Helena P. Schrader's Blog, page 10

"This is the best book on the life of us fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain that I have ever seen.... I couldn't put it down."-- RAF Battle of Britain ace, Wing Commander Bob Doe.

Winner of a Hemingway Award for 20th Century Wartime Fiction, a Maincrest Media Award for Military Fiction and Silver in the Global Book Awards.

Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/where-eagles-never-flew

For more information about all my books visit: https://www.helenapschrader.com

Disfiguring injuries, class prejudice and PTSD are the focus of three tales set in WWII by award-winning novelist Helena P. Schrader. Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/grounded-eagles

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Published on October 24, 2023 02:30

Dissecting a Novel - Part I - The Idea

A novel is a complex creature.

It has a creator. It has many interconnected parts that cannot live independently of one another. It has characteristics that enable it to be categorized. It has unique qualities that defy categorization. It grows and it may thrive or die. It can be loved and hated, and it can be killed.

I have often compared my novels to my children for I create them, yet they have a life of their own and are not always biddable. I share in their successes and failures and I love them all despite their weakness and flaws.

And every novel starts with an idea -- a flash of inspiration.

Berlin was home for a quarter century and so more than a third of my life. I'd come because I was researching the German Resistance to Hitler, but I'd stayed after my book on the Resistance was finished. The Berlin Wall came down. Germany was unified. I worked for the Privatization Agency (die Treuhandanstalt). I married. I stayed. Berlin became home.

I was researching and writing other books -- about Sparta and the Crusades and the Battle of Britain -- but the history of Berlin surrounded me in all its complexity every day. It was part of me. It was perhaps inevitable, therefore, that as I finished my book on the Battle of Britain, I was drawn to that moment in history when British and American airmen came to the assistance of my adopted city, Berlin.

I submitted a book proposal to the History Press in the UK suggesting a non-fiction review of the Berlin Airlift for the 60th Anniversary in 2008. They liked the idea and commissioned the work, paying a respectable advance. In addition to the usual scholarly research, I contacted as many eye-witnesses of the Airlift as possible. Living in Berlin made it easy to find Germans who remembered the eleven months of Soviet siege, including children who had been evacuated on the "Air Bridge." I was privileged to correspond with the famous "candy bomber," Gail Halvorsen, who generously shared his memories. I also traveled to the UK to meet with several British participants, and received letters from many others. It was a fantastic and fun project and the book that resulted, The Blockade Breakers, has been my best-selling book with nearly 8,000 copies sold.

Yet the idea of combining characters from my German Resistance novel with characters from my Battle of Britain novel came as one of those flashes of inspiration that I have come to love and trust. It struck me instantly as exciting, usual and full of opportunities for a great novel.

Indeed, too many opportunities! The sheer magnitude and complexity of the topic daunted me and I put the project aside to pursue easier topics and stories. It was not until I had returned to the Battle of Britain, released a revised edition of Where Eagles Never Flew and those characters were again vivid in my consciousness that I ventured to return to the idea of a Berlin Airlift book.

I had hardly started, however, before I realized that it was impossible to tackle this topic in a single book, so the book became a series, Bridge to Tomorrow, of which Cold Peace is only the beginning.

Cold Peace is Book I of the Bridge to Tomorrow Series.

Three years after WWII, Europe struggles with rationing, widespread unemployment and a growing Soviet threat. Hitler's former capital lies ruined under the joint control of wartime allies bitterly at odds. With the currency worthless, the population lives on hand-outs or turns to crime and prostitution. Deep inside the Soviet Zone of occupation, Berlin appears to be an ideal target for a communist take-over, putting the defenders of democracy on a collision course with Stalin's merciless aggression.

A Battle of Britain ace, a female air traffic controller, a concentration camp survivor and an ex-ATA woman pilot are just some of those trying to find their place in the post-war world. An air ambulance service offers a shimmer of hope, but when a Soviet fighter brings down a British passenger liner, Berlin becomes a flashpoint. The world stands poised on the brink of World War Three.

Find out more at: https://www.helenapschrader.com/bridg...

View a video teaser at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTuE7...

Previous releases include:

" MORAL FIBRE," which WON THE HEMINGWAY AWARD 2022 FOR 20TH CENTURY WARTIME FICTION and a MAINCREST MEDIA AWARD FOR MILITARY FICTION as well as being A FINALIST FOR THE BOOK EXCELLENCE AWARD 2023 IN THE CATEGORY HISTORICAL FICTION.

Riding the icy, moonlit sky,

they took the war to Hitler.

Their chances of survival were less than fifty percent.

Their average age was 21.

This is the story of just one bomber pilot, his crew and the woman he loved.

It is intended as a tribute to them all.

"This is the best book on the life of us fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain that I have ever seen.... I couldn't put it down."-- RAF Battle of Britain ace, Wing Commander Bob Doe.

Winner of a Hemingway Award for 20th Century Wartime Fiction, a Maincrest Media Award for Military Fiction and Silver in the Global Book Awards.

Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/where-eagles-never-flew

For more information about all my books visit: https://www.helenapschrader.com

Disfiguring injuries, class prejudice and PTSD are the focus of three tales set in WWII by award-winning novelist Helena P. Schrader. Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/grounded-eagles

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Published on October 17, 2023 02:30

HISTORICAL FIGURES IN "COLD PEACE" -- GENERAL LUCIUS D. CLAY

He was a highly decorated General, who had never fought in combat. A man who didn't like Germans, yet was viewed as a hero by the Germans. And although the Berlin Airlift was a British idea and the RAF flew the first sorties, he was the man whose support enabled the Airlift to succeed:

General Lucius D. Clay

Lucius Clay was the son of a U.S. Senator from Georgia. Born in 1898, he was just a fraction too young to fight in WWI, graduating from West Point in 1918. An engineer, he was heavily involved in major engineering projects during the interwar years, particularly dams and -- strikingly -- airfields. Probably due to his father's position in the U.S. Senate, he developed close working relationships with key politicians such as the Speaker of the House, Representative Sam Rayburn, President Roosevelt's close advisor Harry Hopkins, and the Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau.

By March 1942, Clay was the youngest brigadier general in the U.S. army, and had taken charge of military procurement. "For three long years, Clay kept millions of soldiers supplied with everything they needed." [1] He had a reputation as a "workaholic" who substituted two packs of cigarettes and two dozen cups of coffee for lunch. His genius for creating order of of chaos as demonstrated dramatically at Cherbourg after the landings in Normandy, an intervention for which he received the Bronze Star. By 1945, he was General Eisenhower's deputy, the logistical genius behind the strategist as the Allied armies moved into Germany and secured victory.

When the war ended, Clay remained Eisenhower's deputy as the later transitioned into the role of Military Governor of the American zone of occupation. As such, he was from the start Eisenhower's representative on the Allied Control Council (ACC), which met in Berlin. He moved into a mansion with a staff of 12. His instructions were to apply U.S. policy as defined in "JCS-1067." These defined Germany as an enemy state that must be prevented from ever initiating another war, and called for strict "non-fraternization," this is no friendly relations of any sort with any Germans. American's post-war policy in Germany can and has been summed up as "de-militariztion, de-nazification, and de-industrialization," while the non-fraternization policy effectively made all Germans equally guilty of Nazi war crimes. This policy was known as "Collective Guilt."

Clay arrived in Germany without speaking any German and without any particular knowledge of German culture or history. He saw the Germans as "the enemy" while he firmly believed that he would be able to work with the Soviets -- just as the U.S. and Britain had worked with them during the war. His powers were almost unlimited, and some described him as the modern equivalent of a Roman proconsul. He was expected to be severe and uncompromising -- just what the American public wanted as their representative in Germany with the mandate to "teach the Germans a lesson they won't forget."

Yet Clay was also an engineer and logician with an understanding of economics. It took him almost no time at all to realize that if Germany was ever to become self-sufficient again it would have to be allowed to restore its industrial capacity and to export industrial goods and finished products. The alternative was for Germany to become permanently dependent on U.S. handouts -- or for the population to literally starve to death. Clay may not have liked Germans, but he didn't like the idea of American being permanently responsible for Germany either. He was instrumental in getting American policy changed from one of turning Germany into an agricultural country (the so-called Morganthau plan) to a policy of economic reconstruction. He understood the need for ending the policy of non-fraternization, for introducing currency reforms and for working toward the re-establishment of an independent and sovereign Germany state. Dramatically, he told the U.S. Congress that the U.S. flag should not fly over territory where children are starving.

Clay took his duties to "de-Nazify" Germany extremely seriously and signed over 200 death sentences. However, he was also criticized for occasionally commuting death sentences to imprisonment, because he was read the court documents meticulously and commuted sentences in trials where there was no or little evidence. More importantly, he turned over the burden of trying war criminals to the German as early as 1946, convinced that it was important for the Germans to take responsibility for judging their countrymen. This underlined that the convictions were no "victor's justice" but based on clearly defined legal principles.

By March 1947 his influence was acknowledged by eliminating the figure-head "Governor" (by then Joseph McNarny) and elevating Clay from Deputy to Governor. Clay was increasingly involved in the process of creating a new German government and advocating for both Marshall Plan and its extension to Germany. Meanwhile, Clay had become disillusioned with the Soviets and their leadership. He no longer expected cooperation and reluctantly recognized that Soviet objectives in Germany were contrary to U.S. and British aims. He saw that the Soviets wanted to establish Communist rule in Germany -- or at a minimum to undermine the new West German State and take control in Berlin. Clay was intensely frustrated by Washington's slowness in acknowledging the problem with the Soviet Union. Andrei Cherny in his work focusing on American politics leading up to and during the blockade and Airlift, catalogues the many times that Clay had to badger the army leadership, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the State Department into taking action. [Andrei Cherny, The Candy Bombers, Putnam, 2008.] Clay notoriously offer his resignation time and again in order to highlight the seriousness of the situation.

When the crisis came in the form of a blockade, Clay was already slated for replacement. His initial response, to advocate an armed convoy to solve the "technical difficulties" that had closed the access routes to Berlin triggered alarm -- both in Washington and London. He flatly denied that the city could be supplied from the air in a press conference on the first day of the blockade. But once he had listened to Air Commodore Waite and received Reuter's assurances that the Berliners could take the hardship, he gave orders to start an airlift without awaiting permission from Washington. Furthermore, once he had committed himself to the Airlift, he became one of its most dogged supporters. Twice he flew to Washington to advocate for it and press for more resources. Fortunately for history, President Truman sided with Clay rather than the Pentagon and State Department.

Just three days after the blockade was lifted, Clay left Berlin never to return. As he traveled from U.S. Military HQ to Tempelhof, the road was lined by millions of Berliners standing in the rain to pay their respects to him. They understood that a different military governor might have panicked, might have compromised with Soviets or might have "sold them" as Ernst Reuter had so eloquently feared.

Clay had come to Berlin with an understandable and then widespread dislike and mistrust of Germans, but by 15 May 1945 he had changed his mind. As he wrote in his memoirs:

[The people of Berlin] were proud to carry their burden as the price of their freedom, and though the price was high it had brought them something in return that had become dear. They had earned their right to freedom; they had atoned for the failure to repudiate Hitler when such repudiation on their part might have stopped his rise to power. [2]

[1] Giles Milton, Checkmate in Berlin, Henry Holt, 2021, 143.]

[2] Lucius D. Clay, Decision in Germany, Heinemann, 1950, 388.

Cold Peace is Book I of the Bridge to Tomorrow Series.

Three years after WWII, Europe struggles with rationing, widespread unemployment and a growing Soviet threat. Hitler's former capital lies ruined under the joint control of wartime allies bitterly at odds. With the currency worthless, the population lives on hand-outs or turns to crime and prostitution. Deep inside the Soviet Zone of occupation, Berlin appears to be an ideal target for a communist take-over, putting the defenders of democracy on a collision course with Stalin's merciless aggression.

A Battle of Britain ace, a female air traffic controller, a concentration camp survivor and an ex-ATA woman pilot are just some of those trying to find their place in the post-war world. An air ambulance service offers a shimmer of hope, but when a Soviet fighter brings down a British passenger liner, Berlin becomes a flashpoint. The world stands poised on the brink of World War Three.

Find out more at: https://www.helenapschrader.com/bridg...

View a video teaser at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTuE7...

Previous releases include:

" MORAL FIBRE," which WON THE HEMINGWAY AWARD 2022 FOR 20TH CENTURY WARTIME FICTION and a MAINCREST MEDIA AWARD FOR MILITARY FICTION as well as being A FINALIST FOR THE BOOK EXCELLENCE AWARD 2023 IN THE CATEGORY HISTORICAL FICTION.

Riding the icy, moonlit sky,

they took the war to Hitler.

Their chances of survival were less than fifty percent.

Their average age was 21.

This is the story of just one bomber pilot, his crew and the woman he loved.

It is intended as a tribute to them all.

"This is the best book on the life of us fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain that I have ever seen.... I couldn't put it down."-- RAF Battle of Britain ace, Wing Commander Bob Doe.

Winner of a Hemingway Award for 20th Century Wartime Fiction, a Maincrest Media Award for Military Fiction and Silver in the Global Book Awards.

Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/where-eagles-never-flew

For more information about all my books visit: https://www.helenapschrader.com

Disfiguring injuries, class prejudice and PTSD are the focus of three tales set in WWII by award-winning novelist Helena P. Schrader. Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/grounded-eagles

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Published on October 10, 2023 02:30

HISTORICAL FIGURES IN "COLD PEACE" -- COLONEL FRANK HOWLEY

In the post-war era, no Western figure was more consistently or more vehemently maligned and insulted by the Soviets as Colonel Frank Howley -- and Howley was proud of it. He earned Soviet ire and the love of the Berliners -- 'though not always his superiors -- for his words and deeds as the American Commandant of Berlin 1945-1949. Without doubt he was one of the more colorful -- and controversial -- historical figures involved in the Berlin Airlift.

Nothing in Howley's background ordained him for the role he was to play in Berlin's history. Born in Hampton, New Jersey in 1903, Howley attended Parson's School of Fine and Applied Arts. He spent time time studying business and art at the Sorbonne in Paris before obtaining a BS in Economics from New York University. He then worked as an advertising executive, establishing his own firm in Philadelphia the 1930s, which proved highly successful despite the depression. Somewhere along the line he taught himself five languages, but not notably not German.

However, he also volunteered for the Army Officer Reserve Corps in 1932 and in 1940 was called to active duty. Initially, he commanded an Air Corps ground school, but he was not interested in flying and transferred to the cavalry resulting in a transfer to a new assignment as operations officer of the cavalry school at Fort Riley, Kansas. By 1943, he had been promoted to lieutenant colonel and was serving as the Executive Officer of the Third Mechanized Cavalry, then stationed at Camp Gordon, Georgia.

It was while here that he was involved in a motorcycle accident in which he broke his back and pelvis. After five months in hospital, he was released but was not rated fit for active duty with a combat unit. He was instead given the option of retiring or taking an assignment in the Civil Affairs division, which was responsible for re-establishing civil administration in occupied territory in the wake of anticipated Allied battlefield victories. Howley chose the latter and the task before him was enormous. It has been described cogently as "...to sweep into newly liberated territories and impose order on chaos, repairing shattered infrastructure and feeding starving civilians."

After training in the U.S. and the U.K. Howley landed in Normandy four days after D-Day as head of a mixed British-U.S. unit designated A1A1. Working with French liaison officers, Howley's team got the civil administration of Cherbourg working within days of its liberation. His success here lead to him being given responsibility for the same role after the liberation of Paris, and he entered the French capital on the heels of the fighting troops now in command of a unit of 350 officers and men. Here his success not only earned him the Legion of Merit, Croix de Guerre and the Legion d'Honneur, it also drew the attention of General Dwight D. Eisenhower's staff. Howley was asked to head the U.S. military government in Berlin, nominally as deputy to a figurehead who was a more senior combat officer.

Clearly, taking control of restoring civil infrastructure in Berlin would be different from his role in the liberated French cities since the population was presumed to be hostile and Berlin was to be shared with the other Allies, including the Soviets. Decisions were to be taking jointly and unanimously. Even before entering Berlin, Howley worked hard the establish rapport between the designated British and American teams, initially facing considerable prejudice on both sides against the other. By the time both parties reached Berlin, however, the tensions had been replaced with mutual respect and friendship.

Dealing with the Soviets was another matter. First, they did not take part in the same training, and second, they made plain their disinterest in cooperating even before Howley arrived in Berlin. Having selected a team of roughly 500 men based on qualifications and after spending months training them, he was abruptly informed at the border to the Soviet Zone that he would not be allowed more than 35 officers and 175 men. Even more tellingly, this reduced force was not allowed into Berlin but led to Babelsberg just short of Berlin and interned in a compound guarded by gun-toting Soviet troops. The next day, the whole column of American retraced their steps to Halle.

On June 30, roughly two weeks after his first attempt to reach Berlin, Howley's convoy of administrators sweep into Berlin in the wake of the agreed occupation force -- which encountered no opposition from the Soviets on the route in only to discover that the Russians had so thoroughly plundered the barracks they were to occupy that not a toilet or light-fixture remained; the American troops, including Howley's detachment, had to camp in the woods. On the first reconnaissance of the American sector, Howley's men also found the evidence of Soviet industrial sabotage on unfathomable scale and brutality, using crowbars and bull-dozers to demolish rather than dismantle industrial plants producing sophisticated equipment and leaving the removed tools and machines to rot and rust in the rain. By the end of that first day, Howley knew who the enemy was -- and it wasn't the defeated, traumatized and starving population of Berlin. It was the Soviets.

From that point forward, Howley never deviated from his position that the Soviets were not to be trusted and could not be won over as friends, they were adversaries and had to be treated as such. The logical corollary of such a position was to start favoring and advocating on behalf of the Berliners under constant attack from the Soviets. Howley employed every tactic he could get away with to back the democratic elements in Berlin and to expose the machinations of the Soviet Military Administration and their puppet German Communists. He consistently reported to the press Soviet attempts to bribe and coerce voters. Wisely, he established a radio stations controlled by the U.S. military government, Radio in the American Sector or RIAS. In addition, independent newspapers were encouraged and allocated paper. Nor did Howley shy away from flooding Berlin with items desperately needed from bicycle tires to shoes and glass in an effort to demonstrate U.S. wealth and generosity in the days prior to the election. Yet, the Soviets were confident of victory and the West despondent when the Berliners went to the polls on 20 October 1946.

The Berliners, however, delivered the Soviet's a catastrophic defeat with the Soviet controlled "Socialist Unity Party" taking less than 20% of the vote. It was probably this fact that encouraged Howley to take an increasingly aggressive stance in his dealings with the Soviets. Forced to argue with them ad nauseam in Kommandatura, Howley is recorded saying things like:

"You lie. You always lie, and no matter what you are going to tell me it's not going to be the truth." [Giles Milton. Checkmate in Berlin. Holt, 2021, 136]

But then, the Soviets are recorded saying charming things like the only time to kick an old lady was when she was down -- in response to Howley's arguments that the old and infirm should receive extra rations. [Milton, 136]

In recognition of his competence, Howley was promoted to Commandant (no longer deputy to a carousel of changing official superiors). Meanwhile, the Kommandatura increasingly became a battlefield of words and exchanged insults. Howley recorded in his diary the suspicion that the Soviets were seeking to provoke a crisis. The Soviets had already walked out of the Allied Control Council on March 20. The Soviets had imposed a blockade on the Western sectors in the first four days of April, and a Soviet fighter had harrassed a British passenger aircraft on April 5, causing a collision and crash killing all on board the next day. On June 16, at 11:15 pm after thirteen hours of haggling that was going no where, Howley turned his seat over to his deputy and excused himself. Describing his behavior and "hooligan," the Soviet's used his departure as an excuse to break up the Kommandatura and stormed out.

But the more the Soviets insisted in describing Howley as a "hooligan," "terrorist," "black market knight," "dictator," "cowboy," or "rough-rider from Texas," the more the Berliners loved him. He appeared the only one who shared their outrage over Soviet bullying. To be sure, Howley's style had not won him friends in Washington and his relationship with the cool and restrained General Clay were also often testy and strained. "Howlin' Mad Howley" was a epitaph applied as much by his Western colleagues as his Eastern adversaries. Yet whether one liked his style or not, he was the American who reassured the Berliners that the Americans weren't going home when the crisis came on June 24.

Countering Soviet propaganda broadcasts depicting panic amoung the Allies, Clay to the air and declared both that his wife was NOT packing their silver and the Americans were ready for Soviets if they tried to cross into the American Sector. His tone, as usual, was belligerant -- and, also as usual, he spoke without first consulting his superiors. But his combative tone and uncompromising assurance of going no where was exactly what the Berliners needed to hear. It was perhaps his greatest moment.

Ironically, with the Soviet blockade, Howley's role was immediately diminished. Precisely because Berlin had moved from the periphery to the center of the international stage, Howley and his counterparts were overshadowed by more powerful actors. The Military Governors, above all Lucius D. Clay, became the eyes, ears, and spokesmen of their respective governments on the ground. But even they were only reporting back to -- and following instructions -- from their respective governments. When all was said and done, it was Truman and Attlee, not Clay or Robertson, much less Howley and his counterparts, who made policy for Berlin during the Blockade and Airlift.

Yet Howley remained at his post until 31 August 1949, roughly two and half months after the Soviets ended the Blockade but before the Airlift came to a close. The Soviets marked his departure by publishing a long article in the Communist news media in which Howley was portrayed as largely responsible for the entire "Berlin Crisis." He was blamed for single-handedly destroying four-power government by walking out of the Kommandatura for no reason. The article concluded that: "Howley is leaving his post at a time when western Berlin's policy of isolation discloses more and more clearly a complete bankruptcy." [Milton, 306]

On his return, Howley left the army and returned to civilian life where he was named Vice Chancellor of New York University. He died in 1993 in Warrington, Virginia.

Howley is a minor character in Cold Peace.

Cold Peace is Book I of the Bridge to Tomorrow Series.

Three years after WWII, Europe struggles with rationing, widespread unemployment and a growing Soviet threat. Hitler's former capital lies ruined under the joint control of wartime allies bitterly at odds. With the currency worthless, the population lives on hand-outs or turns to crime and prostitution. Deep inside the Soviet Zone of occupation, Berlin appears to be an ideal target for a communist take-over, putting the defenders of democracy on a collision course with Stalin's merciless aggression.

A Battle of Britain ace, a female air traffic controller, a concentration camp survivor and an ex-ATA woman pilot are just some of those trying to find their place in the post-war world. An air ambulance service offers a shimmer of hope, but when a Soviet fighter brings down a British passenger liner, Berlin becomes a flashpoint. The world stands poised on the brink of World War Three.

Find out more at: https://www.helenapschrader.com/bridg...

View a video teaser at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTuE7...

Previous releases include:

" MORAL FIBRE," which WON THE HEMINGWAY AWARD 2022 FOR 20TH CENTURY WARTIME FICTION and a MAINCREST MEDIA AWARD FOR MILITARY FICTION as well as being A FINALIST FOR THE BOOK EXCELLENCE AWARD 2023 IN THE CATEGORY HISTORICAL FICTION.

Riding the icy, moonlit sky,

they took the war to Hitler.

Their chances of survival were less than fifty percent.

Their average age was 21.

This is the story of just one bomber pilot, his crew and the woman he loved.

It is intended as a tribute to them all.

"This is the best book on the life of us fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain that I have ever seen.... I couldn't put it down."-- RAF Battle of Britain ace, Wing Commander Bob Doe.

Winner of a Hemingway Award for 20th Century Wartime Fiction, a Maincrest Media Award for Military Fiction and Silver in the Global Book Awards.

Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/where-eagles-never-flew

For more information about all my books visit: https://www.helenapschrader.com

Disfiguring injuries, class prejudice and PTSD are the focus of three tales set in WWII by award-winning novelist Helena P. Schrader. Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/grounded-eagles

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on October 03, 2023 02:30

HISTORICAL FIGURES IN "COLD PEACE" -- AIR COMMODORE REGINALD WAITE

At roughly 5 pm on 24 June 1948, the day the Russians started the blockade of the Western Sectors of Berlin, the American Military Governor in Germany General Lucius D. Clay responded to a question from a reporter about whether the city could be supplied entirely from the air. Clay gave a clear an decisive answer; he said: "Absolutely not."

Yet on the next day he instituted the airlift. His change of heart can be traced back to one man, a forgotten hero if there ever was one: Air Commodore Reginald Waite.

Waite's contribution to the Berlin Airlift was decisive. Prior to his intervention, the Allies were divided over whether to withdraw their garrisons from Berlin or try to fight their way down the autobahn. Waite's calculations showing that an airlift could sufficiently replenish Berlin's stockpiles of necessary goods to buy the Allies time to negotiate were absolutely critical to the decision to launch the Airlift -- yet there are history books about the Airlift that do not even mention his name. This is largely due to the fact that Waite was the consummate staff officer -- a thinker, a planner, a man in the background rather than a charismatic leader.

Reginald "Rex" Waite was born 30 June 1901. He escaped the slaughter of the First World War by being too young for conscription, but joined the newly formed Royal Air Force in 1920. He was one of the first cadets to attend the newly established RAF college Cranwell earning his commission in 1921. In the interwar years he served in various positions with Coastal Command, rising to commander of 224 Squadron 1937-1938, then equipped with Ansons and serving in a reconnaissance role.

Just before the start of the war, however, Waite was selected to serve as the RAF officer assigned to the Admiralty's Operations Room, probably a tribute to his understanding of naval concerns, issues and operational procedures learned in service with Coastal Command. He left this position in 1942 to serve as station commander at St Eval in Cornwall, a Coastal Command station. His next posting was as commander of the Coastal Command station in Nassau, a position he held for nearly two years. In 1944, however, he was called back to the UK to assist in planning the D-Day invasion, serving at Supreme HQ, Allied Expeditionary Force 1944-1946. During this period, following Germany's unconditional surrender, he was in charge of disarming the Luftwaffe. That task complete, he was appointed Director of the Air Branch, Allied Control Commission in Berlin 1947 - 1949. At the end of the Airlift he went on to command RAF Bircham Newton and ended his long career as Assistant Chief of Staff, Allied Air Forces, Central Europe, retiring in 1953.

During his service in Germany he developed a (not always shared) sympathy for the plight of German refugees and disbanded service members. He was also one of the British officers who early recognized the Russian threat. Already in 1947 he described in correspondence with fellow officers the need to counter Soviet "machinations." [Source: biography of Waite in the British Berlin Airlift Association website] In April 1948, he was the senior British officer responsible for investigating the crash of a British civilian airliner after a collision with a Soviet Yak fighter.

Perhaps it was this work which altered Waite early to Soviet intentions. The accident had been caused by a Soviet Yak fighter conducting aerobatic maneuvers and buzzing the passenger liner while it was on landing approach to Berlin. The wreckage of the Yak was found still entangled with the wing of the British European Airline Dakota. Yet the Soviets blandly claimed their "innocent training aircraft" had been "attacked" by an aggressive passenger liner.

In any case, with the Soviets playing "cat-and-mouse" with Allied access routes into Berlin, Waite started to do some calculations on whether it would be possible to supply the 2.2 million civilians living in the Western Sectors of Berlin in addition to the Western garrisons by air. His calculations suggested it could be done and two days before the Soviets imposed their blockade on Berlin, Waite showed his calculations to the British Berlin Commandant, Lt. General Herbert. The army general dismissed his plans as impossible.

Waite went back to the proverbial drawing boards and worked all night to refine his calculations and plan. When he presented these to Herbert the next day the blockade had started and Herbert was willing to let Waite speak with the British Military Governor, Sir Brian Robertson. The latter was impressed enough to agree to show the plans to his American counterpart, General Lucius D. Clay. Waite convinced Clay that he had been wrong to dismiss an airlift as out of the question as he had in the press conference. He decided to go ahead and start flying, giving the necessary orders to the USAFE.

Nor did Waite's role in the Airlift stop there. Waite is credited with identifying the eight airfields in the Western Zones that could be used for supplying Berlin. As a former Coastal Command pilot, he suggested and reconnoitered the suitability of the Havel for receiving Flying Boats. Waite was the one to suggest these aircraft were ideal for carrying salt. In addition, he was influential in flying small kerosene stoves so Berliners could cook without electricity and also sewing machines and materials so they could repair clothes.

Waite described his job during the airlift as follows:

“Nobody could have a more interesting job than I have at the moment. As soon as the ‘Airlift’ begun General Robertson appointed the G.O.C. British Troops as the ‘dictator’ of our besieged sector and sent me over to him as a sort of Chief of Staff with a roving commission, which involves everything from the daily demanding, recording and forecasting of supplies for the city to co-ordination of the Military Government Troops and Civil organisations in the complete rearrangement of life for siege conditions. In the last six months I think I have had to work harder than for the past 28 years but it has been great fun working with the first rate team we have had in Berlin.” [Source: British Berlin Airlift Association website]

Waite was said to "bubble with enthusiasm and imagination." Another observer claimed that "ideas were always flowing from him." The Daily Telegraph journalist Edwin Tetlow described watching Waite work, saying: "His head was bowed over a tiny pocket book, and he was making drawings and calculations with the stub of a pencil." [Source: Giles Milton, Checkmate in Berlin, Henry Holt, 2021, 255-256.]

In "Cold Peace" I attempt to give Waite his due and to portray him in accordance with the historical record.

Cold Peace is Book I of the Bridge to Tomorrow Series.

Three years after WWII, Europe struggles with rationing, widespread unemployment and a growing Soviet threat. Hitler's former capital lies ruined under the joint control of wartime allies bitterly at odds. With the currency worthless, the population lives on hand-outs or turns to crime and prostitution. Deep inside the Soviet Zone of occupation, Berlin appears to be an ideal target for a communist take-over, putting the defenders of democracy on a collision course with Stalin's merciless aggression.

A Battle of Britain ace, a female air traffic controller, a concentration camp survivor and an ex-ATA woman pilot are just some of those trying to find their place in the post-war world. An air ambulance service offers a shimmer of hope, but when a Soviet fighter brings down a British passenger liner, Berlin becomes a flashpoint. The world stands poised on the brink of World War Three.

Find out more at: https://www.helenapschrader.com/bridg...

View a video teaser at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTuE7...

Previous releases include:

" MORAL FIBRE," which WON THE HEMINGWAY AWARD 2022 FOR 20TH CENTURY WARTIME FICTION and a MAINCREST MEDIA AWARD FOR MILITARY FICTION as well as being A FINALIST FOR THE BOOK EXCELLENCE AWARD 2023 IN THE CATEGORY HISTORICAL FICTION.

Riding the icy, moonlit sky,

they took the war to Hitler.

Their chances of survival were less than fifty percent.

Their average age was 21.

This is the story of just one bomber pilot, his crew and the woman he loved.

It is intended as a tribute to them all.

"This is the best book on the life of us fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain that I have ever seen.... I couldn't put it down."-- RAF Battle of Britain ace, Wing Commander Bob Doe.

Winner of a Hemingway Award for 20th Century Wartime Fiction, a Maincrest Media Award for Military Fiction and Silver in the Global Book Awards.

Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/where-eagles-never-flew

For more information about all my books visit: https://www.helenapschrader.com

Disfiguring injuries, class prejudice and PTSD are the focus of three tales set in WWII by award-winning novelist Helena P. Schrader. Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/grounded-eagles

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Published on September 26, 2023 02:30

HISTORICAL FIGURES IN "COLD PEACE" -- Ernst Reuter

In late August 1948, the Western Allies believed Stalin had signaled via diplomatic channels a readiness for compromise on the "Berlin crisis." The military governors were given instructions to meet again in the Allied Control Commission and hammer out the details of an agreement in the first week of September. Historians would later characterize the resulting negotiations as nothing more than the usual Soviet tactics of misleading and bamboozling their counterparts, but at the time rumors of a "break through" were rampant. It was at this moment, when the West seemed eager to "do a deal" with Stalin that Ernst Reuter threw down the gauntlet and forced the West to respect the wishes of the Berliners.

Speaking before a crowd of roughly 300,000 Berliners assembled in front of the Reichstag, Reuter called out:

Today is the day on which not the diplomats and generals speak and negotiate. Today is the day on which the people of Berlin lift up their voice. ... It is time for the world to see what Berliners really want. And we say clearly: in all the deals and counter-deals we don't want to be a trading object!

You cannot exchange us, you cannot trade us in, and you cannot sell us!

People of the world, look to this city and recognize that this city and its people cannot be sacrificed! People of the world, do your duty and support us not only with the roar of aircraft, not only with the transport of goods, but also with a steadfast and unwavering commitment to our common ideals -- ideals which alone can secure our future and yours! People of the world, look to Berlin!*

It was a decisive moment. Thereafter, no one in Washington or London dared to "do a deal" that did not take the will of the Berliners for freedom from Soviet oppression into account. It was also a decisive moment the transition of Germany from an enemy to an ally. But just who was Ernst Reuter and how did he come to be the spokesman for Berlin

Technically, on the date of Reuter's speech, 9 September 1948, Ernst Reuter was the elected but "unseated" mayor of Berlin. He had been elected in June 1947, but the Soviets simply vetoed the election and would not allow him to take his seat as mayor. Elections did not hold any weight in the Soviet Union...

Reuter's colleagues, however, respected him and continued to defer to him. Then in December 1948, after the city had been torn in two by the blockade, Reuter won re-election by a huge margin and although the SPD had taken 64.5% of the votes, formed a coalition with the other democratic parties to rule Berlin jointly through the crisis -- much as Churchill had done in 1940.

Yet there is irony in Reuter becoming the voice of freedom and democracy in the face of Soviet aggression because as a young man Reuter had actively supported the Bolshevik Revolution. At the start of WWI, he had been a pacifist, but was drafted. Serving on the Eastern Front, he was wounded and taken prisoner by the Russians. He was still in captivity when in October 1917 Lenin and Trotsky launched the Bolshevik Revolution and Reuter formed a Soviet among the prisoners to support the revolution. Thereafter he was named a "Peoples' Commissar" to help form the Volga Commissariat for German Affairs.

He soon returned to Germany, however, where he joined the Communist Party and advocated revolution for Germany as well. This put him in conflict with the party leadership at the time and despite Lenin's patronage he was expelled from the Communist Party. He briefly joined the Independent Socialist Party and then returned to the Social Democratic Party to which he had belonged before the First World War.

In 1926, Ernst Reuter was given responsibility for Berlin's transportation system by the Berlin city government. He consolidated the transportation systems into a single organization the Berliner Verkehrs Betrieb (BVG) and introduced a number of efficient innovations and extended the subway network. From 1931 to 1933, he was mayor of Magdeburg. He was elected to the Reichstag in 1933 and immediately fell foul of the Nazis. He was interned in the Concentration Camp at Lichenberg for two years. On his release, he went into exile in Turkey.

Reuter was appointed to the faculty of the University of Ankara and there founded the school of urban planning. At the end of the war, he returned to Berlin and in the first post-war election was elected to the Berlin City Council with responsibility for transportation again. He was elected mayor a year later and re-elected (as noted above) in 1948 and again in 1951. He was acting Lord Mayor of Berlin at the time of his sudden death from a heart attack on 29 September 1953.

Yet the bare resume of his life explains neither why the Soviets were so afraid of his influence that they vetoed his election nor how he rose to so effectively embody the spirit of a free Berlin in the post-war era. Reuter's influence must rest on a powerful charisma that inspired and motivated others.

* Translated and condensed by the author based on the original text of the speech in German.

Cold Peace is Book I of the Bridge to Tomorrow Series.

Three years after WWII, Europe struggles with rationing, widespread unemployment and a growing Soviet threat. Hitler's former capital lies ruined under the joint control of wartime allies bitterly at odds. With the currency worthless, the population lives on hand-outs or turns to crime and prostitution. Deep inside the Soviet Zone of occupation, Berlin appears to be an ideal target for a communist take-over, putting the defenders of democracy on a collision course with Stalin's merciless aggression.

A Battle of Britain ace, a female air traffic controller, a concentration camp survivor and an ex-ATA woman pilot are just some of those trying to find their place in the post-war world. An air ambulance service offers a shimmer of hope, but when a Soviet fighter brings down a British passenger liner, Berlin becomes a flashpoint. The world stands poised on the brink of World War Three.

Find out more at: https://www.helenapschrader.com/bridg...

View a video teaser at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTuE7...

Previous releases include:

" MORAL FIBRE," which WON THE HEMINGWAY AWARD 2022 FOR 20TH CENTURY WARTIME FICTION and a MAINCREST MEDIA AWARD FOR MILITARY FICTION as well as being A FINALIST FOR THE BOOK EXCELLENCE AWARD 2023 IN THE CATEGORY HISTORICAL FICTION.

Riding the icy, moonlit sky,

they took the war to Hitler.

Their chances of survival were less than fifty percent.

Their average age was 21.

This is the story of just one bomber pilot, his crew and the woman he loved.

It is intended as a tribute to them all.

"This is the best book on the life of us fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain that I have ever seen.... I couldn't put it down."-- RAF Battle of Britain ace, Wing Commander Bob Doe.

Winner of a Hemingway Award for 20th Century Wartime Fiction, a Maincrest Media Award for Military Fiction and Silver in the Global Book Awards.

Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/where-eagles-never-flew

For more information about all my books visit: https://www.helenapschrader.com

Disfiguring injuries, class prejudice and PTSD are the focus of three tales set in WWII by award-winning novelist Helena P. Schrader. Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/grounded-eagles

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Published on September 19, 2023 02:30

BRIDGE TO TOMORROW: COLD PEACE -- Meet Karl Liebherr

Karl Liebherr is a necessary character. In a book about the Communist attempt to take control of Berlin and drive the protectors of democracy out, there has to be at least one enthusiastically Communist character.

Excerpt 1:

“How can you represent “the people” if only 10% of the populationvotes for you?” [Karl's father asked.]

“Because we are on the side of progress!”

“How does destroying our industrial capacity further progress?”The elder Liebherr wanted to know.

“The Soviets suffered immeasurably in the war. They have the rightto reparations!”

“Agreed! Even the Americans agree. The Western Allies invented the idea of reparations after the lastwar, remember? No one is questioning the right of the Soviet Union toreparations, but there must be limits — a clearpoint at which they stop. Furthermore, Germany has to have a way to pay them.” Slowing down to add emphasis to his words,Jakob Liebherr declared. “For the last two years, the Soviets havebeen systematically vandalizing or dismantling our factories, power plants,laboratories and workshops. In doing so, they have destroyed our ability tomanufacture industrial products and thereby our ability to earn the currencywith which to pay them the reparations they want.”

“Don’t be a capitalist stooge!” Karl shot back. “You are sayingthat reparations should be paid from profits. Profits are theft. The Sovietsare securing reparations by taking from the capitalists the means of production and so enabling the SovietUnion to become a great industrial nation.”

“That might have been true if the factories they dismantled here werebeing rebuilt and operated in the Soviet Union— which they are not. Furthermore, even if they did re-assemble the factories, the price would be theimpoverishment of Germany, making it perpetually dependent on hand-outs from the West.” Jakob droppedhis voice. “That, Karl, might be in the interests of the Soviet Union,but it is not in the interests of Germany or the German people.”

“Defending the Socialist Motherland is in the interests of allworking people,” Karl countered, more flustered by his father’s calm than hisearlier anger.

“That’s what they taught you in the Lubjanka, Karl. It is not yourown brain or heart speaking.” Liebherr pinned his son to his chair with hiseyes.

After several long seconds, Karl broke free. He jumped to hisfeet. “How do you know what is in my heart and brain?”

His father gazed at him unwaveringly. Karl spun about, grabbedhis coat and without bothering to put it on plunged out the door, slamming itbehind him.

One of the striking things about Berlin during the Blockade and Airlift is that the Berliners did not vote "for the banana" -- unlike what happened forty years later. When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, the residents of East Germany turned their backs on Socialism because they wanted a higher standard of living. They wanted a Mercedes Benz (or at least a Volkswagen) rather than a Trabbi. They wanted the internationally recognized and powerful D-Mark, not their aluminum currency that was worthless on the exchange markets. They wanted Levis and Legosteins, Barbie Dolls and, yes, bananas. That they also got a well-functioning democracy with rule-of-law on top of all that was just the icing on the cake.

In contrast, Berliners in 1948/49 were willing to endur hunger and hardship for the sake of democracy. As one of the put it:

It is wonderful to live in a city that prefers death to slavery, that has decided to suffer more deprivations rather than dictatorship. [Ruth Andreas-Friedrich quoted in Richard Reeve's Daring Young Men, Simon and Schuster, 2010, 178]

The struggle for the "hearts and minds" of Berliners that took place between 1946 and 1949 included a great deal of material bribery on the part of the Soviets. The Soviet Military Administration and their puppets the Socialist Unity Party shamelessly offered better rations, jobs and housing to those who were politically loyal. It introduced a new currency at exchange rates that were not the same for all, but beneficial to political friends and ruinous to political opponents (or anyone suspected of harboring doubts about Socialism). Yet the salient point is that this bribery did not work.

At the height of the Blockade when residents of West Berlin were living on rations providing just 1,600 calories a day consisting of powered potatoes, powered vegetables, powdered milk and eggs, and canned meat or fish, just 3.3% of the population registered to draw Eastern rations which offered fresh milk, fresh eggs, fresh potatoes and fresh fruits and vegetables.

Mayor Ernst Reuter expressed the position of the Berliners eloquently when he feared the Western Powers might decide to withdraw from West Berlin in exchange from Russian concessions elsewhere:

Nobody can barter us. Nobody can negotiate us. Nobody can sell us...People of the world! Do your duty and help us not just with the [Airlift] but rather with the steadfast and invincible vow to our common ideals.[Reuter's speech of 9 September 1948, translation by the author]

The Battle for Berlin of 1948-1949 was not a clash of arms or economies but of ideas. And that is the reason why at least one character in "Bridge to Tomorrow" had to express the ideas with which the Soviets tried to seduce and confuse the Berliners. Karl is that character.

Yet he isn't a marionette either. Actually he is a victim. Conscripted into the Wehrmacht as a 18 year old, he was taken prisoner on the Eastern Front. There he escaped the horrors and the death around him by embracing Communism and "drinking the cool aid" offered by his tormentors. Karl has been "brain washed" in one of the most notorious centers for torture in human history: the prison of the KGB, the Lubjanka. And sometimes, just sometimes, a flicker of emotion can undermine his devotion to the Party and Stalin.

Excerpt 2:

“Don’t go to this Assembly, Vati!” Karl ordered.

“What do you mean?” His father asked astonished. “I’m a member ofthe City Council. I voted last night on the decision that is to be debatedtoday. Of course, I must attend.”

“It’s a waste of time!” Karl countered. “By going, you only make apublic spectacle of yourself! You will be photographed by the press, andeveryone will know where you stand.”

“I’m not ashamed of where I stand, Karl.”

“This is like voting against Hitler’s Enabling Law all over again,isn’t it?” The way Karl asked the rhetorical question made it sound likesomething shameful.

Jakob, however, was proud of having voted against Hitler’sEnabling Law. “Yes,” he answered steadily. “There are many parallels, which isexactly why I intend to go.” He started for the door, but his son blocked hisway.

“Don’t you remember where your vote against Hitler’s Enabling Lawgot you?”

“Do you think I can forget two years in a ConcentrationCamp?”

“Apparently you can! And the worst of it is that you never give athought to anyone but yourself and your image! You don’t care about theconsequences of your grandstanding for Mutti and me, do you?”

“Oh, so that’s what this is all about,”Jakob scoffed. “You thinkmy public opposition to the SMAD might hurt your career in the SED. Well, I’m sorry, Karl. You’re a bigboy now. You’ll have to deal with that yourself.”

“I can! I’m not worried about myself! It’s Mutti, I worry about.You honestly don’t give a damn about what happens to her, do you? No, ofcourse, not! Just like in ’33! All you think about is your public image!”

“Karl! How dare you talk to your fatherlike that!” Trude reared up.

“Dare? It’s past time that someone stood up to him! I watched you suffer while he wasin the KZ!” Karl told his mother furiously. “I watched you cry in despair. I watched you begneighbours and relatives for help. I watched you humble yourself before theNazis and try to play ‘nicelittle Hausfrau’ in the hope—”

Trude slapped her son hard. “Stop it! I’m not proud of what I did,but you have no right to judge me!”

“I’m not judging you!” Karl shouted. “I’mtrying to stop it from happening all over again. Don’t you see? Are you bothidiots? The SMAD has issued a decree and they will enforce it. The SED willenforce it. The police will enforce it. The Red Army will enforce it. Why doyou have to go through this puppet theatre of defiance?”

“You think a meeting of the City Assembly is ‘puppet theatre’?”His father asked back. He did not raise his voice, yet he asked the questionwith acute intensity. He spoke slowly and deliberately, the apparent calm ofhis voice underlining the depth of his shock and outrage.

“What else is it?” Karl shot back unintimidated. “Such quaintinstitutions have no place in a Farmers and Workers State. The Vanguard of theProletariat knows what is best and should be obeyed without this bourgeoischarade of democracy.”

“In that case, we can at least go on record as standing up for theFour-Power Agreements that the Soviets themselves signed.”

“Why?” Karl insisted. “What difference will that make? Four-Powergovernment is dead. The Western Powers have ripped it up in favour ofprotecting the interests of their monied classes.”

Jakob refused to discuss his son’s Soviet disinformation. “Ourstand will show the world that we know what is at stake and that we care aboutliberty.”

“Vati! I’m warning you not to go!” Karl was still shouting. Hesounded enraged, but something in his tone had subtly changed. Both his parentsrecognised it. Jakob’s eyes locked with his son’s, and he saw terror in them.His son was afraid for him.

Cold Peace is Book I of the Bridge to Tomorrow Series.

Three years after WWII, Europe struggles with rationing, widespread unemployment and a growing Soviet threat. Hitler's former capital lies ruined under the joint control of wartime allies bitterly at odds. With the currency worthless, the population lives on hand-outs or turns to crime and prostitution. Deep inside the Soviet Zone of occupation, Berlin appears to be an ideal target for a communist take-over, putting the defenders of democracy on a collision course with Stalin's merciless aggression.

A Battle of Britain ace, a female air traffic controller, a concentration camp survivor and an ex-ATA woman pilot are just some of those trying to find their place in the post-war world. An air ambulance service offers a shimmer of hope, but when a Soviet fighter brings down a British passenger liner, Berlin becomes a flashpoint. The world stands poised on the brink of World War Three.

Find out more at: https://www.helenapschrader.com/bridg...

View a video teaser at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTuE7...

Previous releases include:

" MORAL FIBRE," which WON THE HEMINGWAY AWARD 2022 FOR 20TH CENTURY WARTIME FICTION and a MAINCREST MEDIA AWARD FOR MILITARY FICTION as well as being A FINALIST FOR THE BOOK EXCELLENCE AWARD 2023 IN THE CATEGORY HISTORICAL FICTION.

Riding the icy, moonlit sky,

they took the war to Hitler.

Their chances of survival were less than fifty percent.

Their average age was 21.

This is the story of just one bomber pilot, his crew and the woman he loved.

It is intended as a tribute to them all.

"This is the best book on the life of us fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain that I have ever seen.... I couldn't put it down."-- RAF Battle of Britain ace, Wing Commander Bob Doe.

Winner of a Hemingway Award for 20th Century Wartime Fiction, a Maincrest Media Award for Military Fiction and Silver in the Global Book Awards.

Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/where-eagles-never-flew

For more information about all my books visit: https://www.helenapschrader.com

Disfiguring injuries, class prejudice and PTSD are the focus of three tales set in WWII by award-winning novelist Helena P. Schrader. Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/grounded-eagles

1 like · Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on September 12, 2023 02:30

BRIDGE TO TOMORROW: COLD PEACE -- MEET GALYNA AND MILA

The Berlin Blockade was the attempt by the Soviet Union to force the Western Allies out of Berlin by cutting the civilian population off from food, electricity, medicine and other necessities of life. If followed three years of brutal, sanctioned rape involving hundreds of thousands of victims, the kidnapping of tens of thousands of workers, daily petty theft by individual Soviet soldiers and wholesale plunder on the part of the Soviet authorities in the guise of "reparations." In consequence, I found it hard to conceive of positive Russian characters and did not initially plan any. And then I changed my mind.

Stalin was a brutal dictator, notorious for killing even his most loyal supporters. In Kangaroo trials he judicially murdered of the real heroes of the Russian Revolution. His forced labor camps swallowed hundreds of thousands of innocent victims. He caused widespread famine that cost the lives of millions. His means of waging war was to sacrifice millions of soldiers who fought without proper weapons, uniforms, food or medical care. In other words no one was more a victim of Stalin than his own subjects. I decided to make two victims of Stalin characters in "Cold Peace."

Excerpt 1:

It was almostseven pm before Priestman was able to depart the ACC.

Stan sat inthe front beside the driver and Borisenko took the seat beside Priestman in theback. He turned to her, “You did an excellent job today, Borisenko. Thank you.”

Borisenkorewarded him with a grateful if modest smile. “Thank you, sir! Thank you forletting me come with you. It was very interesting.”

“It certainlywas!” Priestman agreed. He paused and then asked, “I’m curious. As a formerSoviet citizen, why do you think Sokolovsky was so sharp and aggressive?Suggesting the European Recovery Act would ‘enslave’ European workers isridiculous. It will be good for the American economy, too, of course, but firstand foremost it will kick-start European industry and create jobs. If there wasever a policy enlightened by the spirit of mutual benefit, this is it.”

“But it is aterrible threat to the Soviet Union, sir.” Borisenko declared, her eyes wide.

“How?”

“Because itshows how rich America is! Not to mention that if the Soviet Union were tobecome part of an economic free trade zone with the other European countries,Western goods might flood into the Soviet Union. Inevitably there would be morecontact between Russians and Europeans. The Russian people might start tounderstand that they have been lied to.”

“About what?”

“About howterrible it is in the West.”

Priestmanthought about that a moment and reluctantly nodded. “Is that why Sokolovskyordered his staff and drivers to wait in the cars although Robertson explicitlyinvited them into his house?”

“No,” camethe surprising answer, “That is because the marshal knew he would be having afriendly conversation with General Clay and wanted as few witnesses aspossible.”

“Witnesses?”

“People whomight report back to the NKVD that he was too friendly with the Imperialists.”

Priestmanconsidered that. “Are you saying Marshal Sokolovsky is afraid?”

“Of course heis afraid!” Borisenko declared sounding genuinely astonished by her CO’snaivety. “The higher one is in the Soviet Union, the more one has to lose andthe more rivals one has.”

“Rivals, Iunderstand, but we’re talking about his drivers, stenographers andlower-ranking officers?” Priestman protested.

“A Sovietmarshal or general is especially afraid of his drivers, his batmen and themaids in his house,” Borisenko told him solemnly. “Such people are mostvulnerable to threats, and when you have almost nothing, the promise of only alittle more — medicine for your sick parents or shoes for your growing children— makes you wax in the hands of those who want information against your boss."

Priestmanstared at her. “Is it really that bad?”

“Bad?” Sheasked back. “No. It is not bad. It is hell.”

Galyna Boresenko is the daughter of ideological revolutionaries who embrace the Soviet State with heart and soul. Her father, Nicolas, the son of humble parents who scratched and clawed his way to an education in the days before the First World War, joins the revolutionaries in 1917. He is a proud member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He enthusiastically takes up his duties as a teacher in Kharkov. Galyna's mother, Lyudmyla, in contrast, is the daughter of intellectuals. She is privileged and goes to exclusive girls' boarding schools, with a emphasis on 'the arts.' While her parents are "liberal" and have sympathy for the "masses," Lyudmyla is more daring and intellectually toys with Socialism in private. Her real ambition, however, is to be a great artist. The war comes, fortunes are up-ended. Her father sides with the Whites in the Civil War and is killed. Her mother flees to Finland just before the border closes. Lyudmyla does not go with her; she remains behind with the man she loves, Nicolas. Soon she is making a spectacular career as an official painter doing massive murals in the new "Soviet Realism" style, decorating public buildings all across Kharkov and even Kyiv.

But suddenly in 1935, when Galyna is 12 years old, her father Nicolas is accused of treason. He is too closely associated with the "Trotskites" -- or maybe he simply expressed criticism or doubt about the policy of collectivization that is causing millions to kill their own livestock and take their own lives and causing widespread famine? Whatever the cause, he is arrested, tried, convicted of treason, and presumably killed. Lyudmyla loses her job. Her paintings are plastered over. Galyna is sent to a school for delinquents and subjected to cruel discipline. Her mother's re-marriage two years later brings her release but her step-father soon finds a way to send her to her grandmother in exile and Galyna finds herself in Finland and then Great Britain. She becomes a UK citizen. She joins the WAAF. Works her way up from supply clerk to radio technician and finally to translator. In the latter capacity she finds herself assigned to RAF Gatow in 1948, surrounded by a Soviet sea.

Mila is also Ukrainian and she has fought through out the Second World War as a partisan. She an exceptional marksman and is used as a sharpshooter, who ends the lives of many senior German officers. Her successes eventually gain the notice of the Red Army. She seems a perfect propaganda tool -- a 'ordinary' Soviet girl with blond hair who has spent the entire war fighting the enemy effectively. She is awarded the Soviet's highest military honour: She is made a "Hero of the Soviet Union." She is assigned to the HQ of the Russian Occupation authorities in Germany (SMAD - Soviet Military Administration in Deutschland/Germany) as a symbol of the suffering of Soviet womanhood. Her duties are nebulous, mostly to trail behind the Soviet Governor General at events and to pose for photos, although sometimes she is tasked with specific guard duties or to bring game to the Marshal and the like.

What no one in the SMAD bothers to find out is that Mila is completely disillusioned with the Soviet Union. Her grandfather was a "Kulak" -- an independent farmer. She has seen how merciless the Soviet regime is. She has seen through the lies. She knows that there is no "workers' and farmers' paradise." She trusts no one -- although she feels drawn to some of the honest and hard-working young officers around her. Yet none of them will be honest with her. They all spew the "party line" when questioned about any topic. She feels increasingly isolated, and exposure to the West only further solidifies her mistrust, disgust and growing disloyalty to the Soviet Union. When she meets Galyna, they suddenly both have someone they can talk to.

Excerpt 2:

The windows were boarded up making it dark, and it was crowdedwith German men of all ages. Galyna’s instinct was to flee; she did not feelsafe among a crowd of rough men like these regardless of nationality. Mila,however, shouldered her way to a table and then turned back to face the men,all of whom were staring at them. Mila shrugged her pack back off hershoulders, put it on the seat of the chair beside her, yanked her mittens offand dropped them on the table. Then, still standing, she thrust her hand insideher double-breasted men’s jacket. When she removed her hand it held a revolverwhich she pointed calmly at the gaping men. Her hand swept slowly from one sideof the room to the other and back. “Verstanden?” (Have you understood?)

The men looked away, and Mila sat down. She put her pistol on thetable with her hand still holding the handle. Galyna sank into the chairopposite unsure whether to be shocked or amused.

“Men,” Mila said to her with a charming, almost childish smile,“generally understand guns better than words.”

“Yes, I suppose,” Galyna agreed, feeling both uncomfortable andsafer.

An old man wearing an apron shuffled over and asked Mila aquestion in German. She checked if Galyna wanted tea or something else andGalyna confirmed tea. The man shuffled away.

Mila leaned back against the wall, sideways to the table, andpropped one foot on the chair with her knapsack. She surveyed the room verycarefully: like a policeman, Galyna thought. At last, satisfied, she turned andsmiled at Galyna. “Do you know what I feel?” Mila asked. Galyna shook her head.“I feel free — free for the first time since the Red Army took over the controlof the region where we partisans had fought for two years.” She paused,considered Galyna and added softly. “You cannot understand that can you?”

“I don’t know…” Galyna replied cautiously. She remembered feelingterrified after her father’s arrest — afraid of a knock on the door, afraid ofthe ringing of the telephone, afraid of the people on the street. Sheremembered how she stopped talking to everyone and stopped looking people inthe eye. She had not been brave. She had never stood up for her father, neverdefended him. She had condemned him publicly like they wanted her do. She hadcalled him a traitor and said that he deserved to die. And even when thestranger who said she was her grandmother collected her at the train station inHelsinki, she had not trusted her for a long time. She had thought they wouldfind her somehow, take her back, and send her to Siberia. Not until they got toEngland did she start to feel free, but only gradually.

“You don’t have to tell me anything,” Mila said into her thoughts.“Just let me talk. Please. I am so alone in Karlshorst. There is no one there Ican talk to. Grisha… sometimes I think he understands. He’s a good man. Anhonest and brave man. Yet, when I try to talk to him, he just says ‘Don’t talklike that, Milushka.’ Or, ‘You know better than to say such things.’ He nevertells me what he thinks. For a while, I thought we could be happy together. Buthow could I spend my whole life with a man who will not tell me what he trulythinks? Who will not let me say what is in my heart and mind?”

Galyna looked at Mila and they knew that they did understand eachother, yet Galyna was still afraid to speak. She had learned her lessons toowell and at too tender an age. Besides, she had not been a partisan who hadlearned to kill her enemies. She looked down at the revolver still heldcasually in Mila’s hand.

“Two days before the meeting of the ACC where we met,” Mila spokeso softly Galyna had to strain to hear her. “I received a message from mygrandfather. It did not come by mail. He’d scribbled it on pages torn from abook and sent it with a conscript from our village who’d been assigned to thebattalion guarding Karlshort. The boy found me and gave me the message, tellingme in a whisper that what he wrote was true — before running away withouttelling me his name. Do you want to know what my grandfather wrote?”

Galyna nodded vigorously; she was hardly breathing.

Mila continued in her almost inaudible voice, “He wrote to tell methat my niece, my sister’s three-month-old baby, had starved to death. She wasnot the only one in the village. They are all starving, he said. It is worsethan during collectivization. He said there are no cattle left alive. He saidthey have no bread. They eat only potatoes and roots….” She fell silent, herhand stroking the pistol. “When Marshal Sokolovsky hosts dinners, he servesmountains of caviar, paté, game, turkey, lobsters and oysters….”

The waiter arrived with tall glasses of tea in metal holders. Itwas steaming hot. The two women held the glasses under their noses, breathingin the scent of the tea and letting the hot moisture stick to their faces. Milastarted speaking again. “My sister weighs less than 70 lbs, my grandfathersays. He says she is always cold because they have nothing but rags to wear.They don’t live in Moscow, you see, or Kyiv or even Kharkiv. They are justpeasants. Former Kulaks.”

A shiver went down Galyna’s spine despite the hot tea she clutchedin her hands.

Mila looked over at her. “You understand?”

Galyna nodded. She almost gasped out that her father had been ateacher near Kharkiv, that he had spoken out against collectivization. Forthat, he had been arrested for treason and disappeared into a gulag. She wantedto tell Mila, but she couldn’t overcome twelve years of silence. All shemanaged was to whisper, “You are Ukrainian, too.”

Mila nodded.

Cold Peace is Book I of the Bridge to Tomorrow Series.

Three years after WWII, Europe struggles with rationing, widespread unemployment and a growing Soviet threat. Hitler's former capital lies ruined under the joint control of wartime allies bitterly at odds. With the currency worthless, the population lives on hand-outs or turns to crime and prostitution. Deep inside the Soviet Zone of occupation, Berlin appears to be an ideal target for a communist take-over, putting the defenders of democracy on a collision course with Stalin's merciless aggression.

A Battle of Britain ace, a female air traffic controller, a concentration camp survivor and an ex-ATA woman pilot are just some of those trying to find their place in the post-war world. An air ambulance service offers a shimmer of hope, but when a Soviet fighter brings down a British passenger liner, Berlin becomes a flashpoint. The world stands poised on the brink of World War Three.

Find out more at: https://www.helenapschrader.com/bridg...

Previous releases include:

" MORAL FIBRE," which WON THE HEMINGWAY AWARD 2022 FOR 20TH CENTURY WARTIME FICTION and a MAINCREST MEDIA AWARD FOR MILITARY FICTION as well as being A FINALIST FOR THE BOOK EXCELLENCE AWARD 2023 IN THE CATEGORY HISTORICAL FICTION.

Riding the icy, moonlit sky,

they took the war to Hitler.

Their chances of survival were less than fifty percent.

Their average age was 21.

This is the story of just one bomber pilot, his crew and the woman he loved.

It is intended as a tribute to them all.

"This is the best book on the life of us fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain that I have ever seen.... I couldn't put it down."-- RAF Battle of Britain ace, Wing Commander Bob Doe.

Winner of a Hemingway Award for 20th Century Wartime Fiction, a Maincrest Media Award for Military Fiction and Silver in the Global Book Awards.

Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/where-eagles-never-flew

For more information about all my books visit: https://www.helenapschrader.com

Disfiguring injuries, class prejudice and PTSD are the focus of three tales set in WWII by award-winning novelist Helena P. Schrader. Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/grounded-eagles

1 like · Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on September 05, 2023 02:30

BRIDGE TO TOMORROW: COLD PEACE -- Meet Kit Moran

Kit is a veteran somewhat "at sea" in the post-war world. After being "de-mobbed" from the RAF, he went to university to obtain qualifications as an aeronautical engineer. This only deferred -- rather than eliminated -- the crisis of finding a new identity in peacetime. Kit's situation is aggravated by the fact that he is a man with disabilities, a wife and an infant daughter. These factors limit his options -- and things are starting to look bleak.

Excerpt 1:

“Mr Wallis, I’m calling because I’vealmost completed my degree. I have only one more semester and should be sittingfor my final exams in June. I’ll be ready to start work in July.”

“Oh, well done! Time certainly does fly.”There was an awkward pause and then Wallis said, “You wanted to remind me of mypromise to help you get started in engineering.”

It wasn’t a question. Wallis clearlyremembered his promise, but something in his voice warned Kit that he wasunhappy with the situation. Kit tried to stay positive. “Yes, that’s right. Ithought maybe we could meet to discuss possible openings at Vickers or otheroptions you might recommend?”

“I’d like to meet up with you, Moran, andhear how you are doing, but — this is very embarrassing — it’s just that Iwouldn’t want you to come all the way down here with false expectations. Yousee,” he sighed audibly, “the government contracts have all dried up. Civilaviation is expanding, of course, but orders for new aircraft are not coming ata rate to make up for the lost military contracts. There are too manyserviceable old aircraft still about. Here at Vickers we may well be forced tolay off some of our staff, including engineering staff. As far as I know, thesituation is the same at all British aviation companies.”

A cold shiver ran down Kit’s spine. Hehadn’t expected that. He had not dreamed that Vickers might be laying offworkers. But he had a child to consider now and couldn’t just take no for ananswer. “But what about the new research facility, sir, the one in Weymouththat you’re working at now?”

“Oh, you heard about my experiments withsupersonic flight and variable-sweep aircraft?” Wallis sounded pleased. “It isvery promising work. I’d like to get you involved with it at some point. I’msure there will be a future in it. It’s just — you see, it’s still very much inthe experimental stage. Which means, unfortunately, that at the moment we’relooking more for mathematicians than engineers.”

The chill was spreading from Kit’s core tohis extremities. His fingers and toes were going cold as Wallis continued in adistressed voice. “Of course, we will need engineers later — assuming all goeswell, but for the foreseeable future, I don’t know how I could justify hiring arecent engineering graduate. I’m hoping to win over Group Captain Cheshire tohelp with some of the theoretical aspects of command and control of pilotlessaircraft,” Wallis added this information as if Kit would find it good news insome way.

He didn’t. It was bad enough that Wallisknew of no appropriate positions he might apply for. The mention of someonelike Cheshire only added insult to injury. No, he didn’t have a VC and threeDSOs. No, he hadn’t flown 100 operations. No, he hadn’t commanded 617 Squadronor observed the drop of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. He was just a disabled,veteran pilot with what was likely to be a Third-Class engineering degree.

On the other end of the line, Wallis wassaying, “I’m very sorry about this, Moran. I wish I had better news. I wish Icould help in some way. If you want, I can give you some names and addresses inAmerica. You might also want to consider a master’s degree. In another year,the situation may have changed again. In the meantime, learn as much as you canabout rocket engineering. There are rumours that the Russians are recruitingall the German scientists that worked on the V-weapons and have plans to buildmore powerful rockets than ever before.”

Kit stiffened as his resentment waxed. “Asfar as I know, sir, rockets have only one purpose: to deliver a cargo of highexplosives. I’ve done more than enough of that already. It’s not the future Ienvisaged for myself. I’m interested in civil, not military, aviation, andcertainly not rockets.”

As soon as Kit starts looking for work, he discovers it isn't going to be as easy as he had hoped. Britain is in a recession. The economy is stagnating and unemployment on the rise. Yet Kit is not willing or ready to take just any job. He still wants to find something with better prospects than what he'd had before the war. He also wants something that will make a positive contribution to creating a better world. He is not always diplomatic about seeking his goals and sometimes he's too proud to compromise, which closes some doors.

As his options become increasingly limited, however, he starts to lose hope and comes close to abandoning his dreams. He is stopped from losing hope by his wife, Georgina, and someone he had never expected to meet or like -- who will remain nameless here!

Excerpt 2:

Kit felt thesame nervousness as before oral exams. True, he was only facing one man sittingbehind a solid oak desk rather than several on a platform, but the sense of hisfate being decided from “on high” remained. He’d sent out dozens of job inquiryletters but so far he’d received only one invitation to an interview. It wasfor a position with the air crash investigation department of the Ministry ofCivil Aviation. The work hardly sounded like what he’d dreamed about for thelast three years, but it appeared to be the only kind he had a chance ofgetting.

"So, MrMoran,” the civil servant opened the interview. “I see you have a commendablewar record, but then so do all the candidates we see for jobs here.” Really?Kit asked himself. They all had DFMs and DFCs? Most of his fellow studentsdidn’t.

The civilservant continued, “And I see you will obtain your BSc in AeronauticalEngineering this summer. Where was that from?” Although voiced nominally as aquestion, the civil servant did not look to Kit for an answer. Instead, hescanned the documents in front of him, confident that the information wasalready there. “Ah, yes, Leeds.” He made it sound as if Leeds was an inferiorinstitution. Kit supposed the man behind the desk had attended Oxford orCambridge, or maybe he just wanted people to think he had.

The interviewer looked intently at Kit. “Do youhave other qualifications that make you suitable for this job?”

No, Kitthought to himself, but he gamely answered, “I’ve survived three crashes.”

“Oh?Interesting, but I’m not sure that is particularly relevant. Our work does notentail trying to replicate crashes, you understand, but rather explaining them.It is very meticulous, very tedious work in many ways. After a crash, we siftthrough the debris— literally thousands of pieces of shattered aircraft — trying to find the one piece that was defective or broke before the machine went down. One needs todiscount all the damage done by impact or fire. It requires the utmostprecision and attention to the tiniest details.”

Why, Kitasked himself, did this man assume he was not capable of either? Out loud heremarked only, “I understand, sir.”

“And you believe you cando that kind of work?”

“Of course. Iwas a flight engineer before I was a pilot and a fitter before that. I knowengines very well.”

“I see,” theman did not sound convinced. … “Mr Moran, what are you reading at the moment?”

“I’m readingfor my exams, sir.”

“Yes, ofcourse. What I mean is what do you read for pleasure?”

Was this somesort of trick question? What answer did they want? Kit couldn’t imagine. He likedreading novels when he had time to submerge in a book, but he feared thatdidn’t sound sophisticated enough. He considered saying something likebiographies or economics but feared he’d be asked for an example. He opted for“literature.”

“Literature?That’s a bit vague, wouldn’t you say? What sort of literature?”

“Classicalliterature. Joseph Conrad. Rudyard Kipling. G.B. Shaw. Remarque.” Kit threw outthe names of the first authors who came to mind, but he sensed he was digginghimself into a hole.

“Notmysteries? Crime novels?”

“No, notparticularly.”

“A pity.We’ve found that many of our best employees have a police background or at leasta keen interest in solving a mystery. They are the kind of people who likereading crime and mystery novels for fun.”

Kit wasbeginning to think they had already identified the candidate they intended tohire. They were probably just going through the motions of an interview tofulfil some bureaucratic requirement. Doggedly, he pointed out. “There was nomention of wanting candidates who read crime novels in the advertisement. Itsaid you were looking for an aeronautical engineer.” He couldn’t quite keep thetinge of resentment out of his voice; Georgina would have cringed had she heardhim.

“We need an aeronauticalengineerwith an interest in investigations," thecivil servant answered firmly. His smile was almostcondescending.

“Yes, that’swhy I’m here,” Kit lied. He was here because he didn’t have any otheralternatives at the moment.

“Mr Moran, I’m going tobe perfectly honest with you. You have all the official qualifications for thejob — assuming, of course, you get your degree — but my colleagues and I havethe impression that you aren’t quite the right fit for it. You know, 617Squadron and all that. Rather a bunch of cowboys, weren’t you?”

“Cowboys? No,sir. We were a Royal Air Force squadron specialized in precision bombing.”Kit’s temper was starting to simmer.

“Yes, butdon’t pretend you weren’t very full of yourselves, taking unnecessary risks anddoing all that low-level flying as much to impress your girlfriends as todefeat Germany.” The man’s smile was unquestionably condescending now.

“No, I didn’tfly into flak at 600 feet to impress my girlfriend,” Kit told him, his angernearing the boiling point.

“Don’t get mewrong, we here at the Ministry greatly admire what you Bomber Boys did, whichis why I have been authorised to make you an alternative offer.”

“I’m sorry. Idon’t think I take your meaning.” Kit tried to keep himself from exploding.

“We don’tthink you’re the right man for the job you applied for, but we are prepared tooffer you a more junior position as assistant to the aeronautical engineerinvestigator. It would require disassembling engines and labelling the piecesof the wreck under investigation. It comes with a salary of five pounds aweek.”

That was halfthe compensation of the advertised position. It would barely replace the moneyhis father had been sending them and certainly would not make up for the lossof Georgina’s earnings. Furthermore, the cost of housing was much higher inLondon than in Leeds. They would never be able to make ends meet on five poundsa week plus his disability. Kit felt as if after six years of war and threeyears in university, he was right back where he started: earning apprenticewages.

But it wouldbe a foot in the door at the Ministry, a rational voice in the back of his headreasoned with him. It would pay the bills while he looked for something better,and London had lots of schools. Georgina would have a better chance of findingwork here than anywhere else — provided they could find someone to look afterDonna. But how could they afford a nanny on slave wages?

Kit silencedthe voice of reason in his brain, got to his feet and took his hat. “No, thankyou!” he snapped at the astonished civil servant.

Cold Peace is Book I of the Bridge to Tomorrow Series.

Three years after WWII, Europe struggles with rationing, widespread unemployment and a growing Soviet threat. Hitler's former capital lies ruined under the joint control of wartime allies bitterly at odds. With the currency worthless, the population lives on hand-outs or turns to crime and prostitution. Deep inside the Soviet Zone of occupation, Berlin appears to be an ideal target for a communist take-over, putting the defenders of democracy on a collision course with Stalin's merciless aggression.

A Battle of Britain ace, a female air traffic controller, a concentration camp survivor and an ex-ATA woman pilot are just some of those trying to find their place in the post-war world. An air ambulance service offers a shimmer of hope, but when a Soviet fighter brings down a British passenger liner, Berlin becomes a flashpoint. The world stands poised on the brink of World War Three.

Find out more at: https://www.helenapschrader.com/bridg...

Previous releases include:

" MORAL FIBRE," which WON THE HEMINGWAY AWARD 2022 FOR 20TH CENTURY WARTIME FICTION and a MAINCREST MEDIA AWARD FOR MILITARY FICTION as well as being A FINALIST FOR THE BOOK EXCELLENCE AWARD 2023 IN THE CATEGORY HISTORICAL FICTION.

Riding the icy, moonlit sky,

they took the war to Hitler.

Their chances of survival were less than fifty percent.

Their average age was 21.

This is the story of just one bomber pilot, his crew and the woman he loved.

It is intended as a tribute to them all.

"This is the best book on the life of us fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain that I have ever seen.... I couldn't put it down."-- RAF Battle of Britain ace, Wing Commander Bob Doe.

Winner of a Hemingway Award for 20th Century Wartime Fiction, a Maincrest Media Award for Military Fiction and Silver in the Global Book Awards.

Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/where-eagles-never-flew

For more information about all my books visit: https://www.helenapschrader.com

Disfiguring injuries, class prejudice and PTSD are the focus of three tales set in WWII by award-winning novelist Helena P. Schrader. Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/grounded-eagles

1 like · Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on August 29, 2023 02:30

CHARACTERS OF "COLD PEACE" -- MEET "KIWI" MURPHY

No character in "Cold Peace" captures the situation of many veterans in the post-war era better than Kiwi. After six years in the RAF and a credible war record, he finds himself floundering. Demobilized into an economy that is struggling, the only job Kiwi can find is as a salesman. He isn't good at it and soon he's not only struggling to make ends meet, his wife has left him as well. He increasingly turns to drink.

Excerpt 1:

Kiwiwas discouraged but knew that much of his glum mood stemmed from the disastrousweekend he’d just put behind him. The weekends tended to leave him feelinglonely and full of regrets about losing Betty, but this past one had beenparticularly rocky. He’d asked Betty to meet with him for lunch, hoping hecould show her he was on a new path. When she refused, he’d pleaded with her,and she’d become angry and insulting. He’d answered in kind, and it turned intoa shouting match until she hung up on him. How had it come to this? They hadbeen so in love in 1944…

Theengine started coughing, and having crested the hill, Kiwi disengaged the gearsand coasted. It was like gliding a Spit in after the engine stalled, he toldhimself. Luckily, he could see the petrol station at the foot of the hill.Unluckily, it was on the other side of the road, and there was oncomingtraffic. If he had to put on the brakes, he’d never be able to roll into thestation.

Concentratingand talking to the car at the same time, he judged the distance, his speed, andthe speed of the approaching lorry. Just when he thought he was going to beable to turn in after it had passed, it slowed down. Kiwi had to slam on hisbrakes, and he came to a halt in the middle of the road, while the lorrycontinued obliviously on its way.

Trafficconverged on Kiwi from both directions. Cursing colourfully, Kiwi tried torestart the engine, causing a bang followed by ominous hissing. The cars oneither side of him started hooting their horns. Idiots! Surely, they could seehe was dead in the water? One of the drivers started inching cautiously pasthis stern, but the other stuck his head out of the window to shout rude thingsat him.

Kiwiclimbed out of his car and started pushing it off the road. He was relievedwhen a young man from the petrol station darted out to help him. The stationattendant pointed to a garage behind the filling station, and they pushed thecar in there. After putting on the brake, they looked under the hood togetherand Kiwi explained what he’d done and heard. As the young mechanic tinkeredwith this, that and the other, they chatted. The rapport between them wasinstantaneous, and in no time, Kiwi had his hands dirty as he helped.

Theywere so absorbed in their task, that neither of them took any notice of a carhooting behind them until a fat man came storming over shouting. “WOODWARD!What do you think I’m paying you for? Get out there and pump petrol!”

Toolate, the helpful young man realised three cars were in line for petrol.Apologizing profusely to his boss, he rushed out to do his job, while Kiwiwaited, feeling guilty for distracting him. After the customers had drivenaway, the young employee returned and remarked in a low voice, “If you give me anotherhalf hour, I think I can get her fixed up enough for you to get to Petersfieldon your own power. The problem is the cylinder head gasket, and you’ll need toget it taken off and reskinned at a proper garage.”

“Thanks,mate, but I’d hate to get you in more trouble.”

Theattendant shrugged. “If it hadn’t been you, it would have been something else.Mr Babbit doesn’t think I’m worth the time of day let alone a shilling an hour!As he never tires of telling me, he only hired me as a favour to his sister,who happens to be my sister’s mother-in-law.” He shook his head in a gesture ofapparent helplessness. “Problemis,” he explained, “I’ve got no formal training on automobiles, and Babbitthinks a ‘Merlin’ is a mythical wizard rather than a wizard machine.” He cast adisgusted look in the direction of the station office.

Kiwilaughed. “Fitter?”

“That’sright. You with the mob, too?” Chips asked hopefully.

Kiwi nodded. “Best years of my life, buttime goes on."

Kiwi is a New Zealander who fell in love with flying as a boy, scraped his pennies together to learn how to fly and then made a living (of sorts) flying any job he could find -- in flying circuses, barn-storming, crop-dusting, fire-fighting, instructing, and offering joy-rides to paying customers. He didn't earn much, lived rough but was happy. Then the war came and a sense of patriotism combined with the desire to fly modern aircraft induced him to pay his own way to England and volunteer for the RAF.

Given a short service commission, trained on Spitfires and sent to Fighter Command, Kiwi gets his baptism of fire in the Battle of Britain. He is once shot down over France but evades capture and returns to fly and fight again. By the end of the war he is a Squadron Leader and a decorated hero. But his service commission expires with the end of the emergency and he finds himself looking for work in "civvy street" just like tens of thousands of others. The only work he can find is as a salesman, and fails miserably. Misery leads to excessive drinking which adds to friction with his wife, and by late 1947 she has left him. That's when he encounters David Goldman, a friend since 1940, and David gives him the chance to join his fledgling air ambulance company.

Kiwi isn't a freeloader. He brings important skills in the cockpit and on the ground. David really couldn't succeed without him, but that doesn't mean they don't have their differences -- and Kiwi's demons haven't entirely released him....

Excerpt 2:

Sunlight penetrated the room and Kiwi groaned. Hishead was throbbing, his mouth dry, and he needed to pee. But when he rolledover to get out of bed, he bumped into something. There was someone else in hisbed. Oh, God! Where did she come from? The pub, of course; drinking with Chipsand Ron. They’d chatted up those girls — well, not really girls anymore, Kiwireflected as he eased out from under the covers without waking up his bedmate.

By the cold light of dawn with most of her make-up on thepillowcase, she looked older than he was. Her heavy breasts sagged shapelesslyto either side, but her belly swelled up in two thick rolls. She lay on herback, her mouth hanging open, and she snored softly. She looked forty if shewas a day, but who knew? Too many late nights, too many cigarettes, too muchalcohol, too many lost friends and too many disappointments had left them alllooking older than their age. Did anyone look “their” age anymore?

Kiwi stumbled over the cold floor to the bathroom,embarrassed to realise he was as naked as the woman in his bed. Their clothingwas littered on the floor in a messy heap all mixed up together. He vaguelyremembered the excitement of it, but the call of nature allowed no lingering.

He slipped into the bathroom and his reflection in themirror made him groan. He looked an absolute wreck. God, he had to stopdrinking like that. He couldn’t handle it anymore — or the consequences. Howthe hell was he going to get rid of her? And what on earth was her name? Not tomention that his head was killing him!

After relieving himself, he turned on the tap andfilled the basin with cold water. He leaned over, dipped his hands in the waterand threw it at his face. He had the feeling he’d forgotten something — besidesthe name of the woman in his bed. What day of the week was it? What was hesupposed to be doing?

Jesus Christ! He stood up so abruptly that he almostblacked out and had to clutch the washbasin to stop himself from losing hisbalance altogether. It was Friday! He was scheduled for his flight test today!At 9:30 am. What time was it?

Jesus! Jesus! He ran out of the bathroom and startedfrantically searching for his watch. Where had he put it? His hasty search madethe stranger in his bed turn over with a little moan, but Kiwi didn’t care. Hehad to find out what time it was. Finally, he spotted his watch lying atop thechest of drawers. 8:35!

No, no! He couldn’t be late! His future depended onpassing the qualifying exam on twin-engine aircraft. If he couldn’t get hiscertificate for twins, he couldn’t fly the Wellington, and he was no use toBanks, and he’d be tossed out of the company on his ear. Jesus! Jesus! Thefirst objects he could put his hands on were his socks and he pulled one onafter the other, then his undershorts and finally a pair of trousers.

The woman on the bed made a sound like she was awake.

Cold Peace is Book I of the Bridge to Tomorrow Series.

Three years after WWII, Europe struggles with rationing, widespread unemployment and a growing Soviet threat. Hitler's former capital lies ruined under the joint control of wartime allies bitterly at odds. With the currency worthless, the population lives on hand-outs or turns to crime and prostitution. Deep inside the Soviet Zone of occupation, Berlin appears to be an ideal target for a communist take-over, putting the defenders of democracy on a collision course with Stalin's merciless aggression.

A Battle of Britain ace, a female air traffic controller, a concentration camp survivor and an ex-ATA woman pilot are just some of those trying to find their place in the post-war world. An air ambulance service offers a shimmer of hope, but when a Soviet fighter brings down a British passenger liner, Berlin becomes a flashpoint. The world stands poised on the brink of World War Three.

Find out more at: https://www.helenapschrader.com/bridg...

Previous releases include:

" MORAL FIBRE," which WON THE HEMINGWAY AWARD 2022 FOR 20TH CENTURY WARTIME FICTION and a MAINCREST MEDIA AWARD FOR MILITARY FICTION as well as being A FINALIST FOR THE BOOK EXCELLENCE AWARD 2023 IN THE CATEGORY HISTORICAL FICTION.

Riding the icy, moonlit sky,

they took the war to Hitler.

Their chances of survival were less than fifty percent.

Their average age was 21.

This is the story of just one bomber pilot, his crew and the woman he loved.

It is intended as a tribute to them all.