The Liberator 995 did not return

No. 311 (Czechoslovak) Squadron RAF was the only Czechoslovak bomber unit to operate from Great Britain during the Second World War. From September 1940 to April 1942, as part of RAF Bomber Command, it destroyed targets in Germany, Italy and German-occupied territories. Subsequently, until the end of the war in 1945—as part of Coastal Command—it carried out maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare missions.

Against the backdrop of No. 311 Squadron's combat activities, the book captures the dramatic life stories of eight Czechoslovak airmen, including a reconstruction of their fateful flight on 13th March 1944. It provides extensive information about the Consolidated Liberator aircraft with which the squadron was equipped from the summer of 1943, and also discusses the RAF bases at Beaulieu and Predannack in the south of England and the lives of the airmen there. It also describes in detail the squadron's operational activities, with an emphasis on a systematic analysis of all 43 attacks on submarines and the losses of personnel and aircraft suffered.

Unique, previously unpublished data includes an analytical assessment of the combat capabilities of the Consolidated Liberator aircraft in maritime reconnaissance and submarine destruction, as well as precise graphical drawings and descriptions of all submarine attacks carried out by the squadron in the Bay of Biscay and the eastern Atlantic. Completely new are the so-called 'master records', containing detailed information on a total of 62 individual Liberator GR. Mk. V and Mk. VI aircraft, as well as a detailed chronology of the squadron's activities from April 1942 to the end of 1944.