"Diary of a Mad Russian"; A Tribute to Alexis Sommaripa, 1900-1945

Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, Inc., 2005. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. xii, 89, [3] pages. Illustrations. Footnotes. Inscribed by the author on the half-title page. Inscription reads: Oct 2006 I hop you enjoy this tribute to my father . It was good talking to You! Amory S. Contents include My Diary; Amory's Introduction; A Journal of Alexei Ureyvitch Somorupo; Epiphany; Addenda and Family Tree. Amory was born in Cambridge, MA November 26, 1930. He was a graduate of Phillips Academy, Andover MA and Harvard College. He earned a Master’s Degree from Georgetown University and served as an employee of the CIA. He received a Doctorate in Medicine from the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Twenty years after the end of the war, Amory unexpectedly received his father’s diary in the mail from an old flame. From this, letters, and correspondence from him that he had saved, and memories of his youth, he was able to put together this charming, brief biography, Diary of a Mad Russian. This sobriquet, “Mad Russian,” was affectionately given by Lieutenant Colonel Creighton W. Abrams, commander of the 37th Tank Battalion, 4th Armored Division. Abrams was likely referring to Sommaripa’s deep-seated hatred of Nazis. It was Abrams who pulled his lifeless body out from under his overturned tank. Alexis Ureyvitch Sommaripa was born in Odessa, Russia, in 1900 during the reign of Tsar Nicholas II. As a teenager, he witnessed the October and Bolshevik Revolutions. Not long after graduation from Harvard, the E. I. du Pont de Nemours Company (DuPont) of Wilmington, Delaware, hired him as the manager of new fabric and yarn development, where he supervised experimental spinning and weaving. DuPont sent Sommaripa to Europe in 1935 and 1937 to buy different types of luxurious silks, with which he worked with technicians to adapt the silk patterns to rayons, which up to then behaved differently from other natural fibers. He traveled to DuPont’s textile mills across the country, teaching new techniques of working with man-made fibers. While working full-time for DuPont, Sommaripa also worked part-time as a technical advisor for field testing for the Army’s Quartermaster Board. In addition to his work for DuPont and the Army, he managed to write ten technical articles and delivered over twenty technical addresses to various organizations. Where all this know-how influenced Sommaripa’s future path in combat is puzzling, but as a former superior explained, “He has the facility of getting at basic facts of a problem without wasting time.” With the United States entering World War II in December 1941, Sommaripa attempted to enlist. He finally prevailed in spite of his advanced age of forty-one. Upon arriving in England, Sommaripa reported to the legendary Colonel David K. E. Bruce, head of OSS operations in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) and later ambassador to France, West Germany, and the United Kingdom. Bruce assigned him to the OSS’s Special Operations Branch. On 9 June 1944, Sommaripa landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy and began gathering intelligence. The Army took a chance by making him the only civilian in command of a tank. Sommaripa became a pioneer in the front-line use of loudspeaker systems directed at the enemy. The techniques and equipment that he developed came about mostly by trial and error and included a “Super Baloney Wagon” capable of making itself heard and understood over the din of battle, at ranges of over two miles through its souped-up speaker. It was also tough enough to accompany the lead tanks of an armored column into battle. He later switched to a tank and was placed at the number three spot in a tank column, permitting him to broadcast without interfering with the two point tanks. When he seemed to be on the verge of success, the other tanks cooperatively held their fire until the surrender was effected. Using German through the tank's loudspeaker, he convinced thousands of Nazi soldier to surrender to him. He and then-Colonel Creighton Abrams thundered across Europe until Alexis was killed in action in 1945. Awarded the Bronze Star, Silver Star and Croix de Guerre posthumously, he is the only civilian buried in the American Cemetery in Luxembourg. Condition: Good.

Keywords: Psychological Warfare, Propaganda, Prisoners of War, Office of Strategic Services, Creighton Abrams, DuPont, Combat Operations, Armored Fighting Vehicle, Tanks, Loudspeaker System, Alexis Sommaripa, Somorupo

ISBN: 9780595380619

[Book #83519]

Price: $175.00

See all items in Propaganda, Tanks
See all items by