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Last of the Few: The Battle of Britain in the Words of the Pilots Who Won It
By Max Arthur
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About this ebook
Full of eyewitness accounts from those who fought in the early days of World War II “You couldn’t get closer to the Battle of Britain than this book” (Aviation Book Reviews).
After the fall of France in May 1940, the British Expeditionary Force was miraculously evacuated from Dunkirk—and Britain stood alone to face Hitler’s inevitable invasion attempt. But for the German army to advance across the English Channel and invade, Hitler needed mastery of the skies.
The Royal Air Force would have to be completely destroyed.
Every day throughout that summer, German bombers pounded the RAF air bases in the southern counties. Greatly outnumbered by the Luftwaffe, the pilots of RAF Fighter Command scrambled as many as five times a day, and civilians watched skies crisscrossed with the contrails from the constant dogfights between Spitfires and Me-109s.
Britain’s very survival depended on the outcome of that summer’s battle. And against all odds, its battered and bloodied air defenses—to be forever known as “The Few”—bought Britain’s freedom with their efforts, and with their lives. For more than one out of five British and Allied pilots would never return.
These are the personal accounts of the pilots who fought and survived that battle. Their stories are as riveting, vivid, and poignant as they were seventy years ago, in “a tide of telling testimony . . . Expertly tracked down and anthologized by our foremost oral historian of war” (The Daily Mail).
After the fall of France in May 1940, the British Expeditionary Force was miraculously evacuated from Dunkirk—and Britain stood alone to face Hitler’s inevitable invasion attempt. But for the German army to advance across the English Channel and invade, Hitler needed mastery of the skies.
The Royal Air Force would have to be completely destroyed.
Every day throughout that summer, German bombers pounded the RAF air bases in the southern counties. Greatly outnumbered by the Luftwaffe, the pilots of RAF Fighter Command scrambled as many as five times a day, and civilians watched skies crisscrossed with the contrails from the constant dogfights between Spitfires and Me-109s.
Britain’s very survival depended on the outcome of that summer’s battle. And against all odds, its battered and bloodied air defenses—to be forever known as “The Few”—bought Britain’s freedom with their efforts, and with their lives. For more than one out of five British and Allied pilots would never return.
These are the personal accounts of the pilots who fought and survived that battle. Their stories are as riveting, vivid, and poignant as they were seventy years ago, in “a tide of telling testimony . . . Expertly tracked down and anthologized by our foremost oral historian of war” (The Daily Mail).
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Author
Max Arthur
Max Arthur is Britain's foremost oral historian, with over 10 books to his name, including the bestselling The Last Post and Forgotten Voices of the Second World War. He lives in London.
Read more from Max Arthur
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