Battle of Britain voices : 37 fighter pilots tell their extraordinary stories / Jonathan Reeve.

Stroud, Gloucestershire : Amberley, 2015.

477 pages, 48 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (black and white, and colour), map (colour) ; 24 cm

Includes QR code.

The quality of first-hand accounts left by the Battle of Britain fighter pilots is astonishing. Many were written in the midst of the epic air battle - a hastily jotted-down diary, letters written to young wives, a contemporary interview with a journalist or a radio broadcast, and, most poignant of all, the short books that were written to while away the weeks stuck in a hospital bed while recovering from wounds received in battle. Some were written up in the cold light of day later in the war or just after, but they all share one feature - they were written before 'the Few' truly became etched in the mindset of the British people. This book collects substantial accounts to give a true idea of the exhilaration of being in a dogfight with a swarm of Messerschmitt 109s, the harrowing experience of being trapped in a burning cockpit, and the mental stress of day after day of the maelstrom of air fighting.

9781445642642 (hbk)

940.5'4211
940.54211

English

No reviews available as yet
Add your review

2165932