'The choking, chest-tightening feeling of being trapped in a burning Lanc, enduring the uncertainty, you count down the requisite sixty seconds for the tanks to blow. Your skip, rated an exceptional heavy bomber pilot, has thrown off the fighters with yet another brilliant corkscrew manoeuvre. You stifle the flames and navigate a safe course to get your badly wounded bomber home.'
Gordon Goodwin was a decorated airman and an inspired leader. During World War II, he served in probably the most dangerous occupation of all, with the Pathfinders leading bombing raids into Germany. He survived 23 Pathfinder missions, including nine over Berlin, and 65 missions over enemy territory with Bomber Command (of the 10,000 Australians flying with Bomber Command, 3500 died in the air). But to survive his childhood was perhaps a greater achievement. Raised in cruel and loveless circumstances near Brisbane during the Depression, it is remarkable that he achieved what he did, going on to become Qantas' chief navigator.
This is the first-hand account of Gordon's brave and dangerous war experiences as told to his son Paul. As Paul says, 'My father told me that to survive you had to surrender all hope'. This was the extraordinary formula followed by the men of Bomber Command to get through, the chances of remaining alive and unhurt. You had to blot out all possibilities of demise and disaster and focus only on the mission at hand.
