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RAF 617 Squadron, World War II's famous Dambusters, have been celebrated in books and movies for their triumphant destruction of the dams at the heart of the industrial Ruhr. But the operations after their most famous raid have been largely forgotten, even though they were often more audacious, more critical to turning back the Nazi threat, and more punishingly difficult.The Dambusters had another nickname -- they were the "Suicide Squadron," and these daring flyers were the go-to forces for dangerous precision attacks. They dropped the largest bombs ever built on Hitler's prize battleship, Tirpitz, as well as rocket sites and secret weapon establishments; they were involved in attempts on the lives of enemy leaders, including Hitler and Mussolini; and they created a false fleet on D-Day, which fooled the Germans, among other crucial missions. but they also suffered brutal losses, with 75 percent of 617 Squadron killed in action by the end of the war.In this awe-inspiring book, John Nichol -- himself a former RAF flight lieutenant -- retraces the path of 617 Squadron's most dangerous sorties, the ones largely lost to history. With the sensitivity of a fellow solider, Nichol gains unprecedented access to the surviving Dambusters, whose moving personal stories add depth to this impressively researched history. The result is a tense, poignant story of courage by men who braved death time and time again in the name of freedom. With ten color and thirty-seven black-and-white photographs, and three maps