Autumn 1943: An angry American press has blamed the RAF for heavy U.S. B-17 losses over Europe. To restore confidence, joint Allied operations are planned by RAF and 8th Air Force top brass. 633 Squadron, whose Rhine Maiden mission success has won them a glorious reputation, is called in to launch Operation Crucible. It is to be a Dieppe-style landing by the Americans, supported by the aces of 633 Squadron. Their hazardous role: to give ground support to troops against overwhelming firepower and totally unforeseen odds... Frederick E. Smith (1919-2012) joined the R.A.F. in 1939 as a wireless operator/air gunner and commenced service in early 1940, serving in Britain, Africa and finally the Far East. At the end of the war, he married and worked for several years in South Africa before returning to England to fulfill his lifelong ambition to write. Two years later, his first play was produced and his first novel published. Since then, he wrote over forty novels, about eighty short stories and two plays. Two novels, 633 Squadron and The Devil Doll, were made into films and one, A Killing for the Hawks, won the Mark Twain Literary Award.
