[John Vasco]

I understood that 'The First and the Last' was based on the document produced as a result of the prolonged interrogation of Galland at the end of the war. Interrogation in the sense that the Allied inteligence officers sat down with him for many sessions and covered a whole host of things concerning his service career, and Galland was quite forthcoming on a complete range of Lw matters. So the first complete mapping out of Galland's career was actually done in English, and I understand that he had full access to it when he came to write his book.

rldunn,
"...Hey, Columbus gets credit for the discovery of America when Norwegians were there at least 400 years earlier and Portuguese fishermen were probably on the Grand Banks about the same time Columbus was doing his 'discovery.' Legends are in the eye of the beholder..." The Basques, who were always a great seafaring nation, could also lay claim to have been on the shores of North America hundreds of years before Columbus also. And Nelson gets credit for the victory at Trafalgar when in fact Collingwood was the person who masterminded the victory due to Nelson being shot and taking no part in the major decisions that ultimately led to the defeat of the French fleet. Yet Collingwood is an almost forgotten figure in the Battle of Trafalgar.