However, the book is still fictional in that many things that weren't true were added and I'm not sure how you ferret out what was true and what wasn't regarding the book which was written in 1993. But, I think the characters were all fictional but it all took place in real places surrounded by real characters. But, it also sounds like many stories I have heard about regarding World War II as this war really chewed up so many millions of lives even among those that actually survived it. For example, I have met soldiers in the U.S. Army where a whole company of men (usually around 100 or more) except for a few men (under 4) when I was a child between 4 and 12 years old. I was born in 1948 just after the war ended.
I even owned starting around 1967 a BSA 500 motorcycle used in World War II in North Africa. It had a headlight and no battery and only a magneto to generate electricity to run the motorcycle after it was started by a kick starter or by pushing it and throwing it into 2nd gear then. It was a real tank but maybe the most dependable motorcycle I ever rode. It could ride all day at 45 to 60 miles per hour and be fine but if you were going to hit a bump you had to rise up on the pegs because there was no rear suspension to protect your back from breaking. So, it had a different kind of handlebars to make it easier to do this on rough roads or if you hit a rock of any size with the front or rear tire so you held the handlebars equally as you stood up on the foot pegs.
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