| Description |
xvii, 413 pages, 40 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm |
| Note |
"First published in Great Britain, 1989, by Hodder & Stoughton, London"--T.p. verso. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
Before the battle: No longer an Island -- Groundwork -- Bomber won't always get through -- Late spurt -- Bonus of time -- Surviving the storm -- Battle order -- Battle: British day one: 10 July 1940 -- Channel fight: 11 July - 11 August -- Clearing the way: 12 August -- Eagle day - and after: 13 - 14 August -- Enter and exit Luftflotte 5: 15 August -- Assault continues: 16 August -- Respite and re-engagement: 17 - 18 August -- Desperate days: 19 August - 6 September -- Strategic turning-point -- New target: 7 September -- Ominous quiet!: 8 - 14 September -- Odds were great; our margins small; the stakes infinite: 15 September -- Scent of victory: 16 - 30 September -- Battle fades: October -- After the battle: Retrospect -- Scrambles -- Appendices: Chronology of the battle -- Basic statistics of fighter command and Luftwaffe aircraft -- Engaged in the Battle of Britain -- Higher command, summer 1940 -- Air defense higher formations, July - September 1940 -- Operational chain of command in the Luftwaffe -- Equivalent commissioned ranks: RAF and Luftwaffe -- Fighter command order of battle, 8 August 1940 -- Luftwaffe order of battle against Britain, 13 August 1940 -- Anti-aircraft defenses: Number and location of heavy guns, 21 August 1940 -- Balloon defenses, 31 August 1940 -- Fighter command order of battle, 7 September 1940 -- 100 octane fuel. |
| Summary |
Fifty years after the historic air battle between Germany and Great Britain, two historians collaborate to bring the battle to life again in an account of the turning point of World War II. A definitive account of the three-month air battle in 1940 between the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe. The victory of the Battle of Britain ranks with Marathon and the Marne as a decisive point in history. At the end of June 1940, having overrun much of Western Europe, the Nazi war leaders knew that they had to defeat the Royal Air Force Fighter Command before they could invade the British mainland. With a finely-struck balance of historical background and dramatic renderings of RAF and Luftwaffe engagements over the English countryside, Hough and Richards offer a history that is at once deep and wide-ranging. They offer insight into how the British laid the groundwork for victory through aircraft research and production, the development and implementation of command and control structures, and research into new technologies, the most important of which was radar. Hough and Richards also utilize first-person accounts of the battle whenever possible, rendering the battle scenes with cinematic intensity. A compelling introduction to one of the most important battles of World War II, The Battle of Britain pays tribute to the men about whom Winston Churchill would remark, Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. |
| Subject |
Britain, Battle of, Great Britain, 1940.
|
| Added Author |
Richards, Denis.
|
| ISBN |
0393307344 paperback |
| Standard No. |
9780393307344 |
|
