Welcome to my stop on the Virtual
Tour for Pearl Harbor and More - Stories of WWII: December 1941 featuring Allies After All by Dianne Ascroft. Please leave a comment or
question for Diane to let her know you stopped by.
Guest Post by Dianne AscroftThank you for inviting me to be a guest on your blog today. I’d like to tell you a bit about Pearl Harbor and More, a recently released short story collection I’ve been involved in writing and producing.This year is the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Pearl Harbor. On 7th December, 1941, a pivotal event took place that changed the face of World War II. Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes carried out a devastating surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.Few people’s lives were unaffected in some way by that fateful day. The wide-ranging collection of eight stories in Pearl Harbor and More, by our diverse group of authors, who all write wartime fiction, reflects this. Some of the stories are set at Pearl Harbor itself, in other parts of the United States and in Singapore. Other stories take place in Europe: occupied France, Germany and Northern Ireland. They explore the experiences of U.S. servicemen and women, a German Jew, Japanese Americans, a French countess, an Ulster Home Guard, and many others.The story about the Ulster Home Guard is my contribution to the collection. Allies After All is set in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland during December 1941. As part of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland had already been at war for more than two years when my story opens. But, it was the same, yet a different, war than the rest of the United Kingdom was waging. Due to the political and religious tensions in the province, some aspects of Northern Ireland’s experience of the war differed greatly from the rest of the United Kingdom. They faced rationing, the fear of invasion by Axis troops and many saw their loved ones go off to fight. Though, because conscription was never introduced, those who joined the armed forces did so voluntarily and the enlistment rate was lower than in some other parts of the UK. But what the province didn’t supply in manpower, they made up for with industrial output. Northern Ireland’s industries supplied ships, aircraft, munitions and cloth for the armed forces.County Fermanagh, in the west of the province, did its part for the war effort with increased crop yields and milk production for consumption locally and across the Irish Sea in England. Bordering neutral Ireland, the county was in a unique position. The hardships of rationing were offset by a thriving cross border smuggling trade between the two countries. Yet, at the same time, the Unionists in Fermanagh constantly worried about the proximity of the border, fearing that the IRA would sneak across it to attack local targets, sabotage military operations in the county and aide Axis forces to infiltrate the province. Local defence throughout Northern Ireland was overseen by the police rather than the military, in order to employ their local knowledge to prevent anyone with suspected terrorist connections from being accepted into the Local Defence Force, which later became the Ulster Home Guard.Northern Ireland was also a staging platform for the Allied troops arriving in the United Kingdom to prepare for the invasion of occupied Europe. This included the Americans. Although America was neutral until the attack on Pearl Harbor pushed them into the war, they had already been in Northern Ireland for months, secretly preparing for their entry into the war. The construction of military installations by American civilian contractors, in various places in the United Kingdom, including County Fermanagh, was already well underway by December 1941.When my story, Allies After All, opens, an American mechanic, Art Miller, working for a civilian company on the construction of ammunition storage dump facilities, has a memorable first meeting with Robbie Hetherington, a member of the Local Defence Force in County Fermanagh.
Pearl Harbor and More – Stories of WWII: December 1941
By R.V. Doon, Vanessa Couchman, Alexa Kang, Dianne
Ascroft, Margaret Tanner, Marion Kummerow, Robyn Echols, and Robert Kingsley
Publisher: Marion Kummerow
Release Date: November 1,
2016
Genre: Historical
Fiction/Short Stories
Length: 252
ISBN: 9781536589290
ASIN: B01M4L8HGT
Buy Links: AmazonUSA | AmazonUK | AmazonCA | AmazonDE | AmazonAU | Nook
| iTunes
| Kobo
| !Indigo
| Books2Read
About the book:
On
December 7th 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes carried out a
devastating surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in
Hawaii and changed the face of World War II.
This wide-ranging collection of eight stories by a diverse group of authors, who write wartime fiction, commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Pearl Harbor. Few people's lives were unaffected in some way by that fateful day and these stories reflect this.
Some of them are set at Pearl Harbor itself, in other parts of the United States and in Singapore. Other stories take place in Europe: occupied France, Germany and Northern Ireland. They explore the experiences of U.S. servicemen and women, a German Jew, Japanese Americans, a French countess, an Ulster Home Guard, and many others.
The authors invite you to step into December 1941 with them.
THE STORIES:
Deadly Liberty by R.V. Doon:
Connie Collins, a navy nurse on the hospital ship, USS Solace, takes liberty the day before Pearl Harbor. Her budding romance wilts, an AWOL nurse insists she find a missing baby, and she's in the harbor when WWII erupts. Under fire, she boards the ship--and witnesses a murder during the red alert chaos. When liberty turns deadly, shipmates become suspects.
The List by Vanessa Couchman:
A high-ranking German officer is assassinated in Western France and 50 hostages are shot. Fifty more will be executed if the killers are not handed over. Jewish communist Joseph Mazelier is on the list. Will Countess Ida agree to help him escape?
Christmas Eve in the City of Dreams by Alexa Kang:
On his last night in New York, a young grifter sets out to turn the table on those who shorted him before he leaves for the draft. Will he win or lose?
Allies After All by Dianne Ascroft:
Although their nations are allies, from their first meeting American civilian contractor Art Miller and Local Defence Volunteer, Robbie Hetherington loathe each other. But Northern Ireland is too small a place for such animosity. What will it take to make the two men put aside their enmity and work together?
Time to Go by Margaret Tanner:
A young sailor, who died at Pearl Harbor, finally meets his soulmate on the 75th Anniversary of the battle. Will she be prepared to leave the 21st century with him? Or will they forever remain apart?
Turning Point by Marion Kummerow:
Eighteen-year-old German Jew Margarete Rosenbaum is about to be sent to a labor camp, when a bomb hits the building she lives in. Emerging from the rubble she's presented with an unexpected opportunity. But how far is she willing to go to save her life?
I am an American by Robyn Hobusch Echols:
Ellen Okita and Flo Kaufmann are high school seniors in Livingston, California. Ellen is a first generation American who lives in the Yamato Colony, composed of about 100 families of Japanese descent. Flo's father is a first generation American. After Pearl Harbor, the war hits home fast and brings unforeseen changes to them and their families.
A Rude Awakening by Robert A. Kingsley:
Singapore, December 1941; the fortress sleeps, believing its own tales of strength and invulnerability. A rigidly class based society throws garden parties and dines sedately, disregarding the slowly growing number of warning signals. Suddenly, the underestimated enemy ferociously attacks and the myth of invincibility is shattered forever.
This wide-ranging collection of eight stories by a diverse group of authors, who write wartime fiction, commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Pearl Harbor. Few people's lives were unaffected in some way by that fateful day and these stories reflect this.
Some of them are set at Pearl Harbor itself, in other parts of the United States and in Singapore. Other stories take place in Europe: occupied France, Germany and Northern Ireland. They explore the experiences of U.S. servicemen and women, a German Jew, Japanese Americans, a French countess, an Ulster Home Guard, and many others.
The authors invite you to step into December 1941 with them.
THE STORIES:
Deadly Liberty by R.V. Doon:
Connie Collins, a navy nurse on the hospital ship, USS Solace, takes liberty the day before Pearl Harbor. Her budding romance wilts, an AWOL nurse insists she find a missing baby, and she's in the harbor when WWII erupts. Under fire, she boards the ship--and witnesses a murder during the red alert chaos. When liberty turns deadly, shipmates become suspects.
The List by Vanessa Couchman:
A high-ranking German officer is assassinated in Western France and 50 hostages are shot. Fifty more will be executed if the killers are not handed over. Jewish communist Joseph Mazelier is on the list. Will Countess Ida agree to help him escape?
Christmas Eve in the City of Dreams by Alexa Kang:
On his last night in New York, a young grifter sets out to turn the table on those who shorted him before he leaves for the draft. Will he win or lose?
Allies After All by Dianne Ascroft:
Although their nations are allies, from their first meeting American civilian contractor Art Miller and Local Defence Volunteer, Robbie Hetherington loathe each other. But Northern Ireland is too small a place for such animosity. What will it take to make the two men put aside their enmity and work together?
Time to Go by Margaret Tanner:
A young sailor, who died at Pearl Harbor, finally meets his soulmate on the 75th Anniversary of the battle. Will she be prepared to leave the 21st century with him? Or will they forever remain apart?
Turning Point by Marion Kummerow:
Eighteen-year-old German Jew Margarete Rosenbaum is about to be sent to a labor camp, when a bomb hits the building she lives in. Emerging from the rubble she's presented with an unexpected opportunity. But how far is she willing to go to save her life?
I am an American by Robyn Hobusch Echols:
Ellen Okita and Flo Kaufmann are high school seniors in Livingston, California. Ellen is a first generation American who lives in the Yamato Colony, composed of about 100 families of Japanese descent. Flo's father is a first generation American. After Pearl Harbor, the war hits home fast and brings unforeseen changes to them and their families.
A Rude Awakening by Robert A. Kingsley:
Singapore, December 1941; the fortress sleeps, believing its own tales of strength and invulnerability. A rigidly class based society throws garden parties and dines sedately, disregarding the slowly growing number of warning signals. Suddenly, the underestimated enemy ferociously attacks and the myth of invincibility is shattered forever.
Excerpt from Allies After All by Dianne Ascroft“Art yanked the van’s door open. Despite the crazy angle the vehicle was sitting at, in one quick movement he swung himself out of the driver’s seat onto the bumpy, badly surfaced road. Huh, you’d hardly call it a road; it wasn’t much wider than a sidewalk back home. Nothing like the smooth, straight Route 62 that passed through his hometown in New York State. The highway’s surface might crack in the summer heat, but there sure weren’t any craters in it. This was only fit for donkeys and carts. Guess that was about right around here.Art ran his hand across the back of his neck and up into his sandy crew cut as he stared at the vehicle. His old man had never let them grow their hair when they were kids, and he still had the same haircut he’d had in grade school. Not that he had a beef with that. He had the hair; now he just needed the uniform. He was ready to answer Uncle Sam’s call.Well, if he ever got this truck outta the hole he would be. What he could sure use right now would be Popeye to come along and lift that tin can outta there. He wasn’t far outside Ardess village but he hadn’t seen anyone around when he drove through it. The place looked like a ghost town. It was more than a mile back to Kiltierney camp. If he started walking, with any luck, a truck headed for the camp would pass him and he could hitch a ride. He’d get someone to come back and tow him out.As he turned and started walking away from the vehicle, a young man around his own age wearing a heavy khaki overcoat and field service cap cycled toward him on a sturdy black bicycle.“Hiya, buddy,” Art said to the cyclist when he stopped beside him.“Are you abandoning that vehicle in the middle of the road?” the khaki-uniformed man sputtered.“Well, it ain’t goin’ nowhere. It’s stuck in a hole.”“You can’t leave it there. It might fall into the wrong hands.”“Is that so? I don’t see anyone around here. Do you?” Art ran his hand through his hair as he stared at the man. Who is this smart aleck? he thought.“See here, you certainly can’t leave it there. Spies or terrorists could sneak across the border from Ireland and have it quicker than a fox slips into a henhouse.”Art raised one eyebrow and snorted. “Yeah? And how do I know you ain’t a Jerry soldier? Who are you, anyway, pal?”Could this day get any worse? Art really didn’t feel like dealing with this smart aleck right now. He had had it with being pushed around. “Is that a wing of the Boy Scouts?”Art thought his interrogator looked sore about the wisecrack, but he didn’t care. He just wanted to get that truck out of the hole and get back to camp to finish the repair he’d been working on. If he couldn’t convince the boss to send him home, then he would do his darndest to get this construction project finished lickity-split so he could get outta here.“You’re a copper, then?”“No, Local Defence. Like the Home Guard in England.”“Oh yeah, I’ve heard of them – aren’t they old guys, soldiers that are over the hill? Marching around with broomsticks.”Art shook his head. The guy looked pretty young to be in some broomstick brigade instead of the army, but what did he care? It was none of his beeswax. Getting this truck out of the hole was. Say, maybe this smart aleck could help him.”
About the author:
Dianne
Ascroft is a Canadian writer
living in Northern Ireland. She writes historical and contemporary fiction,
often with an Irish connection. Her series The Yankee Years is a collection of
Short Reads and novels set in World War II–era Northern Ireland.
Her other writing
includes a ghost tale inspired by the famous Coonian ghost, An Unbidden Visitor;
a short story collection, Dancing Shadows, Tramping Hooves, and an historical
novel, Hitler and Mars Bars.
She lives on a farm near
Enniskillen, County Fermanagh and is a member of Fermanagh Writers, Writers
Abroad, the Historical Novel Society and the Alliance of Independent Authors.
Online Dianne lurks at: www.dianneascroft.com
Follow her on:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/DianneAscroftwriter
Twitter: www.twitter.com/DianneAscroft
Sign up for her mailing
list: http://eepurl.com/bn_Bjz
Thanks for hosting me on your blog today. I hope your readers enjoy this glimpse into Allies After All, and the story collection, Pearl Harbor and More.
ReplyDelete