Dark low-level raids, dodging anti-aircraft flak to make pinpoint-accurate drops – the incredible story of ordinary men and women who took to the skies to mark bomb targets inside Hitler’s Germany

The Pathfinders were the crack team that transformed the hit rate in the RAF’s Bomber Command from 24% in August 1942 to an incredible 95% hit rate by 1945. They transformed Bomber Command – the only part of the Allied war effort capable of attacking the heart of Nazi Germany – from an impotent division on the cusp of disintegration in 1942 to a force capable of razing whole German cities to the ground, inspiring fear in Hitler’s senior command and helping the Allies deliver decisive victory in World War II.

With exclusive interviews with remaining survivors, personal diaries, previously classified records and never-before seen photographs, The Pathfinders brings to life the characters of the airmen and women — many barely out of their teens – who took to the skies in iconic British aircraft such as the Lancaster and the Mosquito, facing almost unimaginable levels of violence from enemy fighter planes to strike the heart of the Nazi war machine.

Military History Matters Book of the Year Bronze Award Winner 

‘Compelling… sensitive, colourful and moving’ – Saul David, Telegraph
‘Fascinating and utterly gripping’ – James Holland
‘Absorbing’ – Daily Mail Book of the Week