REVIEW: Cold War: A Novel of the Berlin Airlift (Bridge to Tomorrow Book 2) by Helena P. Schrader
Fighting a war with milk, coal and candy bars….
In the second book of the Bridge to Tomorrow Series, the story continues where “Cold Peace” left off.
Berlin is under siege. More than two million civilians in Hitler’s former capital will starve unless they receive food, medicine and more by air.
USAF Captain J.B. Baronowsky and RAF Flight Lieutenant Kit Moran once risked their lives to drop high explosives on Berlin. They are about to deliver milk, flour and children’s shoes instead. Meanwhile, two women pilots are flying an air ambulance that carries malnourished and abandoned children to freedom in the West. Until General Winter deploys on the side of Russia….
Based on historical events, award-winning novelist Helena P. Schrader delivers an insightful, exciting and moving tale about how former enemies became friends in the face of Russian aggression — and how close the Berlin Airlift came to failing under the assault of ‘General Winter.’
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Dear Ms. Schrader,
After finishing the first novel in this trilogy, I was psyched to move onto this book. I think new readers might be able to pick up and start here but frankly, there would be a steep learning curve in regard to the number of characters involved. While “Cold Peace” covered the heightening of tensions between the occupying power – the western allies and the USSR, “Cold War” digs into the opening months of the airlift when things were initially a bit slapdash and thrown together.
So far the two books have been a bit of a throwback to the grand old two inch thick, 500+ page sweeping historical novels of old. With a large cast of characters of varying locations and nationalities, a lot of historical ground can be covered. I find that I’m more interested in the actual airlift as well as civilian life in Berlin as the Berliners grapple with being occupied, powerless, and seemingly a toy to be battled over by the West and the East. By starting the airlift, the die has been cast and most Berliners realize that if it fails, the Soviets will move in and subject everyone to the wrath of “people who defied Stalin.” I admire the peoples’ determination, in the face of thugs, to return democracy to the city.
When logjams and lack of equipment and trained personnel threaten to turn the USAF efforts into a shit-show circus, a real life character arrives to straighten things out even if he also tweaks some noses and steps on a few toes. General Tunner does visit RAF Gatow to study how the Brits are managing to do things better and also realizes the PR value of what Gail Halvorson begins when he starts dropping candy from his plane.
The lives of the characters are sort of a soap opera. We see everything from the difficulty of finding jobs in postwar Britain, how women were being shoved away from jobs and back into kitchens, the desperation of Berliners trying to survive in a bombed out city, how the victorious Allies and the Germans began the book thinking of each other one way and how that might be changing, that hidden Nazis were still around, and that violence could break out at any time. Yet in the midst of this, astounding – if slightly improbable at times – reconnections are made and characters appear to be falling into and at times out of love. I appreciate that not all the characters, even ones who are heroes, are always kind and wonderful which gives them some depth.
The book ends with a few cliffhangers as winter approaches and the city faces cold, dwindling rations, and the possibility that the airlift might fail. I am eager to see what will happen next. B-
~Jayne
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