Bound by privilege but divided by ideology, a German and an American boy become fighter pilots on opposite sides of WWII, hurtling toward a deadly aerial confrontation shaped by the worlds that raised them.

SYNOPSIS:

Author JANE SWEETLAND (70s) always knew the family story that her uncle TED SWEETLAND (24) and a German pilot, JOACHIM MÜNCHEBERG (24) shot each other down in World War II. But was it true? Through her investigation, which sent her to California, Germany and present-day Poland, she came to know the two men through their family scrapbooks, journals, and reporting by fellow airmen. Born six months and half a world apart they were privileged, lived in beautiful homes and played similar games like cowboys and Indians, as popular in Germany as in the U.S. In photos, they look like cousins.

The boys’ paths diverge as Adolf Hitler comes to power in Germany where teachers are agents of the state tasked with towing the Nazi party line. Jews are excluded and demonized; math problems include examples of how much it costs to care for the disabled; and in science, skulls and facial features are measured to determine if they fit the “Aryan” profile. Ted’s school environment is racially segregated by the social norms of the time, but in progressive classrooms there was room to question and challenge. Joachim’s late teenage years include pre-military training in Hitler Youth while Ted went backpacking in the high Sierras. In 1941, Ted studied philosophy in college while Joachim studied bullet trajectories in flight school.

Spurred by patriotism and duty, Ted and Joachim join their respective nations’ air forces. They were twenty-four years old when their stories collide in the skies over Tunisia. Both men are products of their upbringing, education, and the lessons their nation taught them. It’s a story for our modern age in a world in which nationalism is on the rise.

It is hard to imagine the deaths of young men and impossible to know exactly what happened in the air that day over Tunisia, but in his journal, Ted described a day he nearly died. “There was a feeling of suspension and extreme excitement mingled with mild anger. No heroics, no fear, no prayer, no time.” In those last few moments, we imagine their thoughts flickering to the ones who loved them—especially their mothers, who somehow never fully let go.

SONS AT WAR BY JANE SWEETLAND AND TOM STOHLGREN