The Crew

De: David Price

Narrado por: Peter McGovern

The Crew recounts the intimate, personal testimonies of Wing Commander Ken Cook, who served as Bomb Aimer with the Comans crew. The audiobook specifically follows Flying Officer Jim Comans and his crewmen from their enlistment as volunteers, through training and into operational service. The Comans crew flew 45 hazardous bombing missions - mostly deep into Germany at night - through the winter of 1943 to the summer of 1944.

At 95, Ken Cook is the crew's last survivor. Enlisting in the RAF Bomber Command at 19, his extraordinary story brings a moving insight into the bombing campaign. His experiences, particularly during the Battle of Berlin, highlight the extreme danger each bomber crew faced. With Bomber Command's casualty rate of over 44 percent, the book describes how the airmen overcame immense physical and mental challenges to survive. There are now very few surviving RAF Bomber Command airmen from the Second World War. The Crew will be one of the final eyewitness testimonies to a momentous time in our history.

©2020 David Price (P)2020 W. F. Howes Ltd

Excellent history, more 'life details' wanted

As my father was a pilot on Lancasters in WWII, I am always interested to learn more about what they did and what it was like for them.

I would have preferred a lot more "trivial little details of everyday life" to have been included. All the little stuff about what it was like to be on a Lancaster mission, or simply to be in one for such extended periods. I suspect that the crews dismiss those details as obvious or unimportant -- but really, we don't know them and would love to! I suspect that many of the small details have faded from memory also.

For example, what was the food like in the mess? People like to complain about military food, but when I was at RAF stations around 1980, I thought it was uniformly excellent.

Here's the sort of trivia I like... A story from my dad was that when they first joined up, a friend of his was terribly posh and brought his high quality porcelain teacup to the mess. He was so excited to have joined the RAF, and when talking with another (not posh but obviously unfriendly) airman over dinner, he offered "Cheers" and went to clink with the other guy, who had a regular mug of tea. The other guy slammed his mug into the friend's teacup really hard, hoping to break the porcelain teacup. Instead, the regular mug shattered, leaving the unfriendly completely stunned and just staring at the remaining handle of his mug.

Anyway... the book cover says that it's the story of a Lancaster Bomber Crew, which I was hoping for. But it would estimate that about two-thirds of it actually covers the strategic bomber campaign and large raids, which I happen to know about from other books. If he had to add these aspects to give context and to fill out the book, because he was low on details about the crew themselves, then I get it. But if some crew-details were squeezed out to make space for the strategic story, then I would have preferred 'the authors cut' with the additional details left in, and a longer book.

I found that a few author or narrator choices were a bit distracting for me, but they were minor. He refers to them looking for a fuel leak with torches. My goodness, that sounds dangerous! Oh wait, he means flashlights. Got it. Which reminds me of another story from my dad... it was a dark night and there was a puddle of liquid under a fuel bowser but they couldn't see where it was coming from. Is it fuel or water? One of them said "I'll strike a match so we can see better" - the others jumped him before he could actually act on the idea...

A little after D-Day, the narrator says they are going on a raid to Cannes, which was an important intersection for both sides. Gosh, that's a long way, Cannes (pronounced Cann) is in the south of France, so... we're doing a raid to support the upcoming Operation Dragoon? After a bit more context... ohhh, he means Caen (pronounced Con). Yes, both sides beat that Norman city to pieces. But his other city names were pronounced just fine.

If you want more details about the Mosquito Pathfinders of 627 Squadron, read the author's book "Mosquito Men", also on Audible.

I guess I'll end by reverting to my wish that each mission-story was about five to ten times longer, with more small details. It was still a great book though and well worth a credit.

Tries to Cover Too Much

This book covers a most interesting topic, in describing pilot Ken Cook's experiences as a part of the Avro Lancaster crew that served as bombers between 1942 to the end of the war. But unfortunately the author tries to cram too much information into the book, going back to before WWII aviation history to the bombing runs of WWII, and back again. And there are other stories sprinkled in from ordinary citizens. That is all fine, it just makes it confusing and hard to follow. But overall, the book is very good and the narrator is excellent.

Interesting individual tales, challenged narration

There are some interesting personal stories recounted, but the author does not give much context for the training of the crew ('other' air crew spent as many weeks in training as pilots) never mentioning the Commonwealth Air Training Program, though recounting a specific US training program. The narrator has some challenges with proper-name pronunciation and acronyms; air crew fly with the "raaf" (as opposed to the R-A-A-F, or Royal Australian Air Force).

Leo McKinstry's 'Lancaster: The Second World War's Greatest Bomber' does a better job recounting the air crew roles and the huge challenge faced by crews attempting to bail out (far worse survival than the Halifax).