Will Iredale

BY THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE PATHFINDERS'SUPERB... RICH IN HUMAN DRAMA' James Holland | 'EXCITING AND IMPORTANT'Dan Snow | 'REVELATORY AND THRILLING'Saul David | 'HIS FINEST ACHIEVEMENT YET... THIS IS HISTORY AT FULL THROTTLE'Guy Walters | 'RIGOROUSLY RESEARCHED AND HIGHLY READABLE'Kate Jamieson Just after midnight on Saturday, 2 September 1939, under overcast skies at Wilhelmshaven naval base in north-west Germany, a German U-boat quietly slipped out of its berth and into the North Sea. This was the first of a concentrated onslaught of submarines and airplanes determined to win WW2 by transforming the peaceful shipping lanes and fishing spots around Britain into treacherous mine-studded waters.As those first mines found their marks, capsizing innocent shipping vessels just off the coast, the nation called its men and women to join in its defence. The result was a rag-tag group of sailors and volunteers that came to form a ‘navy within a navy’ – the Royal Naval Patrol Service.These motley crews grew into a force of 70,000 men and women manning and supporting a fleet of 6,000 ships. Using converted fishing vessels, pleasure yachts and trawlers, they cleared sea mines, escorted merchant vessels across frozen northern waters, hunted submarines off the coast of America, undertook secret missions in the Mediterranean and heroically rescued soldiers at Dunkirk, working day and night to keep Britain safe in her darkest hour.Drawing on fascinating first-hand accounts with surviving veterans, exclusive interviews, original papers and new archive material, Will Iredale brings us onto the decks of these small brave ships, onto the beaches where boffins worked to crack German engineering and into clandestine war room meetings where Winston Churchill worked to coordinate the pivotal moments that transformed the war and helped secure victory for the allies to tell the defining story of an overlooked unit of ordinary people that played a pivotal role in saving the country and winning the war.

The incredible story of the crack team of men and women who transformed RAF Bomber Command and helped the Allies deliver decisive victory over Nazi Germany. The Pathfinders were ordinary men and women from a range of nations who revolutionised the efficiency of the Allies' air campaign over mainland Europe. They elevated Bomber Command - initially the only part of the Allied war effort capable of attacking the heart of Nazi Germany - from an impotent force on the cusp of disintegration in 1942 to one capable of razing whole German cities to the ground in a single night, striking with devastating accuracy, inspiring fear and loathing in Hitler's senior command. 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 legendary British aircraft such as the Lancaster and the Mosquito, facing almost unimaginable levels of violence from enemy fighter planes to strike at the heart of the Nazi war machine.