Under a War-Torn Sky

Under a War-Torn Sky (2001) is a young adult novel by American author L. M. Elliott. Set in 1944, the novel is a World War II adventure story in which 19-year-old Henry Forester, an American bomber pilot, gets shot down mid-flight over German-occupied France. Through his courage and the help he receives from the French Resistance, Henry finally makes it home to the family farm in Richmond, Virginia, by Thanksgiving. The novel explores Courage and Resilience in the Face of Fear, The Importance of Kindness and Human Connection, and The Experience of Coming-of-Age.

The novel has received numerous awards, including being named a Notable Book in Social Studies for Young People (NCSS/CBC) in 2002 and winning the 2002 Jefferson Cup Honor Book and the Borders’ Original Voices Award for Young Adult Literature in 2001. It was the first of 14 young adult novels that Elliott has written. In 2009, she published a sequel to Under a War-Torn Sky. A Troubled Peace begins in March 1945 and shows Henry returning to Europe to find Pierre, a French boy who helped him escape.

This guide uses the 2001 Hyperion Books for Children hardback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, torture, animal cruelty and death, and death. There is also a brief reference to death by suicide.

Plot Summary

19-year-old Henry Forester is a bomber copilot in the US Eighth Air Force, stationed in England during World War II. He and his crew set off on a mission to Germany, which will be Henry’s 15th mission copiloting a B-24 bomber. Their purpose is to bomb a ball-bearing plant, as part of a bomb group of 24 planes. When the planes are attacked by German fighter planes, one of the engines on Henry’s plane is hit. Several crewmembers are injured and the wounded pilot, Dan MacNamara, orders a bail out. Henry drags Dan behind him and they leap out of the plane. Dan’s parachute is hit by enemy fire and he falls to his death. Henry’s own parachute is damaged, but he reaches the ground safely, although his ankle is injured. He walks westward, not knowing whether he is in France, Switzerland, or Germany. He often thinks of his family at home in Virginia: His loving mother, Lilly, his irascible and highly critical father, Clayton, and his sweetheart, Patsy.

Henry encounters an old schoolteacher who tells him he is in Alsace, a French province. The man takes Henry to a schoolhouse where he can hide and then be transported to a hospital in Bern, Switzerland. Since Henry cannot walk because of his bad ankle, he first travels, with the teacher and another man, on a canal to Basel, Switzerland. Several hours into their journey, they are intercepted by German-speaking Swiss soldiers. Henry hides under crates of cabbages and has a narrow escape when the soldiers thrust their bayonets into the cabbages.

At Bern, Henry gets surgery for his ankle. An assistant to the US Ambassador promises to help him get back to France, and says that the French Resistance will help him reach Spain and Portugal, from where he will take a boat to England. Four weeks later, Henry leaves the hospital and is put on a train. Following instructions covertly given to him by Resistance contacts, he exits the train when it stops near a station. He walks to a café, where two employees make it appear that he is a kitchen worker who has arrived late. Henry is given new clothes and fake identity papers and boards the train for Montreux, where he is met by another Resistance contact, an attractive, cultured woman who goes by the name of Madame Gaulloise. After a night’s stay at a hotel, Henry poses as her chauffeur and they drive across the border at Geneva. Henry stays for a week at Madame’s luxurious mansion in France, drinking in a new world of art and culture.

Eventually it gets too dangerous for Henry to stay, and Madame gets him a train ticket to Grenoble. Resistance members meet him there and they cycle to a farmhouse, where the escorts provide him with clothes that make him look like a peasant. He then walks alone down the Alps, until he reaches a village and meets a young boy, who leads him into a barn and says he will be safe there. The boy, Pierre, lives with his mother and grandfather. The family offers Henry food and shelter, and he remains with them for a month. This peaceful interlude ends when the Germans raid their home, killing the grandfather and taking the mother away. Henry and Pierre escape, and Pierre’s uncle sends them a teenage guide, who leads them to a deserted village. Henry leaves Pierre with a priest in a church who says he will arrange for the boy to stay at a nearby abbey.

Henry and his guide continue walking until they reach a Resistance camp, where Henry is surprised to meet up with Billy White, whose plane was shot down on the same bombing mission that Henry participated in. When it is time for them to leave the camp, they climb into a delivery van with four other men, destination unknown. Henry learns from a Resistance member that Pierre’s mother is at a women’s prison near Berlin; she has endured interrogation without revealing any of her contacts. He also learns that the Allied invasion of Europe has begun.

Henry and his companions ride into southern France, where they are dropped off and begin their walk across the Pyrenees to Spain. On the third night, Billy becomes exhausted and cannot continue. Henry helps him along. However, the entire group of six men is betrayed by their guide, and as Henry and Billy try to escape, Billy is shot and dies. Henry is captured and imprisoned in Toulouse, France, where he is tortured by the Gestapo. A Gestapo officer also threatens him with a dog and holds a gun to his head. He wants information about Madame Gaulloise, who is imprisoned in Lyon. Henry is put in a car with the Gestapo officer and they set off for Lyon, where Henry is to be further interrogated. During the journey, however, Henry wrests the officer’s gun away from him and shoots him and the driver.

Henry is on the run for two weeks, moving at night and taking food from farms. One night he is confronted by a teenage girl who lives in a nearby house. She is angry but invites him in and offers him food. The next day, Henry and the girl—Claudette—walk to another village, where they meet with a group of Resistance fighters (maquis), including Claudette’s boyfriend André. A skirmish breaks out between the maquis and a German patrol. Only four Resistance fighters survive the battle. André is dead and Claudette holds his body, refusing to allow his burial. The maquis, with Henry, Claudette, and their dead on-board, drive through the mountains to a Resistance camp, where Martin, the leader, invites Henry to join the group. Henry and Claudette work together, repairing a car and then putting together explosive devices.

In August, the maquis increase their acts of sabotage and also attack truck convoys. Martin tells Henry about a massacre of civilians at Vassieux, the village that Pierre and his family are from. Henry wants to search for Pierre, but Martin discourages him. News arrives that the Allies have reached Paris. The camp is soon in turmoil, however, as the Nazis attack nearby villages. The maquis decide to pursue the fleeing Pétain, leader of the German-controlled French government, who is in nearby Saulieu. Henry and Claudette arrive there on their bicycles, but Pétain has already left. On the edge of town, they encounter a crowd of people who are tormenting a teenage girl whom they accuse of being a collaborator. German trucks arrive, and Henry is captured and imprisoned in Germany.

Two months later, Henry is facing execution and is forced to dig his own grave. However, at the last minute, the German soldier in charge of the execution has a change of heart. He gives Henry a document guaranteeing him safe passage and tells him to go home. Henry is only three miles from American lines and knows he can make it to safety.

On Thanksgiving Day, 1944, Henry arrives unexpectedly by taxi at the family home in Virginia. There are embraces all round, including from his sweetheart Patsy, and even from Henry’s irascible father.