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The Most Dangerous Enemy: A History of the Battle of Britain (Paperback)

by Stephen Bungay (Author) "The summer was very hot, the school holidays were long, and I was bored..." (more)
Key Phrases: Fighter Command, Biggin Hill, Air Ministry (more...)

4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Review
“The most exhaustive and detailed account of the Battle of Britain that has yet appeared. An important achievement” -- THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

Product Description

Already hailed as the standard work, The Most Dangerous Enemy is an authoritative history of the British battle that galvanized the public imagination and symbolized the destiny of a nation. But in this rigorous re-investigation of the Battle of Britain, Stephen Bungay tells a story full of revelations. Whether assessing the development of radar or the relative merits of the Spitfire, Hurricane, and Messerschmitt, he uncovers the unexpected truth behind many time-honored myths. Not only a major work of modern history but also a truly compelling narrative, The Most Dangerous Enemy confirms the Battle of Britain as a crucial event in European history.

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Product Details

Paperback: 512 pages
Publisher: Aurum Press (September 1, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1854108018
ISBN-13: 978-1854108012
Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 12 ounces

Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #445,466 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
The summer was very hot, the school holidays were long, and I was bored. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Fighter Command, Biggin Hill, Air Ministry, Bomber Command, North Weald, Prime Minister, Bob Doe, Air Vice-Marshal, Middle Wallop, Bentley Priory, Coastal Command, Flight Lieutenant, Big Wing, Royal Navy, Observer Corps, War Cabinet, Wing Commander, Adolf Galland, Eagle Day, Keith Park, Operations Room, United States, North Sea, Sholto Douglas, British Empire

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Citations (learn more)

3 books cite this book:

A Spark from Heaven? The Place of Potential in Organizational and Individual Development by Adrian W. Savage on page 12
Imagining Flight: Aviation and Popular Culture (Centennial of Flight Series, No. 7) by A. Bowdoin Van Riper in Back Matter
Alamein by Stephen Bungay in Front Matter

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Customer Reviews

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41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A REFLECTION OF THE BATTLE ON "BATTLE OF BRITAIN DAY" 2004, September 15, 2004

By	W. MONTGOMERY (WASHINGTON, DC - U.S.A.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Though many books have been written on the Battle of Britain since the end of the Second World War, Stephen Bungay's book offers some fresh insights on the Battle.

Using material from both British and German sources, Bungay shows that the Luftwaffe, despite its impressive show of strength from Poland to the defeat of France in June 1940, was not capable of waging a strategic bombing campaign against Britain which could have defeated it. An invasion of Britain could only have succeeded through a concerted effort of the German Army, Navy, and Luftwaffe.

Furthermore, the German leadership was not wholly confident that Germany could defeat Britain. For a short time after France had fallen, it had hoped that Britain would be conciliatory to Germany and sue for peace. But when it became clear that Britain would fight, the Luftwaffe adapted a series of shifting tactics to neutralize and destroy RAF Fighter Command.

First, there were the attacks on shipping in the English Channel and radar stations. Then the Luftwaffe shifted over to attacks on RAF airbases, which, had they been more consistently carried out, might well have "neutered" RAF Fighter Command. Instead, Hitler, in a pique of anger over Britain having dropped bombs on Berlin, set the Luftwaffe to bombing London. This gave RAF Fighter Command the breathing space it needed to rest, refit, and take on the Luftwaffe in larger numbers. (Bungay shows that throughout the Battle, British aircraft production increased significantly relative to German aircraft production.)

Germany, full of hubris in the summer of 1940, made the mistake of underestimating the capacity of the RAF to challenge the Luftwaffe and Britain's will to fight for its survival.

The book is well-written, comprehensive, easy to read, and comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

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38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Achtung, Indianer!, October 10, 2002

By	Bruce Loveitt (Ogdensburg, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

No, it isn't the shout of a German tourist on his way to the Indianapolis 500, enthusiastic about reaching the Indiana border. It's the shout of a German bomber or fighter pilot, spotting an approaching Spitfire or Hurricane. However, mentioning the Indianapolis 500 isn't as unrelated as it seems. Mr. Bungay compares putting a recently trained pilot into the Battle of Britain to taking someone who has just obtained their drivers license and entering them in a Grand Prix motor race. Only, imagine the other drivers have machine guns! After you read this book you will have an even healthier respect for what the pilots of the RAF and the Luftwaffe had to go through. Imagine flying at 250-300 miles per hour and trying to pick out an opponent amongst a bunch of specks around and above and below you, trying to get behind one of them and hoping to get off a 2-3 second machine gun burst while attempting to get in some quick glances to make sure no one is sneaking up on you! You had a very good chance of not surviving your first few missions. If you got past the first few missions you then had enough experience to have a pretty good chance of surviving, but it was unlikely that you would become an ace. An ace was defined as a pilot that had made 5 kills. Mr. Bungay estimates that only about 5% of the pilots on either side became aces, because it was a rare person who could be both a great pilot and an accurate marksman under the circumstances. The author asserts that the Luftwaffe never really came close to winning the Battle of Britain. German Intelligence overestimated the number of RAF planes they were shooting down and underestimated the ability of British industry to replace the aircraft that were destroyed. The Germans hoped to win a war of attrition. They thought they could shoot down 5 times as many planes as they themselves lost. The RAF actually shot down more planes, and after the first few months had both more planes and more pilots than when they had started. The main strategic failing of the Luftwaffe was that they made no serious attempt to knock out the British radar network. That meant the RAF was almost always ready for whatever the Luftwaffe would throw at them, so planes were rarely caught on the ground, as they had been in Poland. Mr. Bungay does not neglect the human element of the story. For example, he tells the tale of Patrick and Tony Woods-Scawen, two brothers who were pilots and who fell in love with the same girl, Una Lawrence. Patrick was engaged to Una but Tony "stole her away" and married her. Tony had very poor eyesight but passed the vision test for pilots by memorizing the eye chart. Both brothers were killed during the Battle of Britain. One of the more touching pages of the book contains a photo of the two brothers at the top, happy and smiling, while underneath is another photo of Una and her father-in-law, looking very sad, standing outside Buckingham Palace while photographers took a picture of the Distinguished Flying Crosses that the brothers had been awarded.....

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52 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Overconfidence is the real enemy, May 26, 2003

By	Theodore A. Rushton (PHOENIX, Arizona United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

Unlike Americans, who have an uncommon love of bragging about everything from the trivial to the terrific, the English have a fondness for understatement that tends of ignore the reality of their accomplishments.

When the Soviets asked Field Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt, the Wehrmacht's most senior operational commander, which battle he considered as the most decisive of the war in Europe. They expected him to cite Stalingrad, instead he said, "The Battle of Britain."

Had the Germans won the Battle of Britain, England could not have won the Battle of the North Atlantic and may well have been forced to accept peace terms similar to France. According to former War Minister Hore-Belisha, "the Tory party in the House were not very interested in the war, were afraid for their possessions and of the rise of Labour . . . . . " The Russians may well have defeated Germany, but that would have left all of Europe under Soviet control, not merely the eastern half of Europe as eventually happened.

The English myth of the Battle of Britain is similar to stories about Sir Francis Drake and the Spanish Armada in 1588, when Drake preferred to finish a game of bowls before sailing out to rout the Spanish. In 1940, the myth created by Churchill is that "Never before has so much been owed by so many to so few." Like Dunkirk, the image was one of luck, pluck and mucking through the confusion, ineptness and amateurism. Bungay shows the triumph of British planning and readiness.

The German image, reinforced by quick and easy defeats of Poland and France, was that of an impregnable military machine guided by highly experienced professionals using superior technology with the rigorous discipline of well trained and effective troops. In contrast, the British were thought to be slightly dowdy country squires lucky enough to deny victory to the superb German military. Much of this legacy is based on the image of the Munich Agreement of 1938, which has ever since been used to describe English politicians as too weak to fight and too scared to rearm.

Reality is quite different. Bungay explains the British victory was based on a superb plan of operations and aircraft development that began in earnest in 1936 and was rigorously carried out in 1940. The basic idea was developed in 1922. Instead of being unprepared and underarmed, Britain was perhaps the world's best prepared and best armed nation in terms of air defense in the 1940s. The result was a decisive British victory which left the Luftwaffe crippled.

To summarize, the British fought the Battle of Britain with a Teutonic thoroughness for organization, planning, discipline and effort; they left little to chance, planned for the worst cases and didn't rely on luck. In short, the British behaved like Germans at their best, though these qualities were tempered and restrained by the civility of traditional English life. The Germans fought with a British thoroughness for bickering, personal petty disputes and trusting in an ability to muddle through; it is hardly an accident that two of the top German commanders committed suicide as a result of the internal wrangling and bitterness within the Luftwaffe high command.

In 1940, the British knew they needed a united effort if they were to win; the Germans didn't adopt a similar attitude until mid-1945, when they realized they would need a united effort if their country was to survive in the post-war period. The British, in 1945, having won through a magnificent team effort, changed governments and embarked on an "I'm all right, Jack" philosophy backed up by union strikes designed to win the maximum benefit for their members even at the price of national economic survival.

Maybe the British should learn to boast . . . . .

However, the irony today is that the epitome of English luxury, the Rolls Royce automobile -- once a product of the same company that in 1940 built engines for Spitfires -- is now powered by engines made by the same company that built engines for the Me-109s that failed so ingloriously in 1940.

But, is that something to boast about?

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars History writing at its best
If you want a book that neatly summarizes the details of the Battle of Britain, this is it. Bungay tells you about the tactics, the planes, the men beyond the respective forces,... Read more

Published 8 days ago by ryan quattro

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Dangerous Enemy: A History of the Battle of Britain
History is boring. This book was not. That accomplishment is certainly no easy task. The author provides considerable detail from the fighting participant's, the politician's, the... Read more

Published 1 month ago by M. Hall

4.0 out of 5 stars Tries to Think Out of The Box, but Anchored in Parochial Interpretations
The Battle of Britain has been covered many times before, but Stephen Bungay's The Most Dangerous Enemy aims toward being far more comprehensive and insightful than most. Read more

Published 4 months ago by R. A Forczyk

5.0 out of 5 stars Unmissable.
As others have noted, an awful lot has been written about the biggest air battle in history, upon which world events really did pivot. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Paul T. Rogers

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Dangerous Enemy, what a fantastic book
The Most Dangerous Enemy, what a fantastic book. My grandmother told me stories about how they used to hear the German bombers going over Norwich and they could tell if they... Read more

Published 5 months ago by Carl J. King

5.0 out of 5 stars A Superb History of the Battle of Britain 1940
This is no rehash of other books. Yes, there are new sources and insights in this book. And what some of the other reviewers do not note is that Bungay draws upon the research... Read more

Published 11 months ago by Mark R. Jorgensen

5.0 out of 5 stars A Most Dangerous Enemy
A truely great history of the Battle of Britain. The best I've ever read

Published 13 months ago by Stewart B. Baillie

3.0 out of 5 stars Highly detailed, factual, but not the charmer.
Having read David Fisher's "Summer Bright and Terrible" and its even better predecessor "A Race on the Edge of Time," both of which deal with the singular importance of radar in... Read more

Published 14 months ago by J. Davis

5.0 out of 5 stars Well researched and written
Having read most everything about the Battle of Britain while I was growning up, I came across this book by Stephen Bungay a couple of months ago and decided to read it. Read more

Published 20 months ago by D. Lubin

5.0 out of 5 stars The Battle of Britain revisited
This book details the organization of Fighter Command prior to the Battle of Britain and then documents how it functioned in action during the battle. Read more

Published 21 months ago by D. Woods

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