The Silver Lady — James Facos

Merriam Press Historical Fiction HF12 (First Edition, 2014). In The Silver Lady James Facos evokes the tension, the triumph and the tragedy of an American bomber crew in England during the height of the war over Germany in 1944. The horrors of an air war fought and flown high above the target are described in realistic detail, but there are other levels to the story: there is a love story involving the youngest of the American crewmen, and the intensely emotional ordeal of an idealistic Quaker who has to come to terms with war and death in the way that only one who kills can know. England's peaceful countryside, the smoky landscape of Germany and an explosive conflict within the crew itself are masterfully realised in a nostalgic, authentic and excitingly told tale of war, its warriors and its victims.

In writing The Silver Lady, Facos wanted to show what the air war was really like and no less a critic than Howard R. Gotlieb at Boston University's Mugar Memorial Library wrote a letter in 1974 to Facos, affirming what Facos had achieved.

Wrote Gotlieb: "The historical immediacy of the novel attests to the accuracy of your own eye and memory, and to your ability in creating one of the few outstanding pieces of fiction emanating from World War II."

The author joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1943 at the age of 19, serving as a ball turret gunner on a B-17 based in England, the real "Silver Lady." He received the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters and the Distinguished Flying Cross.