They joined an R.A.F known as "the best flying club in the world", but when war pitches the young pilots of 409 Squadron into battle over Germany, their training, tactics and equipment are soon found wanting, their twin-engined bombers obsolete from the off. Chances of completing a 30-operation tour? One in three. At best. 409's gung-ho spirit never dies but it takes a beating in the flak, fighters and searchlights over the Ruhr... Robinson's crooked salute to the dogged heroes of the R.A.F.'s early bombing campaign is a wickedly humourous portrait of men doing their duty in flying death-traps, fully aware, in those dark days of war, there was nothing else to do but dig in and hang on.