Lancaster: The Second World War’s Greatest Bomber, by Leo McKinstry
Leo McKinstry’s Lancaster: The Second World War’s Greatest Bomber offers more than is promised by the title. As in his last book, Spitfire: Portrait of a Legend, McKinstry has taken an iconic airplane and, in telling its history, gives not only the technical dimensions of its invention but also the myths that came to surround it. He relies heavily upon the recollections of airmen, quoting interviews and their unpublished memoirs alongside a traditional narrative of engineering and combat. This new book is less a simple history of the Lancaster than a broader history of the second world war from the perspective of a single weapon.
The Lancaster began as a failure. In June 1936 the Air Ministry issued a specification for a twin-engined medium bomber: it would, according to the original plan, carry a crew of four and take off with the aid of a giant catapult.
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