Hannibal Brooks

Aida, the Elephant, who plays "Lucy", lived at the Rotterdam Zoo until July 23rd, 1981, when she died at age 46. She arrived in Rotterdam from Thailand on Jul 9th, 1940, at the age of 5 years-old, already trained to obey some human commands in Thai, just 2 months after the Nazi blitz bombing of Rotterdam on May 14th, 1940, which killed over 900 and left over 30,000 homeless. Aida then survived 18 Allied air force bombing runs over Rotterdam from June 1941 to December 1944. Then, Aida survived the Nazi food blockade of the Netherlands until May 1st, 1945, when Allied relief was parachute dropped into Rotterdam. Over 18,000 Dutch citizens starved to death during the famine. Another survivor of the Nazi food blockade was actress Audrey Hepburn who took refuge with her mother's family in Arnhem: Her family survived the famine by beating tulip bulbs into flour and baking tulip bread. Until her death, Aida was a prized performing elephant at the Rotterdam Zoo often appearing before classes of children and responding to her trainer's spoken commands.

In the middle of WWII Germany, Brooks's love interest, the beautiful German girl, Vronia, is dressed in the finest clothes London's Carnaby Street has to offer - circa 1969. Vronia's hairstyles also come directly from the 1960s.