Churchill’s Few: The Battle of Britain

by John Willis

Eighty years after the Battle of Britain this vivid and dramatic book tells the story, in their own words, of six brave young men who fought courageously in the skies above England to prevent Hitler's invasion of Britain.This thin blue line in their Hurricanes and Spitfires were the 'few' to whom Churchill said the nation owed so much. It was, as one pilot's wife put it 'a queer, golden time', when men in their teens and twenties fought each other in a brutal but still gentlemanly conflict. At stake was the very future of Britain.The six men in this sympathetic but honest portrayal were from vastly contrasting backgrounds. Geoffrey Page, shot down in his Hurricane and the victim of horrendous burns, was a founder member of the legendary Guinea Pig Club. Bob Doe, also badly injured, was one of the most successful fighter aces but remained unheralded and out of the public eye. Cyril Bamberger rose from humble origins as a Sergeant Pilot to win a DFC and bar. Joseph Slagowski was one of the small band of heroic Polish pilots whose contribution to the Battle, as this book shows, remains scandalously undervalued.Former Daily Telegraph journalist Geoffrey Myers, Intelligence Officer in a squadron that was hopelessly and fatally led, wrote eloquent contemporaneous letters to his family, extracts of which are published here for the first time.Not all the heroes fought for Britain. Unusually this book includes the parallel but contrasting story of Luftwaffe pilot Ulrich Steinhilper, shot down and captured over Kent and destined to become one of the greatest escapers of World War II, evading British and Canadian prison camp guards five times.This unique and moving record throws light on the long-term consequences of the Battle of Britain on the lives of the young pilots in the frontline. These insightful portraits illuminate the ineradicable marks that one momentous battle made on the brave participants of both sides. Just a few months of brutal aerial combat changed their lives and history forever.As Geoffrey Page 'I still find it hard to take when children point at me because of my burnt face and hands. They are my enemies now, not the Germans.'

Genres: Biography

307 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Keith Will Windebank · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very moving account of six very brave men.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book opens with a group of amateurs armed with metal detectors and shovels discovering the wreckage of a Hurricane that was shot down during the Battle of Britain and its pilot's remains buried 30' down in the mud of a coastal marsh in 1979.

The author tells the personal side of the Battle of Britain through the stories of six men: Bob Doe, one of the most decorated fighter pilots in World War II, who was badly injured in a crash; Geoffrey Page, who was badly burned when he was shot down but who recovered through the work of a pioneering plastic surgeon to fly in fighters again; Cyril Bamberger, who overcame class prejudices in the RAF to fly fighters not only in the Battle of Britain but also on Malta, when it was a beleaguered island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea; Geoffrey Meyers, an intelligence officer who escaped from France back to England but whose family was left behind in occupied France; Joseph Szlagowski, who escaped Poland to fight again with the RAF; and Ulrich Steinshilper, a Luftwaffe pilot who was shot down & captured in England, sent to prisoner of war camps in Canada and who made multiple escape attempts.

The author contrasts the superior training of the Luftwaffe pilots, many of whom fought during the Spanish Civil War, with the majority of RAF pilots who were hastily trained. Many of the RAF's tactics were obsolete and the RAF was slow to apply the lessons that they learned the hard way. But the British did have advantages, chiefly radar, decrypting German codes, efficient airplane production & repair facilities and fighting over their homeland. The Germans were also hampered by their command not having a coherent strategy and sticking to it. Famously they diverted from attacking RAF bases, aircraft factories and radar stations and started bombing London in retaliation for a British bombing raid on Berlin.

The author is familiar with, and frequently cites, well known histories of the Battle of Britain and memoirs of famous pilots like Adolph Galland, Robert Standford Tuck, etc. This is not an all encompassing history of the Battle of Britain but it's well worth reading to hear the personal stories of pilots who otherwise would remain obscure.