A lot of writers choose to write Fiction and Fantasy, and I read a few fiction books myself, but to me, writing about reality is a lot more challenging and a lot more interesting. The Wilhelm Legacy is a case in point.
When I started to research this piece of history, I learned so much, and gained so much insight into the activities leading up to World War II, and during the war, that the end product may indeed serve as a reference book for future generations.
Who knew that Adolph Hitler was demanding that Germany build the fastest German ocean liner in history, and when the engineers determined that the ship was never going to achieve that goal, no one wanted to tell Adolph.
As it turned out, fate saved the day in a most unexpected way, and the shipbuilders were not only off the hook, but started over with a new design that became the battleship Bismark, the most famous and most feared ship of world War II.
The entire story would not have unfolded for me, except for an 88 year-old neighbor of mine who pressured me to write the story. When I was about halfway done, she revealed that she was a survivor of the Wilhem Gustloff, which was sunk in January of 1945. The Wilhelm Gustloff, was the first version of the ocean liner Hitler wanted built, and served the Canary islands as one of Germany’s finest cruise ships until that fateful January evening.
This is what makes writing non-fiction so fascinating. It is the discovery of information that history often forgets.
