'The Lancasters looked like enormous deadly black birds going off into
the night; somehow they looked different when they came back. The planes
carried from this field 117,000 pounds of high explosives and the crews
flew all night to drop the load as ordered. Now the trains would not run
between France and Italy for a while, not on those bombed tracks anyhow.
Here are the men who did it, with mussed hair and weary faces, dirty
sweaters under their flying suits, sleep-bright eyes, making humble
comradely little jokes and eating their saved-up chocolate bars' -
Martha Gellhorn
This riveting and highly intriguing collection of pilot and civilian
reminiscences works to commemorate the spirit of the almighty Lancaster
bomber. Each chapter is dedicated to a unique individual or group of
individuals who took part in its history in some capacity. Be they
pilot, civilian, or journalist, each played their own part and their
accounts offer a host of fascinating insights.
Episodes featured include the battle for Munich and the Nuremburg and
Berlin Raids. Stories of PoWs downed in their Lancasters and captured in
enemy territory also feature, communicating a real sense of peril
experienced behind enemy lines. Two sections of fascinating black and
white photographs supplement and complete this trawl through the history
of the Lancaster bomber and the men and women who witnessed its glory
days.
