MARCUS A. NANNINI
Pending Nonfiction Book:
MIDNIGHT FLIGHT TO NUREMBERG,
The Secret Mission to Snatch the Man Who put Adolph Hitler into Power.
Marcus A. Nannini
BOOK PROPOSAL OUTTAKES
COPYRIGHT 2020
Full proposal available upon request, MarcusNannini@aol.com
II. Overview
Midnight Flight to Nuremberg details the WWII Experiences of C-47 Pilot/Instructor, First Lieutenant Harry E. Watson, Jr., a veteran of 27 Combat Missions, recipient of three Air Medals and seven Battle Stars.
Just before Christmas, 1932, 10-year-old Harry Watson finds himself stuck, head-first, at the top of an abandoned coal mine. Fighting a blinding snowstorm, his mom struggles to the top of the rock pile, pushes Harry through the narrow opening, and into the mine shaft where he gathers enough coal to carry the family through the pending holidays.
Ever the risk-taker, Harry escaped the coal mines by joining the Army Air Corps in 1940. When he embarked on his first solo flight, he nearly killed himself, inadvertently earning a reputation as being an exceptional pilot. Afterward, an observer confessed to him he witnessed God sitting in the forward cockpit, though when he landed, he was entirely alone. It was a turning point and established the basis of his spiritual development. As soon as he was commissioned as Second Lieutenant, he married a girl he met at the USO and was quickly promoted to Flight Instructor, the youngest one on the airbase. His baby would be born while he was on combat duty and was nearly two years old when he finally was able to see him.
His initial combat mission required delivery of two tons of whole-blood, and nurses, to a just-captured airport outside of Paris, France. Choosing to ignore the order to return to base, he flew directly into “zero-zero” weather conditions, determined to accomplish his critical mission. He proved to be the only plane of 126 to complete the dangerous task, and he even returned with a flight loaded with critically wounded soldiers.
When a platoon of Patton’s tanks ran out of fuel, Harry was dispatched to the front line, without air or radar support, to deliver over 1,000 gallons of highly explosive gasoline before the Germans could exploit the situation. He was forced to spend a rainy and foggy night in a foxhole. In the middle of the night, the clouds and fog briefly broke, revealing the heavens above and resulting in Harry’s first-ever conversation with God, a conversation he later put into writing and is included in the book. Shortly after daybreak, he came face-to-face with a German Mark IV tank accompanied by 800 German infantry and assorted other tanks and artillery. He survived to describe what it was like to stare directly down the barrel of a Mark IV Panzer.
He was later tasked to lead five planes to the front line and effect an emergency evacuation of a field hospital as it came under direct attack by elements of the “SS” and the Luftwaffe. There were significant losses during the evacuation, but, yet again, Harry survived.
Throughout his wartime experiences, including five “Market Garden” missions, he witnessed death, both at a distance and up-close. His wartime experience grayed his hair and instilled within him a new-found belief there must be a God. He witnessed the deaths of scores of men, many of whom were friends, yet, somehow, he seemed to know where to guide his plane, while others around him perished.
During my interview process, I spent many long weekends with Harry and his wife, Donna. In addition to documenting his WW II experiences, I witnessed first hand the importance of God and religion in their lives and drove them to Sunday service.
III. Audience
Primary: Males and Females aged 14 and up. This book will appeal to the Christian reader as an adjunct market for the reason the subject discovers God has been flying with him, as witnessed by a bystander. The topic is ancillary, but yet an integral part of the man and his story. This work is suitable for the ya audience and cross-marketing between mass appeal and Christian book stores and outlets.
Secondary: Book clubs and public, state, university libraries, and the United States National Archives
Tertiary: Lovers of history, readers of military history magazines, people who derive personal inspiration from true stories of persons who discovered God under the most trying of circumstances and, once the danger passed, didn’t walk away from their new-found faith.
Author’s Note: I write nonfiction books and magazine stories as well as a mystery/thriller series. This story developed over an extended period and many meetings. As Harry became more trusting, he began including some of his personal religious experiences, though he did not grow into a spiritual man per se until later in life. I included references to God only after he consistently talked about them within consistent time frames and recollections. Eventually, I realized this would be appropriate for marketing to the Christian book market.