Some of the themes of Beneath Gray Skies. Click on a title to expand the tab.
The story
Beneath Gray Skies tells the story of David Slater, a young conscript in the Army of the Confederacy of the 1920s, who is blessed with talents that provide him with a diverse set of friends and acquaintances – among them a British agent; Major Hermann Goering of the German National Socialist (Nazi) Party; Major Weisstal, an expert in the ground handling of Zeppelins; and Major Vickers, an enigmatic figure in Confederate military intelligence. David’s experiences include a ride on the first (and last) major voyage of the doomed Nazi Zeppelin Bismarck, which he shares with President Jefferson Davis III, and the Confederacy’s new ally, Chancellor Adolf Hitler of Germany. The story moves between London, Berlin, Friedrichshafen, Washington DC, Richmond, Virginia, and Cordele, Georgia, as well as a ship in the middle of the Atlantic, and the interior of the Zeppelin Bismarck as she flies over the Confederate States of America.The Bismarck (Zeppelin airship – movies!)
Beneath Gray Skies features one of the most romantic and luxurious methods of transport yet devised – the large rigid airship (dirigible). Fantastic as it seems now, the US Navy actually operated two flying aircraft carriers, which could launch and retrieve biplane scouts in flight. The passenger airships were just as amazing – the Hindenburg carried a small aluminum grand piano and a dance floor! The Bismarck in Beneath Gray Skies is built by the world’s leading experts in airship technology of the time – the Zeppelin Luftschiffbau. Everyone now remembers the Hindenburg as an enormous fireball, but she had made many successful crossings of the Atlantic before her fatal accident. It should also be remembered that the Americans refused to supply Zeppelin with helium – which would have prevented the tragedy had she been filled with this non-flammable gas (Hindenburg was designed for helium from the start, but the Nazis were unable to obtain the gas as the US Helium Act classified the gas as a weapon of war and were unwilling to sell it to a belligerent regime).For more about the Hindenburg and some amazing photos of the interior, etc. check out the details at Dan’s airship site.
The YouTube clip below shows the Hindenburg in her shed, being walked out, with Dr. Hugo Eckener (who appears in Beneath Gray Skies as a major character), in flight, and her final tragic end at Lakehurst.
Here’s another airship movie – this time of the real-life LZ127 (in Beneath Gray Skies, this number is assigned to Bismarck), Graf Zeppelin:
If you are interested in airships, I advise you to check out this wonderful site, which actually has contemporary color photos of the Hindenburg’s passenger accomodation. Next time you suffer a 12-hour flight with your neighbor’s elbows in your ribs, and the knees of the passenger behind you constantly thumping you in the back, dream of the airship.
The Confederacy
In Beneath Gray Skies, the American Civil War was never fought, and despite the confident assertion by Northern politicians that the erring Southern sisters would return to the Union fold in peace, the South continued as a slave-owning state, shunned by most other nations, and in a state of perpetual skirmish with the North. Ruled on hereditary principles, by David Slater’s time, most of the democratic ideals of the original USA have disappeared within the Confederacy. Military service and a secret political police force dominate the lives of the citizens – and the slaves – of the Confederacy. In Beneath Gray Skies one of the slaves escapes from the Confederacy, and eventually makes his way to Britain, where he assists with the efforts to frustrate the Southern-Nazi alliance.Slavery
Slavery was the reason why the South seceded in real life – the nonsense talked about “States’ Rights” basically referred to the right to buy and sell other human beings as property. This chattel slavery was almost unknown in human history – compared to the Roman system of slavery, for instance, where freedmen held important positions, and could rise high in society, the South never freed slaves, and regarded them as property, not as human beings. To America’s shame, this practice actually continued until after the Russians had freed the serfs – that’s right, the evil dictatorial Russians actually abolished slavery in their country before the “land of the free” abolished it in theirs.Why I wrote this book
First and foremost, I wanted to tell a good story. People who have read the book seem to think that I have succeeded in this aim. I’ve had a love of airships for some time. When I was younger, I probably read almost everything there was to read about them in the Cambridge University Library, including Hugo Eckener’s autobiography. I’ve often wanted to write something about these wonderful machines, and there are some interesting coincidences that match my plot that allowed me to bring in the Zeppelin as a centerpiece. What if? histories are always interesting. However, I had no idea how the Confederacy could have won the peace with the North, though I think it is fairly clear that given a level playing field the South would have won militarily. Kevin Wilmott’s excellent movie Confederate States of America comes up with a way in which the South could have continued to dominate the North, but I was more interested in the idea of a pariah slave-owning state at perpetual war with a largely imaginary enemy (by the way, I watched the movie after I had finished the first draft of Beneath Gray Skies).
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