Beschreibung:

KENNEDY, John F. PT-109 RESCUE.] LIEBENOW, W. F. Autograph manuscript signed (“W. F. Liebenow”), 17 October 1988. 9 pages, 4to.
KENNEDY, John F. PT-109 RESCUE.] LIEBENOW, W. F. Autograph manuscript signed (“W. F. Liebenow”), 17 October 1988. 9 pages, 4to. A detailed account of JFK’s rescue by the skipper of the PT-157. “A meeting was called of the ranking officers and boat captains to discuss a rescue attempt,” Liebenow writes, “Many thought it a...trick to lure the boats into the open. However, it was finally decided that the PT 157 would attempt the rescue.” Liebenow and his crew treated this as a “routine mission. We knew the general area of the sinking. We followed the usual tactics for operation in enemy controlled waters—that is, ran at petrol speed to keep down our wake, changed course in a zig-zagging pattern to prevent" being hit by shore batteries. The two natives who had carried JFK’s famous coconut message directed PT-157 to the rendezvous. Kennedy “fired his .38 and a rifle, furnished by Evans as a signal and I answered with my .45. We hoisted him aboard and went for the rest of the crew. We pulled in through a reef and got up close to shore. Lowered our dingy and ferried the wounded aboard 1st then most of the rest waded out and got aboard. You can imagine the celebration that took place. They were all singing, the medics started passing out medical alcohol and everyone was making so much noise" Liebenow thought they would be detected. He kidded Kennedy about “letting a DD ram the PT and asked how it happened. ‘Lieb,’ he said, ‘I just don’t know.’ I think anyone who’s ridden a PT boat in battle can believe it.” JFK invited Liebenow and his family to the 1961 inauguration. This account also contains dramatic descriptions of Liebenow’s experience at Normandy, where he escorted “LSD rocket boats to the landing beach” then picked up wounded from the beach, the whole time “under intense fire from shore batteries. From June 5 – June 10 I don’t think I slept more than 2 hours...