No. 106 Squadron RAF No 106 started replacing them with Lancasters (but it did not become converted completely to Lancasters before some of the squadron's Manchesters had participated in the 1,000-bomber raids on Cologne, Essen and Bremen). In October it contributed 10 Lancasters to No. 5 Group's low-level epic dusk raid ("Operation Robinson") on Le Creusot and two more (one of them piloted by Wing Commander Guy Gibson who was then No 106's CO) to the subsidiary raid on Montchanin. In 1943 it took part in the first "shuttle-bombing" raids (when the targets were Friedrichshafen and Spezia) and the famous attack on Peenemünde. Among
The Boy Who Was on Salerno. Chapter 7, "The Crusader", is about the Children's Crusade from two viewpoints: that of a minstrel who has heard the tale and retells it at a great feast, and that of the young boy who led the crusade, whom Nino befriends. Chapter 8, "Students of Salerno", is about John of Procida and his diplomatic and spying work in favor of the Hohenstaufen rulers of southern Italy against Charles of Anjou's French. Chapter 9, "Redbeard and Saint Andrew", tells about a raid of the Muslim privateer Barbarossa on Amalfi, and how the town was saved by a miraculous storm.