Michael’s Reviews > Under a Darkening Sky: The American Experience in Nazi Europe: 1939-1941 > Status Update

I remember Howard K. Smith and Eric Sevareid in their grey-haired final working days on ABC, I believe, but never knew how close they were to the bullets and horrors of war. They are noted constantly throughout here. They also witnessed the first part of the German occupation, too.

Sometimes it shows when a writer also has range, much like a great singer might. Lyman is exhibiting some really good literary range. I just finished a chapter on a Minnesota native and flew a Spitfire in The Battle of Britain. Art Donahue was the first American to fly in that historic event, and the first to be shot down. He was wounded, but survived.

The speed and utter destruction brought by Germany in its 1940 crushing of France was horrible, but captured very well by author Robert Lyman. It was very one-sided, and so rapid that it resembled a modern day military victory. Too many Luftwaffe machine guns from above punishing the unarmed long columns of refugees.

The panic that came from the murderous German attack into the Low Countries and France is something we should probably be reminded of occasionally. Luftwaffe planes strafing children and unarmed civilians really happened, and does in invasions. That could happen anywhere. The isolationist attitude at that time contributed considerably.

The Phony War was simply the calm before the storm. Memories of WWI were still too vivid in many minds when Nazi machination started moving behind Hitler’s cover talk of claiming to want peace in his speeches, but formulating war otherwise. It was only he, and the powerful Nazi minority that wanted war, and military gain, in Europe.

Now I know. That unheard of part of what it was like there when Chamberlain and France gave Hitler part of Czechoslovakia to appease him was very bad. It just made the Nazis stronger, which was also very bad.Hitler finished with taking the test of Czechoslovakia by March 1939, giving WW2 a virtual start.

Tensions were very high in Europe through the late 1930s to September 3 when Germany invaded Poland, igniting the war that an increasing number feared. Numerous Americans in Europe, and several of the locals, partied with a growing sense of dread. No one had stood up to Hitler.