_Reaching for the Stars_ shows why Bomber Command, in one of the largest and bloodiest campaigns of the war, with 55,000 aircrew lost and more officer fatalities than in World War I, has received so much attention and yet remains a 'lost and black sheep' among British wartime achievements. There has been little official recognition: at the 50th anniversary of VE Day there was hardly a mention and the Bomber Command story has been dogged by the controversy over carpet-bombing.

The role of Bomber Command in the Second World War is still shrouded in mystery. This book provides a new and revisionary narrative of the campaign and is both a military history and an investigation of how the modern image of Bomber Command has developed. There have been hundreds of books about the RAF and Bomber Command ranging from highly researched histories, technical studies of the aircraft, to popular works; as well as countless films and plays, and television and newspaper reportage. Mark Connelly pulls all the strands together to produce a fascinating and entirely new perspective on this aspect of World War II.