Under a War-Torn Sky

In March 1944, during World War II, 19-year-old Henry Forester is a bomber copilot in the US Eighth Air Force, stationed in England. He awakes from a nightmare in which his plane crashed after being fired upon by a German fighter plane. It is not the first nightmare Henry has had recently. He distracts himself by thinking of his home and family in Richmond, Virginia, particularly his mother, Lilly.

Before dawn, Sergeant Bromsky rouses the 16 men in the hut—pilots, navigators, bombardiers—making up the officers of four bomber crews. Henry learns they will be on a mission that day to Germany, a dangerous 1,000-mile round trip. It will be his 15th mission copiloting a B-24 bomber. Henry thinks of his friend Patsy who lives in Virginia on the neighboring farm. He has recently developed romantic feelings for her. As the men awaken, Henry interacts with his fellow officers, including Billy White, with whom he has a rather antagonistic relationship, Dan MacNamara, his pilot, who always speaks with authority, and his navigator, Fred Bennett.