I took this book with me on our family vacation, thinking it was a good sort of book in that it would be gripping enough to be enjoyable, but not TOO gripping in that I would be able to put it down and do other things...I was wrong! I finished it in 1 day! It has a powerful mixture of historical facts, riveting moments, poignant recollections and moving emotions.
The sub-title of this book reads, "The Battle of Britain in the words of the pilots who won it." The author, Max Arthur, served with the RAF and is the UK's foremost oral historian and in his author's note, states: "Through their words I have sought to capture the experiences and atmosphere: the waiting, the action and the consequences of those actions. These are their words - I have been but a catalyst."
The Battle of Britain was fought from July-September 1940 and while the air defenses were badly battered and almost ruined, "but against all odds, 'The Few' as they came to be known, bought Britain's freedom - many with their lives. More than a fifth of the British and Allied pilots died during the Battle of Britain." (book jacket)
It was very refreshing and also thought-provoking to read these candid, first-hand accounts from the men who fought and who, miraculously, survived. I've often wondered what their thoughts were on death, on losing comrades, on shooting down planes...those questions were answered in this book.
- (Winston Churchill had only recently become Prime Minister when he made this speech in June 1940): "I look forward confidently to the exploits of our fighter pilots - these splendid men, this brilliant youth - who will have the glory of saving their native land, their island home, and all they love, from the most deadly of all attacks...Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'" (pg. 90)
- (Sergeant Fred Roberts, Armourer, 19 Squadron): "We didn't really discuss death - if a pilot was killed, it was horrible to think that half an hour before we'd been strapping him in a plane. But he'd gone - and there would be a replacement tomorrow. That was as far as our thoughts went. There was no such thing as stress in those days, there was no counselling or anything like that. It was an act of war - they died, they were killed." (pg. 153)
- (Sergeant Ray Holmes, 504 Squadron): "We built up a sort of synthetic hate against them, which was a bit artificial. I wanted to shoot an aeroplane down, but I didn't want to shoot a German down. I really did not." (pg. 169)
- (Sergeant Pilot Iain Hutchinson, 222 Squadron): "During the battle I didn't have any nightmares - until after the last time I got shot down - and then I had nightmares which have persisted the rest of my life. It was simply that I was stuck in the aircraft and it was going down rather rapidly." (pg. 168)
- (Unknown Pilot, 56 Squadron): "There was a feeling when war came that we were living in a comfortable microcosm. We never thought of wider issues - we were wrapped up in our own lives. You never heard politics discussed - and we read only newspapers - and if a book, then it was a novel. We talked about aeroplanes, but not so much shop as today. We were wilder, drank more, enjoyed ourselves more. We didn't doubt that we wouldn't lose - although I don't know that we were all as anxious to get to grips with the enemy as we made out. I wasn't. Deep down, we didn't know what was going to happen - what it would be like. I never saw anyone show he was frightened, although we probably were...The bell went - the moment of running to the aeroplane was the worst. The nearer you got to it, the less you thought about what was going to happen. Strapping in was a nervous moment - then climbing, in those bright, clear skies - lumbering along trying to get height." (pg. 179)
- (Flying Officer Alec Ingle, 605 Squadron): "It was fairly shattering to see an aircraft just go whoof alongside you. But it all happens so quickly, when you are closing at those speeds. You are not talking about minutes - you are talking about seconds."(pg. 236)
- (Aircraftwoman Jean Mills, Plotter & Tracer at RAF Duxford): "I remember coming on for a night shift and seeing a great glow in the south-east, like the biggest sunset you ever saw, and we said to the guard, 'What's that?' and he said, 'Oh, that's London burning.' That was the first time, really, that I felt it in the pit of my stomach." (pg. 269)
- (Pilot Officer Tim Vigors, 222 Squadron - after surviving a near-death and harrowing experience, he wrote the following which I thought was typically British! :) ) "As I heaved myself from the cockpit, a lady appeared through the gate from the garden. In her hand she bore a mug. 'Are you all right, dear?' she cried. 'I thought you might like a cup of tea to steady your nerves.'" :) (pg. 213)
- (Flight Lieutenant Billy Drake, 1 Squadron): "I don't think we feared death - we accepted that it could happen. What we did fear was being wounded or taken prisoner of war. Those were two immediate worries on a day-to-day basis." (pg. 271)
- (Flight Lieutenant Billy Drake, 1 Squadron): "One has to be honest and say there were moments - the bad moments you can't even remember. They're past, forgotten - but the great moments and the camaraderie - the times that you had on leave, the friends that you made. You met such a cross-section of the British population that you would never have met at other times, other than in wartime. (pg. 269)
I could keep quoting on and on! This book will grip you as you move through the various phases of the battle. As the Daily Telegraph reviewed, "Max Arthur brings together the voices of the living and the dead to recreate the events of July-October 1940, when vapor trails against a blue sky marked the battle to save civilization."
Read the book. Relive the moments. Remember the battle.
