Night of Destiny

A chilling mist greets Doug Tillman as he boards a troopship, the S.S. Leopoldville, in the early morning hours of Christmas Eve, 1944, headed for the Battle of the Bulge. The son of Hollywood's most famous couple, he hopes his Army experience will help him forget the recent tragedies that have plagued him. Dan Gibbons, a college football star selected for a now-cancelled officers program, preps for another day with an ambulance squad near Ste. Mere Eglise. He has been in France for over six months, but his hopes of being involved in something heroic remain unfulfilled. Churning in the depths of the north Atlantic, Willy Hillenbrand is an unlikely U-boat sailor. The sixteen-year old, once driven by Aryan dreams of conquest and the deeds of an older brother, now wishes he were anywhere else. Hours later near the mouth of Cherbourg Harbor, a torpedo from his submarine pierces the hull of Tillman's troopship, setting into motion a sequence of events that inexorably brings this trio together. In the vein of A Higher Call, this novel explores one of the lesser known, but still tragic events involving men from the Greatest Generation. War can be an unfortunate necessity, but from it, we discover extraordinary feats of courage, determination, and basic humanity. NIGHT OF DESTINY: 24 DECEMBER 1944 reminds us of who we are and who we can be.