The Battle of Britain: Luftwaffe Blitz (Images of War) - Softcover

Kaplan, Philip

Softcover

ISBN 10: 178159368X ISBN 13: 9781781593684

Publisher: Pen and Sword Aviation, 2013

Synopsis

After its attack on Poland in 1939, Britain and France had declared war on Germany. The Germans were suddenly in a war they had risked and now had to fight, and they planned an invasion of Britain to destroy that enemy's potential for making war. The plan, Operation Sea Lion, called for implementation by the autumn of 1940 and depended on German forces defeating and eliminating the Royal Air Force, clearing the English Channel of British mines, dominating the coastal zone between occupied France and England with heavy artillery, and eliminating the Royal Navy as a threat.

German success relied heavily on its air force, the Luftwaffe, dealing with the R.A.F quickly and efficiently and gaining air superiority over Britain with a series of concentrated bombing attacks throughout the British Isles. Winston Churchill called what followed “the Battle of Britain” - fifteen weeks of aerial combats, much happening directly above the towns and villages of England. The threatened invasion never came. Herman Goring's vaunted air force failed to achieve the prerequisites for Sea Lion and Adolf Hitler was forced to call it off.

The Luftwaffe bombing raids on Britain continued, however, into mid-May 1941, resulting in an unprecedented fifty-seven night campaign of horror for the British people.

The airmen of Goring's bomber force, sometimes referred to as 'eagles', were a unique breed involved in a remarkable experience, a prolonged, dramatic, strategic bombing effort that was met and challenged by a relatively small force of R.A.F fighter pilots determined to do whatever it took to prevent the enemy invading. The ferocity of fight they put up left the German bomber crews in no doubt about the sort of threat they faced.

The Battle of Britain: Luftwaffe Blitz offers a gripping, graphic view of the routine repeated each day and night, from the summer of 1940 through the following spring, by the German bomber crews bringing their deadly cargoes to Britain. Through mainly German archival photos, it features images of the airmen on their French bases and in the skies over England; the aircraft they flew, fought and sometimes died in; their leaders; their targets and results; the R.A.F pilots and aircraft; and the losses. The images, from the Bundesarchiv and other German and British photographic sources, vividly convey a real sense of events as they played out, as do the compelling memories of many on both sides, participants and eyewitnesses to one of the most brutal sustained bombardments of the Second World War.

About this title

About the Author:

Author/historian/designer/photographer Philip Kaplan has written and co-authored forty-seven books on aviation, military and naval subjects. His previous books include: One Last Look, The Few, Little Friends, Round the Clock, Wolfpack, Convoy, Fighter Pilot, Bombers, Fly Navy, Run Silent, Chariots of Fire, Legend and, for Pen and Sword, Big Wings, Two-Man Air Force, Night and Day Bomber Offensive, Mustang The Inspiration, Rolling Thunder, Behind the Wire, Grey Wolves, Naval Air, and Sailor. He is married to the novelist Margaret Mayhew.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pen and Sword Aviation
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 178159368X
• ISBN 13: 9781781593684
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144