Description

• Covers RAF’s bomber offensives around the world in the first two years of war
• Crew experiences of campaigns and raids combined with strategic overviews
• Comparisons of the Luftwaffe’s interwar growth and arsenal with the RAF
• Lavishly illustrated with many unpublished images: of interest to the military historian and modeller alike

From the lessons of the First World War and the theories of the interwar years, the RAF developed modern aircraft in time for hostilities in 1939. These consisted of Hampdens, Whitleys, Wellingtons, Blenheims and Battles.

These aircraft and their crews were pitted against the German war machine flying into storms of deadly flak and swarms of Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Bf 110 Zerstörer fighters in their vulnerable and poorly-armed bombers. From Norway and Libya, Malaya and France, the crews and their aircraft were at the front of every military operation often without adequate fighter escorts and with poor equipment against superior Axis opposition.

They were the few who bravely went on what they would term as ‘One-way ticket’ missions that saw a life expectancy of only a matter of hours without hesitation or complaint.

Flying into the Storm: RAF Bombers at War 1939-1942 chronicles these brave men and their aircraft against impossible odds and laid the ground work for a campaign that would lay waste to the Third Reich by Lancasters and Halifaxes.