RAF Coningsby played an integral part in the Allied strategic bombing campaign of the Second World War, and it paid a heavy price for it. Operations between March 1941 and May 1945 cost the lives of 1,096 Coningsby airmen whose average age was just twenty-one. Inadequate aircraft and difficulties in target identification plagued operations in the early years, culminating in 617 Squadron’s disastrous attack on the Dortmund-Ems Canal in September 1943. The subsequent introduction of a

Pathfinder Force within No. 5 Group defined all operations from D-Day onwards and raids continued out of Coningsby right up to the armistice. Drawing on Bomber Command’s operational records and the first-hand accounts of squadron and station personnel, RAF Coningsby in the Second World War presents the first comprehensive history of one of the RAF’s most important wartime bomber stations, reminding us of the extraordinary feats to which so many young individuals raised themselves and their indelible sacrifice.

• Draws on Bomber Command’s operational records and numerous first-hand accounts of squadron and station personnel
• Serves as a reminder of the extraordinary feats to which so many individuals raised themselves, and their indelible sacrifice
• Written by a senior officer based at RAF Coningsby and a member of the 617 Squadron Association
• RAF Coningsby is the celebrated home of the Typhoon Force and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, and one of few wartime stations that remains operational

RAF Coningsby in the Second World War

• Author: Robert Perry
• Publication: 24 August 2024
• Price: £45.00/$62.00
• ISBN: 978-1-78155-918-5
• Size: 234 x 156 mm
• Binding: Hardback
• Extent: 528 pages
• Illustrations: 34 mono
• Rights: World, all languages

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