The Courage of the Small Hours Book

In the final months of the Second World War, on the 12th and 29th January 1945, two Lancaster bombers crashed in fields close to the village of Hoveringham in Nottinghamshire, with the loss of both crews. Over six decades later, Helen Nall unexpectedly came across a fragment of aircraft alloy in one of her husband's fields. Unaware, until then, of the story of the Lancasters, she talked to a local farmer who remembered the incident, and decided to investigate further. Over the next year Helen tracked down the families of the aircrews and pieced together the final moments of the two Lancasters. This is her remarkable account of how the war affected Hoveringham and the surrounding villages. She covers the growth of Bomber Command into a mighty force, the construction of Syerston airfield - which dominated the parish of Hoveringham in the Trent Valley - and describes life for the bomber crews, as well as, of course, the Lancaster bombers which featured so largely in the lives of local people during the war. Her book is a tribute to the 55,573 Bomber Command aircrew who did not live to see the end of the Second World War, but particularly to the fourteen young men who died so violently within sight of her home.Read More