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MWSA Review.
A Yank in the Luftwaffe written by Robert V. Ricard takes the reader on an incredible mystical mystery ride which sucks the reader into turning page after page. The book will read like a good TV Series where each chapter will be like a TV episode.
The author will expand the plot and also expand the mystery as the book goes through the ebbs and flow of a good mystery story. The plot is multi-layered and becomes more complex as the book explains the trials and tribulations of Major Erich Berger of the U.S. Army Air Corps. The pilot of a P-47 Thunderbolt fighter plane is shot down over France and through a series of fantastic incidents Berger who is of German heritage is disguised as major pilot of a Messerschmitt fighter plane.
As Ricard spins his yarn furthering the complexity of the plot, the reader falls deeper into the web created by the author. The author uses an accurate historical background of the Europe during WWII. In fact the usage of certain historical characters adds authenticity to the story line.
The book will not disappoint the reader, and will have the reader wanting to go forward to see just how it will end. Great read, of which I highly recommend for all.
Reviewed by: Dick Geschke (2013)
Author's Summary
Entitled A Yank in the Luftwaffe, the book is a fictional novel, a suspenseful thriller, that takes place in German-occupied France during World War Two. It begins with fighter pilot Major Erich Berger, U. S. Army Air Corps, in a dog fight with a German fighter plane. Both planes are damaged by gun fire and make a forced landing in the same field. Berger gets out of his plane and walks to the German plane where he sees the pilot slumped over the instrument panel with a head injury. Berger pushes the pilot back in his seat and is shocked to see his identical twin brother Hans. They were born and raised in Germany, but their parents were anti-Nazi and emigrated to the U. S. before Hitler took complete power. But Hans had been brain washed by the Hitler Youth Movement and refused to go with his parents and Erich. He went to live with an aunt and uncle who were pro-Nazi. Hans dies of his injuries while Erich is watching him. A member of the French Resistance and an American OSS agent walk up to the plane. The OSS agent talks Erich into impersonating his brother in the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe. But Erich comes under the watchful eye of the Gestapo, Hitler's dreaded secret police, for Hans having recently written a letter to his girl friend severely criticizing the Luftwaffe high command, the letter considered anti-Nazi. But the Gestapo is not the only peril Erich faces because Hans is hated by another Luftwafffe pilot for being responsible for the death of the pilot's father at the hands of the Gestapo. And Erich is also in danger working with the French Resistance to defeat Germany. In his early stages of working with the Resistance, he falls in love with a beautiful female member of the Resistance who saves his life one night. The book is a nail biter with no boring segments.
