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- From “The Gentle Rain” by Henry Gregor Felsen

The Story

April 21st, 1945 – The wheat fields sway gently in the breeze as black smoke recedes from the sky. Blown-out buildings and factories line the streets, downed planes smolder in the fields, and anti-aircraft guns sit abandoned amongst the rubble. The wounds are still fresh as the city braces for the possibility of another strike. It’s quiet…for now.

American and Allied forces are pushing northward through the Italian countryside, routing out the Germans as they go and pushing them back to Bologna, one of the last lines of German defense in Italy.

World War II has ravaged the landscape, not only wiping out factories and industrial strongholds, but also tearing up towns and neighborhoods along the way. The war has also taken its toll on the soldiers. Battles have waged for 5 years now; there has been fierce combat, harsh, exhausting conditions, and the heartbreaking loss of thousands of their brothers, fathers and sons. It’s hard to say just how much, but there’s no doubt, that starts to wear on a man…

World War II will officially end in 16 days. But the people of Santa Croce don’t know that, and the American soldiers, charged with finding and beating back every German possible, certainly don’t know that. For the soldiers, the pilots, the military men who have spent years training for this, the war is not over until it’s over. Land is being fought for, enemy soldiers are being pursued and killed, and orders must be followed.

For one American pilot, his orders are to bomb the city of Santa Croce.

The Gentle Rain journeys into the mind of an American WWII fighter pilot on his last bombing mission. It’s an intimate portrayal of a man convinced of his purpose and justified in his actions. His mission is to carry out an act of war, to bomb a city and anything on the ground in his way. Yet when the immense power he feels becomes almost exhilarating, and the burden of wielding this power becomes clear, he begins to crack. As he banks and dives over the city, looking for a tender place to strike, our tragic hero takes on the role of God deciding who in the city below will live or die. In the end, he has to make a choice, is he a God of mercy, or a God of wrath?