Until the Night

It is September 1943, and Bomber Command is gathering itself for what many in the High Command believe will be its final victorious campaign; but even the true believers in the "main aim" know the coming winter battle will be bloodier than anything which has come before. For Adam Chantrey, looking forward to the fifth year of his personal odyssey, duty has become his watchword, and life on the squadrons his only reality. And then one day, while waiting for a train that is late, he encounters a different fate...and afterwards, nothing will ever be the same again.

For Adam Chantrey, looking forward to the fifth year of his personal odyssey, duty has become his watchword and life on the squadrons his only reality. Then one day, while waiting for a train that is late, he encounters a different fate, and afterwards, nothing will ever be the same again. But for a man like Adam Chantrey, who lives his life rubbing shoulders with the countless ghosts of the never-ending war with the distant cities, whose dreams are filled with burning aircraft falling into clouds soaked like mile upon mile of blood-soaked cotton wool, what has hope become?

It was in November 1943 that Bomber Command commenced a campaign to level Berlin from end to end; at stake was the tantalizing prospect of knocking Germany out of the war by the spring of 1944. The fabled "main aim" of the bomber war briefly beckoned, and like a siren's call, it began to lure the Main Force to its doom. But all that was in an unknown and an unknowable future; in the beginning hope died hard. For Adam Chantrey, this is just the latest battle, and he is not alone in having to come to terms with the new realities of a cruel world.

It is December 1943, and the Lancaster Force has settled into the long, hard slog of razing Berlin from end to end. Raid after raid presses on against the storms of winter and the fury of the gun lines and the fighters guarding the faraway cities on the Saxon plain. The storms that batter the Main Force and the seasonal fog and mist that regularly envelope their bases are enemies as deadly as the Luftwaffe; the time when any man on ops could cling to hope is quickly disappearing.