The Story of Dr. Wassell by James Hilton

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Boston : Little, Brown & Company, 1943. First edition. Stated "First edition" on the copyright page. Hardcover. 158 pages ; 19 cm. $1.50 dust jacket. Small bookshop label on the front free end paper. Pages are clean and unmarked. Firm binding.

THE STORY OF DR. WASSELL By JAMES HILTON

This simple true story of a Navy doctor from Arkansas, who got his wounded men out of Java through the turmoil of the Japanese invasion, will stir the hearts of Americans as Mr. Hilton's tender, imaginative study of an English schoolmaster, GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS, aid when it was published in 1934. Not a novel in the ordinary sense, it is a narrative based on fact but told in fiction form with some changes of name, but with no exaggeration of the simple heroism which won for its chief character a tribute from President Roosevelt. It deals with one episode in the life of Dr. Corydon Wassell, fifty-eight, at the time Lieutenant Commander, U.S.N.R. And there is something of Mr. Chips in this kind and loyal American doctor, in his understanding of the needs and the moods of the handful of American sailors from the Houston and the Marblehead by whom he stood in a Dutch inland hospital when the Japanese threatened Java, and whom he got safely off the island when the Japs invaded. There were McGuffey, the cheeky ship's cook, and Bailey who died, Sun, the Chinese mess boy, and Wilson, the officer who fought agony behind blunt candor, and Renny who was too ill to talk. And there was the little Javanese nurse whose name sounded like Three Martini. Afterwards, Dr. Wassell could hardly understand why he was awarded the Navy Cross for gallantry; but the men of the Houston and the Marblehead to whom he gave his devotion understood, as will those who read his simple and moving story.

THE STORY OF DR. WASSELL

On February 4, 1942, the United States cruisers Houston and Marblehead were in action off the coast of Java. Badly battered by a heavy Japanese force, they limped into port.

"Dr. Wassell," said the President in a broadcast speech to the nation on the 28th of April, 1942, "was assigned to duty in Java, caring for wounded officers and men of the cruisers Houston and Marblehead which had been in heavy action in the Java seas. When the Japanese advanced -across the island it was decided to evacuate as many as possible of the wounded to Australia. But about twelve of the men were so badly wounded that they could not be moved. Dr. Wassell remained with these men, knowing that he would be captured by the enemy. But he decided to make a desperate attempt to get the men out of Java. He asked each of them if he wished to take the chance and everyone agreed. He first had to get the twelve men to the seacoast. . . . The men were suffering severely but Dr. Wassell kept them alive by his skill and inspired them by his own courage. As the official report said, Dr. Wassell was 'almost like a Christ-like shepherd devoted to his flock.' "

Hollywood movie was made of the book staring Gary Cooper. Available for free on You Tube.