In the Shadows of War: An American Pilot's Odyssey Through Occupied France and the Camps of Nazi Germany 
asked by alexis on November 29, 2006 11:21 AM
In a small village in France during the fateful summer of 1944, three disparate lives converged in an unlikely secret alliance. Just after D-Day, Colette Florin hid downed American bomber pilot Roy Allen in her rooms above the tiny girls' school where she taught. While concealing him not only from the Germans but from her neighbors in the small village, she was drawn deeper into the clandestine world of the regional underground. There she met the local leader of the resistance: Pierre Mulsant, a young Frenchman trained by the British secret service who had parachuted into France in the spring of 1944. Drawn from extensive interviews, letters, and archival documents in Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, In the Shadows of War tells their interrelated stories, following these three fascinating people from their Resistance activities in rural France, to Paris and captivity by the Gestapo, to Germany and Buchenwald concentration camp. It is a human story of love and loss, of courage and sacrifice by ordinary people who did not make policy or formulate strategy but whose lives were profoundly altered by war.
Reviews
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i must say i am not the most advid reader in the world but when i bought this book i could not put it down. this book has it all, great adventures rich with texture and amazing characters!
there are many subplots to this book which also help advance the story to a wonderful ending. what a great movie this book would make and the fact that it really happend makes it even more compelling. thomas childers is a wonderful rich story teller. thanks for a great read!
there are many subplots to this book which also help advance the story to a wonderful ending. what a great movie this book would make and the fact that it really happend makes it even more compelling. thomas childers is a wonderful rich story teller. thanks for a great read!
reviewed by dignified1 on November 29, 2006 6:49 PM
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When I was growing up as a young child, Roy Allen and his wife May were very dear friends of my parents. I remember he and May would spend time with us on my parents boat. Roy was always a jokester and made everyone laugh. Now that I am grown, I was extremely excited to find out that there was a book writen about his story. I had no idea of the difficult experiences that he had. Knowing him with his great humor, who would have thought! I can't put this book down, reading each page makes me want to turn to the next so that I can learn to know Roy. I can't wait to see the movie on T.V. - Marie Hazzard Smith
reviewed by titanium7 on November 29, 2006 7:16 PM
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A favorite author of veterans of the Eighth Air Force and, indeed, all those interested in World War Two history, has scored with another winning effort. We all remember Tom Childers popular "Wings of Morning" that told the sad history of the last B-24 shot down in Europe. This new and exciting and illuminating book brings to life what it was like to be "on the run" in Nazi Germany and later the difficulties of surviving life in the camps.
Your editor recalls the instructions his crew received on its way to assignment in India. We left St Mawes in Cornwall headed for Naples. The advice given us was to surrender to the Germans if we came down in occupied France and to avoid being captured by the Vichy Milice at all costs. The Germans would most likely ship you off to a POW camp. The Milice would just as likely rob and kill you.
The mists of history are closing over all those who took part in WW2 whether in uniform or out. It is therefore a pleasure to see Childers tell the story of the incredibly courageous young schoolteacher, Colette Florin, a member of the resistance since their earliest days who sheltered a fugitive Roy Allen, an airman from Philadelphia, in her tiny apartment when any of the other tenants might well have been Nazi collaborators.
Do you remember Pierre Laval, the French politico who headed the collaborationist puppet Vichy government? A bit about this traitor appears in the book. He was later executed on orders of the DeGaulle government. Remember that when the Nazis invaded France they were allies of the Communists who at that time held Russia. It is interesting to note that some believe that French Communists working in French aircraft factories sabotaged fighters being destined for the French Air Force and actually cost more casualties than did the Luftwaffe .
Read "In The Shadows of War". Those of you, and there are many in the AFHS, who experienced bail-outs over France will find Roy Allen's experiences particularly interesting as will all those who experienced the dubious hospitality of the German POW camps.
-- Jack Brennan
Your editor recalls the instructions his crew received on its way to assignment in India. We left St Mawes in Cornwall headed for Naples. The advice given us was to surrender to the Germans if we came down in occupied France and to avoid being captured by the Vichy Milice at all costs. The Germans would most likely ship you off to a POW camp. The Milice would just as likely rob and kill you.
The mists of history are closing over all those who took part in WW2 whether in uniform or out. It is therefore a pleasure to see Childers tell the story of the incredibly courageous young schoolteacher, Colette Florin, a member of the resistance since their earliest days who sheltered a fugitive Roy Allen, an airman from Philadelphia, in her tiny apartment when any of the other tenants might well have been Nazi collaborators.
Do you remember Pierre Laval, the French politico who headed the collaborationist puppet Vichy government? A bit about this traitor appears in the book. He was later executed on orders of the DeGaulle government. Remember that when the Nazis invaded France they were allies of the Communists who at that time held Russia. It is interesting to note that some believe that French Communists working in French aircraft factories sabotaged fighters being destined for the French Air Force and actually cost more casualties than did the Luftwaffe .
Read "In The Shadows of War". Those of you, and there are many in the AFHS, who experienced bail-outs over France will find Roy Allen's experiences particularly interesting as will all those who experienced the dubious hospitality of the German POW camps.
-- Jack Brennan
reviewed by speed5599 on November 29, 2006 7:21 PM