Reaching for the Stars

Reaching for the Stars provides a new and revisionary narrative of the Bomber Command in the Second World War and an investigation of how its modern image has developed.

The role of Bomber Command in the Second World War is still shrouded in mystery. This book provides a new story of the campaign and is both a military history and an investigation as to how the modern image has come about. There have been hundreds of books about the RAF and Bomber Command ranging from highly researched histories, technical studies of the aircraft, to popular works; as well as countless films, television shows and newspaper reportage. Mark Connelly draws together all the strands to look at the image created by this outpouring. Reaching for the Stars shows why Bomber Command, in one of the largest and bloodiest campaigns of the war - with 55,000 aircrew lost and more officer fatalities than in World War I - has received so much attention yet is still a 'lost and black sheep' among British wartime glories.