The Old Lie
It is 1917. The war is being fought with increasing fury in the skies above France.
James Clarke, an innocent, unworldly boy, caught up in the general war fever, joined the Royal Flying Corps straight from school, enlisting merely because it was his patriotic duty. He has no clear idea of the causes of the war, or why he is fighting.
In France, James has been thrown into a world of almost daily killing. At first, with the resilience of youth he finds the flying and air fighting exhilarating - rather like a sport - but he is forced to face the brutal reality of war when he sees the bodies of two young Germans he has shot down: the realisation that he is killing young men like himself. With this realisation of the obscenity of the killing, plus the loss of comrades in his squadron, he becomes disillusioned with the whole concept of the war. This causes a dichotomy in his thinking: his personal abhorrence of killing, set against his patriotic duty and his sense of loyalty to his fellow pilots. He sees his failure to resolve this dilemma as his own moral cowardice.
His fellow pilots seem to have no such doubts; they appear to him to be unaffected by the daily killing. He can talk to no one about his feelings, which results in a sense of isolation from his comrades. An attempt to resolve this situation, to do no more killing, ends in disaster.
While on leave he meets Sophie, a girl whose fiancée was killed in the Somme battles of the previous summer. They fall in love and he finally confides his feelings about the war. She has no more idea than he of the aims and righteousness of the war, but is angry at what she sees as the false heroics, and glorification of the killing.
Convalescing from a wound James finds a new resolve. He comes to accept that there is no way out of his dilemma: that the war is a harsh reality that he must face. He resolves that the only thing to do is to get the war over as quickly as possible, by fighting hard, and then, together with Sophie, to make a better job of the peace.
James finally comes to terms with the fighting, with the unrelenting pace of daily aerial combat, but by the end of the war, has become forcibly matured, hardened and cynical. The one saving grace, which enables him to carry on, is his love for Sophie, and the prospect of their life together after the war.
But finally, both he and the girl are victims of the war.
About the author.
An internationally acknowledged researcher of WW1 aviation, Alex Revell has contributed many articles to specialist aviation magazines and is a founder member of Cross and Cockade International, the First World War Aviation Historical Society. His books include British Fighter Units 1914-1916; British Fighter Units 1917-1918; McCudden VC; The Vivid Air; Brief Glory, the highly acclaimed biography of Arthur Rhys Davids; High In The Empty Blue, The History of 56 Squadron RFC/RAF 1916-1920; 60 Sqdn RFC/RAF; Victoria Cross, World War One Airmen and Their Aircraft; British Single Seater Fighter Squadrons on the Western Front; and Fall of Eagles. Of the highly acclaimed High In The Empty Blue, one reviewer wrote: A classic. He could well have written the best specialised study in the field of World War One aviation literature. I suspect this will be the best book I ever get to review. His recent biography of James McCudden VC, The Happy Warrior, received fifteen 5 Star reviews on Amazon.
A retired engineer, and also a jazz musician of international repute, Alex lives in Cornwall, England, with his wife Linda and three Burmese cats.
