'Taking part in an invasion is a thousand times harder than writing a book about it'

Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games... Would young people still be interested in history? Writer Anke Manschot believes so. On the eve of Kinderboekenweek, which starts today, her exciting and gripping historical book was published The jump on Normandy, the world's first children's novel about D-Day. Five questions for the author.

Historical juvenile novel

During a holiday in Normandy, journalist Anke Manschot constantly saw images of young soldiers jumping out of aeroplanes with parachutes, fighting on beaches and slinking along hedges. In her imagination, a story slowly developed about two American paratroopers who witnessed the invasion of Normandy, as well as the idea of turning that story into a historical children's novel. To her surprise, there turned out not to be one yet. Maybe children's book writers did not dare to do it because it is a terribly difficult subject, for which you also need a lot of military knowledge," the writer suggests. You have to put all that information into a story that is easy to read, with a smile and a tear, but not too gory. I thought it was a huge job and regularly thought the book would never be finished. Then I sternly told myself: come on, participating in an invasion is a thousand times harder than writing a book about it!

Is World War II a subject that still appeals to today's youth?

''I think so. When I visited the invasion beaches, war museums and other memorial sites in Normandy as a tourist, I noticed a lot of young people walking around, busy taking photos, often accompanied by a father or teacher explaining all sorts of things.

Research by historian Erik Somers among ten Dutch war museums has shown that visitor numbers have increased by 76 per cent in ten years and that the audience is mostly young. Camp Westerbork receives an average of 27,000 teenagers every year.

For the presentation of The jump on Normandy at the Airborne Museum in Oosterbeek, we had invited 31 young people aged between 12 and 14. When I asked them if they had any ideas for my next children's book, they enthusiastically came up with all kinds of topics related to the Second World War, for example a novel alternately told from the point of view of an American and a German soldier.''

Why is it important to keep telling these stories?

''I think it's so heroic to literally jump into a war. These guys also volunteered to do that at the time. Fighting for our freedom has been a huge sacrifice for our liberators and their families and friends. More than 400,000 US soldiers died in World War II alone. I recently read that when someone dies, an average of 20 people are very sad. So do the math on how many Americans were grieving at the time. Not to mention the British and Canadian soldiers. We should also commemorate these fallen on 4 May. I have already spoken to Gerdi Verbeet, chairman of the National Committee for 4 and 5 May, about it.''

Did you have to do a lot of research?

''Yes! When I started my book, I didn't even know the difference between a sergeant and a lieutenant or between a mortar and a bazooka. Similarly, I didn't know that the word "officer" is a generic term and so both a lieutenant, a captain, a major, a colonel and a general are all officers. Or that US soldiers were stationed in southern England for months before finally storming mainland Europe.

To gather facts, I read 24 non-fiction books and countless soldiers' letters, Googled myself silly and watched various documentaries, YouTube videos and feature films, such as Band of Brothers and of course Saving Private Ryan. I also talked to a lot of people: I asked five military experts and two paratroopers about their work, and asked questions of staff at US archives and even Americans on the street. For instance, I asked an elderly man from California what drinks people from a poor family there drank during the war, because my protagonist was born and raised in that state. He remembered exactly: mint julep [hints]"Mint juleps are the quintessential Southern cocktail. All you need for this classic version is fresh mint, mint simple syrup, and bourbon. Leftover simple syrup keeps refrigerated about one week and perfectly sweetens iced tea."[/hints] and lemon juice.

I even once went along to the shooting club where a man from my neighbourhood is a member. There I shot with a World War II carbine, a pistol and a revolver. I found shooting a pistol particularly terrifying. If you hold this weapon incorrectly, your thumb can fly off.''

Young people today are used to a lot in terms of violence on television, but still: writing for young people about war and all that goes with it also means making choices about what you do and don't describe. What considerations did you make in doing so?

''In my book, one rape by an American soldier occurs, but I deliberately describe it summarily. In a book for adults, I would probably have gone into more detail about it. However, I felt it necessary to mention it because between 6 June and October 1944, there were 152 reports of rape by US soldiers in France. The tip of the iceberg, of course. I did not come across this in any soldiers' book, but an American professor Mary Louise Roberts devoted an entire book to it: What soldiers do. Sex and the American GI in World War II France, published in 2013. Well, she was not thanked for that. She even received hate mail.

German and also allied soldiers sometimes cut off the enemy's penis and put it in the victim's mouth. Such a lurid detail does not belong in a children's book. Furthermore, I have avoided coarse language. Only once do I have a sergeant say 'goddamn', but my protagonist Dave does cringe. A while ago, I watched Full Metal Jacket, an American war film about Vietnam. The language used by the American soldiers in this was so coarse - it cannot be in a children's book, I think. I was also careful when it came to sex. I suggest that my protagonist Dave sleeps with his girlfriend while on leave, but I do not describe that lovemaking. Let readers fantasise for themselves what may or may not have happened.

Furthermore, I hesitated whether I could write about smoking and handing out cigarettes. In the end, I chose to do so, although I deliberately don't let my protagonist smoke. The epilogue tells us that they didn't know at the time how unhealthy smoking is. I thought that message was important anyway.''

As a journalist, you were always focused on the facts. Was a historical novel a deliberately chosen 'middle ground' between non-fiction and fiction?

''I think so. I can't easily see myself writing a novel about bullying or a fighting divorce. A historical subject gives me more grip anyway. And every time I found a nice detail in a book or soldier's letter, a gem, I was happy. For instance, I read that US soldiers who slept in pairs in a foxhole during wartime quite often groped the mate next to them in their sleep because they thought it was their lover. Or that a lot of soldiers went to a chaplain just before D-Day to talk about their fears. From one such sentence, I make a whole scene with the greatest of ease.

So the hardest part of the writing was not the fictional part, but the historical and military details - they have to be right. The sources I consulted were not at all unambiguous. This was quite maddening at times. For instance, a renowned British historian describes the liberation of a town in Normandy completely differently from what it says on a plaque at the church there.

Writing a novel is more satisfying than writing an article, though. You can associate more freely and sometimes get surprised yourself. For instance, in my book, an Indian soldier became a brutalist. That happened naturally. Another soldier became a mother's boy, who in his spare time likes nothing better than doing puzzles of castles. I didn't make that up, it felt like the characters themselves told me how they were put together. A movie often played out in my head, too. All I had to do was capture it. When my protagonist and other American soldiers snuck through backyards during the liberation of Eindhoven, I saw in my imagination a clothesline hanging there with white women's underwear, and a huge bra that could fit two melons. Logically, those young soldiers would be distracted by it. Then when you have that paragraph typed up, it really makes you feel good.''