Song of the Young Sentry

by David Westheimer

Dust jacket art by Shannon Stirnweis. His seventh book about three American soldiers who are prisoners of War in a camp Southeast of Rome during World War II.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

David Westheimer was a novelist best-known for his for his 1964 novel Von Ryan's Express, which was based in part upon his experiences as a prisoner of war in Italy and Germany during World War II.

Ironically, one of his most popular novels, and perhaps his most enduring, was not credited to him for much of its shelf life: In its original printing, he was by-lined as the author of the novelization of Days of Wine and Roses based on the screenplay by his friend J.P. Miller. However the book proved hugely popular and the story had become so iconic that its publisher Bantam Books (and one supposes the authors, by mutual arrangement) took Westheimer's name off the book to move it into the "literature" category and keep it in print (which they did, for decades). Subsequent printings were branded only J.P. Miller's Days of Wine and Roses without an explicit by-line for the novel.

Westheimer, a Rice University graduate, worked as an assistant editor for the Houston Post from 1939 to 1946 except for those years spent with the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. As a navigator in a B-24 he was shot down over Italy on December 11, 1942 and spent time as a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III.

Reviews

[Spike Pedersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book twice in high school and it is perhaps my favorate book ever. The author pulls you in and makes you hate the protaginist, and then somehow you are pulling for him and his crew. Set in WW II Italy, at a prison camp where american flyers are held. The striking personalitys blend and fold and strike out. A great book!

[William A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like historical fiction about World War II don't miss this one. It's a neglected gem by the author of the better known novel about the war 'Von Ryan's Express'. What's unique about this war novel is that the combat is over before the story begins. That's because the plotline follows the travails of several members of a bomber crew who are shot down off the coast of Italy and end up in a prisoner of war camp. At the outset the characters are treading water, hoping to be rescued.

So instead of being a war novel, the book is a coming of age tale about the plane's young navigator who grows up in the POW camps he's sent to. It's a heartwarming story about the human capacity of not only surviving adversity but thriving on it.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice reread on the train home to Turckheim from Paris