Friendship, particularly the friendship between Maddie and Julie, forms a significant theme of this novel. Their friendship and the positive effects it has on both women’s lives, rather than the grim reality of the war, comprises the heart of this novel.

Without the war, both women realize that they probably would not have met. Without the war, Maddie would never have had the opportunities to fly and challenge herself, and Julie would have led a more conventional life than her life as a spy and interrogator. Despite the terrors and hardship of war, both women appreciate the gift of friendship that it has brought them.

A specific gift of their friendship derives from their ability to work well together. As Maddie and Julie both say at different points, “[W]e make a sensational team” (68). Both women do more when they are together or work together than they can accomplish as individuals. As their friendship progresses, they give each other the confidence to do more than they thought they could. The power of their friendship and accomplishments begin when they safely talk down a German pilot, and continues when they shoot down a German fighter plane.

From these dramatic and sensational beginnings, their friendship blossoms and grows.