First published in 1956, Don Charlwood's 'No Moon Tonight', a fictionalised memoir of his experiences in Bomber Command in the Second World War became a classic. Moving forward to 1991 the author revisits this experience in a non fiction autobiography 'Journey into Night'. This book is very much a memorial to those with whom he served and who paid the highest price, incorporating photographs and letters from those times.

Enlisting in the RAAF in 1941, after completing his initial training in Australia, the author joined a draft of 20 young men bound for Canada to be trained as Navigators under the Empire Air Training Scheme. By 1942, having survived his Operational Training Unit flying Wellingtons, he joined 103 Squadron RAF which was in the process of converting from Halifaxes to Lancasters, his crew made up of another Australian and five Englishmen. What follows is the growing psychological tension of months of war where friends and comrades lives are seemingly randomly extinguished on operations, and his crew creeps towards the 30 missions they are required to complete an operational tour, his crew becoming the first in the squadron to do so in 9 months.

Towards the end of the book the author deals with some of the demons that perhaps haunted him since. Especially jarring is the moral criticism of Bomber Command's operations from the people who first supported them, and the contention at home that the war in the air in Europe was somehow easier, if not glamorous. Hard to reconcile with the fact that of the 20 young men the author left home with, only 5 would live to see Australia again.

Autographed Copy purchased second hand by the Reviewer from TIME Booksellers, Somerville.