PHOTO: H. W. “Buzz” Bernard, bestselling author and retired U.S. Air Force colonel, brings decades of experience to his gripping WWII historical novels.
Historical Fiction With Heart And Precision
Award-winning author H. W. “Buzz” Bernard discusses his transition from meteorologist to novelist, exploring WWII history, moral complexity, and the fine line between fact and narrative craft.
H. W. “Buzz” Bernard has lived many lives—military officer, meteorologist, bestselling novelist—and through each, has woven a remarkable thread of truth, precision, and human depth. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force who rose to the rank of colonel, Bernard later became a senior meteorologist at The Weather Channel. But it was in fiction—especially fiction grounded in the storms of war and weather—that he found a lasting voice. His stories carry the weight of lived experience, and yet they move with the urgency of a heart that has never stopped searching for meaning in the chaos.
With Eyewall, Bernard introduced readers to the razor edge of natural disaster, anchoring suspense in scientific reality. But it was the When Heroes Flew series, his turn toward WWII historical fiction, that revealed a deeper resonance—a desire to understand not just what happened, but who we were in the face of it. His characters are not abstractions of courage or tragedy; they are young men stumbling through fear, grief, and duty, rendered with a tender attention that refuses to flinch.
What lifts Bernard’s work beyond the merely technical is his sensitivity to moral complexity. In Down a Dark Road, a soldier’s silence echoes long after the guns fall quiet—a reminder that war’s reckoning often arrives long after peace. This thoughtful grappling with conscience and consequence is the beating heart of his narratives.
For Bernard, writing is not about escapism but excavation. He digs into the past not just to tell us what happened, but to ask what it meant—and what it still means. In the quiet, clear force of his prose, we’re reminded that history is not behind us. It lives on in the stories we choose to tell.
Your debut novel, Eyewall, became a Kindle bestseller. How did your background as a meteorologist influence your approach to writing disaster thrillers?
When I write about disasters, I make every effort to keep them within the realm of reality. I may “stretch the envelope” of what could happen, but I don’t make up events beyond what science tells us could happen. In other words, I don’t write fantasy or sci-fi.
In 2020, you transitioned to WWII historical fiction with When Heroes Flew. What inspired this shift in genre and focus?
In 2000, I saw a TV documentary about a WWII low-level, heavy bomber raid on German oil facilities in Ploesti, Romania. The bombers, B-24s, were never designed to be flown in combat at tree-top level. The mission turned into a disaster, but the bravery shown by the aircrews was stunning, unimaginable. I knew I had to write about that. And I wanted to explore more than just the combat itself, but also the emotions and feelings of the (mostly) young men who flew the raid. It’s a theme I carried into my subsequent novels.
The When Heroes Flew series has received multiple Gold Medals from the Military Writers Society of America. What do these accolades mean to you personally and professionally?
The awards mean a great deal. From a personal viewpoint, most everyone likes an “attaboy” or a “high five” for something they’ve done. Professionally, the awards are recognition from my peer group that I’ve accurately (and entertainingly) captured the spirit, bravery, and professionalism of the American solider.
Your novel Down a Dark Road delves into the moral complexities of war. What themes did you aim to explore in this story?
Down a Dark Road is based on the true story of a young American infantry lieutenant in WWII. He survives the war, but struggles with his conscience over things he had to do and things he saw. He was unable to talk about them, let alone deal with them—like many of those returning from war—for many years afterward. But an event that took place in Austria in 1992 allowed him to see a larger picture and understand the necessity—and the morality—of what he had done.
As a retired Air Force Colonel and former senior meteorologist, how do your experiences shape the authenticity of your military and atmospheric depictions in your novels?
When I write about the military conditions of WWII, I’m able to fall back on my experiences in Vietnam as a young officer to give what I write about a bit of verisimilitude. (We didn’t have cell phones and computers in Nam, had to wait for letters to arrive from home, and were often lonely.) As far as atmospheric conditions go, I make certain they are always appropriate to the season and geographical location I write about.
You’ve mentioned that your writing journey has been full of surprises. Could you share one unexpected lesson you’ve learned along the way?
Perhaps the biggest unexpected lesson I’ve learned is how much “luck” can play a role in one’s career. My debut novel, Eyewall, became a Kindle number-one bestseller not so much because it contained great writing—I’m a much more skilled writer now—but because of the timing of its release. It came out just when eBooks were rapidly gaining a commercial toehold and the big publishers hadn’t adjusted to that, Amazon was beginning to really flex its muscle, and the small publisher I had signed with knew how to truly leverage the digital market.
With your extensive background in both military service and meteorology, how do you balance technical accuracy with narrative storytelling in your works?
That can be a real challenge. For instance, in the novel I’m currently working on—about the squabbling that went on among the forecasters making the weather prediction for the WWII invasion of Europe (D-Day)—I find myself walking a very fine line between maintaining technical and historical accuracy (which could bore the average reader) and injecting enough tension into the tale to keep a reader ripping through the pages. I guess the answer to the question is you really have to work at it. Hard.
What advice would you offer to aspiring authors looking to craft compelling historical fiction grounded in real-world experiences?
First of all, make sure you have learned the craft of novel writing itself. It truly is a craft. Most people can’t just sit down at a keyboard and hammer out a novel. There is a steep learning curve involved. Second, prepare to do a lot of reading and research to learn the history. Sadly, everything you read isn’t going to match up. You’ll sometimes have to make judgement calls about what really happened and when. As someone with a wicked sense of humor once told me, “Writing historical fiction is like having homework for the rest of your life. And then you die.”
