War novel prefaced the (American) first edition of 1941, Powys comments "the beginning of the fifteenth century […] saw the beginning of one of the most momentous and startling epochs of "transition" that the world has known". This was written in May 1940, and "[t]here can be no doubt" that readers of the novel would have "registered the connection between the actions of the book and the events of their own world". "Fair Stood the Wind for France" is a 1944 novel by H. E. Bates, which is concerned with a pilot of a Wellington bomber, who badly injures his arm when
William H. Bates William H. Bates William Henry Bates (26 April 1917 – 22 June 1969) was a member of the United States House of Representatives notable for his staunch support of the United States Navy. Bates was born in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of Nora (Jennings) and Representative George J. Bates of the , who also served as Salem's mayor. He attended local schools and graduated from Worcester Academy in 1936. He received his undergraduate education at Brown University, Providence, R.I., graduating in 1940. Following graduation from Brown, he enlisted in the United States Navy in July 1940 and was commissioned as