The Few: The American "Knights of the Air" Who Risked Everything to Fight in the Battle of Britain [Hardcover]

Alex Kershaw (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 24, 2006

By the summer of 1940 World War II had been under way for nearly a year. Hitler was triumphant and planning an invasion of England. But the United States was still a neutral country and, as Winston Churchill later observed, "the British people held the fort alone." A few Americans, however, did not remain neutral. They joined Britain's Royal Air Force to fight Hitler's air aces and help save Britain in its darkest hour. The Few is the never-before-told story of these thrill-seeking Americans who defied their country's neutrality laws to fly side-by-side with England's finest pilots. They flew the lethal and elegant Spitfire, and became "knights of the air." With minimal training and plenty of guts they dueled the skilled pilots of Germany's Luftwaffe in the blue skies over England. They shot down several of Germany's fearsome aces, and were feted as national heroes in Britain. By October 1940, they had helped England win the greatest air battle in the history of aviation. At war's end, just one of the "Few" would be alive. The others died flying, wearing the RAF's dark blue uniform-each with a shoulder patch depicting an American eagle. As Winston Churchill said, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With his customary narrative drive, Kershaw (The Bedford Boys: One American Town's Ultimate D-Day Sacrifice) spotlights the handful of American pilots who joined the Royal Air Force and its fighter squadrons during the Battle of Britain. They have been overshadowed by or confused with the better-known Eagle Squadrons, which formed in the autumn of 1940 with the tacit consent of the U.S. government. Kershaw's "few" were a vanguard, enlisting individually to operate the British Spitfire planes as early as May 1940, when England stood alone and her odds of survival seemed long. Crusaders and adventurers, the pilots ignored U.S. neutrality acts to fight from a mixture of principled opposition to Nazism, vaguely defined Anglophilia and sheer love of air combat at a time when it still seemed glamorous. Scattered by ones and twos among different squadrons, each had his own story, which Kershaw admirably contextualizes within the climate of the Battle of Britain. Using personal vignettes to convey the extraordinary routines of life in the cockpits, in the squadrons and in England, Kershaw evokes the heroism of these pilots, only one of whom survived the war whose tide they helped turn. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In the summer of 1940, World War II was in its second year and Adolf Hitler was planning to invade England. The U.S. had not yet entered the war, but a few Americans joined Britain's Royal Air Force. Flying Spitfire planes, they became known as the "knights of the air." In doing so, they would break several neutrality laws and became what Kershaw terms "outlaws in their own country." Kershaw, author of The Bedford Boys (2003) and The Longest Winter (2004), tells the story of these pilots; 244 U.S. citizens eventually flew with the RAF Eagle Squadrons. Only 1 survived the war. But according to the RAF's official roster in 1940, just 7 Americans belonged to "the few." These were the Americans who fought during the greatest air battle in history, labeled the Battle of Britain. Like his other books, Kershaw has written a rousing tale of little-known heroes. With 32 pages of black-and-white photographs, The Few marks Kershaw as a master storyteller. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (October 24, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306813033
• ISBN-13: 978-0306813030
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #470,941 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alex Kershaw is the New York Times best-selling author of several popular WW11 titles. He is a British born journalist.
His work emphasizes the human face of war.

Please visit alexkershaw.com for his full bio and some great web-sites devoted to his books. He would be happy to answer any questions and sign books and help in any other way.

You can also catch up with him and his work at his facebook page - alex kershaw, author's page. He blogs at www.alexkershaw.com and provides video/images/posts on facebook.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging, rivoting storytelling!!! Kershaw scores again, November 20, 2006

By 

Mannie Liscum (Columbia, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Few: The American "Knights of the Air" Who Risked Everything to Fight in the Battle of Britain (Hardcover)

"The Few: The American 'Knights of the Air' Who Risked Everything to Fight in the Battle of Britain" is Alex Kershaw's third foray into the Second World War non-fiction genre, and once again he has amply demonstrated his abilities to weave a story and capture the attention of the reader.

With his first book, "The Bedford Boys: One American Town's Ultimate D-Day Sacrifice", Kershaw had as his centerpiece the story of National Guardsmen from the little town of Bedford, VA who comprised Company A 116th Infantry Regiment (29th Division) who took part in the initial Omaha Beach landings on 6 June '44, and lost 19 of its members KIA on D-Day alone. In the "Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of World War II's Most Decorated Platoon", Kershaw's sophomore effort, the historical centerpiece was the Intelligence and Reconnaissance (I&R) Platoon, 394th Infantry Regiment, 99th Infantry Division - a small group of men whose heroic stand at the small Belgian town of Lanzerath on 16 December 1944 against an overwhelming force (1st Battalion, Fallschirmjager Regiment 9) significantly stalled one of the main German efforts of the Ardennes Counteroffensive. So what is the 'small unit theme' of Kershaw's current effort "The Few"?

From the subtitle one would assume that the story in "The Few" revolves around a group of American aviators who flew with the RAF during the Battle of Britain. While this is not an entirely incorrect assumption the subtitle oversells the reality a bit. Certainly the central characters through which the string of narrative is connected are this small group of American fliers. Yet, in reality the overall story gains its real momentum and bite from the prose dedicated to the bigger picture of the Battle of Britain as told from the perspective of RAF fliers they fought with, and Luftwaffe fliers they fought against. By using this latter approach Kershaw weaves a fabulously engaging story of the Battle of Britain. This is a book that is hard to put down. It is unfortunate that Da Capo Press has chosen subtitles for Kershaw's last two books that don't fairly represent the book's contents. Kershaw however should not take the rap for his publisher wanting to sell books. Hopefully Da Capo now recognizes that they have a winner in their stable and they no longer need to hype Kershaw's books to sell them.

Anyone with even a passing interest in the Battle of Britain should give "The Few" a chance, they may find a deeper interest in the topic and delve deeper into the plethora of books out their dedicated to this topic. "The Few" is a 5 star read as primmer to the Battle of Britain from the perspective of individual and small groups of aviators on both sides of the Channel.

39 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, November 17, 2006

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Few: The American "Knights of the Air" Who Risked Everything to Fight in the Battle of Britain (Hardcover)

When war broke out in 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt quickly issued a proclamation, making it illegal for any American citizen to join a warring power's military. Thankfully, a group of American men, committed to the cause of liberty, journeyed to Britain to do just that. And when the Battle of Britain raged, and that glorious "Few" saved Britain from Nazism, amongst them were a group of American pilots. This is the story of those wonderful young men who risked their lives, and often lost them, for the freedom of the world.

This is a fantastic book! The author does an excellent job of telling the story of the Battle of Britain, and the American fighter pilots who were a part of it. I could not put the book down, but just had to keep reading. This is one of the best books that I have read this year, and I highly recommend it to everyone!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book and well worth the read!, January 14, 2007

By 

P. A TILLERY "kilroywashere-org" (Pensacola, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Few: The American "Knights of the Air" Who Risked Everything to Fight in the Battle of Britain (Hardcover)

During the Viet Nam war when Canadians were welcoming American draft dodgers and deserters, I wrote that there was another time when young American men broke American law and were welcomed by the Canadians. Only then it was Americans going to Canada to join the RCAF or a few who continued to England to join the RAF and fight the Battle of Britain. This is the story of that few . . . and what a story it is. Alex Kershaw brings it to life with an up close and personal view of their lives as well as the lives of the other young pilots in Spitfires and Hurricanes plus the German view of the battle from Me-109s and 110s.

Excellent and detailed descriptions of dogfights seem like fiction until you check the footnotes and find that they are taken from many actual individual combat reports. An excellent book and well worth the read! Alex Kershaw also wrote The Bedford Boys.