Author : John Willis
Publisher : Mensch Publishing
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 12,38 MB
Release : 2023-12
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781912914647
This book tells the story, in their own words, of six brave young men who fought courageously in the skies above England to prevent Hitler's invasion of Britain.
Author : Max Arthur
Publisher : Skyhorse
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 42,52 MB
Release : 2011-08-01
Category : History
ISBN : 1628730463
After the fall of France in May 1940, the British Expeditionary Force was miraculously evacuated from Dunkirk. Britain now stood alone to face Hitler’s inevitable invasion attempt. For the German army to land across the channel, Hitler needed mastery of the skies—the Royal Air Force would have to be broken. So every day throughout the summer, German bombers pounded the RAF air bases in the southern counties. Greatly outnumbered by the Luftwaffe, the pilots of RAF Fighter Command scrambled as many as five times a day, and civilians watched skies crisscrossed with the contrails from the constant dogfights between Spitfires and Me-109s. Britain’s very freedom depended on the outcome of that summer’s battle: Its air defenses were badly battered and nearly broken, but against all odds, “The Few,” as they came to be known, bought Britain’s freedom—many with their lives. More than a fifth of the British and Allied pilots died during the Battle of Britain. These are the personal accounts of the pilots who fought and survived that battle. Their stories are as riveting, as vivid, and as poignant as they were seventy years ago. We will not see their like again.
Author : Dilip Sarkar
Publisher : Amberley Publishing Limited
Page : 511 pages
File Size : 49,76 MB
Release : 2009-09-15
Category : History
ISBN : 144560986X
The history of the Battle of Britain in the words of the pilots from a unique archive of first hand accounts.
Author : Peter Sikora
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
Page : 863 pages
File Size : 20,29 MB
Release : 2018-10-30
Category : History
ISBN : 1526714876
They came to fight for freedom and their country, they came to fight Germans. Men of the Polish Air Force, who had escaped first to France and then to Britain, to fly alongside the Royal Air Force just as Fighter Command faced its greatest challenge the Battle of Britain.Many of the Polish airmen joined existing RAF squadrons. The Poles also formed their own squadrons, but only four became operational during the Battle of Britain: Nos. 300 and 301, were bomber squadrons, with another two, Nos. 302 and 303, being fighter squadrons. Flying Hawker Hurricanes, both 302 and 303 squadrons were active by the middle of August 1940, just when they were most needed, at the height of the Battle of Britain, with Fighter Command stretched to its limit.The Polish squadrons, battle-hardened from their encounters with the Luftwaffe during the invasion of Poland and Battle of France, soon made their mark. In particular, 303 Squadron become the highest-scoring unit of Fighter Command.In total, 145 Polish pilots, the largest non-British contingent in Fighter Command at the time, fought in the Battle of Britain. While Winston Churchill praised the contribution of the Few, the pilots of many nationalities who had defended Britain, Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding was more specific: Had it not been for the magnificent material contributed by the Polish squadrons and their unsurpassed gallantry, I hesitate to say that the outcome of the Battle would have been the same.
Author : Tim Clayton
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 27,94 MB
Release : 2002-02-12
Category : History
ISBN : 0684869314
This book recreates the tensions and uncertainties of the events of 1940.
Author : Douglas C. Dildy
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 387 pages
File Size : 27,4 MB
Release : 2020-07-09
Category : History
ISBN : 1472839153
Over the past 80 years, histories of the Battle of Britain have consistently portrayed the feats of 'The Few' (as they were immortalized in Churchill's famous speech) as being responsible for the RAF's victory in the epic battle. However, this is only part of the story. The results of an air campaign cannot be measured in terms of territory captured, cities occupied or armies defeated, routed or annihilated. Successful air campaigns are those that achieve their intended aims or stated objectives. Victory in the Battle of Britain was determined by whether the Luftwaffe achieved its objectives. The Luftwaffe, of course, did not, and this detailed and rigorous study explains why. Analysing the battle in its entirety in the context of what it was – history's first independent offensive counter-air campaign against the world's first integrated air defence system – Douglas C. Dildy and Paul F. Crickmore set out to re-examine this remarkable conflict. Presenting the events of the Battle of Britain in the context of the Luftwaffe's campaign and RAF Fighter Command's battles against it, this title is a new and innovative history of the battle that kept alive the Allies' chances of defeating Nazi Germany.
Author : James Holland
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 736 pages
File Size : 11,65 MB
Release : 2011-03-15
Category : History
ISBN : 0312675003
"First published in Great Britain by Bantam Press"--T.p. verso.
Author : Jack Dixon
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
Page : 341 pages
File Size : 50,94 MB
Release : 2009-04-21
Category : History
ISBN : 1844685780
Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh later Lord Dowding was one of the greatest Englishmen of the 20th century. He created Fighter Command with its unique early warning system (radar) from nothing in 1936 to the efficient defensive force it became in 1940. In consequence Fighter Command was the only arm that was properly prepared for battle when war was declared against Germany. Hugh Dowding led Fighter Command in the Battle of Britain, and was victorious. The campaign, although a series of defensive engagements, was one of the decisive battles of Western Civilization.The strategic importance of the Battle of Britain was recognized at the time, yet, the moment it was won Dowding was summarily relieved of his command and shuffled into retirement without recognition, reward or promotion. This book reveals that this was the result of a shabby conspiracy by fellow officers. The Air Ministry published a brief account of the Battle in March 1941 and in it there was no mention of Dowding.Churchill was furiously indignant. But in November 1940 he had acquiesced in Dowdings removal. Why? And what are the factors that led to Dowdings dismissal in the first place? In this thought-provoking and authoritative book Jack Dixon answers these questions and explains Dowdings true greatness.
Author : Alex Kershaw
Publisher : Da Capo Press
Page : 330 pages
File Size : 10,26 MB
Release : 2007-08-28
Category : History
ISBN : 0306815907
From the author of national bestsellers The Bedford Boys and The Longest Winter comes "a rousing tale of little-known heroes" (Booklist). The Few tells the dramatic and unforgettable story of eight young Americans who joined Britain's Royal Air Force, defying their country's neutrality laws and risking their U.S. citizenship to fight side-by-side with England's finest pilots in the summer of 1940-over a year before America entered the war. Flying the lethal and elegant Spitfire, they became "knights of the air" and with minimal training but plenty of guts, they dueled the skilled and fearsome pilots of Germany's Luftwaffe. By October 1940, they had helped England win the greatest air battle in the history of aviation. Winston Churchill once said of all those who fought in the Battle of Britain, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." These daring Americans were the few among the "few." Now, with the narrative drive and human drama that made The Bedford Boys and The Longest Winter national bestsellers, Alex Kershaw tells their story for the first time.
Author : John Clarke
Publisher : Policy Press
Page : 253 pages
File Size : 37,50 MB
Release : 2023-05-24
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1529227704
This book addresses the social, political and economic turbulence in which the UK is embroiled. Drawing on Cultural Studies, it explores proliferating crises and conflicts, from the multiplying varieties of social dissent through the stagnation of rentier capitalism to the looming climate catastrophe. Examining arguments about Brexit, class and ‘race’, and the changing character of the state, the book is underpinned by a transnational and relational conception of the UK. It traces the entangled dynamics of time and space that have shaped the current conjuncture. Questioning whether increasingly anti-democratic and authoritarian strategies can provide a resolution to these troubles, it explores how the accumulating crises and conflicts have produced a deepening ‘crisis of authority’ that forms the terrain of the Battle for Britain.
