On Wednesday morning in April 1942, dropping their "Christmas tree" flares across the centre of the old city, the German air raid on York began.
 
For the impressionable fifteen-year-old Charles Whiting (the military historian with over 300 books to his credit), it meant excitement, the start of a big adventure.
 
Only afterwards did he find out that that 300 people had been killed or wounded that night and that one third of all homes had been damaged or destroyed.