Bombers first and last

No. 9 Squadron RAF Bomber Command, formed in 1914, went to the second great war on 4 September 1939.

The Squadron's Wellington aircraft and crews were the first to hit the enemy, the first to get into a dogfight, the first to shoot down an enemy aircraft, the first to be shot down by one, and towards the end of the war, the first to hit the battleship Tirpitz with the Tallboy 12,000 pound bomb, an achievement by the crew of a Lancaster on her 102 Op with the Squadron.

No. 9 fought with Bomber Command in Europe all the way through World War II, took part in all the major raids and big battles, pioneered and proved new tactics and equipment, produced several of the leading figures in the Great Escape, became one of the two specialised squadrons attacking precision targets with the Tallboy, led the final mainforce raid on Berchtesgaden, 25 April 1945, and was the only squadron, from first to last, to do all of these things.

This is the story of the war seen through the eyes of the men who flew with No. 9 Squadron and the women who supported them, of the very few men who lived to tell that story and of the many men, more than a thousand of them flying with No. 9 Squadron, who did not.