Join young tail gunner Jim McCaffery as he fights to survive the horrors of the air war in Europe.

When James Cyril McCaffery joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and headed off to the Second World War, he expected a rollicking adventure. What he experienced instead was the worst of aerial combat -- in all its violence and danger. He served his country bravely but returned forever changed.

Based on lengthy interviews with his father and the people who served with him and years of tireless research, acclaimed aviation author Dan McCaffery has pieced together his father's career as a tail gunner in Bomber Command. Gunner McCaffery participated in many of the best-known and most controversial actions of the war, including the raid that created the firestorm that destroyed Dresden and killed tens of thousands of civilians. Unlike many of Canada's airmen in Bomber Command, McCaffery survived his tour of duty -- without ever firing his guns in combat. This book is a compelling and emotionally honest look at the horrors of war, and the story of an inexperienced Canadian teenager struggling to cope with the conflict between his beliefs and what he is being asked to do in the name of duty.

Dad's War is an exceptionally written view of the air war over Europe, told from a unique perspective. It goes a long way toward explaining why so many veterans have been reluctant to talk about this period in their lives.

DAN McCAFFERY is one of Canada's most successful military aviation history writers. He was born in Sarnia, Ontario, where he graduated from the the Journalism Program at Lambton College of Applied Arts and Technology. He worked for the Sarnia Gazette, a weekly newspaper, from 1974 to 1989 as a reporter and later as editor. Since 1989 he has worked at the daily newspaper the Sarnia Observer where he is currently the assignment editor. He has won three Canadian News Awards, two Ontario News Awards and a Western Ontario News Award.

He is the author of Hell Island: Canadian Pilots and the 1942 Air Battle for Malta, Billy Bishop: Canadian Hero, Air Aces, Battlefields in the Air, Canadian Warplanes and Bush Planes and Bush Pilots. McCaffery and his wife Val have been married for 28 years.

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