Reap the Whirlwind… the music, the drama, the pathos, and the salvation of a man
One of my favourite symphonies is Gustav Mahler’s Second. I listened to it as I shaped Reap the Whirlwind. Here is the link. Mahler Symphony No. 2 The beginning of Mahler’s Resurrection symphony raises questions of life and death while expressing a message of hope but leaves the question of eternal life after death unanswered. In this, the symphony’s structure resembles a Requiem Mass, and indeed, I called the book ‘Requiem for a City’ before changing it to ‘Reap the Whirlwind.’
The book begins on 30/31 March 1944, with British Bomber Command’s worst catastrophe of the war, a bungled attack on Nürnberg in which the Luftwaffe shot down 95 out of 795 bombers, and another ten crashed on their way home, a total loss of 11.9%. Almost a thousand airmen died or were captured, more airmen than the RAF had lost in the entire Battle of Britain. Willie McLaughlin watches the disaster unfold from his seat in the rear turret of his Lancaster and, for the first time, meets the man who would become his nemesis. He is Erik Stephanie, a Messerschmitt 110 night fighter pilot, and it is his job to kill the rear gunner and destroy the Lancaster, ‘C for Charley.’ But Willie and ‘C for Charley’ survive the mission, and the crew celebrates at the Blue Bell Inn.
Norma Stanfield lost her husband to a night fighter ten months before Willie sat down in the Blue Bell. When she looked at him, she decided she had grieved long enough. Brian was dead, his body riddled by machine gun bullets as he sat in the rear turret of his Lancaster. Norma’s family buried him in the family plot, and she still went to his grave every Sunday, but she had cried until there were no more tears and then she had cursed the RAF. She felt disloyal to Brian—that her desires should wait, but the loneliness was more than she could bear. She needed someone in her bed.
When Willie sat down, Norma knew he was what she was looking for. He was short, like Brian, but so was she, and she had decided long ago not to have a man she had to look up to. No one would call him handsome—his face resembled a moonscape, cratered by pimples during a tumultuous adolescence. He was nicely proportioned, which would be an asset for Norma’s plans, and because she felt no attraction to him, there would be no chance he would replace Brian in her heart. He was perfect!
She questioned the waitress, notorious for sizing up the men who frequented the bar, and Marlene said, “Him? No girl would kiss that face, let alone sleep with it! And I guarantee that boy has no experience. Forget about him, but the pilot, Steve, or Ronnie, the Rhodesian gunner…” She hooked her finger over her lower lip. “Now, those two would do nicely!” Norma smiled and decided Willie was the perfect man for what she had in mind.
Norma was famous among the airmen who frequented the Blue Bell. Although trained to sing classical music, her voice had the perfect qualities to sing popular songs, especially those recorded by Vera Lynn. She began every night with ‘The White Cliffs of Dover’ and ended with a singalong, singing a soaring descant to the men she had taught to sing ‘Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.’ Tonight, after she passed the ammunition, she would sing Vera Lynn’s version of, ‘I’m in the Mood for Love.’ And then, she would take Willie back to her hotel room.
Willie’s nemesis, Erik Stephanie, married Marita before the war, and they had a son, Walther. They lived in Heilbronn with Marita’s mother, and Mother and Daughter made tank parts in what had been a motorcycle factory before the war.
Erik watched city after city destroyed by bombs as night after night, British bombers dropped a cocktail of bombs designed to penetrate to the cellars and set the buildings on fire, killing as many people as possible. As the British invented better radars and more effective bombs and navigation systems that guided ‘Pathfinder’ aircraft, the list of potential targets untouched by British bombs became shorter. Before 1944 a small city like Heilbronn had not been worthy of a full attack, but as Erik watched the British destroy new objectives every night, he feared Heilbronn’s name would soon rise to the top and, filled with a sense of dread, he immersed himself in the hopeless task of shooting down all the British bombers.
Marita loved music and purchased an illegal copy of Lili Marleen, forbidden by Goebbels’ Propaganda Ministerium because he thought it would demoralize German soldiers. Despite Goebbels’ ‘Verbot,’ or perhaps partly because of it, the song became the most popular on both sides of the war, heard by German soldiers on the ‘Belgrad Sendung’ and Allied soldiers on ‘BBC Forces Program,’ the British forces overseas radio station. Listen to the original recording of ‘Lili Marleen by Lale Andersen,’ and then the English version by Marlene Dietrich. Then watch this short film, also titled ‘Lili Marleen.’ This simple song immortalizes the futility of war.
Willie struggles with his role in bombing Germany’s cities, and when he hears Norma sing the Mozart Requiem in the Lincoln Cathedral, his world collapses. Listen to the recording while you read Chapter Twenty-six.
The attack on Heilbronn begins in chapter 34, and I recommend listening to the last movement of Gustav Mahrler’s Second Symphony before, and again while you read it. I find it distracting when I listen and read simultaneously, but the scene becomes cinematic when I read a section and then listen to a corresponding bit. If you are interested, here is information and a translation you might use as you listen: Mahler’s Symphonies.
I hope you enjoy Reap the Whirlwind as much as I enjoyed writing it. Willie came from a British officer I knew, and Erik was the father of someone I met in Stuttgart. He introduced me to his mother and they told me about their experiences in the bombing of Heilbronn. The accounts of events in the book are fictional, but are based on extensive research and stories told to me by people who experienced them.