Alasdair McPherson

Patriotism Alasdair McPherson

When Cyril Greenwood is conscripted in 1916, he argues that he is more use to his country as an engineer than as a Tommy. His claim is ridiculed and he is branded a shirker and a coward - a conchie. Hurt, but not prepared to compromise, he volunteers to defuse unexploded bombs in frontline trenches and he is badly injured attempting to save his comrade Tom, a hero descended from generations of heroes, when a mission goes wrong. Transferring between hospitals, he meets a Quaker Freddie, another conscientious objector, and has to drive the ambulance when they are caught in an artillery attack. Released from hospital and with his reputation officially restored, he finds that conchies, widely considered to be traitors, are worse hated than the Germans who were, after all, fighting for their own country. Cyril is disdainfully turned away by former employers and is forced to takes a temporary job as a schoolteacher in a Quaker school. After the Armistice, Freddie and Cyril set off in an ambulance to Bavaria to help with the work of post-War reconciliation and they both thrive there until, that is, 1921 when Freddie is accused of being a Jew-lover. Cyril saves his comrade from arrest and brings him back to Britain where he has little success in convincing the establishment that Germany is intent on revenge for the humiliation it has suffered. Then he meets a member of the recently formed Military Intelligence who asks him to return to Munich. In UBER ALLES, Cyril's story continues until he finally escapes the Night of the Long Knives in 1934.