The Lancasters looked like enormous deadly black birds going off into the night; somehow they looked different when they came back. The planes carried from this field 117,000 pounds of high explosives and the crews flew all night to drop the load as ordered. Now the trains would not run between France and Italy for a while, not on those bombed tracks anyhow. Here are the men who did it, with mussed hair and weary faces, dirty sweaters under their flying suits, sleep-bright eyes, making humble comradely little jokes and eating their saved-up chocolate bars' _ Martha Gellhorn??This riveting and highly intriguing collection of pilot and civilian reminiscences works to commemorate the spirit of the almighty Lancaster bomber. Each chapter is dedicated to a unique individual or group of individuals who took part in its history in some capacity. Be they pilot, civilian, or journalist, each played their own part and their accounts offer a host of fascinating insights. ??Episodes featured include the battle for Munich and the Nuremburg and Berlin Raids. Stories of PoWs downed in their Lancasters and captured in enemy territory also feature, communicating a real sense of peril experienced behind enemy lines. Two sections of fascinating black and white photographs supplement and complete this trawl through the history of the Lancaster bomber and the men and women who witnessed its glory days.

Four women working at the Lancaster Grand Hotel find their way through life and love. A Hopeful Heart Hannah’s community offers her love and support after the untimely death of her husband, but an Englisher offers her the chance of a new life after the unexpected tragedy. A Mother’s Secret Carolyn knows she might never find a man who will have her and her son, Benjamin. A marriage of convenience doesn’t sound so bad, yet Carolyn knows she wants to marry for love. A Dream of Home Madeleine is a former Air Force flight nurse living alone in Paradise, Pennsylvania, and working as a maid at the Lancaster Grand Hotel. She isn’t exactly a widow . . . but she sure feels like one after losing her fiancé. Saul isn’t exactly a widower . . . but his wife is long gone. His young daughter, Emma, doesn’t know that her mother fled the Amish community—and married another man—but she does know that her dat is lonely, and that a pretty young maedel just moved in next door. A Simple Prayer The sole survivor of a buggy accident that left her orphaned at age four, Linda was raised by her unwilling Uncle Reuben. She longs to be worthy of someone, but the life-long effects of her injuries and her upbringing under the care of her embittered uncle have destroyed her self-worth. She must learn to forgive her family that she is worthy of love.