In time, identity papers are arranged for the crew members who subsequently depart in pairs in the hope of making it across the border to Spain.
But now there was a faint smile of her face, her lips not quite parted, and she looked like the calmest, surest person he had ever known. Her black eyes had not flickered for a moment since he had first surprised her among the hens. And in that moment he looked at the girl, alert and dark and supremely assured, in the doorway. The strain of things, of walking without food and sleep, of his wound and the loss of blood, of the final moments of wondering if the girl could be trusted, and now of relief, came rushing up through his body in a spasm of cold weakness, faint and stupid. He must place his trust in the allies, a requirement made easier by the reassurance of Françoise, the calmly resolute daughter of the family.
At the first farm, the occupant is too frightened by the sight of an airman to be able to help, but at the second the crew strike lucky – the owner and his family will hide the men in their mill, providing food and shelter until they can leave safely.įranklin knows he is taking an enormous risk by staying with the householders – the penalty for harbouring British serviceman is death by firing squad – but his condition means there is little choice. After travelling by night, they come across a couple of isolated farmhouses. While the four sergeants in the crew are largely unhurt, Franklin (or Frankie as he is known to his friends) sustains a terrible injury, leaving his arm badly wounded and in need of attention.įearful for their safety in enemy-occupied territory, the men know they must get away from the wreckage before it is discovered. Amongst its many themes, the book touches on the need to trust others in times of uncertainty, the blossoming of young love in the most dangerous of situations, and the pain of loss as it continues to reverberate over time.Īs the novel opens, John Franklin, an English pilot, is forced to crash-land his Wellington bomber in Occupied France following a fault with the plane. Described by some as one of the finest novels about the war, Fair Stood is in fact much broader than this description suggests. A fascinating point considering the subject matter at hand. Bates – could not have known precisely how or when the conflict would end. First published in 1944, Fair Stood the Wind for France was written in the midst of WW2, a time when its author – the British writer H.
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