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Battle of Britain: A day-to-day chronicle, 10 July-31 October 1940
Battle of Britain is a riveting chronicle of the epic struggle between the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe. It is the story of Britain's fight for national survival, from the shock defeat and evacuation from Dunkirk in May/June 1940 to fighter Command's assertion of superiority over the Luftwaffe in mid-September. Battle of Britain takes the reader through that summer day by day, revealing the ongoing battle's impact on flyers and civilians alike. By enhancing his narrative with eye-witness accounts, diary extracts and pilot profiles, Bishop brings the often horrific reality of air combat vividly to life. In Battle of Britain Patrick Bishop has written the definitive account of one of the pivotal moments in twentieth-century British history, and a nation's 'finest hour'.
385 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2009
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124 people want to read
About the author
Patrick Bishop
73 books67 followersPatrick Bishop was born in London in 1952 and went to Wimbledon College and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Before joining the Telegraph he worked on the Evening Standard, the Observer and the Sunday Times and in television as a reporter on Channel Four News. He is the author with John Witherow of a history of the Falkands War based on their own experiences and with Eamon Mallie of The Provisional IRA which was praised as the first authoritative account of the modern IRA. He also wrote a memoir the first Gulf War, Famous Victory and a history of the Irish diaspora The Irish Empire, based on the TV series which he devised.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 17, 2026
A fascinating look, day by day, on one of the most important air campaigns in history, the Battle of Britain.
Being a history buff, I've read many accounts of this battle over the decades; nevertheless, this still managed to bring up some aspects of the battle that were interesting that had escaped from mention in other histories.
For one thing, while Great Britain's continued resistance after the June 1940 defeat in France is almost taken for granted today, this was not so certain at the time. The Third Reich's campaign against France and Great Britain in the blitzkrieg will sure go down as one of the greatest military upsets of all time. Given that the stated reason for the War in the first place, responding to Hitler's invasion of Poland, was by this time a mute point. With the obliteration of Allied resistance, there was no reasonable hope of ever liberating Poland from Nazi and Communist rule. In the process of this disastrous War, other neutral nations, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, had all been drawn in, lost, and been utterly conquered by Germany. Moreover, the Third Reich's most ghastly atrocities were yet to be realized -- there was little notion in 1940, Germany had yet to engage in the most monstrous offenses in which it later committed during the War--- the industrialized genocide of the Jews and other groups. A reasonable observer might conclude, given the scale of Britain's defeat, and the impossibility of Britain alone defeating the Axis Powers that seeking an armistice was entirely reasonable in hopes of living again to recover and fight another day.
Nevertheless, a unique person , Winston Churchill, would turn the hinge of fate. His timely courage and principled leadership were crucial in steeling the British people to carry on the fight against seemingly hopeless odds. necessary for the dreadful battle to come.
Seeing that negotiations with Britain were hopeless, Hitler ordered preparations for Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of Great Britain. To that end, the Luftwaffe had to attain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF).
The Battle of Britain may be considered to have 3 stages: the Battle for the Channel; Lufwaffe SEAD (suppression of enemy air defense); and the London Blitz.
In the first portion, the Luftwaffe sought to close off British sea access over the English Channel. To that end, the British tried transiting convoys over the Channel, and the Luftwaffe and RAF fought pitched battles over them --- the Luftwaffe trying to sink them and the RAF trying to defend them. This exhausted both sides; however, over time, the British were forced to route their convoys elsewhere.
With this hard won success, the Luftwaffe shifted attention to SEAD -- trying to knock out British air fields, destroy the RAF aircraft on the ground and in air combat, destroy the British radar network, and destroy British aircraft factories. The RAF fought bravely and furiously against the Luftwaffe, and generally the RAF was generally shooting down more of the enemy than the enemy of theirs, but only slightly. Meanwhile, they were losing their best pilots, and their replacements, thrown into the fray from primary flight training were flying their newly assigned Spitfires and Hurricanes with little or no initial air combat training or in fighter tactics --- so high were the fighter pilot loss rates.
At this point, although the Luftwaffe's commanders did not realize it, they were slowly winning, grinding down the RAF's ability to recover --- killing their pilots faster than they could replace them, knocking out Fighter Command's infrastructure faster than they could rebuild it. At this crucial moment, a respite occurred.
Despite Hitler's strict orders forbidding bombing of London, a group of Luftwaffe bombers, off course, erroneously dropped their bombs on London, killing many. In response, RAF Bomber Command retaliated by bombing Berlin. Humiliated, Hitler overrode his air commanders, and ordered the destruction of London in response --- beginning the London Blitz. This would feature some of the most massive Luftwaffe efforts with Germany sending waves of hundreds of bombers and their fighter escorts to bomb London.
Perhaps, at this time, terror bombing seemed to have a strategic rationale. It had worked for Germany during the Spanish Civil War, and had been employed successfully earlier in the War with the destruction of Warsaw and Rotterdam. Moreover, Luftwaffe planners reasoned that attacks on London would entice RAF Fighter Command to draw in more of its few remaining fighters into engagements with Luftwaffe fighter escorts resulting in their destruction.
However, such was not to be. Focusing on bombing London accomplished little of military value in terms of destroying British armaments production, pilot training, or logistics infrastructure. Moreover, it gave Fighter Command time to rebuild airfields, aerodromes, and radar networks while training new pilots and obtaining replacement fighters. As the Blitz continued, to their dismay, Luftwaffe leaders found that the RAF was increasingly far from spent, culminating in a disastrous attack on September 15, 1940, which, in hindsight, broke the German will to keep on in the belief that air superiority over Britain was achievable. While German air attacks would continue until May 1941, they became increasingly sporadic, less accurate, and more often at night.
This book does a great job at exploring every aspect of the Battle --- firsthand eye witness accounts from the pilots on both sides, from members of the British public at the time, from the leaders on both sides.
In addition, it goes into fascinating detail on the weapons and tactics used by both sides. One interesting thing I learned that I did realize before was the role of aviation fuel as a force multiplier --- the British had mastered the formulation of 100 octane fuel --- resulting in a 30% increase in power for their fighters beyond what it would otherwise have been. It was a slight, but ultimately an important advantage over the Luftwaffe --- their fighters flew with weaker 60-70 octane fuel --- almost like going into a boxing match with lead weights on.
Over all, an excellent book --- I highly recommend it for aviation enthusiasts, WW2 history buffs, and those interested in air combat.
Being a history buff, I've read many accounts of this battle over the decades; nevertheless, this still managed to bring up some aspects of the battle that were interesting that had escaped from mention in other histories.
For one thing, while Great Britain's continued resistance after the June 1940 defeat in France is almost taken for granted today, this was not so certain at the time. The Third Reich's campaign against France and Great Britain in the blitzkrieg will sure go down as one of the greatest military upsets of all time. Given that the stated reason for the War in the first place, responding to Hitler's invasion of Poland, was by this time a mute point. With the obliteration of Allied resistance, there was no reasonable hope of ever liberating Poland from Nazi and Communist rule. In the process of this disastrous War, other neutral nations, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, had all been drawn in, lost, and been utterly conquered by Germany. Moreover, the Third Reich's most ghastly atrocities were yet to be realized -- there was little notion in 1940, Germany had yet to engage in the most monstrous offenses in which it later committed during the War--- the industrialized genocide of the Jews and other groups. A reasonable observer might conclude, given the scale of Britain's defeat, and the impossibility of Britain alone defeating the Axis Powers that seeking an armistice was entirely reasonable in hopes of living again to recover and fight another day.
Nevertheless, a unique person , Winston Churchill, would turn the hinge of fate. His timely courage and principled leadership were crucial in steeling the British people to carry on the fight against seemingly hopeless odds. necessary for the dreadful battle to come.
Seeing that negotiations with Britain were hopeless, Hitler ordered preparations for Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of Great Britain. To that end, the Luftwaffe had to attain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF).
The Battle of Britain may be considered to have 3 stages: the Battle for the Channel; Lufwaffe SEAD (suppression of enemy air defense); and the London Blitz.
In the first portion, the Luftwaffe sought to close off British sea access over the English Channel. To that end, the British tried transiting convoys over the Channel, and the Luftwaffe and RAF fought pitched battles over them --- the Luftwaffe trying to sink them and the RAF trying to defend them. This exhausted both sides; however, over time, the British were forced to route their convoys elsewhere.
With this hard won success, the Luftwaffe shifted attention to SEAD -- trying to knock out British air fields, destroy the RAF aircraft on the ground and in air combat, destroy the British radar network, and destroy British aircraft factories. The RAF fought bravely and furiously against the Luftwaffe, and generally the RAF was generally shooting down more of the enemy than the enemy of theirs, but only slightly. Meanwhile, they were losing their best pilots, and their replacements, thrown into the fray from primary flight training were flying their newly assigned Spitfires and Hurricanes with little or no initial air combat training or in fighter tactics --- so high were the fighter pilot loss rates.
At this point, although the Luftwaffe's commanders did not realize it, they were slowly winning, grinding down the RAF's ability to recover --- killing their pilots faster than they could replace them, knocking out Fighter Command's infrastructure faster than they could rebuild it. At this crucial moment, a respite occurred.
Despite Hitler's strict orders forbidding bombing of London, a group of Luftwaffe bombers, off course, erroneously dropped their bombs on London, killing many. In response, RAF Bomber Command retaliated by bombing Berlin. Humiliated, Hitler overrode his air commanders, and ordered the destruction of London in response --- beginning the London Blitz. This would feature some of the most massive Luftwaffe efforts with Germany sending waves of hundreds of bombers and their fighter escorts to bomb London.
Perhaps, at this time, terror bombing seemed to have a strategic rationale. It had worked for Germany during the Spanish Civil War, and had been employed successfully earlier in the War with the destruction of Warsaw and Rotterdam. Moreover, Luftwaffe planners reasoned that attacks on London would entice RAF Fighter Command to draw in more of its few remaining fighters into engagements with Luftwaffe fighter escorts resulting in their destruction.
However, such was not to be. Focusing on bombing London accomplished little of military value in terms of destroying British armaments production, pilot training, or logistics infrastructure. Moreover, it gave Fighter Command time to rebuild airfields, aerodromes, and radar networks while training new pilots and obtaining replacement fighters. As the Blitz continued, to their dismay, Luftwaffe leaders found that the RAF was increasingly far from spent, culminating in a disastrous attack on September 15, 1940, which, in hindsight, broke the German will to keep on in the belief that air superiority over Britain was achievable. While German air attacks would continue until May 1941, they became increasingly sporadic, less accurate, and more often at night.
This book does a great job at exploring every aspect of the Battle --- firsthand eye witness accounts from the pilots on both sides, from members of the British public at the time, from the leaders on both sides.
In addition, it goes into fascinating detail on the weapons and tactics used by both sides. One interesting thing I learned that I did realize before was the role of aviation fuel as a force multiplier --- the British had mastered the formulation of 100 octane fuel --- resulting in a 30% increase in power for their fighters beyond what it would otherwise have been. It was a slight, but ultimately an important advantage over the Luftwaffe --- their fighters flew with weaker 60-70 octane fuel --- almost like going into a boxing match with lead weights on.
Over all, an excellent book --- I highly recommend it for aviation enthusiasts, WW2 history buffs, and those interested in air combat.
June 8, 2014
An immensely readable account of the Battle of Britain day-by-day from around July to September 1940, together with some detail of events before and after that period. Profusely illustrated, it is badly let down by many illustrations being out of context, incorrectly captioned or by having captions so vague as to be superfluous. For example, some photos are pre-war, yet are captioned as relating to 1940. Some others are from later dates – even the photo on the dust-cover is a little suspect here. There are instances of the same photo being repeated on different pages, one with a correct caption and the other with an incorrect caption. In at least two instances of aircraft photos, I found that 2 minutes research on a search engine gave me details of units and even names of pilots, where next to no information had been provided in the caption. All in all, an excellent account let down by sloppy mistakes with illustrations.
July 2, 2015
The book chronicles the events that transpired over the skies of Britain from July to October of 1940.
It was the time when nothing coud stand in front of German war machine. Poland fell, followed by Sudetland and other European countries bringing a state of phoney war but when France the eminence of invasion over England was just a matter of time. Important to Hitler's mission in anhialating the Royal Navy was to achieve air superiority over the English skies. What followed next was a struggle of mighty air forces fighting the same drudgery of heavy attrition and fatigue.
This was a conflict whose importance can never be undermined. It would give the opportunity to the youth to come forward and serve ther part, it would show to the Nazi war machine that blitz could not deter the steely spirit of the britons, it was a conflict that gave Hitler his first defeat and ultimately made it possible to launch the massive amphibious invasion of the Atlantic wall to free the world from Nazi terror.
It rewrote the books on air defense. Although bibilical changes have happened since then in the fields of aircraft, weaponry and radar but the underlying principles of interception and fighter controlling have remained the same.
The readers might complain that the narrative was at times little repetitive and boring. Thats understandable because the Luftwaffe attacked in numbers wave after wave and day after day to breack the fighter command's back. Just spare a thought for those who had to fly up mission after mission to defend their homeland.
All in all a fantastic read.
It was the time when nothing coud stand in front of German war machine. Poland fell, followed by Sudetland and other European countries bringing a state of phoney war but when France the eminence of invasion over England was just a matter of time. Important to Hitler's mission in anhialating the Royal Navy was to achieve air superiority over the English skies. What followed next was a struggle of mighty air forces fighting the same drudgery of heavy attrition and fatigue.
This was a conflict whose importance can never be undermined. It would give the opportunity to the youth to come forward and serve ther part, it would show to the Nazi war machine that blitz could not deter the steely spirit of the britons, it was a conflict that gave Hitler his first defeat and ultimately made it possible to launch the massive amphibious invasion of the Atlantic wall to free the world from Nazi terror.
It rewrote the books on air defense. Although bibilical changes have happened since then in the fields of aircraft, weaponry and radar but the underlying principles of interception and fighter controlling have remained the same.
The readers might complain that the narrative was at times little repetitive and boring. Thats understandable because the Luftwaffe attacked in numbers wave after wave and day after day to breack the fighter command's back. Just spare a thought for those who had to fly up mission after mission to defend their homeland.
All in all a fantastic read.
July 13, 2025
I have finished reading “Battle of Britain: A Day-by-Day Chronicle: 10 July 1940 to 31 October 1940” by Patrick Bishop.
“Run, live to fly
Fly to live, do or die
Won't you run, live to fly
Fly to live, aces high”
Aces High by Iron Maiden
What was the Battle of Britain? What are the truths behind the myths? What actually happened during it? These are the main questions this book is concerned with.
The start of the book gives a short but thorough account of how military aviation developed in the UK, with the emerging debate between the bomber and fighter maximalist. While the Royal Air Force (RAF) owes much of it’s traditions to Hugh Trenchard (whom a street is named after in my city), he was a bomber maximalist. In the end Hugh Dowding rejected the premise that wars could be won simply by heavily bombing an enemy’s land and laid the vital foundations of Fighter Command. Intricate networks of communication were placed between radar stations (in their infancy), the Observer Corps, the Operations Centres, the main airbases and the forward airfields. This system working like a reactive and well-coordinated human body put a robust defensive system in place ready for Hitler’s onslaught.
There is a similar account of how the Luftwaffe developed too, including with secret help from the Soviet Union (which Putin is strangely quiet about). A mixture of confused priorities, the grandiose pomposity of Goerring and overestimations of what the Luftwaffe was capable of arguably determined the end of the battle by a long way.
There are interesting insights into the experiences of the air crews and the pilots and the different individual roles of the former are described in vivid detail. Who the pilots were and their personalities are often reflected on in the book. Due to the expense of getting flying lessons and the only recent creation of the Auxiliary RAF pilot force, many of the early pilots were seen as well heeled. However, the Battle of Britain acted as a grim social equaliser, since a quarter of all the pilots died in combat the demographics of the pilot pool became more mixed.
The day-to-day accounts can be a bit of a hard slog to read through and keep up with. But in many ways I think this is not so much something to take fault with the author over. Many of these days were frantic and chaotic with much going on at the same time. Many small engagements led to a small loss in life, but a life nonetheless, meaning that respect dictates that their stories are told. During the most intense days, the mentality of the pilots is often reflected on. Many of them were exhausted and had to fly several sorties a day. At the same time they knew that them and their colleagues faced a possible sudden and violent death every time they climbed into the cockpit for another sortie.
What the author does remarkably well is to put the reader into the shoes of players on several levels on the ground. Specifically, these include; pilots, civilians, airfield staff (including air crew), politicians on both sides and air force officials on both sides. What I found especially interesting was the German political and Luftwaffe leadership’s mentality. From the start Hitler felt quite detached from the Battle. Real preparation for the invasion of Britain were made, Hitler had long maintained that an arrangement could be made with the UK. It was Hitler’s hope that concerted assaults by the Luftwaffe could convince the UK to come to peace terms within days if not months.
Why did the UK win the Battle of Britain? The home advantage helped, in that German fighters in particular had limited fuel to fly to and from the UK and defend the German bombers. German pilots who bailed out in the UK were taken prisoner while UK pilots usually got into another plane to fight again if recovery allowed. The Radar network, whose development was also backed by Dowding, also helped provide a vital early warning service to the RAF.
However, there is a good arguments to make that the UK won the Battle of Britain because the Germans lost it through their own mistakes. Herman Goerring fell prey to his own megalomania and overconfidence by constantly assuming that the RAF were ever near to their last fighter reserves. In reality, production exploded even as training more pilots proved to be more of a challenge. The Luftwaffe under Goerring’s direction arguably gave up their winning strategy. Midway through the Battle of Britain the Luftwaffe adopted the strategy of directly attacking airfields, radar systems and aircraft production factories. However, just as this strategy was beginning to bite, Goerring initiated the Blitz which he wrongly believed would overstretch the RAF and demoralise the British people. While the cities suffered, the RAF made a rapid recovery enough to see out the rest of the Luftwaffe effort until Hitler directed them to focus on the Soviet Union.
What this author does well is to communicate that while some fundamentals were inevitable (the home advantage for instance), the outcome of the Battle of Britain wasn’t inevitable. Our victory is a testament to leadership that prioritised caution, long term preparation, intricate contingency planning and sober intelligence assessments. The German loss was arguably caused by: bad intelligence, deluded political assessments, a lack of patience and patchy military intelligence.
At the end the author points out how some of Hugh Dowding’s critics were promoted shortly after the battle as he was reassigned. The RAF then went on an offensive strategy, that while it looked more daring, but bringing very little strategic return while arguably wasting lives. We owe much to Hugh’s Dowding’s understated but considered leadership.
“Run, live to fly
Fly to live, do or die
Won't you run, live to fly
Fly to live, aces high”
Aces High by Iron Maiden
What was the Battle of Britain? What are the truths behind the myths? What actually happened during it? These are the main questions this book is concerned with.
The start of the book gives a short but thorough account of how military aviation developed in the UK, with the emerging debate between the bomber and fighter maximalist. While the Royal Air Force (RAF) owes much of it’s traditions to Hugh Trenchard (whom a street is named after in my city), he was a bomber maximalist. In the end Hugh Dowding rejected the premise that wars could be won simply by heavily bombing an enemy’s land and laid the vital foundations of Fighter Command. Intricate networks of communication were placed between radar stations (in their infancy), the Observer Corps, the Operations Centres, the main airbases and the forward airfields. This system working like a reactive and well-coordinated human body put a robust defensive system in place ready for Hitler’s onslaught.
There is a similar account of how the Luftwaffe developed too, including with secret help from the Soviet Union (which Putin is strangely quiet about). A mixture of confused priorities, the grandiose pomposity of Goerring and overestimations of what the Luftwaffe was capable of arguably determined the end of the battle by a long way.
There are interesting insights into the experiences of the air crews and the pilots and the different individual roles of the former are described in vivid detail. Who the pilots were and their personalities are often reflected on in the book. Due to the expense of getting flying lessons and the only recent creation of the Auxiliary RAF pilot force, many of the early pilots were seen as well heeled. However, the Battle of Britain acted as a grim social equaliser, since a quarter of all the pilots died in combat the demographics of the pilot pool became more mixed.
The day-to-day accounts can be a bit of a hard slog to read through and keep up with. But in many ways I think this is not so much something to take fault with the author over. Many of these days were frantic and chaotic with much going on at the same time. Many small engagements led to a small loss in life, but a life nonetheless, meaning that respect dictates that their stories are told. During the most intense days, the mentality of the pilots is often reflected on. Many of them were exhausted and had to fly several sorties a day. At the same time they knew that them and their colleagues faced a possible sudden and violent death every time they climbed into the cockpit for another sortie.
What the author does remarkably well is to put the reader into the shoes of players on several levels on the ground. Specifically, these include; pilots, civilians, airfield staff (including air crew), politicians on both sides and air force officials on both sides. What I found especially interesting was the German political and Luftwaffe leadership’s mentality. From the start Hitler felt quite detached from the Battle. Real preparation for the invasion of Britain were made, Hitler had long maintained that an arrangement could be made with the UK. It was Hitler’s hope that concerted assaults by the Luftwaffe could convince the UK to come to peace terms within days if not months.
Why did the UK win the Battle of Britain? The home advantage helped, in that German fighters in particular had limited fuel to fly to and from the UK and defend the German bombers. German pilots who bailed out in the UK were taken prisoner while UK pilots usually got into another plane to fight again if recovery allowed. The Radar network, whose development was also backed by Dowding, also helped provide a vital early warning service to the RAF.
However, there is a good arguments to make that the UK won the Battle of Britain because the Germans lost it through their own mistakes. Herman Goerring fell prey to his own megalomania and overconfidence by constantly assuming that the RAF were ever near to their last fighter reserves. In reality, production exploded even as training more pilots proved to be more of a challenge. The Luftwaffe under Goerring’s direction arguably gave up their winning strategy. Midway through the Battle of Britain the Luftwaffe adopted the strategy of directly attacking airfields, radar systems and aircraft production factories. However, just as this strategy was beginning to bite, Goerring initiated the Blitz which he wrongly believed would overstretch the RAF and demoralise the British people. While the cities suffered, the RAF made a rapid recovery enough to see out the rest of the Luftwaffe effort until Hitler directed them to focus on the Soviet Union.
What this author does well is to communicate that while some fundamentals were inevitable (the home advantage for instance), the outcome of the Battle of Britain wasn’t inevitable. Our victory is a testament to leadership that prioritised caution, long term preparation, intricate contingency planning and sober intelligence assessments. The German loss was arguably caused by: bad intelligence, deluded political assessments, a lack of patience and patchy military intelligence.
At the end the author points out how some of Hugh Dowding’s critics were promoted shortly after the battle as he was reassigned. The RAF then went on an offensive strategy, that while it looked more daring, but bringing very little strategic return while arguably wasting lives. We owe much to Hugh’s Dowding’s understated but considered leadership.
July 27, 2025
This was a book that I picked-up in the UK when Borders bookshops were still open. Published in 2009, I know Borders stopped trading in 2011. At £25, I likely purchased it in sale.
And so it sat on a bookshelf for at most, 14 years, unread.
An impressive summary of each day of The Battle of Britain, Bishop's history draws on some highly original accounts, which are noted where necessary. Many were taken from recordings with the interviewee, others from participants biographies.
A particularly impressive facet is the use of artwork that was commissioned during WWII by British artists (there doesn't seem to be an equivalent on the German side). Those well-reproduced paintings give A Battle of Britain a unique tone.
There's an awful lot of detail, with the main thread punctuated by accounts, tables and lots and lots of well-captioned photographs. I couldn't really find a fault with the detail and the individual characters of the key persons, such as Dowding, Leigh-Mallory and Park, and how they interacted (sometimes not-so-well) are explored.
There is of course one highlight that I can't avoid. That's 15th September, 1940, Battle of Britain Day. Although not the end of the Luftwaffe's daylight air campaign, that day, witnessed by hundreds of thousands of London residents who looked-up to follow the countless dogfights going on above them, really was the legendary day, that I and countless schoolboys knew by heart. It was the day when everything worked perfectly; radar, ground control, communications, timing, the Duxford 'Big Wing'...
'On reaching the outskirts of London, the German aircraft came under heavy anti-aircraft fire from the new batteries that had been brought in from elsewhere to defend the city. As the planes emerged from this barrage, they were faced with the biggest concentration of British aircraft they had yet encountered. There were fifteen squadrons facing them - ten from 11 Group and five from the Duxford Wing. For the second time that day, German aircrew were presented with the alarming sight of a mass of British fighters, aggressive, determined and well organised'
(pages 344-345)
Read over just two days. Not the definitive history of The Battle of Britain, but a well-deserved addition to the best of the accounts.
And so it sat on a bookshelf for at most, 14 years, unread.
An impressive summary of each day of The Battle of Britain, Bishop's history draws on some highly original accounts, which are noted where necessary. Many were taken from recordings with the interviewee, others from participants biographies.
A particularly impressive facet is the use of artwork that was commissioned during WWII by British artists (there doesn't seem to be an equivalent on the German side). Those well-reproduced paintings give A Battle of Britain a unique tone.
There's an awful lot of detail, with the main thread punctuated by accounts, tables and lots and lots of well-captioned photographs. I couldn't really find a fault with the detail and the individual characters of the key persons, such as Dowding, Leigh-Mallory and Park, and how they interacted (sometimes not-so-well) are explored.
There is of course one highlight that I can't avoid. That's 15th September, 1940, Battle of Britain Day. Although not the end of the Luftwaffe's daylight air campaign, that day, witnessed by hundreds of thousands of London residents who looked-up to follow the countless dogfights going on above them, really was the legendary day, that I and countless schoolboys knew by heart. It was the day when everything worked perfectly; radar, ground control, communications, timing, the Duxford 'Big Wing'...
'On reaching the outskirts of London, the German aircraft came under heavy anti-aircraft fire from the new batteries that had been brought in from elsewhere to defend the city. As the planes emerged from this barrage, they were faced with the biggest concentration of British aircraft they had yet encountered. There were fifteen squadrons facing them - ten from 11 Group and five from the Duxford Wing. For the second time that day, German aircrew were presented with the alarming sight of a mass of British fighters, aggressive, determined and well organised'
(pages 344-345)
Read over just two days. Not the definitive history of The Battle of Britain, but a well-deserved addition to the best of the accounts.
September 3, 2025
a very interesting book that will definitely keep you reading. I really like all the eyewitness accounts and the plane information. I definitely recommend reading this book. many thanks to the author and publishers for bringing us this fascinating reading.
August 26, 2021
Fascinating. So much I didn't know or realise about the planes and pilots of the Second World War.
August 19, 2015
A good and readable account of the battle of Britain. Bishop sets the scene we'll with a narrative overview of the build up, then as it says, it's a day by day account, drawing on plenty of first hand accounts of the fighting, with background on the key figures. My only thought was that while. Clearly picking the most illustrative examples, to have followed a couple of pilots through even a couple of days would have helped make the sections talking about the demands on the more tangible. An informative and easy read.
December 23, 2012
Three and a half stars. Some inconsistency with how Bishop handles the material throughout the book--what I especially noticed was that he sometimes, but not always, tells what happened to pilots of planes shot down (baled out, wounded, returned to unit, captured, killed?), but a solid book, with good integration of some of the behind-the-scenes events.
At some point I need to look through all the BoB books I own and select for myself the ones I think best . . . .
At some point I need to look through all the BoB books I own and select for myself the ones I think best . . . .
Read
August 19, 2012Very detailed, and worth taking the time to read. Thought provoking.
January 23, 2013
Thoroughly entertaining
June 11, 2014
Excellent concise account of the battle. Lots of interesting things in there I'd never read anywhere else.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews