I just listened to the BBC item and many thanks for the link.
Two things struck me;
1. The incredible bravery of that crew and the sang froid of the crew. The only time they displayed any sort of excitement was when the tail gunner shot down the night fighter. Oh, and the request for a song from the engineer as they approached the UK coast!
2. Max Hastings can be an annoying get! First he states, quite boldly, that the British Army was doing nothing between 1940 and 1943. Really? Then he goes on to state that there was perhaps something unfair" about the de-housing policy as the British public had not been told about it. By coincidence, I watched a documentary on the Battle of Britain on TV this afternoon. In this, Churchill was shown making speeches during the blitz on London, Liverpool, Coventry etc and in those speeches he declared quite unequivocally that the Germans will receive an equal measure and then some more for their relentless attacks on UK infrastructure and the population. I wonder if he was among the anti Bomber Command idiots who claimed the big raid on Dresden was wrong and was aimed at helpless civilians. It wasn't. I took the trouble a few years ago to go along to Kew and saw the plans, target info and the pre-raid briefings and all the areas targeted contained military targets.
I think the recording mentioned that the pilot of F for Freddie had already flown something like 82 sorties. Does anyone know if he survived the war?