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#4461550 - 02/15/19 04:26 PM Greatest Book on the Battle of Britain  
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BadBud Offline
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Duel of Eagles by Peter Townsend. Read many books on this subject and this is the best and most informative........written by someone who played a part in it!

BadBud

Inline advert (2nd and 3rd post)

#4461681 - 02/16/19 05:00 PM Re: Greatest Book on the Battle of Britain [Re: BadBud]  
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Agree 100%.

I also enjoy 'The Right of the Line' which is about the RAF in the whole of the war, by John Terraine


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#4461682 - 02/16/19 05:05 PM Re: Greatest Book on the Battle of Britain [Re: BadBud]  
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I'll put this on my radar.

#4461683 - 02/16/19 05:07 PM Re: Greatest Book on the Battle of Britain [Re: BadBud]  
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Put it on the Chain Home, old boy


What kind of car is that? What does it matter? When I drive it, I'm Steve McQueen
#4461716 - 02/16/19 10:05 PM Re: Greatest Book on the Battle of Britain [Re: 462cid]  
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Originally Posted by 462cid
Put it on the Chain Home, old boy

thumbsup

#4461730 - 02/17/19 12:14 AM Re: Greatest Book on the Battle of Britain [Re: BadBud]  
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Russ
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#4461732 - 02/17/19 12:22 AM Re: Greatest Book on the Battle of Britain [Re: BadBud]  
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That looks good. Same publisher as 'Right of the Line' I think.

I'll have to check it out but I have such a line of books lined up.


What kind of car is that? What does it matter? When I drive it, I'm Steve McQueen
#4461757 - 02/17/19 08:28 AM Re: Greatest Book on the Battle of Britain [Re: BadBud]  
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Greatest varies in terms of what you want in a book.

The short 300 page overview book I have previously posted a brief review here in the book forum; With Wings Like Eagles - Michael Korda

[Linked Image]

The publishers url is here: https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780061984945/with-wings-like-eagles/

on the publishers webpage there is a link to "Read a Sample". On the page is goes to there is a link for the bibliography of the book.
The author has an extensive list of all the BOB revelant books.

(I would post them but my web browser security app NoScript won't allow the link..)

Also his notes have some useful quick tips, for example;
Originally Posted by Chapter 3 notes

1. For the best and most comprehensive account of Dowding's creatione of the Fighter Command Headquarters, and its ramifications for the air defense of the United Kingdom, I am indebted to Peter Flint's "Dowding and Headquarters Fghter Command."

Originally Posted by Chapter 5 notes
1. The best and most detailed account of the differences between the Bf 109 and the Spitfire and Hurricane is to be found in Wiliam Green's, "Augsburg Eagle :The Story of the Messerschmitt 109"


Originally Posted by Acknoweldgements

For their help and advice in researching the story of the Battle of Britain I am indebted to Len Deighton, whose own book "Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain" remains the benchmark for anybody writing about these events..




For fighter pilot action and details books like Townsend's and such as below may be more interest to virtual furballers..

Originally Posted by Chapter 8

..Richard Collier in his book on the Batlle of Britain, list some of the men who flew on August 15;
"Warrent Officer Edward Mayne, Royal Flying Corps veteran, at forty the oldest man to fly as a regular (allied) combatant in the battle, young Hugh Percy, an undergraduate fro Cambridge University who kept his logbook in Greek, New Zealander Mindy Blake, Doctor of Mathematics, who approached each combat like a quadratic equation, the Nizam of Hyderabad's former personal pilot, Derek Boitel-Gill, Randy Mettheson, ex-Argentine gaucho, Johhny Bryson, a former Canadian Mountie, Squadron Leader Aeneas Mac Donnell, offical head of the Glengarry Clan; and Red Tobin from Los Angeles, with the (Amercian) barnstormers, Andy and Shorty.."

but these were the more glamorous exceptions, of course.."

..Richard Hillary, who went straight from life as an Oxford undergraduate and intellectual to being a Spitfire pilot with 603 Squadron, and who would survive dreadful, disfiguring burns to write one of the most famous books about the RAF in World War II, "The Last Enemy", before death finally caught up with him, wrote of his Baptism of fire on August 15:


Originally Posted by The Last Enemy by Richard Hillary

We ran into them at 18,000 feet, twenty yellow-nosed Messerschmitt 109's, about 500 feet above us. Our Squadron strength was eight, and as they came down on us we went into line astern and turned head on to them. Brian Carbury, who was leading the section, dropped the nose of his machine, and I could almost feel the leading Nazi pilot push forward on his stick to bring his guns to bear.

At the same moment Brian pulled back on his own control stick and led us over to them in a steep climbing turn to the left. In two vital seconds they had lost their advantage. I saw Brian let go a burst of fire at the leading plane, saw the pilot put his machine into a half roll, and knew that he was mine.

Automatically, I kicked the rudder to the left to get him at right angles, turned the gun button to "fire" and let go ina four second burst with full deflection. He came right through my sights and I saw the tracer from all eight guns thud home. For a second he seemed to hang motionless; then a jet of flame shot upwards and he spun out of sight...

It had happened. My first emotion was one of satisfaction... And then I had a feeeling of the essential rightness of it all. He was dead and I was alive; it could have so easily have been the other way round; and that somehow would have been right too. ..


Originally Posted by Korda notes on Chapter 10


Hough and Richard's, "The Battle of Britain"
Gilbert, Martin, "Finest Hour"

#4461788 - 02/17/19 06:01 PM Re: Greatest Book on the Battle of Britain [Re: BadBud]  
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BlueHeron Offline
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Originally Posted by BadBud
Duel of Eagles by Peter Townsend. Read many books on this subject and this is the best and most informative........written by someone who played a part in it!

BadBud


That was a really great read! My second favorite is "A Summer Bright and Terrible", which focuses a little more on the development and implementation of radar.

#4461804 - 02/17/19 09:38 PM Re: Greatest Book on the Battle of Britain [Re: BadBud]  
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The best history of this time I ever read was "The Most Dangerous Enemy: A History of the Battle of Britain" by Stephen Bungay

Best by a pilot was "The Last Enemy", Richard Hillary.


"You'll never take me alive" said he,
And his ghost may be heard if you pass by that billabong
"Who'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me?"



#4518210 - 04/26/20 10:13 AM Re: Greatest Book on the Battle of Britain [Re: FsFOOT]  
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Originally Posted by FsFOOT
Greatest varies in terms of what you want in a book.

The short 300 page overview book I have previously posted a brief review here in the book forum; With Wings Like Eagles - Michael Korda

[Linked Image]

The publishers url is here: https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780061984945/with-wings-like-eagles/

on the publishers webpage there is a link to "Read a Sample". On the page is goes to there is a link for the bibliography of the book.
The author has an extensive list of all the BOB revelant books.

(I would post them but my web browser security app NoScript won't allow the link..)

Also his notes have some useful quick tips, for example;
[quote=Chapter 3 notes]
1. For the best and most comprehensive account of Dowding's creatione of the Fighter Command Headquarters, and its ramifications for the air defense of the United Kingdom, I am indebted to Peter Flint's "Dowding and Headquarters Fghter Command."

Originally Posted by Chapter 5 notes
1. The best and most detailed account of the differences between the Bf 109 and the Spitfire and Hurricane is to be found in Wiliam Green's, "Augsburg Eagle :The Story of the Messerschmitt 109"

Thank you for sharing! I heard about this book, but I've never read it before


Last edited by JonathanHouse; 04/29/20 06:14 PM.
#4518374 - 04/27/20 06:22 PM Re: Greatest Book on the Battle of Britain [Re: BadBud]  
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I've read many of these and Townsend's book is easily my favorite. I breezed through it twice. smile

#4518437 - 04/28/20 12:14 AM Re: Greatest Book on the Battle of Britain [Re: BlueHeron]  
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Originally Posted by BlueHeron
I've read many of these and Townsend's book is easily my favorite. I breezed through it twice. smile



It is very good, read it for the first time earlier in the year.


"In the vast library of socialist books, there’s not a single volume on how to create wealth, only how to take and “redistribute” it.” - David Horowitz
#4518438 - 04/28/20 12:40 AM Re: Greatest Book on the Battle of Britain [Re: BadBud]  
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I liked the way Townssend began all the way back with World War One and showed the side by side developement histories of both air forces. And of course his personal part in it. It reads like a novel. It has always been my favorite book on the subject


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#4518463 - 04/28/20 10:31 AM Re: Greatest Book on the Battle of Britain [Re: BadBud]  
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To add to the others listed:
"First Light" Geoff 'Boy' Wellum, the youngest British pilot in the Battle, who died in 2018 just before the epic 'Spitfire' documentary in which he featured was released.

"Nine Lives" by Kiwi Alan Deere...probably the luckiest pilot to survive the war.

"Fighter Pilot" Bob Doe, a self-deprecating chap who in interviews self-mockingly makes out that he hadn't a clue what he was doing, bumbling along in the English manner, yet shot down two on one of his first missions and went on to be one of the most effective pilots in that conflict.

"Fighter Pilot" and "Fighter Pilot's Summer" Paul Ritchey. The first written during the Battle of France, and published in 1941

Amongst the groaning bookshelves of mine of biographies and autobiographies I have on the subject, these stand out.



#4518730 - 04/29/20 07:48 PM Re: Greatest Book on the Battle of Britain [Re: BadBud]  
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First Light is fantastic. The best individual account of the Battle if you ask me. And Nine Lives is riveting. How Al Deere survived all he did is almost unbelievable.


In all my years I've never seen the like. It has to be more than a hundred sea miles and he brings us up on his tail. That's seamanship, Mr. Pullings. My God, that's seamanship!
#4518765 - 04/29/20 10:22 PM Re: Greatest Book on the Battle of Britain [Re: BadBud]  
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Just ordered First Light (thanks for the tip, guys) and couldn't resist and added "Stick & Rudder" and "Concorde" by Christopher Orlebar to the #%&*$# basket. It turn out to be a bit more expensive but plenty of good read ahead. Sorry the off-topic..

#4518768 - 04/29/20 11:12 PM Re: Greatest Book on the Battle of Britain [Re: Pooch]  
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Originally Posted by Pooch
I liked the way Townssend began all the way back with World War One and showed the side by side developement histories of both air forces.


Yes, that was very interesting


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