The winter of 1944 was the most dangerous time to be a combat airman in RAF Bomber Command—the chances of surviving a tour were as low as one in five, and morale had finally hit rock bottom. In this comprehensive history of the air war of that fateful year, Kevin Wilson describes the most dangerous period of the Battle of Berlin, and the unparalleled losses over Magdeburg, Leipzig, and Nuremberg. Documenting how these men coped with the extraordinary pressure of flying, the loss of their colleagues, and the threat of death or capture, Wilson places their stories within the context of the Great Escape, D-Day, and the V1 menace.