Under a War- Torn Sky

Under a War- Torn Sky, by L.M. Elliot, is a lucid gripping tale about courage, sacrifice, love and loss during the Nazi occupation of Europe during WW2.

Shot down on a dangerous mission in Germany, 19 year-old bomber pilot Henry Forester finds himself in a land infested with people who would find boundless joy in seeing his head on their mantelpiece. Henry is suddenly forced to use all his wits, the kindness of strangers and the resourcefulness and cunning of the French Resistance maquis to survive a perilous journey across Nazi-controlled Europe in order to get back to home and the girl he loves.

The book is written using great vocabulary, but L.M. Elliot wrote the book in such a way that even though endless reams of adjectives can be found on a single page, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand what’s going on. I think that she is one of the best authors I’ve read because I didn’t know that this book was inspired by her grandfather until the very last page. I admire her for that; her skill to make a story sound like her own from the first word. It made the book more interesting. However, there was one flaw about this book. In the first few chapters, she spent too many words describing events that need less than 300 words to describe them. This book is very different from other WW2 books that I’ve read. In other books, the protagonist was usually recording events in a diary format. This book is not just a collection of Henry’s experiences, but also a collection of every thought that runs through his head, every emotion that he experiences and every person he meets. That is what makes this book stand out in bold relief from other WW2 books

My favorite parts of the book were the parts that mentioned the kindness of the strangers that helped him before the French Resistance stepped in. I felt happy that in fiction and in real life ordinary people were willing to take extraordinary risk to help people they didn’t know just so that they would see the light of dawn. I felt a twinge of sadness as I read these parts because in real life, some people were not as fortunate as some of the families who sheltered him. If they escaped prosecution, they’d be wanted fugitives the Nazi’s, with their cold-blooded brutality, would not rest until they were caught and when they were, they would be tortured to death or sent to death camps like Ravensbruck and Aushwitz.

L.M. Elliot was inspired to writer Under a War-Torn Sky after hearing stories of her grandfather’s adventures when he was trapped behind enemy lines. Her grandfather was also a bomber pilot during WW2 and was also shot down on a mission to Germany. Under a War-Torn Sky has won several awards which include the Notable Book in Social Studies for Young People (NCSS/CBC), 2002 Jefferson Cup Honor Book, 2002 Winner, Borders’ Original Voices Award for Young Adult Literature, 2001 Best Children’s Books of the Year, 2002.

There was one part at the beginning of the book that touched me. After a nightmare, Henry sings a poem called High Flight to himself to calm himself down. An American RAF pilot who wrote it just before being killed in action wrote this poem. Here it is:

“ Oh I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds-and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of-wheeled and soared

And swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,

I’ve chased the shouting wind along and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or even eagle, flew;

And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.”