1942 was a crucial year for the fortunes of Bomber Command. The newly appointed Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Sir Arthur Harris, knew he had to show quickly that his Bomber Command could make a real difference to the war, so with Churchill's blessing he set about planning a vast initial air attack by at least one thousand bombers. This was over two and a half times larger than any previous raid by the RAF. The first selected target, Hamburg, was dropped due to poor weather conditions, and so it was Cologne which became the target of the colossal raid on the night of 30th May 1942. The success of that first raid was convincing while the two major follow up 'Thousand' raids on Essen and Bremen in June were less so, but still emphatically put Bomber Command back on the military map. This book is a testament to all those who flew with Bomber Command, which lost 55,000 of its members during the war.

About the Author
Martyn Chorlton was born in the north Cambridgeshire fens during the late 1960s. He joined the RAF as an Air Photographer in 1984. After tours in Germany and Northern Ireland, his service came to an end in 1997 and, a few years later he wrote his first aviation book. He is a regular magazine contributor to Aeroplane Monthly, Jets, Airfix and Aviation Classics and is the author of Bomber Command The Victoria Cross Raids and The RAF Pathfinders.


Book Information
ISBN 9781846743474
Author Martyn Chorlton
Imprint Countryside Books
Publisher Countryside Books
Weight(grams) 500g