During the course of the Second World War, some 55,500 members of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command became fatal casualties and a further 18,000 were wounded and/or became prisoners of war. Over one third of these casualties occurred in one year - 1943.

1943 was also the year that saw the 'Battle of the Ruhr', the daring raid on the dams, attacks on Hamburg and on the secret rocket establishment at Peenemunde, and phase one of what was to prove a very tough 'Battle of Berlin'. It was also the year that saw Italy's exit from the war.

In this volume there are details of 3,100 individual aircraft losses in the European Theatre of Operations. The entries appear in date order, together with the unit, aircraft type, serial, crew list and and the circumstances in which the loss occurred. There are also extensive Appendices.

This sobering record is a testimony to the unselfish sacrifice made by thousands of young men, who came from all corners of the British Empire and from the occupied countries, to help in the fight to free Europe from the tyrannical grip of Hitler's Third Reich.