Richards, Denis, — THE HARDEST VICTORY - RAF Bomber Command in the Second World War.

Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1994, 1st edn., xx, 393pp, 24pp half tone photo ills., 3 in text maps, photo pictorial endpapers, navy blue cloth lettered in gilt at spine, pictorial dustwrapper, by the co-writer of the three volume official RAF history of WW2 (with Hilary St. George Saunders), an account of the work of RAF Bomber Command against a background of the policies, personalities and politics, covering the early leaflet raids through the disasters and setbacks to the adoption of area bombing, the great raids of 1942 and 43, the support to Overlord and the tactical support to the Allied armies, the defeat of the 'V' weapons and the final onslaught against oil production and the transport infrastructure, with appendices covering a general chronology, Orders of Battle at Sept. 1939, Feb. 1943 and March 1945, aircraft perfromance, the operational groups and casualties, lightly rubbed and bumped at tips, dustwrapper: lightly rubbed at tips, very good plus in a very good plus dustwrapper,