Colin Roderick Fulton

This is historical wartime fiction at its best! The history on which this novel is based occurred in wartime Germany in February of 1945. The US Air Force successfully pulled off daring daytime raids, dropping over 2250 tons of bombs over the capital city of Berlin. The State Bank of Germany sustained 21 direct hits, leaving the building unsafe and its contents extremely vulnerable.

The German government began moving vast amounts of gold bars, jewels, securities, and millions in currency of various nations including around $4 million in US currency alone, by armored train to areas they deemed more secure. Multiple robberies are on record and much of the loot was never recovered.

Author Colin Fulton has imagined a daring attempt at a colossal heist by desperate men who had nothing to lose as they saw the country they had fought for losing ground and at the same time several among them were becoming aware of the atrocities that had been perpetrated in secret on the hapless Jewish population of Germany and its conquered neighboring nations. They knew what would become of them if they fell into the hands of the Allies, and knew what would happen if the German government caught wind of their plan.

The idea originates in the SS, the most feared of the German military. The plotters are originally a small group, but they have to enlarge their number as the plan fleshes itself out. Sturmbannfuhrer (Major) Friedrich Schonewille is one of the first drawn in. His role in the SS is to visit the concentration camps and audit the valuables and cash that are taken from the Jews before they are exterminated. He then takes these items to the Reichsbank to deposit on a regular basis. The author notes that he is one of the few who is ambivalent about the German dogma, but actually enjoys the prestige and power that he never experienced til he put on the uniform

As the plan evolves, the parties realize that they must also be prepared to leave Germany and disappear, assuming they can survive the robbery attempt. Schonewille's half brother is a German pilot, both highly skilled and highly decorated. The brothers were not raised together and are not close, but the pilot is persuaded by his older brother. Their father, a German general stationed in Norway has some pull when it comes to securing a plane that could get the thieves out of the country, so he becomes one of the cabal as well.

Absolute secrecy is a must, and there must be guarded trust among the plotters to achieve any progress. It is slow progress and the men become increasingly distraught as they come closer and closer to their own personal D-Day. A riveting story with details about banks, planes and the hierarchy of the German military, not to mention great character development of some flawed and desperate men, that will keep the reader involved until the very last page.

This book was previously published in Great Britain and should receive wide acclaim in the US as well. I read an e-copy courtesy of NetGalley and recommend it highly!… (mehr)

The pilfering of the Reichsbank toward the end of WWII is an established fact. Its actual depletion is surrounded in mystery and conjecture in spite of various attempts at investigation. The lead characters evoke both the worst and the best of the Nazi war and death machine and demonstrate the perversity and venality of war. There is plenty of detail for those enamored of military aircraft and the novel is interspersed with colloquial German phrases that give it an eerie reality. In the end after many twists and turns the plot succeeds but not all in this military band of thieves (both German and American) survive. They all have blood on their hands even the innocent Jewess Sophia. The novel is not for the faint of heart.… (mehr)

Colin Fulton definitely knows his history and it is clear he has done a good amount of research for this book. He takes a series of real events, all of which he lays out in an appendix at the end of the book, and places his story around the edges of history that remain a mystery in real life. He takes this one step further by not only using well-known figures from history as a supporting cast but also lesser known but equal real members of the German government. Of all the historical fiction I have read Fulton has gone the furthest in grounding his story in real history, and the book is all the better for it.

One of the things I struggled with early on in this book was the characters. Not that they were poorly written. Nearly all of the major and supporting fictitious characters in the book feel very fleshed out and believable. The issue is that most of the protagonists in the book are people who by their very nature it is hard to like. One of the main characters in the book is an SS officer who keeps track of and account for all of the money stolen off the murdered prisoners in the concentration camp. It is difficult as a reader to sympathize and feel a connection to a character like that. To be fair as the book progressed Fulton managed to make the characters work out in a believable and satisfactory way without changing their evil nature. It is a tough line to walk and by the time I finished reading it I could only applaud Fulton’s success.

My only real complaint is how some of the language was used in the book. The author clearly has a fondness for the German language, and it was a detriment. As a book written in English nearly everything the characters say is in English for the reader, yet very often the author also has them say things in un-translated German. I found this fairly distracting because the jumping between languages would mean that most of the time the Germans are all speaking English to one another. While this is obviously not the case it makes those moments when the dialogue is in German feel even more out of place. German names and identifications I can accept but there is no reason for a character whose dialog has been presented in English for a chapter then say "come here" in German. Nearly every time this happened it pulled me out of the story.

That one complaint aside this is a really solid read and I enjoyed nearly every moment of it. If you are a fan of historical fiction or thrillers do yourself a favor and pick up The Reichsbank Robbery.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.… (mehr)