Turnabout Summary

The title of this story applies to two things—the swift, agile turns that a British torpedo boat makes in pursuit of enemy ships during World War I, and to the final lines of the narrative when an American bomber pilot suddenly has an anti-war epiphany as he's releasing bombs onto a French chateau where German generals are gathered. Faulkner obviously draws upon his experience as a pilot during World War I to construct this gritty, hyper-masculine account of men in wartime; the powerful engines of the patrol torpedo boat and the aerial maneuvers of the twin-engine bomber take on lives of their own and become characters in the story, as much as the soldiers themselves.

The story opens with a comical account of American and British military police debating who should do what with a drunken British sailor named Claude who...