Author's Note


The real figures who appear in An Angry Sky are subjects of history. Books abound on Churchill, Roosevelt, King and the others who lived through the Phoney War. The choices are endless. Major events including the Blitz, Pearl Harbour, the Katyn Forest or the role of Kim Philby are well documented, but a few surprises surfaced as I studied the period. Jonathan Fenby added a special dimension with The Sinking of the Lancastria, Britain’s Greatest Maritime Disaster and Churchill’s Coverup. For drug use in the German army, Norman Ohlers’ “Blitzed, Drugs in Nazi Germany”, added a fresh perspective. And, for Canadians, Final Descent, The Loss of the Flagship Erie, by Robert D. Schweyer, provides a factual account of the airline disaster of 1941.

 

Cast:


I have identified the historic figures in the text but here’s a rundown of the major, recurring fictional characters.


  • Robert McLaren, a well-connected newspaper reporter, based in Ottawa.
  • Evers Chance, an intelligence veteran who runs a private intelligence service but has ties to British intelligence.
  • Frank Willard, a partner of McLaren in a small Ottawa based news service.
  • Sandy Fleming, a recent addition to the staff of the news service.
  • Maria Dickson, McLaren’s former wife who begins to work with Evers Chance.
  • Dan Malone and Marcie Eaton.  An unmarried couple living in London England. He joins the Willard organization and covers Europe. She works in a private club.
  • Brad Wilson and Tim Fulton are two young American friends who go in different directions. Wilson eventually joins the British Commonwealth Air Training Program. Fulton has German connections and works with the isolationist ‘America First’ organization.
  • Karl and Elise Munster, German friends of Maria.
  • Martin Downey, the contact for Chance in British intelligence.
  • Erich Schmidt, a German agent in New York.
  • Jimmy Russel, an RAF photo specialist and Richard Ingram, a press liaison officer.
  • Nora Field, a British nurse who joins the war effort
  • Jergen Heinzeman, an aid to Karl Munster as is Bruno Weibe who appears late in the novel.
  • Gunther Webber, a German office who specializes in analyzing works of art.
  • Bert Laramie, an FBI agent.
  • Otto Von Ronstadt, a German intelligence office.
  • Claudia and Maurice, two players in the French underground.
  • Eric Gibson, a RCAF trainee and associate of Brad Wilson.
  • Madam Terressa runs an exclusive Paris Brothel
  • Joseph Avenotto takes control when the Willard Agency is sold


The major players in the war time action scenes, in Poland, France, the Blitz, the North Atlantic convoy, the air war and scenes in Russia are fictional but based around actual events as is the crash of the Flagship Erie. The officers and men who appear as part of the Commonwealth Air Training Program are also fictional.