Hitler in the Crosshairs
In December 2005, the author John Woodbridge was watching television when he saw a newscast featuring a gun reputedly taken from Adolf Hitler’s bunker in Bavaria. Woodbridge remembered that his father had shown this gun to him at the age of six, and that it had been a gift from a young soldier named Teen Palm, just returned from the European theater in World War II. Woodbridge and Possley conducted extensive research for the story of Teen Palm and the finding of Hitler’s gun. The book is based on historical facts and interviews with Palm’s descendants, and the narrative includes excerpts from many of the 200 letters that Palm and his wife, Helen, wrote to each other during the war.
The story catches fire when the authors provide meticulous historical background of Hitler’s lead-up to the war and the moment when Teen Palm’s life as a young officer begins. Teen’s service starts in Britain; he crosses the Channel and then enters France on Omaha Beach after Paris falls to the Allies. The authors then trace Palm’s nail-biting military exploits as he battles across France, fights his way through Germany, and discovers Hitler’s gun. Although the author’s continual reference to his immediate family bogs down the narration, Teen Palm emerges as a young hero imbued with faith and dedicated to the eradication of Hitler’s evil presence in the world.
