Riding In The Shadow Of Death

Riding in the Shadow of Death, is the amazing true life story of Lancaster Bomber pilot Bill North, who served as a pilot with RAF Bomber Command’s 61 Squadron during World War Two. His story is told by Chris Keltie, who as a 7 year old boy met Bill and his family after moving into the house next-door in London, March 1970. Over the years Chris heard many accounts of Bill's WW2 experiences and grew to realise, that his unassuming next-door neighbour and good friend was actually, an extraordinary man.

The odds in Bomber Command of crew survival were extreme. The chance of completing a tour of 30 operations was one in three; the highest losses in the British Armed Services in WW2 - dying as fast as Officers in the trenches during WW1 - only the German U-Boat crews would suffer similar losses.

Bill and his crew had many near death experiences and witnessed many of their comrades dying. After completing many successful bombing missions (operations) on military targets, they were shot down on a night raid in northern France. Bill could have saved himself by baling out, but one of his crew members was without a parachute. Though seriously wounded, he made an amazing, virtually blind night-time crash landing, in order to save his crew. In Bill’s words: “I have still yet to meet a Lancaster pilot who survived a night time crash landing in occupied territory."

Bill was taken prisoner by a German Luftwaffe Officer and ended up at Barth, Stalag Luft 1, on the Baltic coast. The rest of his crew ended up deeper into Germany at Stalag Luft 7, and were eventually forced marched back into Germany in 1945 as the Red Army relentlessly pushed west.

In the face of adversity, the bond between crew members serving in the RAF was phenomenal. The same was so for Bill, who survived 17 operations out of the normal tour of duty which was 30. All his crew members said that there was no pilot better than Bill North, and no one else that they would rather have flown with, and put their trust in.

Riding In The Shadow Of Death, weaves together a fascinating mixture of historical, political, social and cultural events from the turbulent 20th Century. It is a story of survival, comradeship, life and death, and will not fail to move and touch your soul.