Wing Commander Tim Mason Dirk Bogarde commands a wing of Avro Lancasters based in England. He is on the cusp of finishing his third tour, having racked up close to ninety missions over Germany, and he dreams of pushing the tally to a clean ninety. But just as the end seems near, orders arrive grounding him from further flying. The squadron bears the strain as losses mount and several raids are written off as failures, fueling a sense of a jinx among the crew, including Bill Brown [Bill Kerr] and The Brat [Bryan Forbes], who cling to small rituals of luck to keep going. The tension thickens as the sense of fate gnaws at morale.
A few days later, The Brat is caught sending unauthorised telegrams to his wife Pam [Anne Leon], a lapse Mason treats as a breach of security. A few more days pass and Greeno’s aircraft fails to return from a raid, intensifying the worry across the station and prompting Mason to confront the creeping jinx personally. With only one more flight to go, he concedes that grounding might be for his own good, and he goes to visit Brown’s Lancaster as Brown and his crew prepare to take off. The calm before the storm gives way to a tense sense of impending danger.
During the preflight routine, disaster nearly strikes: the massive 4,000-pound cookie bomb slips from its shackles and injures one crew member, leaving no time to replace him. US observer Mac Baker [William Sylvester] steps in to fill the gap, and Mason decides to fly as well, hoping to reassure the crew and counteract the fear of a jinx. The Lancaster rumbles to life and climbs into the night, the raid now underway. Courage rises when duty calls under pressure.
As the formation closes in on target, the Pathfinder aircraft directing the raid is shot down, throwing the remaining bombers off course and forcing the others to bomb with reduced accuracy. From Britain, the radio room crackles with Mason’s improvised leadership as he takes the Pathfinder’s place on the airwaves, broadcasting corrections and precise instructions to steer the fleet back toward correct aiming. The atmosphere shifts from chaos to coordination, and the bombing—once in doubt—begins to regain its mark. On the ground, Group Captain Logan [Ian Hunter] hears Mason’s voice and realises that he has disobeyed orders by continuing the operation, yet the result leaves little doubt that the intervention saved the raid. A split-second choice turns into a decisive victory.
Returning from the mission, Mason is greeted at the aircraft by Logan, who acknowledges the risk taken and the achievement that followed. Back home in a war-torn Britain, the sense of relief and pride lingers, even as the cost of such acts of leadership echoes in the memories of those who survived the day. The story closes on the high note of recognition for the airmen who push through danger to protect their country.
In the final moments, Mason, accompanied by Eve Canyon [Dinah Sheridan], Brown, and Pam Greeno, makes a quiet, public procession toward Buckingham Palace to receive an award from King George VI. The ceremony seals a night of peril, improvisation, and resilience, highlighting the human courage behind the roar of engines and the light of distant city skylines.
