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Leaden Skies

By Mathilde Bonetti

(BPW ITALY Member)

POLAND
Synopsis written by the author
1939

“A Gripping Tale of War, Loss, and Redemption
This moving novel plunges readers into the chaos and devastation of World War II. “

The country is torn apart as the Soviet Union invades along its eastern border, following a
mutual agreement with Nazi Germany, which had attacked days earlier from the south and
west. The consequences for the Poles are now unspeakable, with brutality and bloodshed

occurring daily. The Soviets are just as cruel as the Nazis, and are imprisoning and deport-
ing all officers, with the ultimate aim of killing those who will not conform to their ideology
– as will later happen in Katyn Forest Massacre in April 1940. At the heart of the novel is
Captain Blazej Baranski, an experienced Polish pilot who’s imprisoned with his comrades by

the Germans at the air base where he was stationed in central Poland. He is waiting to be
delivered to the Russians, and witnesses the killing of his wife Edyta by a German pilot.
One night, thanks to his commander’s SPAD S VII – an old biplane from the Great War –
Blazej manages to escape from the air base and eventually makes it to England, where he
becomes one of the many Polish pilots serving in the RAF.

Matthias Brandt, the German captain and complex character who killed Blazej’s wife as she
attacked a Wehrmacht soldier at the Polish air base, takes part in the Polish Campaign with
a growing sense of dismay. The values he grew up with are a far cry from the violence and

cruelty that now drive Hitler’s military forces following the invasion. Unfortunately, caught
up in a system in which he is just a pawn, Matthias can’t do much to change the situation.
He himself committed a crime that haunts his conscience and soul, pushing him to question
his actions, the Reich, and the terror which his country is responsible for. He grapples with
the moral implications of his actions during the invasion, and his internal conflict and grow-
ing disillusionment highlight the human cost of war on both sides.

Blazej’s and Matthias’ lives brush against each other in Poland: Matthias sees Blazej escap-
ing, but doesn’t stop him, nor does he alert the Soviets. Blazej notices him as he is about
to take off, and although he is desperate to avenge his wife’s death, he chooses to escape,

and abandons the thought of killing the German pilot.
…/...