The Battle of Britain: The Myth and the Reality

by Richard Overy Ph.D. (Author)

107 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0393322972

ISBN-10: 0393322971

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"A concise, penetrating account....This stirring book inspires an admiration for British courage."―New York Times Book Review

The battle of Britain pitted the Hurricanes and Spitfires of the Royal Air Force against the Messerschmitts of Hitler's Luftwaffe in the skies over England in 1940. It was immortalized in Churchill's words, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few," but it has since been debunked by revisionists as an inconclusive and even strategically flawed encounter for the British. In this assessment of the battle, Richard Overy restores the historical balance. He delivers shrewd judgments on the critical elements for both sides, from strategy to leadership, command organization, communications, and training to the technology of fighters, bombers, and radar. Overy shows that even if the popular myth overshoots the mark, the significance of the battle remains undiminished in the light of realistic judgments. A necessary battle, it marked the end of Germany's string of victories, forestalled a German invasion, and kept Britain in the war. Tables and maps

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Editorial Reviews

Review

A concise, penetrating account....This stirring book inspires an admiration for British courage. -- New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Richard Overy is the author of RAF, Why the Allies Won, The Battle of Britain, and The Dictators, winner of the Wolfson History Prize. He is one of our foremost authorities in modern history and military history. He is professor of history at the University of Exeter in England.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company (April 17, 2002)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393322971
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393322972
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #486,429 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #633 in Military History (Books)
- #1,007 in Military Aviation History (Books)
- #1,218 in European History (Books)

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107 ratings

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Reassessing the Battle of Britain...

Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2020

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Working with the advantage of hindsight, British historian Richard Overy conducts a brisk reassessment of the Battle of Britain in 1940. That battle has achieved legendary status, in Britain and elsewhere. The truth is a bit more complicated.

In this concise book, the author talks the reader through the setting, the combatants, and the actual conduct of air combat over Britain in the summer and fall of 1940. His analysis provides a more nuanced view of what happened, and why. The student of the conflict and the general reader are likely to find his final assessment to be both fascinating and fair. Well recommended.

2 people found this helpful

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WryGuy2

The Battle as it really was ...

Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2011

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In "The Battle of Britain, the Myth and the Reality", historian Richard Overy analyzes the battle, digging deeper than the by-now traditional telling of the fighting, while discarding cherished myths and long-believed bits of propaganda, and attempting to describe what really happened in the skys of Great Britain during the late summer and fall of 1940.

This is a short book, and is a high level analysis of the two sets of combatants ... the aircraft, the tactics used, the defenses on the British side, and the leaders and people on both sides, rather than a tactical, day-by-day account of the battle. While most of the "myths" Mr Overy exposes are known to serious students of the war ... such as far from being outnumbered, the British had about the same number of single engined fighters as the Germans, and had a much higher production of replacement fighters and pilots than the Germans so that they could more easily replace their losses... he presents a complete, complex strategic overview that does a far better job of showing how and why the battle was fought as it was than most longer and more tactically detailed accounts of the battle.

Given the circumstances as they were in 1940, the British advantages (such as having radar and better aircraft production), and the German shortcomings (such as increasingly poor tactics as the Battle went on and the fact that every German pilot downed over Britain was lost to the war effort while the British pilots similarly shot down were often back in the air in hours), it appears very unlikely that the Germans could have won the Battle of Britain in any case. However, this was not clear to the combantants at the time, nor does this diminish the courage and sacrifices made by either side, or lessen the impact of the defensive strategic victory won by the British.

I would have liked the book to have been a bit longer and perhaps have more tactical details, but these are minor nits. I recommend this book to anyone wanting to look past the popular history of the Battle of Britain and see how the fight really played out.

9 people found this helpful

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Patrick L Boyle

Nice little book for WWII enthusiasts

Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2015

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I can't quiet remember how many books I have read on the 'Battle of 'Britain'. Maybe half a dozen.

And of course I saw the movie. I saw it in the theater when it first came out and I've seen it on my Home Theater screen several times over the years. It's a great movie - but of course this book is in a sense a debunking of the conventional story related in the film.

Yes the dramatic and romantic plot of the movie isn't quite true. Pity. But the first responsibility of a movie is to tell a good story. If a historical film is a little loose with the facts - well it won't be the first time.

This is a least the second book I've read debunking the 'Battle of Britain'. Len Deighton had done it a decade ago but this book has new scholarship and new facts. It's a short book but it held my interest.

Overy seems to imply that the Bf-109 had a two stage supercharger and the Merlin didn't. That's wrong of course. Other than that Overy seems to have gotten his fact straight.

5 people found this helpful

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Theodore A. Rushton

The Battle of Britain -- from myth to reality

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2007

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Anyone interested in the Battle of Britain in the summer and fall of

1940 should start with this book, probably the best concise analysis of an event that ranks

high in legend but low in real meaning.

It would be nice if all history could be introduced in this short but beautiful

manner. Only a master of a subject knows enough about it to be concise and relevant, and

Overy has studiously earned his credentials. Without slighting events or participants, he

explains how the "Battle" was more of a public relations triumph than a decisive victory. In

1940, the focus was on surviving the "Blitz" which claimed the lives of 40,000 Londoners,

not "the few" who fought in the air and lost 443 pilots in combat.

Unfortunately, he overlooks two significant factors. First was Dunkirk; the

RAF lost heavily but the Luftwaffe was unable to stop the evacuation. The RAF fighters

were operating at the limits of its effective range, the same problem that defeated the

Luftwaffe over England. Also, the evacuation showed the inherent weakness of the

Luftwaffe as a stand-alone weapon. The second factor is the 1941 nvasion of Crete, with

the loss of 147 Ju 52 transports and severe damage to 150 others despite minimal RAF

opposition. It indicates the likely fate of any attempt to invade England.

In brief, if the Battle of Britain is a legend, then the German military in World

War II was a giant bluff backed by terror and uncertainty. As Overy points out in his other

books, the Germany military was driven to exhaustion after which it used a World War I

defense. Victories were less the quality of troops than the panic of enemies; Overy deals

well with the incipient panic in Britain in the summer of 1940, plus the growing confidence

as the "We can take it" theme turned into "We can dish it out, too."

In brief, this is a masterful account of an era still deeply shrouded by the fog of

propaganda and the legends of war. To cite one very relevant example; to this day, Prime

Minister Neville Chamberlain is vilified by the legend of appeasement due to the Munich

conference of 1938. Instead, Overy credits him for launching the fighter production

program that saved Great Britain from defeat in World War II.

In conclusion, this is the best introduction yet to a complex but fascinating

period of history. It's a perfect start to Overy's other books on World War II.

8 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

JPMT

Good Overview But Misses a Key Factor

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 24, 2020

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The book covers all the key aspects of the BoB, but in my opinion understates the importance of the the British integrated air defense system, the first in the world. That fed all the radar and spotter information to a single control center which launched RAF fighters while the Germans were still en route then co-ordinated the air battles.

One person found this helpful

inkboy

Hitler was not handed an easy victory over this country

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 24, 2016

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It's always refreshing to look at the facts. Nothing here detracts in any way from the sacrifice of those on both side who fought, and paid with their lives or their health. Ultimately the RAF was not defeated, Hitler was not handed an easy victory over this country, but as this account makes very clear, although it was not such overwhelming odds as was portrayed, RAF 'custom and practice' meant that many trained pilots were not used, when their experience as front line pilots would have evened the odds. More trained ground staff would have been useful too.

A concise statement of the balance of forces, freed from the mythology. A good short read.

5 people found this helpful

BookReader

A good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 2, 2019

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A excellent historian on the RAF giving facts rather than wartime propaganda.

2 people found this helpful

RedMax

Short but informative

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 13, 2020

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Very short read 122 pages not including notes etc - with text on the large size

Easy and very interesting read though - contents are true to the title of the book

Mine did'nt look new when it arrived, however i suspect it was.

malcolm

A small but useful bo0k about the battle.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 4, 2021

Verified Purchase

An essential read with many facts for the historian. It highlights how well the young and inexperienced RAF pilots
did with inadequately armed aircraft up against the superb German air force Me109s.

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The Battle of Britain: The Myth and the Reality

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