This message echoes across the airstrip, warning that enemy planes have been sighted and 606 Squadron is off to do battle once more…
When Sergeant Chris Thorne arrives at RAF Hartby in the spring of 1940, there is little sign of impending war.
The sleepiness of the English countryside, of his native Yorkshire, is scarcely interrupted by the small airfield, whose complement of outdated Gloster Gladiators marks out the men assigned to the airbase as low on the military’s list of priorities.
For the nearby village of Hartby Steeple, RAF Hartby rarely impinges on daily life: the airmen prefer the neighbouring market town of Garthbridge for entertainment, and with only boring Gladiators based out of the airfield, the boys of the village have long since lost interest in the airbase goings-on.
Only Susan Wetherall, who lives above Hartby Steeple with her father at Swallow Hill Farm, has any real interest in the airfield and its occupants…particularly the handsome Thorne, whose company she has longed for since their first chance encounter.
But when Germany attacks Norway, the peace of this quiet part of Yorkshire is shattered.
Thorne and his fellow airmen find themselves thrust into a brutal war that only seems likely to get worse, forced to rethink their ideas of airplane combat on the fly.
As the lives of the airmen and the villagers inevitably become intertwined, the Germans prepare for the final destruction, and Susan begins to wonder if Thorne can possibly survive the winged messengers of death that come from across the Channel…