Lancaster

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From John Nichol, the author of Spitfire, comes a passionate tribute to the Lancaster bomber and its heroic crews, as well as the men and women who kept it airborne during the nation's greatest hour of need. The Avro Lancaster is an aviation icon, revered and romanticized; without it and the bravery of those who flew it, our current freedoms would not exist. Sir Arthur Harris, the controversial chief of RAF Bomber Command, referred to the Lancaster as his "shining sword" and the "greatest single factor in winning the war." RAF bomber squadrons executed offensive operations from the war's outset until its conclusion, flying nearly 300,000 sorties and dropping around a million tons of explosives and life-saving supplies. Over 10,000 aircraft did not return, and of the 7,377 Lancasters built, more than half were lost to enemy action or accidents. The human cost was staggering: of the 125,000 men in Bomber Command, over 55,000 were killed, and 8,400 were wounded. Approximately 10,000 survived being shot down, only to become prisoners of war. Harris's aircrew faced a mere 40 percent chance of surviving the war unscathed. Nichol now tells the inspiring story of this legendary aircraft that took the fight deep into Nazi Germany.