Customer Reviews

Lancaster Squadrons 1944-45 (Combat Aircraft)

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Jon Lake continues his history of the Avro Lancaster at war in this 2002 Osprey 'Combat Aircraft' volume, #35 in the series. LANCASTER SQUADRONS 1944-45 chronicles the rise of the Lanc to prominence as Bomber Command's main bomber, the Lancaster being turned into a devastating weapon of war thanks to improved tactics and technology. Yet, though German targets were sometimes devastated, the Lanc and Bomber Command in general ended the war with a mixed record of victories and defeats as revealed in Lake's comprehensive book.

The last two years saw Bomber Command raids improve in their effectiveness thanks to the creation of Pathfinder units, better radar, better target marking, etc. Yet, many raids, went amiss, doing little damage while suffering crippling losses such as the disastrous March 1944 Nuremberg raid and the ineffective "Battle of Berlin" campaign of late 1943/early 1944. Harris' mistaken and unyielding belief that Area Bombing attacks would win the war cost 10,000 British airmen in the 11 months following D-Day alone. Many would say unnecessarily lost.

Lake's book does a fair job of covering the Lanc's last two years in action but has the same problem as LANCASTER SQUADRONS 1942-43: trying to cram too much into 80-odd pages. Then too, in this second volume, Lake spends some ink repeatedly discussing the Area Bombing doctrine, taking space away from the "Lanc ops" theme. Several times he runs long, dull summaries on targets hit during such-and-such a month. And, as with the first volume, Lake includes very few first-person reminiscences, again resulting in a dry read.

Heavy metal fans will loves the dozens of photographs contained in the book. Likewise, Chris Davey's color profiles are a definite plus, being wonderfully done.

In all, LANCASTER SQUADRONS 1944-45 is a fairly good operational summary of the Lancaster's late war record but suffers from trying to stuff a size-20 body into a size-15 flying suit and, likewise, leaves out most of the human element which would have given more life to the Lancaster story.