Battle Under the Moon: The Disastrous RAF Raid on Mailly-Le-Camp, 1944

This is a gripping account of the ill-fated RAF raid, on 3 May 1944, on the Panzer tank depot and military barracks at Mailly-le-Camp south of Rheims in northern France, part of the softening up process on German military targets, in preparation for the D-Day landings. Raids like this over occupied France were considered relatively low risk affairs and only counted for one third of a mission for the crews concerned.

In total, 362 RAF bombers, Lancasters, Mosquitoes and Halifax, from bases in...