The Avro Lancaster is a British Second World War heavy bomber. I would recommend this as an all round excellent read and you don't have to be an expert to enjoy it.National Steel Car / Victory Aircraft (Canada) There are some typos, which is irritating but all too common these days, and I think the author is a little unkind when he compares the Wellington with the Heinkel 111, putting the latter some 40 mph faster most sources give their performance on speed, height and bomb load as very similar, with the Wellington having the edge on range however that is a minor gripe from someone who has read far too many books on this subject being a pedant. But as the author himself says, it could encourage further reading.

It does not overburden the reader with detail because that is not the aim of the book. The account which effectively runs parallel with the story of the crew explains how the bombing war developed, the effects on the enemy and also on the aircrew themselves. It is this element that binds the story together however, for anyone not familiar with the bombing campaign, the book is an ideal introduction. This is an honest account of what it must have been like to spend almost two years with six other people who, prior to crewing up, were complete strangers. Most books about Bomber Command include anecdotes from aircrew but the author concentrates on one crew who completed 46 operations, effectively a tour and a half. Some of the connections to the story of the crew are tenuous to say the least but that fact notwithstanding, the content is always interesting and well written. But throughout the book the author uses their story to take the reader off at a tangent to recount the development of the bombing campaign against Germany. The story of one crew is the central theme, from joining up to the parting of the ways, told chiefly through the recollections of the one surviving member. Like the 1997 film 'Titanic', which wasn't just about the ship, 'The Crew' is about much more than the title suggests. 'A remarkable insight into the bravery, determination and skill of British Bomber Command crews during WWII' Waterstones.

'A fascinating and fast-paced account of the exploits of an Avro Lancaster bomber crew from 97 Squadron RAF' The Herald.

This book has a heart and soul' The Times.

Price has given the bomber offensive a human face. 'A sensitive account of the bomber's life. The drama and anxiety of individual missions – to Kassel, Munich and Augsburg as well as Berlin – is evoked with thrilling immediacy while the military events and strategic decisions that drove the RAF's area bombing campaign against Nazi Germany are interwoven deftly with the narrative of the crew's operational careers. Gloucestershire-born bomb aimer Ken Cook, hard-bitten Australian pilot Jim Comans, Navigator Don Bowes, Upper Gunner George Widdis, Tail Gunner 'Jock' Bolland, Flight Engineer Ken Randle and Radio Operator Roy Woollford were seven ordinary young men living in extraordinary times, risking their lives in freedom's cause in the dark skies above Hitler's Reich.įrom their earliest beginnings – in places as far apart as a Cotswold village and the suburbs of Sydney – through the adventure of training in North America and the dread and danger of the forty-five bombing raids they flew with 97 Squadron, David Price describes the crew's wartime experiences with human sympathy allied to a secure technical understanding of one of the RAF's most iconic aircraft. The Crew, based on interviews with Ken Cook, the crew's sole surviving member, recounts the wartime exploits of the members of an Avro Lancaster crew between 1942 and the war's end. A moving tribute to the sacrifice and bravery of the fliers of RAF Bomber Command.

Lancaster bomber crew stories