#Michael kesselring imagine

[praximeter]

I personally love fake history style fics and the level of detail you use in night war (along with amazing well thought out description of Bucky's inner monologue) really pulls me in and enhances the raw feelings Bucky has. I really want to get across that I love your style of writing as it gives a better understanding of all the stakes at play in buckys situation from major incidents to little asides about social expectations etc. 1/2

So what I’m trying to get at is that I admire the amount of research you do for this series and was wondering if you had any favourite resources (documentaries, books, forums, sites) or anecdotes about ww2 era that you found useful/ interesting or enjoyed most? Any recommendations at all to check out for this era/subject thankyou. 2/2

Hey anon! Thanks for writing in, and thanks for your kind comments! 💕 I’m so happy you’re enjoying the story. 

Let me apologize in advance for the absurd and hilarious length of this answer. I’ve been meaning to do a “research, sources, and methods” post for a while for meta reasons, and, well, here it is.

My primary source of research material is definitely books, but there are a lot of amazing resources online including material published by the U.S. Government (reports, publications, etc.) that helps me be as accurate as possible when it comes to troop movements, etc. There are about a thousand documentaries out there about the war, but you can’t go wrong with Ken Burns’ The War or World War II in Color. 

My favorite single-volume history of WWII is probably Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945 by Max Hastings. It covers all theaters and it draws very heavily on primary source material–journals and messages and even letters taken from the bodies of soldiers. Its focus is on the human experience of the war rather than on a detailed military history (X brigade of Y Corps marched Z kilometers to fight a pitched battle…etc.). One of my favorite bits from that book (of which some parts made it into The Night War) is this:

“The ground for fifty yards outside is MUD—six inches deep, glistening, sticky, holding pools of water,” gunner office John Guest wrote home. “Great excavations in the mud, leaving miniature alps of mud, show where other tents have been pitched in the mud, and moved on account of the mud to other places in the mud. The cumulative psychological experience of mud… cannot be described.” [p.447]

As much as I wanted to just plagiarize this entire letter, I tried to evoke the horrible exhaustion of the mud in a few places in The Night War, such as:

I want is quiet, just some quiet and rest and to be warm with no fucking rain and no mud and no mortars but most of all I want this to be over. [September 27, 1943)

Freak accident with mortar tube in Harry’s squad and we have two dead because of I think a malfunction with mud or something I don’t know. [October 11, 1943]

Short on rations as it has been impossible conditions—this fucking mud—and we did not get resupplied before this assault so me, Glenn and Castellano have been going to each foxhole to take stock of what we have and split the difference as needed. Which means my own foxhole is a mud pit, these little shits better be grateful. [October 13, 1943]

Another great resource for writing about Bucky’s Sicily/Italy campaign was The Liberator: One World War II Soldier’s 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau by Alex Kershaw, who is really more of a pop historian than an academic like Hastings. Nonetheless, he writes on a lot of different WWII-era subjects that are all focused on individual stories, and his works are great gateway books into more rigorous nonfiction about the war. 

I’m including below a list that is not comprehensive but rather represents some of the works I’ve either found most helpful in writing The Night War or I just plain enjoyed. I’m so sorry anon, this is not what you were probably looking for!

[holy hell is there a lot under this cut]

Military History

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer

A definitive history by a guy who was the CBS reporter stationed in Berlin in the late 30s.

Inferno: The World At War, 1939-1945 by Max Hastings

My personal favorite single-volume history, and one that inspired a number of the Commandos’ experiences, such as their encounter with the Czechoslovakian family (Jan and Alžběta) near Kozmice (Operation Umbrella). The focus on Alžběta’s fear for her daughters and the risk of violence she perceived to them came directly from some of the stores in Inferno about Italian civilians who were brutalized and raped by “liberators.”

The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Kesselring by Albert Kesselring

Interesting to read the German perspective, though I admit I mostly skimmed this. Kesselring is one of those guys who got bizarrely recast as a “Good German” after the war, like Rommel, but he committed war crimes in Italy. And he was a Nazi, so.

The Few: The American “Knights of the Air��� Who Risked Everything to Fight in the Battle of Britain by Alex Kershaw

Again, more pop history, but there was some good stuff in this one about the day-to-day experiences of RAF pilots, though almost none of that made it into The Night War.

With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain by Michael Korda

A pretty good, quick primer on the Battle of Britain. Some details from this book made it into The Night War but only in terms of things that Bucky observes (like signs being missing at railway stations).

Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy by Max Hastings

Hastings is a really superb writer. I didn’t read this cover to cover but I did take some inspiration from it for the Commandos’ Normandy campaign (June 1944 to July 1944).

The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan

Another classic about D-Day.

The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 by Rick Atkinson

Another great history - this is the third in his three-volume history of the war.

Soldiers’ Experiences

Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest by Stephen A. Ambrose

A classic for a reason. This is the basis for the wonderful HBO series Band of Brothers, which is highly recommended and probably kickstarted my love of the era way back when I saw it at 11 years old.

Citizen Soldiers: the U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Surrender of Germany by Stephen A. Ambrose

Another classic. A great look at the individual experiences of the actual men who fought the war. 

Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes, At Home and at War by Linda Hervieux

This is a primer on the institutionalized racism of the segregated U.S. armed forces and the experiences of black soldiers, though it is by no means comprehensive as it focuses on a single unit. Still, I took some inspiration from this book about what Gabe may have witnessed or experienced himself during his training.

The Liberator: One World War II Soldier’s 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau by Alex Kershaw

Focuses on a specific commander in the 45th Infantry Division (The “Thunderbirds”) who had a remarkable journey through the war that in some ways mirrored Bucky’s. Kershaw writes pop history but there were some amazing details in this book I used to help flesh out the campaigns in Sicily and Italy especially.

The Road to Victory: The Untold Story of Race and World war II’s Red Ball Express by David P. Colley

Understanding the convoy system was helpful for logistical reasons but also, it gave some flavor to Gabe’s experiences as well. There is one mention of the Red Ball Express in The Night War, after Bucky is injured during Operation Goodwood and is back in England (July 29, 1944):

Thank god for the best friend anybody ever had. Steve busted me out of the clink (this makes the second time)—the sappy bastard tried to carry me like I was his fainting dame. I said no dice pal and hopped along as best I could until we made it outside and there was Gabe with a truck waiting like he was my own personal red ball express.

Politics

Never Surrender: Winston Churchill and Britain’s Decision to Fight Nazi Germany in the Fateful Summer of 1940 by John Kelly

Honestly, had nothing to do with The Night War but I read it because Summer 1940 is one of my favorite stretches of the war and this was a really interesting way to imagine the “what if?” had Britain not held fast against the Nazis.

Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour by Lynne Olson

One of my favorite WWII historical books ever. It does a stunning job at “setting the stage” of London during the early days of the war.

Resistance Efforts

A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France by Caroline Moorehead

Probably my favorite book written on the French resistance, full stop. The character of Geneviève Marcel was strongly inspired from some of the incredible women featured in this book.

Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France by Caroline Moorehead

Did not like this as much as Moorehead’s other work, but it did inspire a really fun Commandos mission that never made it to the final story - basically, the Commandos found themselves in a remote French village in the fall of 1944 and had to organize an ad hoc defense of the village along with several French maquis, who were mostly just boys aged 15-20. Naturally, the Commandos kicked ass and there were some great scenes with Bucky teaching the boys to box and to shoot a rifle. Sadly, it had to get cut for logistics reasons.

Avenue of Spies: A True Story of Terror, Espionage, and One American Family’s Heroic Resistance in Nazi-Occupied France by Alex Kershaw

This book was a little weak on its sources (in my opinion) but it did a good job of evoking what it was like to live and operate in Occupied Paris, which obviously became important in March 1944 for the Commandos.

Sabotage, Espionage, Code-Breaking, & Special Operations

The Women Who Lived for Danger: The Women Agents of SOE in The Second World War by Marcus Binney

This book isn’t that well-written, but it gave me some great ideas for Howling Commandos missions. Sadly, several of those ideas – sabotaging a submarine, for example – never made the final cut. I read this book because I was fleshing out my headcanon for Peggy, whom I imagined to have been part of the SOE prior to joining the SSR. In my headcanon, she’s the one who extracted Dr. Erskine from the Continent, and she got a lot of her training from the various SOE training stations.

Church of Spies: The Pope’s Secret War Against Hitler by Mark Riebling

Honestly, this book was just fun. I liked the little window into German operations and resistance efforts and it also gave me some great insight into the backstabbing, lack of trust, and unhealthy rivalries inside the Reich, which I used in determining how the Hydra organization might function had it been real.

Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain’s Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War by Ben McIntyre 

Some good stuff on how small special operations units actually operated during the war.

The Secret Lives of Codebreakers: the Men and Women Who Cracked the Enigma Code at Bletchley Park by Sinclair McKay

The inspiration for Peggy’s sister Gwendolyn came from this book. Plus, it’s a very easy, readable primer on codebreaking and Bletchley Park as compared to some of the other tomes that are out there.

Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker’s War, 1941-1945 by Leo Marks 

The Cost of Courage by Charles Kaiser

This was the inspiration for Geneviève Marcel’s family’s story.

The Holocaust

So, I studied the Holocaust a little in college and so I don’t have a list of all my sources for it (though the Holocaust doesn’t really play a role in The Night War until February 1945), but here are a few good ones:

Art from the Ashes, edited by Lawrence L. Langer

An amazing collection of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry written about the Holocaust and by Holocaust survivors.

Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi

One of the best memoirs on the subject.

The Night Trilogy by Elie Wiesel

This had an enormous impact on my understanding of survivor’s guilt and the exploration of one’s psyche following traumatic experiences.

War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust by Doris L. Bergen

Kapò, an Italian film about a young Jewish woman in a concentration camp.

Conspiracy, a film about the Wannsee conference.

Miscellaneous

When Books Went to War: The Stories that Helped Win World War II by Molly Guptill Manning

Learned from this book that the single most-read book by American GIs was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which, fittingly, I had Bucky read in September ‘43 and send a letter to his mother asking her to buy it for Curly for her birthday. 

The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America At War by A.J. Baime

There’s a pithy saying about the war that goes like this: “The war was won because of Russian blood, British Intelligence, and American Industry.” Something like 40% of all American industrial output went to arming the other Allies. It’s CRAZY. And the story of how that industry ramped up from 1940 through the end of the war is really interesting, and this one in particular I really enjoyed. Anyway, the only thing from this book that really ended up in The Night War was this:

I remember Castellano in my face yelling “whatever fucking happened to a goddamn bomber an hour?”  right after another stuka strafed us not even twenty yards away and Harry yelling “bombers are expensive Frank, you aren’t!” 

Fiction

Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky

Amazing contemporaneous fiction written about the French experience in the early years of the war and occupation. The author was a Russian Jew immigrant and was ultimately deported and killed in Auschwitz. Her daughter discovered this unfinished manuscript and published it in the early 2000s.

Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada

A fictional account of a German married couple plotting and executing their own small resistance. 

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

One of my favorite books of all time, and one that does an incredible job at imagining the effect of warfare on the human psyche.

Redeployment by Phil Klay

Short stories set in the modern OIF/OEF era.

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

One of the most important books ever written about war (WWI).

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

Another of the most important books ever written about war (Vietnam).

[larryland]

“Arsenic”—Old Hat?

by Barbara Waldinger

Can this 1941 farcical black comedy still amuse an audience in 2017?  You bet–check out Berkshire Theatre Group’s production of Arsenic and Old Lace on The Fitzpatrick Main Stage.  If its initial pre-war audience craved an escapist entertainment, perhaps we too might be grateful to enjoy a good laugh and avoid today’s headlines.  Joseph Kesselring’s fast-paced story of crazies and murderous misfits appears in the nick of time.

The plot, you may recall, concerns the Brewster sisters (Harriet Harris and Mia Dillon)—two sweet, charitable old ladies who take it upon themselves to poison lonely, aged, unattached males in order to put them out of their misery.  Their visiting nephew Mortimer (Graham Rowat), upon learning to his horror that a dozen men are buried in the cellar, determines to save his aunts from prosecution.  The play is, believe it or not, fact-based.  Beginning in 1907, one Amy Archer-Gilligan operated a convalescent home in Windsor, Connecticut.  Residents, including a couple of her husbands, began disappearing after Archer-Gilligan convinced them to pay a flat fee of $1,000 to cover expenses incurred during their lifetime (which didn’t last very long).  Investigations of no fewer than 48 deaths in a four-year period produced evidence of poison.  A gruesome tale, but Kesselring decided to give it a comic twist after a nudge from his producers.

Arsenic and Old Lace was an immediate hit, running on Broadway from 1941 to 1944, and its success had interesting ramifications.  A film version, directed by Frank Capra and starring Cary Grant, was shot in 1941 but its release was delayed until the Broadway run finally ended three years later. Capra had wanted Boris Karloff to repeat his Broadway role in the film (Jonathan Brewster, Mortimer’s brother), but the producers wouldn’t allow him to leave the stage production.  Capra had to settle for Raymond Massey, who was then made up to look like Boris Karloff.  In Kesselring’s play, the homicidal Jonathan had undertaken to disguise his identity, but the surgery, performed by his drunk, incompetent accomplice, was botched and he was turned into a Karloff look-alike.  Even without Karloff, the movie was immensely popular.

Translated into many languages and performed throughout the world in theatrical, film, and television versions, this play has always been a favorite of community theatres.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

But professional theatres, at least in the Berkshires, have not turned to this old chestnut recently.  Berkshire Theatre Group’s Artistic Director Kate Maguire has taken it on, and turned it over to Gregg Edelman, who encouraged his actors to broaden the comedy into over-the-top farce.  In this, he followed Frank Capra.  Cary Grant believed his performance as Mortimer was one of his worst, complaining:  “I couldn’t do that kind of comedy—all those double takes. I’d have been better as one of the old aunts!”  Yet Graham Rowat excels in his role as Mortimer here.  He plays a fast-talking, fast-walking, double-taking drama critic who hates the theatre.   Whenever he is onstage we are swept up in the urgency of his mission.  Mia Dillon and especially Harriet Harris perfectly capture the unawareness of the sisters who don’t see that they’ve done anything wrong, as they proudly describe how they poison their victims and use their batty nephew Teddy (Timothy Gulan), who believes he’s Theodore Roosevelt, to dig their graves in what he imagines are the locks of the Panama Canal (actually, the cellar).  Wonderful performances, both.  Gulan, incredibly energetic, repeatedly blows his bugle and screams “CHARGE!” as he runs up San Juan Hill (the staircase).  The most lovable aspect of his performance is the way he expects and receives the respect due to a president.  The third nephew, Jonathan (Matt Sullivan), the creepiest of the eccentrics, engages with his aunts in a competition to see who has killed the most people.  He provides the scariest moments of the play, while his long-suffering comic sidekick, the German Dr. Einstein (Tom Story—well-played) just wants to lead a stable, normal life.  Gerry McIntyre, who plays a police officer dreaming of being a playwright, brings enthusiasm and a dancer’s physicality to this improbable cop.  Katie Birenboim, as Elaine Harper, one of the few rational characters, plays the “straight man” to her fiancé, Mortimer.  Although she exhibits admirable spunk, she has a disconcerting habit of speaking out to the audience, regardless of whom she is addressing.

The finely detailed old Brewster home (designed by Randall Parsons) is said to have been modeled on a boarding house where Kesselring lived while teaching at Bethel College in Kansas.  The Brooklyn living room is mostly brown with blue trim, filled with feminine touches—curtains on all of the windows, a lovely blue and gold tablecloth, many old photos, one of which happens to be a portrait of Amy Archer-Gilligan (!), and the all-important window seat with a pull-up cover recessed below two tall windows.  Sound designer Scott Killian supplies period songs but his most amusing contribution is the organ music that signals frightening events to follow.  Costume designer (Hunter Kaczorowski) dresses all of the characters in appropriate clothing but the most interesting outfits are worn by Gulan as Theodore Roosevelt (at one point he wears two hats for an African safari).  Lighting designer Alan Edwards adds to the macabre atmosphere, enabling us to see what the characters are up to, even in semi-darkness.

The play is long:  by the third act, after two intermissions it can get a bit tedious. There are 14 characters, some of whom could have been excised without sacrificing the essential plot.  However, like a fireworks display, enough colorful personalities are thrown in to keep the action going.  With strong performances and capable direction, Arsenic and Old Lace can still elicit laughter after all these years.

Arsenic and Old Lace runs from July 27—August 19 at the Berkshire Theatre Group’s Fitzpatrick Main Stage.  For tickets call 413-997-4444 or online at berkshiretheatregroup.org.

Berkshire Theatre Group presents Arsenic and Old Lace.  Cast:  Katie Birenboim (Elaine Harper), Ryan Chittaphong (Officer Klein), Mia Dillon (Martha Brewster), Timothy Gulan (Teddy Brewster), Harriet Harris (Abby Brewster), Walter Hudson (Mr. Gibbs/Mr. Witherspoon), Gerry McIntyre (Officer O’Hara), Graham Rowat (Mortimer Brewster), Tom Story (Dr. Einstein), Matt Sullivan (Jonathan Brewster), Michael Sullivan (Officer Brophy), Walton Wilson (The Rev. Dr. Harper/Lieutenant Rooney).  Director:  Gregg Edelman, Scenic Designer:  Randall Parsons, Costume Designer:  Hunter Kaczorowski, Lighting Designer:  Alan Edwards, Sound Designer:  Scott Killian, Wig Designer:  J. Jared Janas, Stage Manager:  Jason Weixelman.  Running Time:  2 hours 30 minutes including two intermissions; at Berkshire Theatre Group’s Fitzpatrick Main Stage, 83 East Main Street, Stockbridge, MA., from July 27; closing August 19.

REVIEW: “Arsenic and Old Lace” in Stockbridge “Arsenic”—Old Hat? by Barbara Waldinger Can this 1941 farcical black comedy still amuse an audience in 2017?