 Across the night skies of occupied Europe an RCAF Lancaster bomber with its seven Canadian crew members drones towards its target, a heavily fortified factory at Wurzburg. Despite the growing offensive power of Bomber Command, casualties had increased and the improving tactical and technical defences were steadily reducing the value of night bombing. It was essential that Germany s determination to continue be crushed before its defences destroyed Bomber Command. Overall 55,000 Bomber Command crewmen lost their lives, and of those 10,000 were Canadian. Their average age was 21. The survival rate was just 14 operations. You needed 30 ops to complete a tour. This was their first.