Sons at War

In Jane Sweetland's family, there's a legend that her uncle Ted and a German pilot shot each other down in World War II. While investigating this, Sweetland unearthed a true story that was more fascinating than she had imagined.

Ted Sweetland and Joachim M ncheberg were born just six months apart-but half a world away: Ted in New Jersey; Joachim in West Prussia. The blond, blue-eyed boys could have been brothers. They played the same sports and childhood games and enjoyed many of the same privileges. Then Adolf Hitler came to power.

Spurred by patriotism, Ted and Joachim joined their respective nations' air forces. They were twenty-four years old when their stories ended in the skies over Tunisia.

In Sons at War, Sweetland writes with astonishing empathy for the man who killed her uncle. Joachim wasn't evil-he was a young man, not unlike Ted. Both learned the lessons their nation taught them.