Lancaster Bomber Memorial

Courage of the Small Hours In the final months of the Second World War, on the 12 and 29 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. Her book is the remarkable account of how the war affected Hoveringham and the surrounding villages. ‘Courage of the small hours’ 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. The book is priced at £9.99 and the proceeds are split between the RAF Benevolent Fund and the Bomber Command Memorial.