Voices in flight - Martin Bowman

This book contains fourteen stirring accounts pieced together from interviews of what life flying as air-crew in World War Two bombing operations was really like. The storytellers are an eclectic mix of pilots, navigators, bomb aimers, wireless operators and gunners who flew on operations in heavy bombers. It conveys the terror of being coned by German searchlights over the target, attacks by Luftwaffe night-fighters, often catastrophic damage to aircraft and the ensuing struggle to keep the machine airborne on the return trip to base. It tells of the comradeship between the crew and often the humour between them, often borne of fear. The gentle and unassuming narratives include Millennium; One of Our Aircraft Is Missing; Bombers Moon; Bombing Berlin The Ordeal Of Pilot Officer Romans DFC; Last Man Out operations on Whitleys and Halifaxes; Flying Officer X; Stirlings; Rescue At Sea The Incendiary Loads Alight; The Night Of The Bombs and The Kassel Raids of 1943 as well as BBC Broadcasts and stories by Allied war correspondents. Each of these accounts conveys the sense of purpose that these men felt in doing one of the most dangerous jobs of the war. It is a fitting tribute to those that survived and the many thousands who died in the struggle against Hitler's dreadful ambitions in Europe.