Peter Carroll is the author of Queen of Misfortune – A Lady Jane Grey Novel and Doodlebugs & Spitfires. For more information, see his website.

I was a wartime kid, I was too young to know or appreciate what peace was all about.

Living in North London and experiencing the bombs dropping down on us from the skies, seeing dogfights taking place above, hearing the rat-tat of the aircraft guns was all a great adventure and, unlike our parents we were unafraid and oblivious of what was really going on, that our freedom was being threatened by a nasty Nazi man called Adolph Hitler who was well hated by everybody I knew.

It wasn’t until a school friend was killed in a direct bomber hit just down the road that I knew what real hate was all about and I soon picked up the bug to hate all Germans.

But growing up and being called up to join the RAF and then being posted to the British zone of Germany I discovered the German people were basically just like us. I made several wonderful German friends.

Perhaps the most memorable friend though was Wilhelm Hoeft who, before the war was a very well to do rich merchant. But why was he working in the service of the RAF as a mere cleaner at RAF hospital Rostrup?

The reason: the German deutschmark issued before the war became so devalued that in the early fifties it was worthless. He showed me a trunk full of the old notes that he had stowed away for safe keeping during the war years.

I could not help wondering why exactly did ordinary nice homely folk became caught up in a gross war ruled by a fanatic dictator

“But Peter, you misunderstand. in the late twenties and early nineteen thirties our country was in  dire straits and unemployment was rife, but there was this fellow who called himself a Nazi who put all the hardship to rights with backing building of the autobahns scheme which had been originally conceived in the late 1920’s and taken over by the Nazi’s in 1933.  which created work for the masses, By 1936, 130,000 workers were directly employed in construction, as well as an additional 270,000 in the supply chain for construction equipment,  so all at once Nazism was good, because the common people could afford to live again.

“Everybody liked Hitler, he somehow raised our spirits putting it around that he wanted to build an empire Germans could be proud of, where all peoples could live happily and everything would be nice.

How could we have ever known that he would turn out the horrible dictator he was, it just happened and before we knew what it was really all about we were under strict Nazi rule.

“Most people were not true Nazi’s but many were sucked in by the return of German pride after the disastrous events of the First World War.”

And there was me, a sprightly cocky eighteen year old, thinking  all the Germans were prone to Nazism, simply because the war made us believe that, so we had been as much brainwashed as were the Germans by Hitler.

After the war when we faced a brave new world we were naive to think that would be the end of dictatorship, that it would never be allowed to fester again to the demise of so many innocents who simply wanted just to live a peaceful life through.

But of course the world is still infested with just the few who seek power oblivious of the welfare of the masses and now, as with Nazism; the surge is gradual as Muslims – or rather their fanatical leaders who claim that Islam is the religion of peace, and gradually they are taking over a continent in a way which is even more horrible than the Nazi’s could muster, by way of atrocious deeds we in the western world, wrapped up in our own financial problems, never truly appreciate.

And yet, frightening – it is happening all the time as those power hungry Muslims are intent to take over the world.

Like the Germans who suffered because of the horrendous deeds of Nazism when ordinary people were ploughed down by allied bombing of their cities – they were not all branded with the same branding iron and now peace loving Muslims are being made irrelevant by their silence, just like the Germans were under Hitler and still the slaughter and bloodshed of the innocents continues.

So what can be done to stop it?, it seems those of us who are the majority are ruled by the tiny minority – we are so infringed by our need just to live in peace that we’d rather not get involved thank you

Unfortunately that seems to be the name of the game.

Like it was with Hitler, the allies who were able to join together nation with nation, were able to dispel Nazism hopefully forever, but at what price?

And what if the allies hadn’t succeeded, what a different world it would be under the regime of the Nazi’s.

And yet, as formidable as that may seem, empires have been built since the dawning of the human species – but no matter how big they become they eventually fall.

Perhaps it is just the nature of the beast and there is some underlying reason for it all that we don’t know about.

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DOODLEBUGS & SPITFIRES
Memories and Short Stories by Peter Carroll

“Doodlebugs & Spitfires” is a delightful collection of memories and short stories written by Peter Carroll, the author of “Queen of Misfortune,” in his trademark poetic and profoundly thoughtful style.

Most of his stories, previously published in limited form in local English newspapers and magazines, like “Brave New World”, “The Forties Street Tradesmen”, “Doodlebugs”, or “The Christmas of 43” evolve around his childhood in the Northern part of London during and after World War II. He describes the horrors that came with the V1 flying bombs, nicknamed the “Doodlebugs.” Heroic British pilots in their “Spitfire” airplanes would attempt to divert the flying bombs from the populated areas, sometimes successful, and sometimes not.

Doodlebugs & Spitfires is available at Amazon.Com and its Kindle store, Amazon.co.uk and its Kindle store, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.