Michael G Bergen

What was the Cold War, and are we on the verge of another, or worse? I was born amidst the Nazi V-1 and V-2 raids on London and Croydon, England, during WWII. My mother, father and I survived that worldwide conflict and settled in Montreal, Canada, in 1945. That year saw the end of one war and the beginning of another: the Cold War between old Allies in the Eastern and Western Blocs, between Communism and Capitalism. Two of the first to recognize the dangers of that new conflict were the authors and survivors of WWII George Orwell and Winston Churchill. Orwell used the term, Cold War, in an essay in October 1945. Churchill coined the Iron Curtain as the physical boundary between the two sides, or Blocs, of the Cold War in a 5 March 1946 speech in the US. I was a child during the first 'Proxy War' of the conflict between communist North Korea. China and the Soviet Union backed the Communist North. The United Nations, the US, and the Western Allies, supported Capitalist South Korea from 1950 to 1953. By 1961, when I joined the Royal Canadian Navy as a sonarman to find Soviet submarines, and John F. Kennedy became President of the United States. Nikita Khrushchev was the Soviet premier, and Fidel Castro was the Cuban premier. The Cold War was in full swing with those leaders in command. I was immediately thrown into my new role on a NATO exercise off Gibraltar, among others. However, the war and my new occupation reached their pinnacle during the Cuban Missile Crisis on the Grand Banks in October 1962. What would this war's outcome be? Would Kennedy, Khrushchev, Castro, and I survive, and would the Cold War increase the dangers to a world otherwise at peace? This 4th book of The Rutherford Chronicles relates the author's personal experiences with the last major crisis of the 20th Century. He searched for Soviet submarines during the Cuban Missile Crisis and for America's most advanced US Atomic Submarine. He saw a divided Germany and the Berlin Wall. He witnessed the fight against Apartheid and the formation of Nelson Mandela's government in South Africa. Finally, he witnessed the collapse of the USSR, and the end of the Cold War and the mighty British Empire. Are we in danger of a similar conflict today, or worse, WW3?

Our heroes, Joe and Mike, are back from WWI. Having served a short spell on the Western Front, they spent long years in various POW camps in Germany. On their return to Newcastle, they have a good deal of readjusting to do - as do all those involved in the conflict. It takes time, but with each other's support and that of their families, they gradually reintegrate into more or less everyday family life. However, it isn't long until the fallout from such an expensive war (both in terms of lives and the national economy) takes its toll on their community and those around the world. The reparations demanded from Germany, involving cheap or free coal and other essentials, affect life in Britain and, in particular, that of the northeast. There mining, shipbuilding, and other heavy industries have, until now, been staples of that region. And then there is the Great Depression, beginning in the USA but soon affecting the rest of the world, and the families of both men are soon hit. Although both men have found work in their former shipyard, employment opportunities are limited, both for veterans of the last war and their offspring. Eventually, Joe's older children decide to move south to promise better prospects, and the rest of the family soon follows. Canadian forces join with Britain and the Allies. Large numbers of Canadian personnel arrive in Britain for training and defending the islands before being sent to the continent to fight the Nazis. In London and Croydon, where the Rutherford's have settled, is being bombed continuously, resulting in catastrophic numbers of dead and wounded. George Bergen forges lasting friendships among his fellow Canadians and, partly by accident, meets Joe's young daughter, Dolly. It's not long before they become more than friends and, during one of his leaves, they marry and soon have a son. George is then dispatched to the Mediterranean to take part in the Italian Campaign. While in Italy, George is terribly concerned about news from his new family, but at the same time has to continue to do his duty in Europe, where some of his colleagues have also met young ladies and eventually marry. Such is life, particularly in war. However, at long last, and after many years, peace is finally achieved in Europe, and George and Dolly settle in Canada to begin their new life with their young family. After close to half a century, the world has been embroiled in war. The most destructive conflict in the history of man has ended, but how long will this well-earned peace last...?

Having served in the Second Anglo-Boer War and, afterwards, in India, supporting the British Raj, Joe Rutherford and his marras, Mike, Jack and Fred return to Jarrow and their old way of life in shipbuilding. They marry and settle happily for a while until WWI erupts in mid-1914. As reservists, Joe and his friends feel duty-bound to sign up again, and re-join their old regiment, shipping out to the Western Front in France. There they experience the horrors of this terrible conflict, spending a month and a day in the trenches, and charging across open, sodden fields under constant fire. Jack and Fred both lose their lives, and Joe and Mike are captured and taken to a series of POW camps, where they are to spend the rest of the war. In the camps, Joe resumes his role as storyteller, relating not only his and Mike's own story but also those of the other prisoners, who arrive almost daily with their own tales. After a failed attempt at escape, the two friends are moved to another camp, where conditions worsen, as they do for the German citizens. And even the care packages sent from home slow and come to a halt - but they are at least in touch with their loved ones, who are experiencing their own difficulties at home. Then, towards the very end, the emaciated and weakened prisoners, along with everyone else, are in danger from the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. But Joe and Mike survive both the war and the pandemic and are finally transported to safety and medical treatment, then home. Reunited with their friends and families at the end of 1918, they do their best to return to everyday life. In Book Three: Empire and Tyranny, the Great Depression and WWII arrive, and the families again find themselves struggling to survive...

Joe Rutherford, a young shipbuilder from Jarrow, in the northeast of England, is unusual among his peers. He was fortunate to attend school long enough to learn to read, and becomes an inspiring teller of stories about the current war in southern Africa; stories he has gleaned from the British press. Soon, despite the opposition of their loved ones, he and his friends decide to join the British Army, and set out on an adventure they couldn't possibly have expected from the newspaper reports Joe has been relaying to them. Shipped out to join the existing forces after only minimal training, they soon encounter the harsh and terrifying reality of war; the atrocities on both sides, the loss of friends and comrades, and the desperation of holding on to friendships, relationships and romance in the light of what may be a very short life ahead of them. They also learn to understand the commonality of humankind the world over, whether it be found in friends or enemies. Unsure of what may happen from one day to the next, the friends cling tightly to each other, to hope, and to new friends they meet along the way, knowing that only they, and perhaps luck, can keep each other safe... Written after meticulous research into the lives of the common soldiers of the period, as well as those of the more well-documented officers and commanders, this story is the first in a series that follows generations of the Rutherfords through their own family history and that of the world around them.