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Under a Darkening Sky: The American Experience in Nazi Europe: 1939-1941
A vivid social history of the American expatriate experience in Europe between 1939 and 1941, as the Nazi menace brings a shadow over the continent, heralding the storms of war. A poignant and powerful portrait of Europe in the years between 1939 and 1941―as the Nazi menace marches toward the greatest man-made catastrophe the world has ever experienced―Under A Darkening Sky focuses on a diverse group of expatriate Americans. Told through the eyes and observations of these characters caught up in these seismic events, the story unfolds alongside a war that slowly drags a reluctant United States into its violent embrace. This vibrant narrative takes these dramatic personalities and evokes the engagement between Europe and a reluctant America from the September 3rd, 1939―when Britain declares war―through the tragedy of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. In a distinctively energetic storyline, Robert Lyman brings together a wide range of encounters, conversations, and memories. It includes individuals from across the social spectrum, from Josephine Baker to the young Americans who volunteered to fight in the RAF, as part of the famous “Eagle Squadrons.” Hundreds of young Americans―like the aces James Goodison, Art Donahue, and the wealthy playboy Billy Fiske, who was the first American volunteer in the RAF to die in action during the Battle of Britain―smuggled themselves into Canada so that they could volunteer for the cockpits of Spitfires and Hurricanes, as they flew against the deadly Luftwaffe over ever-darkening skies in London. 8 pages of B&W illustrations
- GenresHistoryWorld War IIWar
352 pages, Paperback
Published March 10, 2020
10 people are currently reading
120 people want to read
About the author
Robert Lyman
46 books53 followersBy birth a New Zealander, I was educated in Australia and at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. After a 20-year career in the British Army I turned my hand to writing, my PhD being published in 2004 as 'Slim, Master of War, a military biography of arguably Britain's greatest field commander of WW2.
I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
I am a trustee of the Kohima Educational Trust, which seeks to provide educational opportunities for young learners in Nagaland.
I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
I am a trustee of the Kohima Educational Trust, which seeks to provide educational opportunities for young learners in Nagaland.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 3, 2019
I found UNDER A DARKENING SKY to be compulsively readable, as it shared a part of WWII history I did not know. Covering 1939 when Britain declared war to Pearl Harbor in December 1941, this compelling narrative reveals the involvement of American expats in the early fight against the Nazis. Includes a diverse group from across the economic spectrum ... from entertainer Josephine Baker who served as an Allied spy ... to aces James Goodison, Art Donahue, and rich playboy Billy Fiske (the first American RAF volunteer to die in action during the Battle of Britain), who smuggled themselves into Canada so they could fly for the RAF. British military historian Robert Lyman draws upon a wide range of encounters, conversations, and memories to recount the stories of these brave heroes. And that cover is perfect! Highly recommended!
Pub Date 06 Nov 2018
Thanks to Pegasus Books and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are fully mine.
#UnderAdarkeningSky #NetGalley
Pub Date 06 Nov 2018
Thanks to Pegasus Books and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are fully mine.
#UnderAdarkeningSky #NetGalley
November 3, 2023
Robert Lyman is one smart Kiwi. The New Zealand native, and one-time major went to that path least taken by most everyone else. He researched and wrote about those happenings in Germany, and Europe, that might have been covered largely between 1939 and 1941 then but were swept out of mind once the U.S. entered the war after Pearl Harbor.
There was plenty of American involvement in those obscured days leading up to WWII. Too much for me to cover here.
And Lyman's Under A Darkening Sky was up to the task. His writing could be fast and action-packed, or more fact-filled and carefully informative. He's good, and I want to read more like this explosive cheapy I found down low at Ollie's some time ago. I need to quit hiding good books from myself.
Lyman also made it personal, bringing in testimony from people I grew up watching on TV like younger versions of Eric Sevareid and Howard K. Smith. This was some very good journalism.
Important to a story which happened so many years ago were the summaries. The Battle Of Britain in 1940, still called the Blitz there in London, noted the community approach shown by most Londoners.
Lyman put it like this, in Sevareid's words:
"When this all over, in the days to come, men will speak of this war, and they will say, I was a soldier, or I was a sailor, or I was a pilot; or others will say with equal pride: I was a citizen of London."
I lived in London, studying for my master's, and saw the markings and scars from this fight from 2001-through most of 2002. Very moving.
Lyman summed up that period of seemingly endless Nazi victories very well in one sentence.
"Early successes in the East and West not because of Wehrmacht brilliance but because Germany's neighbors naïvely believed that the Great War had been fought to end all wars and failed to protect themselves."
There's still a lot of potential for more books, movies, and such in these pages. I believe Herman Wouk's The Winds Of War captured some of it. If I was teaching anywhere, I might approach my department chair with this book in hand. It's many years after the facts, but a young freshman journalist would immediately improve by reading it.
I also noted that there is a city in Ukraine bearing the author's name. Maybe that's a connection we'll read about someday.
There was plenty of American involvement in those obscured days leading up to WWII. Too much for me to cover here.
And Lyman's Under A Darkening Sky was up to the task. His writing could be fast and action-packed, or more fact-filled and carefully informative. He's good, and I want to read more like this explosive cheapy I found down low at Ollie's some time ago. I need to quit hiding good books from myself.
Lyman also made it personal, bringing in testimony from people I grew up watching on TV like younger versions of Eric Sevareid and Howard K. Smith. This was some very good journalism.
Important to a story which happened so many years ago were the summaries. The Battle Of Britain in 1940, still called the Blitz there in London, noted the community approach shown by most Londoners.
Lyman put it like this, in Sevareid's words:
"When this all over, in the days to come, men will speak of this war, and they will say, I was a soldier, or I was a sailor, or I was a pilot; or others will say with equal pride: I was a citizen of London."
I lived in London, studying for my master's, and saw the markings and scars from this fight from 2001-through most of 2002. Very moving.
Lyman summed up that period of seemingly endless Nazi victories very well in one sentence.
"Early successes in the East and West not because of Wehrmacht brilliance but because Germany's neighbors naïvely believed that the Great War had been fought to end all wars and failed to protect themselves."
There's still a lot of potential for more books, movies, and such in these pages. I believe Herman Wouk's The Winds Of War captured some of it. If I was teaching anywhere, I might approach my department chair with this book in hand. It's many years after the facts, but a young freshman journalist would immediately improve by reading it.
I also noted that there is a city in Ukraine bearing the author's name. Maybe that's a connection we'll read about someday.
November 7, 2018
Americans in Europe in the 1930s reported their findings of the changes taking place in Germany, now under Nazi control. Many resisted their stories, reluctant to accept the hard truth, and accused the tale bearers of exaggeration, bias, and war mongering.
Hitler proclaimed his desire for peace when, in fact, he was calling for war under the cloak of his outrageous demands. Individual liberty was the wellspring of Britain and America. The people of democracies were blinded to the reality that not everyone agreed with them. And their pacific nature emboldened the aggressors.
The Germans were surprised when Britain and France declared war. Germany had no western ambitions and wanted peace. They had lived with Hitler’s lies long enough that they failed to distinguish them from the truth. Ordinary Germans were unenthused about war. They expected bombs to fall immediately on Berlin, but nothing happened. They didn’t know the allies were militarily unprepared.
The experience of Americans in Europe is especially interesting. Even they didn’t understand the allies’ unpreparedness. If the allies had stood up to Hitler from the beginning, the war may have been avoided.
February 8, 2020
This is a very engaging and readable account of life in Europe in the years between 1939, when Germany prepared for and then declared war on Poland, and 1941, which culminated in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the German declaration of war on the U.S., and the necessary departure of Americans from the continent.
A varied group of American expatriates, government officials, and journalists tells us what it felt and looked like to be in Paris, London, and Berlin during that time. The incongruity of beautiful summer weather and the approaching roar of bomber engines; the deprivation of the civilian population as resources are diverted to supply armies at the front; the terror and devastation of a nighttime air raid -- they're all here, described by those who lived through them. Some of the writers had an agenda -- generally, getting America to wake up and step in to help -- some were merely keeping journals or doing their best to report events as they happened in an unbiased and accurate manner. Whatever their reasons for writing, these writings bring us the human stories of those who witnessed the onset of war.
Lyman proceeds chronologically through the antebellum years and into the conflict itself; the accounts are also divided by location, with separate chapters for what happened in London, France, and Berlin at around the same time. This made it easy to see how events in one place might mirror those in another, or how different people reacted to the same conditions. There is heroism here, to be sure, and famous names, but mostly these are regular people (even though some are accomplished writers) recounting events as they happened and as their lives were changed.
I highly recommend this book, for both students of history and for those who may not be familiar with the time period. The detail and immediacy of the stories will interest the student, and Lyman includes enough exposition and explanation of political developments to support readers who come without much prior knowledge. He also adds a chapter-by-chapter guide to further reading at the end of the book, and I intend to make use of it. My only wish is that he had told us what happened to some of the writers after the war in greater detail than that in the Dramatis Personae pages at the beginning. Notes on their future careers, however brief, would have given more flavor and perhaps poignance to reading their contributions to this book.
A varied group of American expatriates, government officials, and journalists tells us what it felt and looked like to be in Paris, London, and Berlin during that time. The incongruity of beautiful summer weather and the approaching roar of bomber engines; the deprivation of the civilian population as resources are diverted to supply armies at the front; the terror and devastation of a nighttime air raid -- they're all here, described by those who lived through them. Some of the writers had an agenda -- generally, getting America to wake up and step in to help -- some were merely keeping journals or doing their best to report events as they happened in an unbiased and accurate manner. Whatever their reasons for writing, these writings bring us the human stories of those who witnessed the onset of war.
Lyman proceeds chronologically through the antebellum years and into the conflict itself; the accounts are also divided by location, with separate chapters for what happened in London, France, and Berlin at around the same time. This made it easy to see how events in one place might mirror those in another, or how different people reacted to the same conditions. There is heroism here, to be sure, and famous names, but mostly these are regular people (even though some are accomplished writers) recounting events as they happened and as their lives were changed.
I highly recommend this book, for both students of history and for those who may not be familiar with the time period. The detail and immediacy of the stories will interest the student, and Lyman includes enough exposition and explanation of political developments to support readers who come without much prior knowledge. He also adds a chapter-by-chapter guide to further reading at the end of the book, and I intend to make use of it. My only wish is that he had told us what happened to some of the writers after the war in greater detail than that in the Dramatis Personae pages at the beginning. Notes on their future careers, however brief, would have given more flavor and perhaps poignance to reading their contributions to this book.
February 8, 2022
How did Hitler “happen”? What were the signs that contemporary Europe (and America) ignored? Those are questions historians will debate, but for most of us the voice of those who lived in Europe during the tragic days prior to 1 Sept 1940 can lend relatable perspective.
I found Lyman’s prose engaging and the depth compelling. Roosevelt was an astute political player at home, which, sadly, left our European friends alone when they needed us most.
More to the point, why didn’t Europe itself see this coming? And the arrogance of some western leaders, whose appeasement of Hitler emboldened him rather than giving him pause.
I found Lyman’s prose engaging and the depth compelling. Roosevelt was an astute political player at home, which, sadly, left our European friends alone when they needed us most.
More to the point, why didn’t Europe itself see this coming? And the arrogance of some western leaders, whose appeasement of Hitler emboldened him rather than giving him pause.
February 9, 2019
This books is equally fascinating and disturbing. It is an artful blend of stories - taking the best of personal journals and correspondence and blending them together to fit a collective narrative. A few of the chapters covered very well warn paths (pilots, blitz, UK fighting on alone) but other were more refreshing in their insight.
August 29, 2024
Outstanding, a perspective a never thought of.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews