During the Second World War, it was said that the Germans had a royal army, an imperial navy and a National Socialist (Nazi) air force. This largely captured the character of the leadership in the three armed forces, but in one way the Luftwaffe was not Nazi at all. Nazi ideology called for women to stay in the home not be active in the workforce much less the military. Yet the Luftwaffe pioneered with women auxiliaries and, like the WAAF to the RAF, these German women played an important role in the German air force from 1940 onwards. In "Where Eagles Never Flew," the leading German lady is a Luftwaffe auxiliary -- and so is her best friend
Rosa Welkerling
Excerpt:
Rosa and Klaudia said good night to the other girls and left their little mess, crossing the darkened games room and making for the main stairs. But as they reached the stairs sweeping up beside the reception area, they could hear music and singing coming from the Officer's Bar off to the left.
"Listen!" Rosa said with delight. "That's Veronica, der Lenz ist da! " When Klaudia looked blankly at her, she added, "You know! By the Comedian Harmonists!" Rosa might be a good National Socialist, but nothing could ruin her delight in the songs of the Berlin quintet. She tiptoed towards the stairs that led into the rustic bar with its flagstone floors and beamed ceiling half a floor below.
Someone was playing a piano very well, and several men were indeed singing in harmony. They could hear men clapping and stamping their feet in time to the music. Rosa tiptoed down four or five steps until, by bending, she could see into the bar itself. In a line with their arms around each other's shoulders, four of the pilots were dancing to the music as they sang.
Rosa Welkerling is a Berliner through-and-through. More specifically, she's the daughter of the industrial working class, fed on Marxism-Leninism from the cradle. But like many teenagers, she's rebellious and so rejects her parents Communism in favor of the exciting, new spirit of National Socialism.
It is her willingness to embrace the ideology of the ruling elite that helps the ambitious Rosa get ahead. She compensates for her educational deficiencies with enthusiasm and loyalty. In no time at all, she is promoted to leadership positions within the Bund Deutsche Maedel (the girls' equivalent of the Hitler Youth), in her troop at the Reichsarbeits Dienst (the compulsory national service organization in which all youth served for a year) and, eventually, in the Luftwaffe as an auxiliary.
All of which has no real impact on her practical character because Rosa is basically a cynical child of the urban slums who sees through the lies of the Nazis, too. While viewing the new ruling elite as no more admirable than the old ruling elite, Rosa is dispassionately taking advantage of the naivity of the Nazi leadership to pursue her own best interests. They look on her as a "useful idiot" blinding following their orders, while Rosa looks on them as idiots who don't see they are being manipulated by her pretense of fervor.
But Rosa, like many teenagers, over-estimates just how clever she is. She finds herself in a bind and rather than seeking help, tries to solve things in her own way -- with fatal consequences.
Excerpt Continued:
Klaudia hissed nervously from behind her. "Rosa! Come on! We don't want to get caught here!"
"Why not? Who says we can't watch?"
Klaudie nervously crept down and crouched beside her more daring friend ... [but] too soon the song came to an end. The pianist made a great flourishing finale, and the pilots went down on one knee -- or three of them did. The fat pilot got left standing, to the evident amusement of the clapping audience. Everyone was clapping. Someone was even calling "Encore! Encore!" Feldburg made a gesture of 'enough,' however, and the pilots headed toward the bar.
Rosa reluctantly got to her feet, sorry that the show was already over. "Axel was right," she concluded as the two girls went up to their room together. "It is a lot nicer here."
"This is the best book on the life of us fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain that I have ever seen.... I couldn't put it down."-- RAF Battle of Britain ace, Wing Commander Bob Doe.
Winner of a Hemingway Award for 20th Century Wartime
Fiction, a Maincrest Media Award for Military Fiction and Silver in the Global Book Awards.
Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/where-eagles-never-flew
Riding the icy, moonlit sky, 
they took the war to Hitler.
Their chances of survival were less than fifty percent.
Their average age was 21.
This is the story of just one bomber pilot, his crew and the woman he loved.
It is intended as a tribute to them all.
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For more information about all my books visit: https://www.helenapschrader.com
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