Of every 100 operational airmen in World War Two, 9 were killed flying in England and 3 severely injured in crashes, so non operational casualties were significant in numbers, over 15,000. Operational casualties were of course chillingly grim – over 56,000 airmen died in the Second World War, over half those involved. George Culling was a nineteenyearold Lancaster navigator whose own experiences often involved battling tricky and dangerous conditions. Fascinated by the everpresent dangers for airmen even well away from combat, he has collated tales from comrades and combined them with his own to preserve some of the unexpected, inconvenient, dangerous, and often downright bizarre experiences that frequently typified daily life for airman in the Second World War. AUTHOR: George Culling is now a nonagenarian who has belatedly set down his accounts of bizarre experiences at war when as nineteen year old he navigated a Lancaster on flights of up to 10 hours using only the stars to plot their position. He became an expert in astronavigation after the war ended before spending a long career in teaching. SELLING POINTS: . Collated by George Culling, who navigated Lancasters on 10-hour flights using only the stars to fix position . Experiences include low oxygen, ice 6-inches thick on aircraft wings, electrical storms, baling out, being taken prisoner, and exploding thermos flasks! . Featuring such aircraft as Wellingtons, Lancasters, Ansons and Tiger Moths 20 b/w illustrations