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132extrapolation of that design to create the remarkable Blenheim I and thedefinitive, if, by then, rather less remarkable, Mk IV, the breed comingto an inglorious end with the overdeveloped and woefully inadequateMk V. All of this is set in the context of contemporary politicalconsiderations and, ultimately, military imperatives. While the centraltheme may be relatively familiar, I am sure that there will be freshinsights here for practically every reader and few will know of all of theobscure development programmes that were conducted, with armamentfor instance.The prototype of 1936 could easily outrun a He 51 and handling notesfor the Mk I provided the recommended figures for all of the standardaerobatic manoeuvres, including %u2018rolls off the top%u2019. But this was nolonger sufficient when faced by the Bf 109 only four years later. Alreadyoutperformed, outgunned and obsolescent when war broke out, theBlenheim was bound to take heavy losses, and it did. The bulk ofWarner%u2019s book is an account of Blenheim operations. As I have observedbefore, operational histories can be difficult to digest because they areessentially a relentlessly repetitive series of very similar facts. This bookis no exception and if you try to read it at a sitting your eyes willprobably start to glaze over. Fortunately, the author has presented theinformation in numerous chapters which break the story up intoconvenient chunks, chronologically by theatre, making it far more userfriendly.The narrative creates two lasting impressions. First, the appallingwastage rate in terms of machines, both operationally and throughaccidents. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the first batches of pre-war Blenheimswere written off with almost gay abandon by pilots familiar with TigerMoths and Hinds who were bemused by (or forgot about) variable pitchpropellers, hydraulic brakes, flaps and undercarriages, not to mention theproblems of asymmetric flight. But little seemed to change and we aretold that during the first four months of the war some sixty Blenheimswere lost through accidents, three times as many as on operations. Thepattern stayed much the same thereafter and the figures are validated bythe provision at the end of each chapter of detailed lists of the aeroplanesthat had been lost on operations and otherwise %u2013 date, serial number,nature and location of the incident and, where available, the identitiesand fate of the crew.The second lasting impression is of the astonishing bravery of the