Customer Reviews

Different Battles: The Search for a World War II Hero

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Different Battles is a truly unusual book. It's a meticulously researched, vividly imagined historical study. But it's also a moving personal memoir--all the more powerful for being understated. On top of all that, it's a fascinating read.

The author grew up in Vero Beach, Florida during World War II when German subs were a greater threat along the U.S. East coast than most people realized. The boy's father, Kit Johnson, uses his fishing boat to search for and rescue the survivors of ships torpedoed by the Germans. He later fights a very "different battle" with Alzheimer's. Peter Cremer, the charismatic and somewhat enigmatic Commander of a German U-boat, captures the reader's imagination. But as we gradually come to realize, the author's father is the real hero of the book.

Rody Johnson has given us a marvelous story of his research and his quest to uncover the activities of his father in WWII; at the same time he gives us a graphic portrait of the "enemy," the U-Boat captain, and of his father's battle with a another "enemy," alzheimer's disease. The love of a son for his father shines through.

The author seemed to be justifying his father and his fantasties about his father were very strange. It would have been more interesting if the author had stuck to the truth.

This short paperback book represents the author's research into his father's involvement in the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary during WWII. During one night patrol off the coast of Florida in 1942 the father came upon a tanker that had been torpedoed by a German U-boat and picked up 22 survivors. The son's research led him to meet with the U-boat's commander in Germany almost 50 years later. The son then describes his father
and uncle's battles with Alzheimer's in the twilight years of their lives. In the course of his search, he came to discover the heroic nature of his father's WWII exploits. I recommend this book to all Coast Guard Auxiliarists who desire a historical
account of USCGA action in wartime, to better frame the Auxiliary's role in current homeland defense.