Buckham’s Bombers

The Australian airmen who hunted Hitler’s deadliest battleship

By Mark Baker

Published by Allen & Unwin
RRP $34.99 in paperback  |  ISBN 9781761471186

More than twenty years ago, journalist Mark Baker stumbled across the story of the sinking of the German battleship Tirpitz by an almost all-Australian Lancaster bomber crew.

More remarkable was the discovery that one of the seven member crew was still living—Bruce Buckham, the captain. The final Tirpitz raids had been the highlight of Buckham’s career with Bomber Command.

Over numerous visits to his Brisbane home, he revealed his story to Baker, who spoke at his funeral in August 2011.

This book is the outcome those visits—the story of one of the finest Australian air crews in World War II undertaking one of the most dangerous missions of the war in Europe.

Tirpitz had been launched in 1939 and was the pride of Hitler’s fleet. Time and again, this mighty battleship survived all efforts to sink it, until this final assault succeeded in late 1944.

Buckham’s Lancaster was the final aircraft to leave the scene, filming the final moments of the battleship as it capsized and taking that evidence back with him.

This is a fascinating account of Bomber command operations and of the headline-making events of the sinking of the Tirpitz, an Allied propaganda coup.

It is worth mentioning the excellent historical photographs that accompany the narrative. They add significantly to the story. It is a story well told—and well worth telling.