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Jumpin' Jimminy - A World War II Baseball Saga:

American Flyboys and Japanese Submariners Battle it Out in a Swedish World Series

by Robert Skole
Paperback (190 pages), kindle
When the Jumpin' Jimminy, a Flying Fortress shot up in a raid over Nazi Germany, crash lands in neutral Sweden in the autumn of 1944, its crew couldn't dream they would wind up playing a World Series. Especially a Series against tough enemy Japanese sailors from a submarine that went aground on Sweden's rocky coast.

Jumpin' Jimminy - A World War II Baseball Saga:

When the Jumpin' Jimminy - a Flying Fortress shot up in a raid over Nazi Germany - crash lands in neutral Sweden in the autumn of 1944, its crew couldn't dream they would wind up playing a World Series. Especially a Series against tough enemy Japanese sailors from a submarine that went aground on Sweden's rocky coast.

The Jumpin' Jimminy crew, the best ball team in the Eighth Air Force, is a heaven-sent gift to the baseball-crazy Swedish Major responsible for American internees. The Japanese have made meatballs of the Major's amateur Swedish ball players. Now, he can field a hard-hitting, determined American team to battle the Japanese in a Swedish World Series.

Waiting for spring training, the Yanks get "essential" jobs. Two carry out daring undercover assignments for the OSS. The team's shortstop, the only black GI assigned to a U.S. bomber crew, speaks fluent Swedish which he learned working for Swedes in Chicago. He helps his Swedish moonshining "cousins" create Sweden's absolutely greatest akvavit. And the other Yanks valiantly help the Allied war effort in the cold, grim, oasis of peaceful Swedish neutrality. And then it's Spring of 1945 and "Play Ball" in the first and only Swedish World Series.

Although this book is definitely fictional, its feet are very firmly planted in historical reality. The author's take on little-known Swedish-American-Japanese trivia and culture comes through loud and clear. Above all, this book is well-crafted and thoroughly researched. Its words describing Swedish towns and forests are worth a thousand pictures. In short, Jumpin' Jiminy should be required reading for all sports and World War II fans. Plus, it's delightfully funny.

Sports and World War II...

Related Scanning WWII dates...

  • 22 Jun 38: Joe Louis defeats Max Schmeling with TKO in the first round
  • 01 Jan 42: Fears of a west coast attack moves the Rose Bowl game to the east coast
  • 15 Jan 42: FDR writes "Green Light Letter" to Commissioner of Major League Baseball
  • 18 May 42: New York City suspends night baseball games for rest of the war
  • 02 Oct 43: Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles merge as the "Steagles"

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  • Jumpin' Jimminy - A World War II Baseball Saga
    American Flyboys and Japanese Submariners Battle it Out in a Swedish World Series

Sweden...

Related Scanning WWII links...

  • 27 May 38: Sweden reserves right to remain neutral
  • 11 Jun 40: Bomber downed in Norway, crewman crosses into Sweden
  • 08 Jul 40: Sweden allows German trains access to Norway
  • 31 Jul 40: Downed British crewman returned to England
  • 24 Jul 43: First of 162 US warplanes is interned in Sweden
  • 12 Mar 44: Mysterious German V-1 rocket detected from Sweden
  • 17 Mar 44: Operation ordered to smuggle Allied crews back to UK
  • 06 Apr 44: Operation SONNIE smuggles first Allied crews back to UK

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  • Making for Sweden...
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  • Jumpin' Jimminy - A World War II Baseball Saga
    American Flyboys and Japanese Submariners Battle it Out in a Swedish World Series

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