The Battle of Britain : The Greatest Air Battle of World War II [Paperback]

Richard Hough (Author), Denis Richards (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 12, 2005

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." 100 illustrations, 7 maps

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A definitive account of the three-month air battle in 1940 between the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe. "This is a first-rate work of scholarship written for the general reader," concluded PW. Photos.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

More books continue to be written about this crucial aerial campaign than any other World War II subject. Most of them stress tactics and in-the-cockpit action for the military buff. While this title by two Royal Air Force (RAF) historians has plenty of air combat scenes, it also features an intelligent and informative study of why the struggle turned out the way it did. The authors go back to the early years of the RAF for perspective and provide a mature treatment of the tactical mechanics of the battle. This book is more comprehensive, for instance, than Derek Wood and D.D. Dempster's The Narrow Margin: The Battle of Britain and the Rise of Air Power (1969. o.p.) and makes a nice supplement to the numerous pilot memoirs found in nearly every library.
- Raymond L. Puffer, U.S. Air Force History Prog., Los Angeles
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 413 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (December 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0025236903
• ISBN-13: 978-0393307344
• ASIN: 0393307344
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,170,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exactly as I remember it as a boy in an air raid shelter., May 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Battle of Britain : The Greatest Air Battle of World War II (Paperback)

I remember the events leading up to the Battle and the Battle itself as a boy. This book tells it as it really was, thrilling, terrifying, awesome; but something that we adjusted to on a daily basis. It presents many of the behind the scenes events that could not be revealed to the general population at the time for security reasons that now tells the "rest of the story". Also, it points out what might have happened if events had been different. Crucial to understanding the significance of the Battle of Britain. It was a priveledge to have witnessed the struggle and the sacrifice of a people who stood up when it counted. This book needed to tell the story.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reference source with a twist, February 14, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Battle of Britain : The Greatest Air Battle of World War II (Paperback)

Although, I would recommend viewing this text as a reference source, it is so enjoyably written that anyone interested in air warfare will find it a valuable addition to their library. "WWII Aviation Booklist" http://www.ampsc.com/~prophet/booklist.htm

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting & Informative Overview Of The Battle Of Britain, December 1, 2000

By 

Barron Laycock "Labradorman" (Temple, New Hampshire United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Battle of Britain : The Greatest Air Battle of World War II (Paperback)

In one of the darkest moments of modern history, the British people stood isolated and alone against the bulwark of the fabulously successfully forces of the Third Reich, who had just finished "blitkreiging" their way across Western Europe, forcing the desperate evacuation of the battered English army from the shores of Dunkirk to save them from certain slaughter at the hands of a rampaging Wehrmacht. In this absolutely riveting book, the authors describe the extraordinary effort of the Brits in fending off the vastly superior numbers of Luftwaffe aircraft soon invading the airspace over the English countryside. As Churchill said so memorably at the time, this attempt to beat back the Nazis in "The Battle Of Britain" might well become the country's "finest hour". This interesting book by Richard Hough and Denis Richards covers the waterfront of events in that momentous conflict.

It is a tale well told, one most Americans of a certain age are familiar with. But our mere familiarity should not deter us from enjoying this endlessly entertaining and well-narrated tale, which is both extremely approachable and understandable on the one hand for the first time student, and also immensely informative and detailed regarding Churchill's knack for popular leadership and the ways in which he bedeviled his countryman into rising to the their "finest hour". It may come as a surprise to some to discover that up to the moment of defeat in France, there were still efforts at appeasement of the Nazis being bandied about within the marbled halls of Parliament. Yet the British quickly rallied round the flagpole that Winston Churchill raised on high, and he urged them on provocatively and memorably time after time.

The book also excels at telling this story from the viewpoint of eye-witness participants, and the reader is whisked memorably along by machine-gun rapid-fire of personal eyewitness testimonies that succeed brilliantly in bringing the drama into bold relief and focus, breathing life into this otherwise `oft told tale'. It is hard for one to commit the most grievous crime of hyperbole when speaking of this particular event and time in history, when the Third Reich had quickly and massively crushed all opposition against it, and the Wehrmacht swept west all the way to the English Channel. In this moment of fear, terror and expectation, the world literally held its breath as the fateful and bloody contest began. The Brits stood alone, the only obstacle to Hitler's determination to end all opposition in the west so he could concentrate on his real objective, "living space" in the east in the breadbasket region of the Soviet Union, the Ukraine. And the British, having the undivided attention of the Luftwaffe, were indeed badly outnumbered.

The reader will soon find himself glued to his armchair, unable to resist continuing as the pages resound quickly past one with a myriad of colorful details and discussions about how the defense of the home island and all that involved. Whether it be a discussion of how the Americans participated, the German views and expectations, or the experiences of a British submariner telling his sobering story, this is a book one has to put to the top of his or her reading list. It is indeed an informative and entertaining book offering the reader an expansive, educational, ground level view of perhaps the most celebrated time of peril and derring-do in the history of the 20th century. Truly, this was their finest hour. Enjoy!