I heard the same, fancy dress was his forte, man in drag his speciality....and he only had one testicle or was that someone else

Wasn't it Hermann "Meyer" who had a penchant for pink uniforms too?

I do remember reading that he was an excellent pilot in WWI.

"Fighter" by Len Deighton is also good read. Focuses a lot on the technology of radar, the people behind the scenes and so on.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fighter-True-Sto...ie=UTF8&s=books

It's actually similar to the Townsend book mentioned earlier. I have both, and would say IMHO that the Townsend one is the easier read.

Worth a look though.

Books: (quoted from this site: http://www.battleofbritain.net/bobhsoc/books.html)

TITLE: Finest Hour
AUTHOR: Tim Clayton & Phil Craig
ISBN: 0 340 75041 3
PUBLISHER: Hodder & Staughton
The period of the Battle of Britain comes to life in this book with a difference. It is the book of the BBC television series of the same name. It is not a book about tactics, it is not concerned about aircraft and bombs. It is a book about people. Basically it is a big collection of peoples stories, what they done, how they reacted, how they felt and how they went about their duties during this period of the war. Interviews and stories from Denis Wissler and Paul Ritchie of the RAF, Marion Holmes who was Winston Churchill's secretary, Peter Vaux and Ernie Leggett from the army, Ian Nethercott who was in the navy and WAAF Edith Kupp who married Dennis Wissler as well as many others. Excellent reference if you are looking for feelings and personal quotes. The personal testimonies are excellent in this hard cover book of 418 pages with numerous photographs.


I read this book some time ago and loved it. I really wish someone would make a movie about Dennis Wissler and Paul Ritchie. I would have romance, drama and tradgedy, which is all the good earmarks of a movie. Beats the hell out of the fictional story that was embedded into that 'Pearl Harbor' movie.

Is the movie "Hope and Glory" worth putting on the list? I loved this movie. No fighting but you get to see what the Battle of Britain was like for a young kid in london. Lots of funny moments.

I would like to recommend History Today's article

Pie in the Sky?

On Sunday, September 17th, Britain will once again remember the epic struggle of Fighter Command in the Second World War at a service of thanksgiving and rededication in Westminster Abbey before a congregation of airmen past and present. Like the great flypast of three hundred airplanes last September, the event will encourage Britons everywhere to recall how a handful of heroes saved these islands from invasion. But is this true - or the perpetuation of a glorious myth?

It is not mere revisionist history that puts this question, and indeed offers the suggestion that it would be at least equally fitting if, on this Battle of Britain Day, the Royal Navy were to send its ships in procession along our coasts - for it was the navy, not the RAF, that prevented a German invasion in 1940. This is the contention of three senior military historians at the Joint Services Command Staff College. Together they run the High Command course that teaches the past to the air marshals, generals and admirals of the future...

Unfortunately it's not free, but for six pounds you can read it along with four more articles from their archive.

And yet it is revisionist history.


S! Comp

So did you enjoy the article? :-)

No. I'm not paying six quid for it but it sounds very similar to other revisionist histories I've read. Anything new there?

S! Comp

Harvest of Messerschmitts: The Chronicle of a Village at War. 1940.

David Knight. Published by Frederick Warne 1981 but now out of print. ISBN 0723227721

Well illustrated. This little known book captures the atmosphere of the Battle better than most books on the subject.