Former Avro Lancaster pilot Tony Bird has some remarkable tales to tell about his time with 61 Squadron during the Battle of Berlin in World War Two, including two seperate occasions when he survived against all the odds.

The first incident led to his being awarded a DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross) for manging to fly his badly-damaged Lancaster back to England following a night raid on Berlin, despite being badly injured himself and without a navigator or co-pilot, both of whom had baled out in the belief that the aircraft was about to crash.

A year later, in 1944, after many more eventful sorties over enemy territiry, his wartime flying career came to an abrupt end when his aircraft exploded in mid-air over Germany ~ almost certainly a victim of Schräge Musik ~ the deadly upward-firing cannon mounted in Luftwaffe nightfigters to take advantage of the 'blind spot' beneath the Lancaster.

Remarkably, he survived and spent the remainder of the war as a POW at Stalag Luft III -- an ordeal about which he also has many interesting recollections.

His experiences, related with modesty and without embellishment, make for fascinating reading.