In Episode one we meet the seven young volunteers. They’re up at dawn, marching and saluting, cleaning and polishing, in classrooms and period planes, struggling to see whether they are the men their grandfathers once were.
In Episode two we follow the trials of Baker Flight as they struggle to adapt to the discipline of military life. Their instructors, real-life drill sergeants, are determined the boys will measure up...no matter how much humiliation and discomfort they must endure. The sole American recruit, in particular, chafes under the constant scrutiny of the drill sergeants. After countless hours on the drill square the recruits are finally given hands-on training with the Lee Enfield .303. Most of the boys have never fired a gun before and the Lee Enfield will be their introduction to the feel and sounds of battle - and the bruises the kick of a rifle can leave.
In Episode three Baker Flight recruits get to spend time in the sky as they begin hands-on training in a Tiger Moth. After the flights, the recruits are ordered to prepare their barracks for a surprise VIP inspection by none other than the original Lucky H crew. Three generations after their training began, this group of Second World War vets gets a chance to see if the young men measure up.
In Episode four both generations "Bomber Boys", the old and the new, experience the rare opportunity to fly in one of the world's only operating Lancasters. After their momentous flight, they cross the Atlantic to visit the places the original Lucky H crew first visited when they were young. At the Adagem aircrew cemetery in Belgium, one member of the crew from both generations Joe English and his grandson, Mathew, discover the grave of a long-lost family member while the boys discover most graves are filled with airmen their own age. And as a sad but poignant testament to the dwindling numbers of the fine men of WWII who fought for freedom, one of the original Lucky H crew passes on.
The film focuses primarily on the men who fought and died in the skies above occupied Europe, with numerous examples of individual heroism and extraordinary collective spirit, and Colin learns to fly the key aircraft of the campaign: the Lancaster bomber. But this is also the story of a controversy that has lasted almost 70 years. The programme covers six years of wartime operations, and traces the obstacles and challenges that were overcome as the RAF developed and deployed the awesome fighting force that was Bomber Command.