Bomber Command; Failed to Return II

The casualty numbers are simply staggering – 55,573 airmen who served with RAF Bomber Command during the Second World War lost their lives in the fight against Nazism. A further 9,838 airmen became prisoners or war and 8,403 were wounded in action. These extraordinary and unprecedented loss statistics accumulated as the RAF bomber crews played their part in the prosecution of Allied grand strategy: defending the British Isles from invasion, blasting the enemy industrial infrastructure, supporting the Allied land campaigns, targeting the enemy Navy and U-boat threats, and countering the German V-weapon menace.

In this second volume concerning Bomber Command aircrew who ‘failed to return’, Fighting High Publishing again brings together acclaimed historians to tell the stories of those who became casualties. Illustrated throughout with color and black and white photographs, the vast majority previously unpublished, Bomber Command: Failed to Return II continues to ensure that the memory of the bomber boys, who sacrificed all, is kept alive. ‘Lest we forget.’

Dr Steve Bond is a life-long aviation professional and historian. He served in the Royal Air Force for twenty-two years as an aircraft propulsion technician, with tours on many different aircraft, and was part of the Eurofighter Typhoon project team in the MoD. A fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, he is also the author of many magazine articles and books including: Heroes All, Special Ops Liberators (with Richard Forder), Wimpy, Meteor Boys, and Javelin Boys for Grub Street.

Steve Darlow is a Bomber Command historian and established military aviation author, with fourteen books to his name. Steve has made numerous radio and television appearances, and recently acted as program consultant on the BBC’s The Lancaster: Britain’s Flying Past and Channel 5’s War Hero in the Family (Robert Llewelyn). Steve is also an Ambassador of the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund.