Category: War Publisher: Amazon
ISBN-10: 1505420687
Type: Fiction
Pages: 44
Copyright: Dec 13, 2014
ISBN-13: 9781505420685
Price: $2.55 (eBook)
Seven short stories inspired by the author's experiences in World War II and the decade or so after.
Seven short stories inspired by the author’s experiences in World War II and the decade after. Clive Lodge (born 1909) served in the RAF as a navigator with the rank of flight lieutenant. He usually flew Beaufighters, but like many people he had a deep affection for the Spitfire. Clive’s active service was with night-fighters – the setting for the short story Night Mission.
The Tunnel, by contrast, is set in peacetime, some years after the war but the writing clearly reveals how the unpunished atrocities of war can haunt a person.
Clive’s stories are very much of their time and they reflect the thinking and values of those years.
There’s No Scar Now – with its gripping opener “I killed John James Beresford” is set in Kent and draws on Clive’s experience in the Home Guard before he enlisted in the RAF. In all seven of these stories the detail and atmosphere evoked will take you back to those days.
Excerpt
Night-fighting – and waiting. Geoff and I worked out on one occasion that the chance we had of doing anything spectacular arose just once per year. Our fallacious reasoning went roughly like this: of 365 nights in the year, we were on leave for 21, leaving 344. We, in “B” Flight, shared operational flying with “A” Flight, so the nights available were reduced to 172. Bad weather and U/S aircraft reduces to 80. Enemy activity in the area took place on average about one in eight nights, leaving ten possible nights. In “B” Flight we had ten crews taking first readiness in turn, so that we would be down to a chance of being on first readiness with a serviceable aircraft in good weather conditions with enemy aircraft in the area just one night a year.
This was that night.
Professional Reviews
More than a glimpse into the Past - truly a treasure find
What a delightful find! A friend suggested this small collection of short stories saying it was a well written look into the past. She obviously was a master of understatement. It is more than well written and more than just a look into the past. It is a treasure trove of cultural insights, as well as amazingly sharp focus into the minds and hearts of successful relationships - or those that didn't quite happen.
The war time stories impressively show the reality of the confusion of the times even for those who were active, even participating observers.
Gallantry mixed with self-preservation makes a strange and wonderfully entertaining as well as infinitely interesting perspective. All of which are very well told in this collection.
As you read each story, I challenge you to find the ending that contrary to appearances has little to do with even modest promiscuity but all to do with the integrity of truth that a lasting marriage must be built upon. This comes from the mind of a man that truly must have made the world richer for his understanding of the human condition.
It is a shame the author didn't write more. His talent for telling the obvious in a very un-obvious manner is quite impressive. I feel fortunate the author's daughter found these manuscripts and gave them to us. As a boomer who grew up on the stories, values and ethics of the fading era of WWII I feel doubly fortunate to have found them myself.
Individually each story could be a four star, a three star, or a five star short story based on any number of points. Collectively I
