War Fiction by William Henry Wood. 2019
Set in January 1933, an exchange student from Cambridge is in Heidelberg. He has his throat cut by a member of the SA(Storm Army Brown Shirts) late one night. He survives, but his life is changed. He is set on a path to return as Hitler is proclaimed Chancellor and the Nazi’s come to power abolishing democracy in Germany. This is an unconventional espionage plot involving the infighting between the SS and the SA. As a mute, he goes back to spy for the British Foreign Office. It is a human story at the opposite end of the genre to Ian Fleming.
The Nazi’s came to power in Germany in 1933, no one knew then of the horror they would inflict on the world. If the evil in their eyes had been recognised, would it have made any difference…? The policy of appeasement was a form of cowardice… it has been said. No-one wanted war and the reality was too frightening to face…! Could it have been stopped, all the signs were there for the world to see, they didn’t declare war on us, we did that by ultimatum, but was it too late…!
