Publisher's Synopsis
This is at first, a gripping narrative of the actual experiences of a young RAF Sergeant, that unfold after he suddenly finds himself the only surviving crew member aboard a Lancaster bomber, engines on fire, heading for a crash landing over enemy territory. After an astonishing number of close calls, the young Sergeant finds himself living in a prisoner of war camp. In this section of the story, the author turns to providing the reader with an accurate and psychologically penetrating account of how life was lived, for many, in prisoner of war camps during the Second World War. Writer Harry Levy explains the aims of the work: "This book, The Dark Side of the Sky, which began as a re-telling of long past events, became for me a voyage of discovery. As the story advanced I found myself more and more drawn to examine the thoughts, hopes, despair and the foolish naïveté of the young man who had plunged so eagerly into a promised world of adventure and heroism. I have felt the need to portray the quirks and characteristics of those with whom I had shared those eventful years, of those who had risked their lives to help me, and those who had in some other way become part of my life. Although unable after so great a lapse of time to repeat conversations verbatim, I have attempted to bring back to life the individuals, the situations, and the conversations that ensued. It has been my intention to tell the stories of those years with as great a literary skill as I can muster. It is my belief that those who shared similar experiences will vouch for the reality and veracity of what I have had to say. In this second edition I have been able to add an extract in the Appendices of a translation of the German/Belgian Secret Police Files which gives some account of the work of the Belgian underground fighters, and incidentally an account of my own arrest. I have added other incidents excised from the first edition."
