Size: 234 x 156mm
Pages: 224pp, 16pp of b/w photos
ISBN: 1 902304 48 9
Over 55,000 men from Bomber Command lost their lives in World War Two. On one raid alone,
Nuremberg in March 1944, more airmen lost their lives than were lost in the Battle of Britain.
The history of the twentieth century tells of nations of these men, mobilised in answer to
their country’s call, fighting for ideals, living, dying, possibly returning home. Ordinary
men became part of extraordinary events.
One such was Arthur Darlow, my grandfather, who was a pilot of a Halifax crew with 427 RCAF
Squadron and the a Lancaster crew with 405 RCAF Squadron, made up of British and Canadians.
They were one of the legions of RAF bomber crews that took the offensive against Germany for
most of the war. Their story is special.
Our crew begin their tour of duty during Bomber Command’s Main offensive’, late 1943 and early
1944. The German night fighter force and flak regiments defend the skies over the Reich with
grim determination. Losses are high. Our crew fight the Main Offensive, they take part in the
raging air combats. They survive. Thousands of their fellow servicemen do not. Their story
continues telling of their part in the preparations for operation Overlord, the Allied invasion
of Western Europe. It tells of the end of their flying days, shot down over enemy territory
and helped by the Belgian Resistance, and then traces the fate of each crew member, prisoner,
evader, casualty. Collectively they experience it all.
Not romanticised but related as it happened and written with respect to stand as a fitting
testament to the courage of these seven young airmen and countless crews like them, this is
a book to be read by all age groups. – Grub Street (the publishers).
