YORKSHIRE AIRFIELDS IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR

It has often been said that during the Second World War, Britain resembled a gigantic aircraft carrier. Of no county was this image more true than Yorkshire. Between 1940 and 1945, the RAF carried out over 100,000 sorties from some 25 Yorkshire airfields, losing more than 18,000 men, of whom around 15,000 came from Bomber Command.

This book describes the history of the airfields and highlights the major operations of the 29 squadrons stationed there. The aircraft, especially Halifaxes, Whitleys, and Wellingtons, and the airmen who flew them made a vital contribution to the ultimate defeat of the Third Reich, undertaking increasingly larger raids across the North Sea into the dangerous, smoke-filled skies of occupied Europe.

Today, there are still frequent reminders of those dark days and nights. Memorials mark the exploits of the squadrons as well as individual crash sites. Elsewhere, the remains of derelict airfields can still be found—patches of crumbling concrete, a surviving hangar overgrown with creeper, and huts now filled with bales of hay where once men slept, ate, and prepared to go into battle.

Patrick Otter's action-packed book will appeal equally to aviation enthusiasts and to readers who remember the era when Yorkshire's cities, towns, and villages, and the skies above them, never ceased to throb with the distant drone of departing and returning aircraft.

Source : Publisher's summary printed on the cover