Description: At 18, Cockney Sam Klarnet became an air gunner aboard a Royal Air Force Lancaster bomber. On his 21st mission he bailed out of his burning plane over France and began his trek back to British territory. Cockney tells of his subsequent adventures, his sabotage of a munitions factory, his escape from a Gestapo ambush, and his unmasking of a Maquis traitor. He is captured and destined for a concentration camp until the train is shot up by British bombers. Once more on the run, he boldly steals a German aircraft, until shot down, ironically, by an American fighter. Cockney affords an unusual insight into a country under siege, and its effect on a youth growing up amid the carnage of London's Blitz. It gives World War II aficionados a fascinating and authentic view of what went into the making of a bomber crew, and the horrors they faced in the skies over Europe. It also reveals how a little known mutiny in the RAF was resolved.

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