BofB books

Hi All,

Thanks very much for all the suggestions. I’ll past them on.

Cheers,
Neilly

The Wood and Dempster is a great book, but might still verge a little to much towards the facts and statistics for your friend.

An absolutely excellent read is “Harvest of Messerschmitts” by Dennis Knight.

This is a chronicle of the Battle seen from the small, Kent village of Elham. A schoolteacher there kept a diary.

A day-by-day breakdown of the events as she saw them is supported by (Each in a different typeface) official statements for the day and first hand accounts from both German and Allied participants.

A really fascinating way of getting an impression of the ebb and flow of the battle as it was seen my combatants and non-combatants of the time.

It is one of my more treasured reads.

Some good images too.

Moggy

I’ve got The Narrow Margin but haven’t read it for years. I’ll read it next.
Might have a spare (battered) copy of it as I think my Dad had one too.
There’s “Battle of Britain – a Different Perspective” by John Frayn Turner. I can’t remember what the different perspective was.
I’ll add that to the list, when I’ve finished “Born to be Riled” by Jeremy Clarkson.

Scramble, by Norman Gelb is a superb book which totally revolves around the anecdotes of those who fought the battle.

Squadron Airborne by Elleston Trevor is a novel but is again a superb book seen from the eyes of those who were there.

There are many. i’ll have a look through my collectio and get back to you.

Regards,

kev35

Hi Nielly,
There are quite a few I can suggest off thet op of my head-

The Few by Andrew Kaplan and Derek Collier:This is an excellent landscape format book first published in 1990,but it’s still an excellent book on the subject.It was reprinted in 200o for the 60th anniversary,so shouldn’t be too tricky ti find a copy.

The Battle of Britain by Roy Conyers-Nesbitt:This is an excellent book in terms of it’s photographic content.The text is good,but many of the pics are previously unpublished.

Fighter by Len Dieghton:This is the classic work on the Battle,although some regard it as a bit controversial.Even one or two veterans have criticised it’s accuracy in some respects.

Strike From The Sky By Alexander McKee:Written in a similar style to ‘Fighter’,this is an in depth account of the Battle from it’s earliest days,going right back to the first Luftwaffe excursions over Britain in 1939.Reading it at the moment,so can’t give you a full overview,but excellent so far.

The Battle of Britain by Richard Hough & Denis Richards:This one is a bit peculiar in that it’s not that good when it comes to giving the history of the Battle itself,but gives a very good insight into the political & military build up to the war and the RAF’s expansion programmes,technical developments etc before the Battle itself.

These are just a few (if you’ll pardon the pun) I’ve chosen from my rather vast bookshelf.One of the works I’ve never got my hands on is ‘The Narrow Margin’ by Derrick Wood and Derek Dempster.I’ve heard alot about it,so if anyopne has read it,I’d be glad to know what they think of it.
Hope this lot will do to be going on with Nielly.

Tim Clayton & Phil Craig’s book from the bbc series Finest Hour is a good read, ( ISBN 0-340-75041-3 ) its mostly written from eye witness accounts of the people involved, the book takes you from the battle of France through the battle of Britain, in the eyes of different people, from an evacuee and a sailor to a school boy and a WAFF plotter, you may have seen the series on tele but believe me the book is way better, in my view the best book about the battle is “the battle of Britain then and now” maybe a bit heavy going for the beginner but a great book all the same.

Dezz
🙂