She saw the plane begin to taxi down the runway before lifting to join the others. Soon the perfect formation of aircraft was nothing more than a dot in the sky.

‘Stay safe!’ she whispered to herself.

‘What was that you said, Livvy?’ the operator on the next table asked as she took off her headphones and Livvy flushed.

‘Oh sorry, Sylvia, I was just muttering to myself.’

Flustered and unable to shake off the deep feeling of foreboding that had settled on her, Livvy turned her attention back to the job in hand. Another crew should be returning from their mission any time now and the operators were holding their breath as they waited to see if they had all made it back.

By the time the planes reached Berlin a heavy fog had settled, which made flying as well as finding the right targets very difficult.

‘Do you think we should turn back?’ Giles’s flight engineer asked worriedly as he peered out of the cockpit. ‘I’m always afraid we might end up dropping the bombs on houses in this weather, be they German or not, innocent women and kids don’t deserve to die in air raids.’

‘Mission control would have instructed us if they wanted us to abort the mission, and anyway we’re almost there now so we may as well go and drop our loads then hightail it back home. I don’t know about you but I’m dying for a cuppa.’

The planes were all still flying in exact formation but suddenly Messerschmitts appeared from the mist and instantly the Spitfires that were flying behind the heavy Lancasters flew into action, guns blazing.

‘Christ, I reckon Drew in the next plane has just taken a hit,’ Giles’s navigator exclaimed as he peered out of the window. The plane was dropping behind and losing height and suddenly it dipped forward and started to nosedive towards the ground with one of its wings on fire.

‘I hope the chaps had time to eject,’ Giles said through gritted teeth as he steered sharply to the left to avoid a German plane. The next ten minutes were a nightmare, during which Giles saw another of their planes take a hit, as well as three of the German ones. At least the Spitfire pilots were doing a good job and according to the radio contact they were now above their target.

‘Fire!’ Giles screamed at his bomb aimer and seconds later the undercarriage of the plane slid open and the bombs went whistling towards the earth below. The explosion they caused as they landed was so loud the crew could hear it even at their altitude.

‘Job done,’ Giles stated grimly as he turned the nose of the plane. ‘Now let’s get the hell out of here.’