Dark Before Dawn — Kay Stephens

Everyone is worn down by the war which has been raging for five long years, but five-year-old evacuee Johnnie Richards is so traumatised that Sheila Calvert travels south from her family's Yorkshire farm where he is staying, to return him to his mother. Searching the airfields of Kent, she finds an ally in USAAF Lieutenant Todd Albany, and Johnnie is reunited with his mother. Returning Johnnie to his mother does not provide the solution to his troubles, and Sheila returns to Yorkshire. Throughout her ensuing struggles Todd remains there for Sheila and Johnnie - until one day he and his plane are announced "missing."