Historical

Title: The Day Before the Berlin Wall
Author: T. H. E. Hill
Genre: Fiction, Historical
Reviewer: Joyce Gilmour

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): ISBN / EAN

The plot is based on a "legend" that was still being told by U.S. Army soldiers in Berlin in the mid-1970s. According to the legend, we had advance knowledge of the wall, and we knew that the East-German troops who were going to build it had been told to halt construction if the Americans were to take aggressive action to stop them. In Hill's version of the tale, a young American sergeant is the one who gets this piece of intelligence, but he is in East Berlin and has to get back to his unit to report it. The Stasi (the East German secret police) are prepared to kill to keep him from reporting it. They have killed his postmistress, and framed him for her murder. Now it is not only the Stasi, and the Vopos (the East-German "People's" Police), but also the West-Berlin municipal Polizei and the U.S. Army MPs who are after him. It's the day before construction is scheduled to start, and time is running out, so the sergeant is running as fast as he can. The key question of the novel is "even if he is lucky enough to make it back across the border, will anybody in the West believe what he has to say and take action on it before it is too late?" History says that he either didn't make it, or they didn't believe him.

Title: The Kaiser's Yanks
Author: Gary C. Warne
Genre: Fiction, Historical
Reviewer: Weymouth Symmes

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1935683098

Grab your parachute and join the pilots of Jasta von Steuben, the American-filled squadron of the German Army Air Service as they contest the skies over the trenches against the British and the French in World War I. Page after page of roaring engines, stuttering machine guns, the howl of artillery and anti-aircraft fire, the quiet of blossoming love amidst the terror and uncertainty of war, and the honor men find even as they attempt to kill the men they face in battle. This is aerial combat at its best!

Title: The Last Jump
Author: John Nevola
Genre: Fiction, Historical
Reviewer: Bob Flournoy

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1432756656

A mother's dying wish propels her only son headlong into an astonishing adventure in The Last Jump. Fact and fiction intermix seamlessly as he endeavors to unravel a wartime secret passionately guarded by four old soldiers who swore an oath never to reveal it. As our protagonist reaches out to these aging warriors to solve the puzzle, he uncovers truths he never could have imagined including the shocking conclusion.

The Last Jump is a war story, a mystery, a love tale and a narrative about the gritty men and women who won World War II. It was a time when ordinary citizens of an imperfect America, with all its incredible virtues and vexing shortcomings, stood shoulder to shoulder against the world?s most evil powers in a fight for survival.