Bomber (26 page)

This book was inspired by family trips to visit my friends Matthew and Julia Ward, who live in a converted pub called the Green Man in Kirkstead, Norfolk. During the war this pub was frequented by American airmen from nearby Seething airbase. Whenever I visit, I am haunted by the thought of these young men drinking their ‘warm’ beer on the nights before their bombing missions, when many would have been blown to pieces over places like Berlin, Stuttgart or Schweinfurt.

The planes and airbase at Kirkstead never existed, although it is loosely modelled on the airbase at nearby Seething, which was home to Liberators rather than Flying Fortresses. I do like to weave real history around the fictional characters in my books. The raids on Schweinfurt on August 17, 1943, and October 14, 1943, are based on actual USAAF raids on that city on those days. The departure of
Kansas Kate
from Kirkstead echoes the famous story of the
Memphis
Belle
, whose crew were lionised by the American media when they completed their twenty-five missions in 1943. Also, the passage in the book where
Macey May
’s chief mechanic Ernie Benik discovers a note from slave workers inside a dud German cannon shell in the wing of their B-17 is also based on real events.

The B-17 Flying Fortress is a fascinating aircraft. Although it had a reputation for toughness and durability, it never quite lived up to its name. Of the 12,731 B-17s built between 1936 and 1945, 4,754 were lost in action. Over 1943, when casualties in the air war were at their highest, it has been estimated that a Flying Fortress crew had a one in four chance of completing their twenty-five mission tour. Not all of the ten man crew would be killed, of course. Many airmen parachuted to safety, but those are still daunting odds.

Also, undeniably, the B-17’s art deco curves made it one of the most beautiful aircraft of the Second World War. Some B-17s can still be seen in museums in Europe and America, and a few are still flying.

All my main characters are fictitious although I have tried to reflect as accurately as I can the thoughts and experiences of the United States Eighth Air Force crews in 1943, and the extraordinarily brave members of the French Resistance. I
often feel grateful I have never had to conjure the reserves of courage required by the characters in my novels.

A few of the senior figures featured here, such as General Eaker and ‘Bomber’ Harris, are real people, and some of the incidents between the characters in this book were inspired by real events and reported conversations. For example, the
Macey May
crew’s conversation in the Green Man pub with the British pilots Gordon and Ray was inspired by a passage in Patrick Bishop’s book
Bomber Boys
. The American journalist Eddie Burnet is fictitious, but the incident in which he features was inspired by the death of a
Life
magazine journalist who was killed while flying with the USAAF over Germany.

I like to walk the same streets as my characters, so wherever possible I visit the places where I set my stories. The couple of hours I spent at Seething airfield were invaluable. I also went to the RAF Museum in Hendon, London, to spend a fascinating afternoon with my agent Charlie Viney. I watched the 1949 film
Twelve O’Clock High
, starring Gregory Peck, to try to get a feel for how American airmen spoke, and also scores of videos on YouTube, and read many books about the air war over Europe, and the French Resistance escape routes used by downed Allied pilots.

Special thanks to Matthew and Julia Ward. On my last visit to their home in Kirkstead, Matthew took me to visit nearby Seething Control Tower Museum, where Jim Turner and his colleagues kindly allowed us to wander round, despite the tower being closed for maintenance. Do have a look at this website –
www.seethingtower.org
– and indeed, visit the museum if you are close by.

Thank you also to Patricia Everson, who very kindly agreed to talk to me at very short notice, and allowed me to look through her archive of photographs of Seething Air Base.

Thank you to my publisher, Ele Fountain, and my agent, Charlie Viney, who encouraged me to write this story, and my editor, Isabel Ford, who painstakingly moulded and polished these words with patience and perspicacity. Thanks also to Talya Baker, who copy-edited, Nick de Somogyi, who proofread, and James Fraser for his magnificent cover. And, as ever, Dilys Dowswell for her helpful comments on my first draft and Jenny and Josie Dowswell, who look after me and put up with my absences and odd hours.