Avro Lancaster Bomber: The story of the men and women behind the 'workhorse of the RAF'

Between its introduction in 1942 and the end of the Second World War, the Avro Lancaster flew around 150,000 sorties and dropped more than 600,000 tons of explosives.

It played a leading role in some of the most famous missions of the war, including the Dambusters raid. Many of the air crews paid the ultimate price.

Almost half of the 7,377 Lancasters deployed into service were lost in action.

Ms Miller, whose previous book, The Women Behind the Few, focused on the wartime role of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, has used archive documents, letters and first-hand accounts to provide an insight into what life was like on a wartime base.

“A lot of the stories in the book have never been told before,’’ she said.

She found that Bomber Command was a diverse place with crews drawn from around the world.

They were often stationed in small villages in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk where locals must have been aware of the risks they were taking each time they took to the sky.

The death toll was horrific. A total of 55,573 Bomber Command crew lost their lives in the Second World War.

“It had one of the highest death rates among the services and those involved were volunteers, which shows the mettle you needed to become part of Bomber Command,'' said Ms Miller.

“Quite a few had experienced something that meant they had to fight back.”

A member of Bomber Command interviewed by Ms Miller had seen one of his neighbours killed during a raid on his home town.

“He couldn’t stand the thought of not being able to take the fight to the enemy,’’ she said. “There was also a terrific sense of camaraderie which bound them together. Some told me they just didn’t think the worst would happen to them.

"Some of them were very happy to talk, with others it was more difficult to get them to open up. PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) wasn’t recognised at the time and they wouldn’t have got the help they would have done today. A lot of them wanted to talk about the people who were lost so their sacrifice would be remembered.”

"Friendships endured after the war across the oceans,’ she added. “One of the former members of Bomber Command, Hugo Trotter, was an ex-pilot who helped me frame the way I talked to veterans. Sadly, he passed away just a few weeks before the book came out.

"Despite the high rate of losses, one of the things I learned from Hugo was about the very close friendships forged in the fire of a terrible war. They still found time for fun and silly pranks. It’s a story of survival, fun and love as well.”

To gain an insight into the crew’s life, Ms Miller hopped inside a Lancaster on the runway with the engine turned on.

“It vibrates constantly and is very spartan,’’ she said. “I shut my eyes and tried to imagine what it must have been like at minus 40 degrees in the pitch dark. You’ve also got a big, heavy flying suit so it’s very difficult to move around."

The villages which stood close to many of the RAF bases developed a powerful bond with the men and women who flew and maintained the Avro Lancaster.

"One of the men I interviewed was sent from his home in Birmingham to serve on an RAF base in a tiny village in Norfolk,’’ Ms Miller recalled.

"When they extended the runway at this base, it passed very close to people’s back gardens in this small community. The man said he felt bad about the runway extension because he was worried that the noise of the Lancasters returning in the middle of the night might disturb local people. The locals said they didn’t mind the noise because they were counting every aircraft back.”

They cared about the air crew and had a real affinity with the young men and women they saw at the local pub or on the common.

Once a mission was completed, women played a vital role in compiling reports. One of the roles undertaken by WAAFs, who made up nearly 16 per cent of the RAF’s total strength, was to debrief aircrews immediately after they had returned.

Initially, the RAF believed women would be unsuitable for the job of interrogating exhausted aircrew about their experiences.

Ms Miller said: “The WAAFS couldn’t serve as air crew but, as the manpower crisis deepened, they were put to use in roles which would have been considered ‘uncomfortable’ for women. “Conducting debriefings was initially considered an ‘uncomfortable’ role, because they had to get usable information from aircrew who were often traumatised.”

However, the women proved to be very effective, displaying empathy and giving the crews space to talk when they felt ready.

"All the stories are of bravery and humanity,’’ said Ms Miller. “The aircraft is nothing if you take the people away from them. A lot of the veterans say they didn’t do anything special; but their memories are so precious.”

The number of people who remember the Second World War is dwindling. Ms Miller believes everyone could have a role in ensuring first-hand accounts of the war are kept for future generations.

"If you know somebody who is a wartime veteran I urge you to record their memories before they are lost forever,’’ she added.

The Lancaster Story – True Tales of Britain’s Legendary Bomber – by Sarah-Louise Miller is published by Michael O’Mara Press.