Under The Radar

Product Description

1961. A squadron of Vulcan aircraft Britain's most lethal nuclear bomber flies towards the east coast of the United States. Highly manoeuvrable the great delta-winged machines are also equipped with state of the art electronic warfare devices that jam American radar systems. Evading the fighters scrambled to intercept them the British aircraft target Washington & New York reducing them to smoking ruins. They would have done at least if this were not an exercise. This extraordinary raid (which actually took place) opens James Hamilton-Paterson's remarkable novel about the lives of British pilots at the height of the Cold War when aircrew had to be on call 24 hours a day to fly their nuclear-armed V-bombers to the Western USSR & devastate the lives of millions. This is the story of Squadron-Leader Amos Mc Kenna a Vulcan pilot who is suffering from desires & frustrations that are tearing his marriage apart & making him question his ultimate loyalties. Relations with the American cousins are tense; the future of the RAF bomber fleet is in doubt. & there is a spy at RAF Wearsby who is selling secrets to his Russian handlers in seedy East Anglian cafes. A macabre Christmas banquet at which aircrew under intolerable pressures go crazy with tragic consequences & a dramatic & disastrous encounter with the Americans in the Libyan desert are among the high points of a novel that surely conveys the beauty & danger of flying better than any other in recent English literature.