Fighter Boys The Battle of Britain, 1940

by Bishop, Patrick

• ISBN13: 9780142004661
• ISBN10: 0142004669
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-07-27
• Publisher: Penguin Books

Summary

For 123 days in the summer of 1940, 3,000 youthful airmen in the Royal Air Force fought back against Hitler’s advancing forces with a heroism that astonished the world. Drawing on interviews with scores of surviving pilots as well as diaries and letters never before seen, military historian and journalist Patrick Bishop re-creates with astonishing intimacy and clarity this excruciating, exhilarating war of nerves. In their own words, the pilots describe what it was like to bale out from a stricken plane, to go into battle in the face of overwhelming odds, to hear the screams of a comrade as he went down in flames. With a riveting, taut narrative, Fighter Boysrelates how those young heroes changed the course of World War II—and the history of the modern world.

Author Biography

Patrick Bishop, associate editor at the Daily Telegraph (London), is the originator of the TV series The Irish Empire and the author of several highly acclaimed books on military history.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface
Prologue: The White Hart	p. 1
Sportsmen and Butchers	p. 9
Fighters versus Bombers	p. 27
'Free of Boundaries, Free of Gravity, Free of Ties'	p. 48
The Fatal Step	p. 81
Winter of Uncertainty	p. 106
Return to the Western Front	p. 126
The Battle of France	p. 147
Dunkirk	p. 181
Doing It	p. 197
Before the Storm	p. 212
The Channel Battle	p. 231
The Hun	p. 253
Hearth and Home	p. 263
Attrition	p. 284
Brotherhood	p. 316
'The Day Had Been a Year'	p. 348
Autumn Sunset	p. 373
Rhubarbs and Circuses	p. 385
Epilogue: The Last Note	p. 399
Notes and References	p. 407
Index	p. 423
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.