In 70-80th years of the past century, thanks to memoirs and a tremendous feature film, in the USSR there was a present cult of pilots-torpedo bombers according to which this military trade during Patriotic war was hardly probable not the most dangerous - there was an opinion that the Soviet torpedo bombers on the average lived all on three-four fighting departures that actually they were "condemned men", Russian kamikazes, and - the main thing! - that by these terrible losses torpedo bombers caused to the opponent a huge, irreplaceable loss.
The given book - the first attempt to understand (it is scrupulous and impartial, being based not on emotional stories, and on documents) that in this cult was truth, and that - only beautiful legend what fighting efficiency of the Soviet torpedo-carrying aircraft and the original price of its victories actually was.