Phil Craig

While subtitled "The Battle of Britain", this is more than another study of the fighting in the sky over the UK. In fact the book starts with British Expeditionary Force in Belgium waiting for the shooting war to start. Using interviews, diaries and memoirs the authors describe what those British soldiers went through as the German armor and masses of men pushed them back to the English Channel.

The authors flip from ground forces to the English pilots who are fighting in France a one sided battle with obsolete planes and constant changing air fields. Fuel & parts were always in short supply. Once the Allied forces reach the Channel, we are given first hand accounts of what it was like to be caught on an open beach by Stukas and other enemy aircraft or finally getting aboard a ship heading for safety only to have to sunk and putting you back in the water.

Once the book moves to England and the more commonly accepted version of the Battle of Britain, we do end up on the fighter bases and follow pilots into the air into battle. We also follow several women who joined the air force and became the controllers who directed the pilots to the enemy bombers. They also formed romantic relationships with the young men and we read about the trauma of listening to them burning alive in their damaged aircraft.

We also read about the memories of the people who live and worked where the German bombs were falling. We also read about the terror of being under falling bombs and having your home destroyed or seeing your friends and neighbours blown to pieces.

Some other sections of the book look at the change of government from Chamberlain to Churchill and the behind the scenes maneuvering in the Conservative Party, the creation of the Lend-Lease Program, the sinking of the SS City of Benares with hundreds of children being evacuated to Canada aboard and the memories of American reporters who served in London during the Blitz.

The research for this book was done for the PBS TV series with the same title.… (mer)