Love and War

Robert Huddleston

Description

This is a book of fiction, a war novel that required considerable research into the two World Wars. Having been born three years before Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic, the author's teenage years focused on the Great War and combat duty in the Second World War led to a lifetime of learning and writing of the two epics of the 20th century.To those who question the value of fiction over nonfiction, the novelist Barbara Kingsolver offered this: "I love fiction that educates me on the sly about something I did not realize I wanted to know. As long as novelists have done their research and honored accuracy where it counts, I'd rather learn from a confabulation than a textbook. This story, therefore, honors the historical facts while introducing fictional characters in love and war. Also present in the story are commentaries of issues often distorted by propaganda.

Sujets

• Historical fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Date de parution: 28 février 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781645751168
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Love and War
A Father and Son in Two World Wars
Robert Huddleston
Austin Macauley Publishers
2020-02-28
Love and War About The Author Dedication Copyright Information © Acknowledgment Synopsis Chapter One The War to End All Wars Chapter Two Fred and Anna Chapter Three The Birth of the Third Reich Kristallnacht Lady Claire Chapter Four World War II Launched Mein Kampf Reveals the Future Chapter Five Paris on the Eve of Invasion Chapter Six The Browns at War The Battle of Britain Chapter Seven The American Eagles The Blitz June 22, 1941 The Dinner Chapter Eight An Eagle Is Grounded American 401 Fighter Group D-Day, June 6, 1944 Chapter Nine Fred Brown’s Quest The Search for the Waldermanns Chapter Ten The End of the Third Reich The End of the Story Epilogue by Ralph Harrington
About The Author
A young fighter pilot in the closing months of the European air war in World War II, Robert Huddleston completed 36 combat missions while developing a desire to know more about the German rocket program. A university education under the GI Bill was followed by employment at the White Sands Missile Range—WSMR—where ex-German rocket experts were employed. He then moved on to Washington, joining the newly established space agency—NASA—first at the Goddard Space Flight Center in nearby Maryland, later at NASA headquarters. After leaving federal service, he became a freelance writer, publishing articles, essays, book reviews, and short stories. He also published a biography of a Mexican-American patriot, Edmundo: From Chiapas, Mexico to Park Avenue (2007) , and a novella, An American Pilot with the Luftwaffe (2014). Huddleston received degrees from the University of Missouri, George Washington University, and graduated from the National Defense University in Washington as a representative of NASA. He and his wife, Pepita Lassalle, reside in a retirement community near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he continues publishing as a freelancer.
Dedication
For Pepita, my love and partner.
For Herbert Bailey Jr., my literary mentor.
Copyright Information ©
Robert Huddleston (2020)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Ordering Information:
Quantity sales: special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.
Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Huddleston, Robert
Love and War: A Father and Son in Two World Wars
ISBN 9781645751151 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781645751144 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781645751168 (ePub e-book)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020901879
www.austinmacauley.com/us
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers LLC
40 Wall Street, 28th Floor
New York, NY 10005
USA
[e-mail]
[phone]
Acknowledgment
To Floyd Blair, who pestered me to become a novelist.

I love fiction that educates me on the sly about something I realized I wanted to know. As long as novelists have done their research and honored accuracy where it counts, I’d rather learn from a confabulation than a textbook.
Barbara Kingsolver,
Novelist.
Good fiction can contribute powerfully to history teaching.
Robert O. Paxton,
Historian.
Synopsis
Love and War is an historical novel, the history being the events of the first half of the 20 th century, the First World War, 1914–1918, the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich, the Second World War, and, lastly, the death of Hitler and defeat of Germany.
Two connected families are caught-up in these historic events. Frederick ‘Fred’ Brown is the son of a German immigrant who owns the Brown Art Gallery in Chicago. Fred volunteered for military service when the U.S. entered the European conflict in 1917. He is awarded a Distinguished Service Cross, a distinction that leads to his being assigned to the American Legation in Bern, Switzerland “to monitor the political developments in defeated Germany.”
At the suggestion of his German-American father, Fred Brown visits the Waldermann Art Gallery in Berlin where he meets Anna Waldermann, a German Jewess. Later, he encounters her in Bern and following a brief courtship, they marry and in due course, produce a son, Ernest Michael Brown.
Young Ernie Brown becomes a flying enthusiast, attends Cambridge University where he meets and later marries Lady Claire Woodcastle, daughter of Sir Clarence Woodcastle late of the British Foreign Office. Ernie, though a U.S. citizen, joins a Royal Air Force Reserve Fighter Unit that eventually leads to combat in the 1940’s Battle of Britain, When the U.S. enters the war in December 1941, Ernie transfers to the U.S. Army Air Force. During the D-day landings in June 1944, he is badly wounded, but survives.
Meanwhile, Anna and her parents have been arrested by the Nazi Gestapo which sends Fred Brown, now a U.S. Army Colonel, in charge of an army unit to locate looted art, on a quest to learn the fate of Anna and her parents.
Chapter One

The War to End All Wars
SECOND LIEUTENANT FREDERICK ‘FRED’ BROWN stepped gingerly as he tread the plank leading from Battalion Headquarters to the front.
“Tell me, soldier, do the trenches ever get dry?”
With a slight chuckle came the response, “Afraid not, Lieutenant, if you slip off the plank, you’ll get muddy boots. The Hun artillery sucks up the ground water. But over the top, don’t fall in a shell hole, (another chuckle) you’ll probably drown if you can’t swim.”
The connecting trench took a sharp left turn and on his right, the lieutenant observed a line of soldiers standing on a parapet rifles laid on top in the direction of the enemy’s trench. One soldier was using a periscope to scan the enemy trench. Another soldier was relieved and Brown noted the bayonet that drew a brief shutter.
“Damn primitive; the favorite weapon, so it was said, of Napoleons’ army. Go for the belly,” the grizzly sergeant taught in officer’s training. “Stick it in the chest and it gets tangled up in the ribs. Seems we haven’t advanced much since the 19 th century.” He recalled an article in a Washington newspaper by an American who served in the French Foreign Legion in the opening weeks of the war. Here’s what he clipped from the newspaper that described their introduction to trench warfare:
“ The moon had come out – a watery, faint, pallid moon – across which rai n clouds drifted. The men stumbled forward into the black wood and passed through. Just at the far end of the wood, five , freshly killed men were lying. The Germans had bombarded the trenches after seeing us that afternoon, and these were the victims. It was the first that most of our men had seen of men killed in war. Some of them had hardly seen dead men before in their lives. They went by in hushed silence in an Indian file, glancing out of the corner of their eyes at the five dead, covered by their overcoats. They had not known before how quiet the dead lie. It was their introduction of the life of the trench. ( Evening Star , July 1, 1917)”
Pausing at the entrance of a dugout, the soldier shouted, “Captain Epstein, here’s our new lieutenant.”
“Enter, Lieutenant, and share a cup of reasonably good coffee.”
Fred Brown entered the dimly lit dugout and faced his new superior seated at a table. “Lieutenant Brown reporting for duty, sir.”
“Welcome, Lieutenant Brown. Our association may be short but ‘welcome’ to this den of warriors.” He poured coffee as Brown sat down.
“Thank you, sir.”
“And your home, Brown?”
“Chicago.”
“Education?”
“University of Chicago; two years.”
“Great school; as a New York Jew, it was one year for me at NYU before the honor of attending West Point. Your university subject?”
(Smiling) “Art history; no doubt a long way from subjects at West Point.”
“Perhaps not as far as you might believe. Haven’t you heard of the ‘art of war’?”
“Yes, sir. Also, the ‘science of war.’”
“Touché! Let me be upfront, lieutenant. I’m a cynic; one who believes this is a stupid war directed by stupid leaders who have little understanding of what goes on in the muddy, bloody trenches. Do you follow?”
“I do, Captain; every word.”
“Now, tell me, Brown, what the hell are you doing here? Drafted?”
Brown responded with a smile, “Volunteered…well, sort of pushed into uniform.”
“Pushed?”
“Yeah… Three young ladies on campus called me a slacker. I half-expected a white feather.”
“Maybe we ought to send them a severed limb or two. Or a useless prick. So you enlisted.”
“In the Air Service. I had in mind, becoming a pilot but was rejected; eyes not up to the task. As one pilot put it, ‘You need the eyes of a hunter.’”
“Too bad. Although, I’ve seen those kites go down in flames. Here you’re in a lottery – and it is a ‘lottery’ – decides who has the honor of ‘going over the top.’ And as tradition demands, officers will take the lead, you will be first out of the trench, wave your .45; it’s ineffective beyond twenty yards. Whatever, you yell ‘Follow me!’ Then you’re off to glory. Unless you’re extremely lucky, our association may be quite short. Would you prefer my ‘welcome’ to the company stress our being sacrificed in defense of liberty; of our cherished freedoms?”
“No, sir. So far y