Night of Destiny: 24 December, 1944

by Jack Corrigan

A chilling mist greets Doug Tillman as he boards a troopship, the S.S. Leopoldville, in the early morning hours of Christmas Eve, 1944, headed for the Battle of the Bulge. The son of Hollywood’s most famous couple, he hopes his Army experience will help him forget the recent tragedies that have plagued him. Dan Gibbons, a college football star selected for a now-cancelled officers program, preps for another day with an ambulance squad near Ste. Mere Eglise. He has been in France for over six months, but his hopes of being involved in something heroic remain unfulfilled. Churning in the depths of the north Atlantic, Willy Hillenbrand is an unlikely U-boat sailor. The sixteen-year old, once driven by Aryan dreams of conquest and the deeds of an older brother, now wishes he were anywhere else. Hours later near the mouth of Cherbourg Harbor, a torpedo from his submarine pierces the hull of Tillman’s troopship, setting into motion a sequence of events that inexorably brings this trio together. In the vein of A Higher Call, this novel explores one of the lesser known, but still tragic events involving men from the Greatest Generation. War can be an unfortunate necessity, but from it, we discover extraordinary feats of courage, determination, and basic humanity. NIGHT OF 24 DECEMBER 1944 reminds us of who we are and who we can be.

349 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 18, 2014

Reviews

[Charles A, Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great story, meaningfully told

Corrigan is truly blessed to have had the foresight to elicit the facts of this story from his father before he passed away and to have the talent to reduce it to writing. An excellent read!

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read a lot of WWII books and I found the constant explanation of slang and/or terms in the footnotes to be rather juvenile. The author spent time introducing each character and fleshing them out so that we the reader might identify with them and be hooked enough to read the story. The story itself was about the collision of 3 individual lives coming together while working on their own fears. But about the time that 3 men were clinging to a makeshift raft; I had to check the book to see if I had picked up a "Christian" book. The story to me got lost in all the talk of "faith" and it was like the author introduced us to 3 individuals only to speak of faith and never really detail the lives that brought us to the end of the story. It really was a complete let down to me.
Christianity, as well as faith have a place, but I felt like the book was more about God than the 3 men used as vehicles to get there.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I look to learn something when I read a novel like this - historical fiction

Although I enjoyed this, it left me with little learning about the incident. First novel, a good effort, some characters were not well established.