Under the Radar

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1961. A squadron of Vulcan aircraft, Britain's most lethal nuclear bomber, flies towards the east coast of the US. Highly manoeuverable, the great delta-winged machines are also equipped with state-of-the-art electronic warfare devices that jam American radar systems. Evading the fighters scrambled to intercept them, the British aircraft target Washington and New York, reducing them to smoking ruins. They would have done, at least, if this were not an exercise. This extraordinary raid, which actually took place, opens James Hamilton-Paterson's novel about the lives of British pilots at the height of the Cold War.