FREE ESSAY ON FIVE PAST MIDNIGHT

FIVE PAST MIDNIGHT

FIVE PAST MIDNIGHT
By James Thayer
Towards the end of WWII, Theodore Roosevelt was having a meeting on how he could end the
war. Director of the Office of Strategic Services (William Donovan) was summing up the
war in 3 sentences. First, each and every day the war continued in Europe, 27,000 men,
women & children would die. Second, a group of German officers were ready to assume
leadership of the Third Reich if an opportunity would arise, and would instantly
surrender. Finally, it had been confirmed that General Eisenhowers' report that the SS is
preparing a national redoubt in the Bavarian Alp, where Hitler may be able to carry on
for 2 or more years. Hitler had recently pledged that he will fight 'until five minutes
past midnight'.
This is at a time when Roosevelt was failing in health and he was afraid Hitler would
outlive him. Hitler was now a mad man that ranted and raved, thought everyone was out to
get him (even his most devoted followers), spit ran from the corner of his mouth, he
stayed underground all the time and he now had no use of his lest arm. It was at this
time a plan was formed and approved to send someone to assassinate Hitler.
The man that was to accomplish this was Captain Jack Cray. He was an apple orchard owners
son from Wennatchee, Washington. He was a short stocky young man that could blend in with
any background and could perform anything that was asked of him. He had no reason to fear
death as he wanted to die. On his second wedding anniversary, he had drunk too much, gone
off the road, killing his wife and losing his will to live. To him, dying would be a
blessing and he would be free of the quilt. He now was in a POW camp of Coditz Castle,
Saxony, Germany.
The POW's were in the British wing. There was only one american that was known only as
John. Only two of the British officers knew his real name. All the prisoners were told by
the hidden radio they had made that Roosevelt told them the end was near and not to try
and escape as they were coming to release them soon. No one tried to escape except the
American known as John. He had tried 2 other times and was planning a third escape. The
POWs' were now instructed to help the american to escape the prison camp. To do this,
they dislocated his shoulders, cut his eyelids to make it look like he had ruptured his
eye sockets from a great fall, and tourniquets around put his upper arms so they couldn't
get a pulse. Then he supposedly jumped out of a 7 story building (which was only actually
a 1 story jump), and he was pronounced dead. They buried him in a shallow grave and when
he came out of the grave there was still a soldier on guard. This is how it became known
that he had escaped.
An important player in this was Otto Dietrich. He was homicide detective in the Police
force in Germany. A second cousin of his was found guilty of stealing an explosive cap
and since he was a distant relative, he was thrown in wing B of Berlins Lehrterstrasse
Prison. Every day the guards came down, escorted him to the executioners cell, put a
revolver to his temple and pulled the trigger. Each day he believed it was his last. They
stripped him of his dignity and his nerve. When Cray had escaped the prison, the Third
Reich knew the only man who could find and capture him would be detective Dietrich. They
released him from prison and he was to capture Cray in return for getting his wife out of
another prison camp. However the day they returned his wife, she was in a coma and died
the next day.
Another important player in this plan would be Katrin von Tornitz. Her young husband had
been killed in the early part of the war. She now wanted to war to end and not have the
crazy Hitler destroy anymore of her countrymen. She would received coded messages on the
radio and decode them. She was to wait for the arrival of the 'Horseman', which was Jack
Cray. She helped to form the plan to get Hitler while he was in his underground bunker.
The last player in this plan would be Utrich Kahr. He worked in the underground bunker
that Hitler and his top men lived in. He was the only one who could keep the machines
running that supplied fresh air to the underground bunker. He had 3 sons. Two had died in
the war and Hitler just told him his 3rd son was now dead. Kahr knew Hitlers mind was
slipping fast and was worried about the future of his country. Katrina and Cray got a
hold of him and proved to him that his third son was not dead but in a prison camp. In
exchange for his help, they would rescue his son and reunite them.
Kahr stuffed kerosene cotton into the pipes of the generator, and when the smoke filled
the rooms, the rescue squad would rush in and escort Hitler out to a safe place. Cray was
one of the rescuers. However, things went wrong and Dietrich captured him. He was taken
outside to be shot by Dietrich and the Third Reich. Dietrich stepped in and saved him and
Cray went back in and assassinated Hitler. To this day, history has written that Hitler
committed suicide. 
Theme statement. 
The main idea of this book is to help end WWII by kill Hitler
It is like finding a needle in the hay stack
This is like entering an unknown country
It is like killing the leader Milosevic in Kosovo.
For example, Milosevic was just like Hitler because he was power hungry.
Another example is when we sent an assassin to kill Hitler but didn't know where he was.