While Townsend was a fighter pilot in the RAF & took part in the Battle of Britain, this volume is about his experiences as a night-fighter pilot trying to find & shoot down Luftwaffe bombers in the dark. However, he also tells the effects of the bombing on the British citizens who suffered the nightly terror of the bombardment. He interviewed survivors and from their stories tells us how they coped. One of his sources was the son of a London firefighter. Through his memories we learn what it was like to go out each night & fight the fires started by the bombing while the bombs were still falling around you. This is a first rate read that I could not not put down. Townsend has also written a first class history of the Battle of Britain entitled Duel of Eagles. ( )