Richard C. Rivaz was a British air-gunner for the RAF (Royal Air Force) in World War II, flying in Whitleys and Halifaxes (bomber planes) as a tail gunner - the guy that sits in a small turret facing backwards to defend the plane from enemy fighters.

Rivaz initially tried to become a pilot but when he volunteered for training in 1940 he was thirty two years old, which was considered too old. He then startet training as an air-gunner.

The book was initially published in 1943, a mere few months after the events narrated. In a mixture of action description and recollections of deep thoughts and emotions, the author tells his experiences of multiplemissions that aimed to bomb German cities.

I expected that those bombers would face enemy fighters more frequently but in the majority of times, only the anti-aircraft guns were used, especially in the night bombings. One of the best passages of the book is when his plane is shot down and the crew ended up adrift at sea in a tiny dinghy without water or food, and because they had lost radio contact during combat, they had no way of communicating that they were landing on the water or their position - which considerably diminished the chances of rescue.

After multiple missions in bombers, being shot at by enemy fighters and anti-aircraft guns, he was never seriously injured, but ended up killed when his transport aircraft caught fire in a Brussels airport during take-off in 1945.

The writing is very fluid, like a fiction book, which enables the reader to rapidly devour the 140 pages. Excellent book.