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Battle of Britain
The Wordsworth Military Library covers the breadth of military history, including studies of individual leaders and accounts of major campaigns and great conflicts.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
4 people are currently reading
354 people want to read
About the author
Len Deighton
222 books938 followersDeighton was born in Marylebone, London, in 1929. His father was a chauffeur and mechanic, and his mother was a part-time cook. After leaving school, Deighton worked as a railway clerk before performing his National Service, which he spent as a photographer for the Royal Air Force's Special Investigation Branch. After discharge from the RAF, he studied at St Martin's School of Art in London in 1949, and in 1952 won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1955.
Deighton worked as an airline steward with BOAC. Before he began his writing career he worked as an illustrator in New York and, in 1960, as an art director in a London advertising agency. He is credited with creating the first British cover for Jack Kerouac's On the Road. He has since used his drawing skills to illustrate a number of his own military history books.
Following the success of his first novels, Deighton became The Observer's cookery writer and produced illustrated cookbooks. In September 1967 he wrote an article in the Sunday Times Magazine about Operation Snowdrop - an SAS attack on Benghazi during World War II. The following year David Stirling would be awarded substantial damages in libel from the article.
He also wrote travel guides and became travel editor of Playboy, before becoming a film producer. After producing a film adaption of his 1968 novel Only When I Larf, Deighton and photographer Brian Duffy bought the film rights to Joan Littlewood and Theatre Workshop's stage musical Oh, What a Lovely War! He had his name removed from the credits of the film, however, which was a move that he later described as "stupid and infantile." That was his last involvement with the cinema.
Deighton left England in 1969. He briefly resided in Blackrock, County Louth in Ireland. He has not returned to England apart from some personal visits and very few media appearances, his last one since 1985 being a 2006 interview which formed part of a "Len Deighton Night" on BBC Four. He and his wife Ysabele divide their time between homes in Portugal and Guernsey.
Deighton worked as an airline steward with BOAC. Before he began his writing career he worked as an illustrator in New York and, in 1960, as an art director in a London advertising agency. He is credited with creating the first British cover for Jack Kerouac's On the Road. He has since used his drawing skills to illustrate a number of his own military history books.
Following the success of his first novels, Deighton became The Observer's cookery writer and produced illustrated cookbooks. In September 1967 he wrote an article in the Sunday Times Magazine about Operation Snowdrop - an SAS attack on Benghazi during World War II. The following year David Stirling would be awarded substantial damages in libel from the article.
He also wrote travel guides and became travel editor of Playboy, before becoming a film producer. After producing a film adaption of his 1968 novel Only When I Larf, Deighton and photographer Brian Duffy bought the film rights to Joan Littlewood and Theatre Workshop's stage musical Oh, What a Lovely War! He had his name removed from the credits of the film, however, which was a move that he later described as "stupid and infantile." That was his last involvement with the cinema.
Deighton left England in 1969. He briefly resided in Blackrock, County Louth in Ireland. He has not returned to England apart from some personal visits and very few media appearances, his last one since 1985 being a 2006 interview which formed part of a "Len Deighton Night" on BBC Four. He and his wife Ysabele divide their time between homes in Portugal and Guernsey.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 27, 2017
I thought I had the Battle of Britain pretty much sussed, but this book was full of stuff I didn't know. It's also beautifully designed and laid out, with detailed colour illustrations to satisfy my inner avgeek. Len Deighton is both an excellent writer and a diligent researcher, resulting in a book that gets the facts across clearly, enjoyably, and memorably. My only complaint is that the main text is sometimes split mid-sentence by several pages of breakout boxes and images, and I prefer a more linear reading experience.
September 3, 2019
A wonderfully written book filled with fact and the unknown, or forgotten, parts of history. Western civilization, today, owes a GREAT debt to these brave few.
October 28, 2015
"When I told them that Britain would fight on alone, whatever [the French] did, their generals told their prime minister and his divided cabinet, 'In three weeks England will have its neck wrung like a chicken.' Some chicken! Some neck!" - Winston Chuchill,
In 1940, the whole of Europe lay under the flags of brutal tyrannies, fascist and Soviet alike. Having rolled over France with ease, Hitler bid the English to lay down their arms; acknowledge him as master of Europe, and the struggle would be over. Hitler, it seems, skipped Napoleonic history altogether; not only did he miss l'empereur's blunder in Russia, but the fact that Britain was no stranger to defying a continent arrayed against it. Such defiance could be broken, however, through force of arms: Britain's army had barely escaped the continent via Dunkirk and left much of its equipment behind. Its only hope lay in the Royal Air Force, protecting both the Isle and a Navy shielding convoys and guarding against invasion. Through a long summer, young men took to the air for the frantic defense of their home, fighting a battle so vicious that mere survival counted for victory. The Battle of Britain is justly called, however, for it summoned to action civilian and servicemen alike. As sons and brothers fought in the air, those unable to fight stood their ground below, watching for the enemy and turning back the flames of war, both parties enabling Britain to carry on. Len Deighton's Battle of Britain offers a day-by-day account of the summer and brims over with information valuable to younger research students and casual readers alike.
Battle of Britain is nearly less narrative than reference material. There is a story here, not nearly as tightly told as With Wings as Eagles, but delivered ably. What jumps out here is information -- orders of battle, tables of planes produced and destroyed, schematics of Spitfires, Hurricanes, and ME-109s, illustrations of how radar worked on both sides of the Channel, and gobs of photographs. There are photographs of letters and generous excerpts from after-action reports and diary entries from both sides of the conflict. The layout is impressive, too; all these graphics are not cordoned off by themselves, or simply stuck in every now and again; Deighton integrates the two, so that a chapter on Operation Sealion begins set against a photograph of German troops practicing beach landings. There are generous maps, and even full-spread illustrations of a typical RAF base. At times there's so much competing information that one loses track of the narrative - tables! Photographs! Sidebars! -- but only occasionally.
There is a story, however: after a brief history of military aviation during the Great War and afterward, Deighton leads into the months of constant struggle. He focuses more on tactics than strategy, but essentially Dowding's accomplishment was to prevent the RAF from perishing by attrition. British factories were humming with production, but Germany's war had been a long time in the making and its Luftwaffe out-gunned the competition. The RAF proved discretion the better part of valor; not by running, but by choosing the best ground and best time to fight. Earlier in the year, at Dunkirk, British leadership had made the choice to use airmen only sparingly, knowing what lay ahead. Here, too, the RAF is used with caution. Had Fighter Command heeded the impulse to make an all-out defense of the nation, Britain may have very well been "bled white", its planes exposed and devoured: instead, the Germans were allowed to fly in force, and the fighters scrambled to make the best of opportunities, making quick stabs instead of prolonged duels. Deighton also gives generous space to the civilians and troops on the ground, who defended Britain in their own way -- spotting the enemy so the RAF could intercept them and restoring order to the chaos German bombs attempted to create. As summer gave way to fall, the season for invasion passed, and the Germans increasingly distracted themselves by bombing cities. The darkest hour was not yet over, but the RAF had seen the nation through the worst of it.
"I have always loved England, but now I am in love with England. What a people! What a chance! ...we shall, by our stubbornness, give victory to the world." - Harold Nicolson, July 1940.
Related:
With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain, Michael Korda
http://thisweekatthelibrary.blogspot....
In 1940, the whole of Europe lay under the flags of brutal tyrannies, fascist and Soviet alike. Having rolled over France with ease, Hitler bid the English to lay down their arms; acknowledge him as master of Europe, and the struggle would be over. Hitler, it seems, skipped Napoleonic history altogether; not only did he miss l'empereur's blunder in Russia, but the fact that Britain was no stranger to defying a continent arrayed against it. Such defiance could be broken, however, through force of arms: Britain's army had barely escaped the continent via Dunkirk and left much of its equipment behind. Its only hope lay in the Royal Air Force, protecting both the Isle and a Navy shielding convoys and guarding against invasion. Through a long summer, young men took to the air for the frantic defense of their home, fighting a battle so vicious that mere survival counted for victory. The Battle of Britain is justly called, however, for it summoned to action civilian and servicemen alike. As sons and brothers fought in the air, those unable to fight stood their ground below, watching for the enemy and turning back the flames of war, both parties enabling Britain to carry on. Len Deighton's Battle of Britain offers a day-by-day account of the summer and brims over with information valuable to younger research students and casual readers alike.
Battle of Britain is nearly less narrative than reference material. There is a story here, not nearly as tightly told as With Wings as Eagles, but delivered ably. What jumps out here is information -- orders of battle, tables of planes produced and destroyed, schematics of Spitfires, Hurricanes, and ME-109s, illustrations of how radar worked on both sides of the Channel, and gobs of photographs. There are photographs of letters and generous excerpts from after-action reports and diary entries from both sides of the conflict. The layout is impressive, too; all these graphics are not cordoned off by themselves, or simply stuck in every now and again; Deighton integrates the two, so that a chapter on Operation Sealion begins set against a photograph of German troops practicing beach landings. There are generous maps, and even full-spread illustrations of a typical RAF base. At times there's so much competing information that one loses track of the narrative - tables! Photographs! Sidebars! -- but only occasionally.
There is a story, however: after a brief history of military aviation during the Great War and afterward, Deighton leads into the months of constant struggle. He focuses more on tactics than strategy, but essentially Dowding's accomplishment was to prevent the RAF from perishing by attrition. British factories were humming with production, but Germany's war had been a long time in the making and its Luftwaffe out-gunned the competition. The RAF proved discretion the better part of valor; not by running, but by choosing the best ground and best time to fight. Earlier in the year, at Dunkirk, British leadership had made the choice to use airmen only sparingly, knowing what lay ahead. Here, too, the RAF is used with caution. Had Fighter Command heeded the impulse to make an all-out defense of the nation, Britain may have very well been "bled white", its planes exposed and devoured: instead, the Germans were allowed to fly in force, and the fighters scrambled to make the best of opportunities, making quick stabs instead of prolonged duels. Deighton also gives generous space to the civilians and troops on the ground, who defended Britain in their own way -- spotting the enemy so the RAF could intercept them and restoring order to the chaos German bombs attempted to create. As summer gave way to fall, the season for invasion passed, and the Germans increasingly distracted themselves by bombing cities. The darkest hour was not yet over, but the RAF had seen the nation through the worst of it.
"I have always loved England, but now I am in love with England. What a people! What a chance! ...we shall, by our stubbornness, give victory to the world." - Harold Nicolson, July 1940.
Related:
With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain, Michael Korda
http://thisweekatthelibrary.blogspot....
October 11, 2024
Coffee-table-sized book, pics & text excellent, written by 2 British WW2 experts on the 4 critical months of July thru Oct. 1940, referred to by the Brits as the Battle of Britain, where 3,000 English fighter pilots, plus 7 Americans and 50 Poles, Czechs, Aussies, Canadians, etc. fought off 10,000 German bomber sorties w/ accompanying Bf 109 German fighters to thwart Hitler's plan to invade England right after the fall of Poland & France, and before the invasion of Russia.
A complex story of heroism against all odds combined with bungling bureaucracy & petty infighting, where the Luftwaffe outclassed the Royal Air Force in every category except determination. England couldn't win but was determined not to lose, much as was George Washington's strategy against the same Brits in the American Revolutionary War.
Learned much about British & German air technology & productive capacity: the Bf 109 was superior to the Spitfire & the Hurricane; Germany could never produce more than 400 aircraft (fighters and light bombers) per month; the factories in England were delivering nearly 500 fighters alone per month. Both England & Germany were outstanding craftsmen in both mechanical design and manufacturing of war machines, but never could figure out how to mass-produce anything, whereas the Americans who entered the war a year later would quickly ramp up production in all areas, producing a whopping 9,000 aircraft per month by March 1944. A prime example was the famous Merlin engine: designed and originally built by the Brits becoming the best aircraft engine of its day, but because every part was hand crafted to fit at assembly England could only produce 100 Merlins a month. The book highlights newspaper tycoon Lord Beaverbrook, the private citizen Churchill hired to ramp up war production, who quickly contacted Packard Motor Car Company in the U.S. to make the Merlin, where 6 months later the U.S. would ramp up to building 55,000 Merlins before the War's end. With this kind of war machine productive capacity, the Germans and the Japanese had no chance of winning, made even more obvious since neither Axis power built 4-engine strategic bombers that might destroy manufacturing facilities on U.S. soil.
A complex story of heroism against all odds combined with bungling bureaucracy & petty infighting, where the Luftwaffe outclassed the Royal Air Force in every category except determination. England couldn't win but was determined not to lose, much as was George Washington's strategy against the same Brits in the American Revolutionary War.
Learned much about British & German air technology & productive capacity: the Bf 109 was superior to the Spitfire & the Hurricane; Germany could never produce more than 400 aircraft (fighters and light bombers) per month; the factories in England were delivering nearly 500 fighters alone per month. Both England & Germany were outstanding craftsmen in both mechanical design and manufacturing of war machines, but never could figure out how to mass-produce anything, whereas the Americans who entered the war a year later would quickly ramp up production in all areas, producing a whopping 9,000 aircraft per month by March 1944. A prime example was the famous Merlin engine: designed and originally built by the Brits becoming the best aircraft engine of its day, but because every part was hand crafted to fit at assembly England could only produce 100 Merlins a month. The book highlights newspaper tycoon Lord Beaverbrook, the private citizen Churchill hired to ramp up war production, who quickly contacted Packard Motor Car Company in the U.S. to make the Merlin, where 6 months later the U.S. would ramp up to building 55,000 Merlins before the War's end. With this kind of war machine productive capacity, the Germans and the Japanese had no chance of winning, made even more obvious since neither Axis power built 4-engine strategic bombers that might destroy manufacturing facilities on U.S. soil.
September 28, 2021
I try not to throw around five-star ratings, but this certainly deserves one. I own but have not read Deighton's Fighter, his history of the Battle of Britain published in 1977. This Battle of Britain, published in 1980, is an integrated graphic treatment of the battle, beginning with the philosophies and technical developments of the years between the world wars. It combines clear narrative with snippets of contemporary letters and memoirs from pilots, civilians under the bombing, politicians, etc.; charts and tables of statistics; diagrams showing how things work, e.g. how the British used radar and observers and trackers to guide fighter response; contemporary newspaper or magazine accounts, often including visuals; excellent illustrations of the airplanes and weapons involved, including explanations of their strengths and weaknesses; day-by-day accounts of the activity during the most crucial period of the battle (July to October 1940); vignettes on selected pilots and leaders; and dozens of photographs and paintings.
Because of the way this book is structured, I found it perfect to read in "small bites" over a period of 10 days -- during solitary breakfasts and lunches.
This book reminded me of Williamson Murray's The Luftwaffe: Strategy for Defeat in both its physical form and its conclusion -- the Germans were responsible for much of their own failure.
Next stop: reading Deighton's Fighter.
Because of the way this book is structured, I found it perfect to read in "small bites" over a period of 10 days -- during solitary breakfasts and lunches.
This book reminded me of Williamson Murray's The Luftwaffe: Strategy for Defeat in both its physical form and its conclusion -- the Germans were responsible for much of their own failure.
Next stop: reading Deighton's Fighter.
March 2, 2022
This book presents a well organized inside story of the events of the Blitz.
July 5, 2015
I am not certain if this is the first edition of Deighton's book, but I did read the first edition published in 1980. The Battle of Britain means a lot to me as I have family in England. My grandfather was a gunner in the RAF. This edition is beautifully illustrated. For those interested in the detail of the planes themselves, there are many intricate illustrations.
I would have given the book five stars but for the lack of information about people. To me a war is about people as much as facts and dates. I was pleased towards the end that the "Legendary Pilots" were given short descriptions.
It was also interesting to learn facts I did not know such as it was the east end of London that suffered the most during the blitz. I assumed the majority of Londoners stayed safe in the tube stations, but in fact, only four percent of the city's citizens used the tube for shelter.
Finally, my favorite quote in the book follows: 'That's one trouble about the raids, people do nothing but make tea and expect you to drink it." My mum always had a cup of tea for me when I came home from school and college. There was tea to celebrate, tea for tearful events, tea and more tea. Tea is still the cornerstone of our family gatherings.
I would have given the book five stars but for the lack of information about people. To me a war is about people as much as facts and dates. I was pleased towards the end that the "Legendary Pilots" were given short descriptions.
It was also interesting to learn facts I did not know such as it was the east end of London that suffered the most during the blitz. I assumed the majority of Londoners stayed safe in the tube stations, but in fact, only four percent of the city's citizens used the tube for shelter.
Finally, my favorite quote in the book follows: 'That's one trouble about the raids, people do nothing but make tea and expect you to drink it." My mum always had a cup of tea for me when I came home from school and college. There was tea to celebrate, tea for tearful events, tea and more tea. Tea is still the cornerstone of our family gatherings.
December 31, 2013
An excellent book that details the summer of 1940 in western Europe. It gives detailed accounts of the air battle that took place between the RAF & the Luftwaffe. An easy to read good paced book with numerous historical photos. If you like history, especially WWII history, give this book a read. It is worth it.
October 18, 2014
Deighton draws on many sources to recreate the air war over Britain during World War II. There are many excellent photographs to enhance the historical account of events.
Want to read
February 11, 20143/20/03. Mt. Dora.
September 21, 2012
Blew my mind when I read it in my early teens. Helped start a love affair with aircraft and the Spitfire that I still have.
January 4, 2019
Really good picture book, that's about it. Narrative is not very clear, structure almost non-existent. Will be confusing for those who have no background on how the battle went.
Read
May 28, 2013read for research
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews