David Sneath

Jazz Music David Sneath

Publisher Marketing: At the height of the Second world War ordinary men from all walks of life are being called up to action and adventure, to serve their country and fight against the threat of the Nazi war machine. Among the most noted war heroes of the time are those who risk it all to fly their payloads into the heart of Germany and back: the boys of RAF bomber command. In 1943, aware that men's lives can be changed - or ended - in the blink of an eye, the twenty-four hours before an operation are fraught with uncertainty and a fierce desire to live. This is the story of seven men, the bomber crew of a battle-scarred Lancaster christened 'Robin's Hoods', and at heart it is the story of how the conflict altered the paths of those who otherwise would have been destined never to meet. In the run up to the night time operation over Germany watch the individual threads of these men's lives come together, from the quiet Pilot Officer Robin Mansfield to the brash and assured Flight Sergeant Mike Retford, to Sergeant Bill Ford, the bomb aimer, whose confusion about his sexuality has haunted him all his life. Only as an RAF bomber crew could these war heroes come together, and the reflections on their lives and families before the mission show just how far apart, and just how similar they really are. See where the action and adventure of the Second World War takes this motley band of ordinary men and pits them against a relentless enemy, as well as the looming terror of their own fears. Contributor Bio:  Sneath, David David Sneath is director of the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit at Cambridge University and a lecturer in social anthropology.