-25 Bombers took off from the Aircraft Carrier USS Hornet. They bombed Tokyo and four other cities in Japan. This was the famous Doolittle Raid, a turning point in World War II. One crew landed in the Soviet Union and were held prisoner there until they escaped. This is their story.
344 pages, Paperback
First published May 15, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 6, 2016
I have been episodically reading this out-of-print memoir about the experiences of one of the Doolittle Raid pilots. His aircraft ran low on fuel before anyone else and, after bombing Tokyo, he and his crew flew to the nearest "friendly" airfield, which happened to be Vladivostok in the USSR. The USSR not being at war with Japan, the five American airmen were interned for a little over a year, eventually managing to escape.
Guests of the Kremlin is an interesting tale about a little-known side chapter to the famous Doolittle raid, filled with insights into life in the Soviet Union during WWII. I read it in bits and pieces, putting it aside when library books I had on order came in, since those had due dates and this one didn't.
The introductions by Sacripante and Sloan, added in 2007, are sloppily written and filled with factual errors. That is not the case with Emmens' memoir itself: written after WWII and originally published in 1949, it is lucid and well-written. I point this out in case you find a copy and are tempted to quit reading before you finish the introductions. Press on, the tale itself is well-told.
Guests of the Kremlin seemed a straightforward account of Emmens' crews' internment: the living conditions and domestic arrangements at the four different locations where they were held; how the Russian officers detailed to supervise and feed them behaved, as well as the Russian women who cooked and cleaned for them; their frustrations in trying to contact American embassy personnel; their attempts to learn and speak Russian; their nightly newscast sessions, trying to deduce what was really happening in the war from misleading Moscow Radio broadcasts ... all very interesting.
The end of the book, however, made me reassess it in its entirety. In the last few pages, Emmens recounts their escape, with the aid of a smuggler, from a border town in Turkmenistan into Persia, suddenly stopping at the point where they contact the British consulate in the first city they reach. Not a word about how the British got them out of Persia, much of which was under Russian control. But that is not what bothered me. What bothered me was the book's final paragraph:
Emmens' memoir was published in 1949, after the USSR had transitioned, in the American public's mind, from a wartime ally to an existential enemy. The final paragraph is uncharacteristically bombastic, utterly unlike the rest of Emmens' narrative, an undiluted dose of early Cold War propaganda. I suspect Emmens' end message was part and parcel of the post-war years.
The memoir's abrupt ending, and especially the final paragraph, prompted me to think about Emmens' earlier descriptions of the towns and the people in the different locations where they were kept during their internment. Looking back, Emmens never failed to describe cities, towns, and villages as run down, crumbling, and dismal. When he mentioned Russian citizens, he invariably described them as sullen, filthy, starved, clothed in rags, and barefoot. This was in sharp contrast to his descriptions of his keepers, who were decently dressed and reasonably well fed ... I should have seen the propagandistic ending coming a mile off.
Guests of the Kremlin is an interesting tale about a little-known side chapter to the famous Doolittle raid, filled with insights into life in the Soviet Union during WWII. I read it in bits and pieces, putting it aside when library books I had on order came in, since those had due dates and this one didn't.
The introductions by Sacripante and Sloan, added in 2007, are sloppily written and filled with factual errors. That is not the case with Emmens' memoir itself: written after WWII and originally published in 1949, it is lucid and well-written. I point this out in case you find a copy and are tempted to quit reading before you finish the introductions. Press on, the tale itself is well-told.
Guests of the Kremlin seemed a straightforward account of Emmens' crews' internment: the living conditions and domestic arrangements at the four different locations where they were held; how the Russian officers detailed to supervise and feed them behaved, as well as the Russian women who cooked and cleaned for them; their frustrations in trying to contact American embassy personnel; their attempts to learn and speak Russian; their nightly newscast sessions, trying to deduce what was really happening in the war from misleading Moscow Radio broadcasts ... all very interesting.
The end of the book, however, made me reassess it in its entirety. In the last few pages, Emmens recounts their escape, with the aid of a smuggler, from a border town in Turkmenistan into Persia, suddenly stopping at the point where they contact the British consulate in the first city they reach. Not a word about how the British got them out of Persia, much of which was under Russian control. But that is not what bothered me. What bothered me was the book's final paragraph:
This is the Russia we saw. This is the Russia which exists today. That these descriptive lines should ever be used to picture life in these United States is unthinkable. And yet, communism, like a malignant scab on the skin of the world, is spreading north, south, east, and west. FIGHT IT!
Emmens' memoir was published in 1949, after the USSR had transitioned, in the American public's mind, from a wartime ally to an existential enemy. The final paragraph is uncharacteristically bombastic, utterly unlike the rest of Emmens' narrative, an undiluted dose of early Cold War propaganda. I suspect Emmens' end message was part and parcel of the post-war years.
The memoir's abrupt ending, and especially the final paragraph, prompted me to think about Emmens' earlier descriptions of the towns and the people in the different locations where they were kept during their internment. Looking back, Emmens never failed to describe cities, towns, and villages as run down, crumbling, and dismal. When he mentioned Russian citizens, he invariably described them as sullen, filthy, starved, clothed in rags, and barefoot. This was in sharp contrast to his descriptions of his keepers, who were decently dressed and reasonably well fed ... I should have seen the propagandistic ending coming a mile off.
October 26, 2015
I, too, have only read the original edition. It is a fascinating, gripping story that almost no one even knows about. Read this book!
December 10, 2017
This is an interesting book by a Medford OR native who was a member of the Doolittle Raid. I have to say, it was mostly about the captivity and for that it was ok, but it ends abruptly and never follows up on the others involved in the escape. Lots of Cold War propaganda (probably true from Emmens' perspective). It just wasn't that great. I would recommend it only as a first-person narrative for its historical value but I will go to Wiki to find out more about the events mentioned. Pretty amazing how weak our state department was in getting these guys out of there while we were pouring lend-lease aid into Russia. Although maybe it'll turn out they were more helpful than has been admitted.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews