Battle of Britain – Then & Now, edited by Winston G Ramsey (After the Battle, 1989) £59.95
Daily chronology of the Battle of Britain, providing details of virtually every crash or loss by both the RAF and the Luftwaffe, plus over 1,700 photographs taken during 1940 matched with photographs of the same locations today as comparisons. Also illustrates and details the graves, memorials, crash sites and pilots of both the RAF and Luftwaffe. Unfortunately the 'Now' of the title is 1980 so much of what is shown has now (2004) changed beyond all recognition.
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Battle of Britain Illustrated by Paul Jacobs and Robert Lightsey (McGraw-Hill Professional, 2002). US edition only; may be available from online bookshops.
Through the innovative use of timelines, the authors explore the battle from four perspectives: historical, technical, tactical, and artistic. Through this, the complex interrelationship of history, technology and tactics on both sides of the Channel during the summer of 1940 is presented in a stunning, visual style.
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The Burning Blue: A new history of the Battle of Britain, edited by Paul Addison and Jeremy Crang (Pimlico, 2000) £14
A collection of articles, from both British and German viewpoints, which reassess all aspects of the battle and the myth that quickly grew up around it.
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Fighter: The true story of the Battle of Britain by Len Deighton (Castle, 2002) £15.99
Shows how the human factor influenced every twist and turn of the close-fought battle, and makes clear how machines played a vital role.
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Battle of Britain by Len Deighton and Max Hastings (Wordsworth Editions, 1999) £6.99
Deighton and Hastings look at how 'the Few' defended, depicting the reality of the battle and how it was carried out, whether in the air, on the ground, in the planning rooms or at home in towns and villages. It includes many quotes by pilots of both sides, plenty of diagrams and cutaway drawings and a brief look at the events after the battle.
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The Battle of Britain: The greatest battle in the history of air warfare by Richard Townshend Bickers (Salamander, 1999). Out of print; may be available from libraries or second-hand bookshops.
Contains details of all the participating pilots and the aircraft used by both the Luftwaffe and the RAF, as well as a description of a day in the life of both RAF and Luftwaffe pilots, plus numerous charts, diagrams and photographs.
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Battle of Britain: New Perspectives by John Ray (Cassell Military, 1994). Out of print; may be available from libraries or second-hand bookshops.
More than a decade of new research is behind this reassessment of significant elements of the battle, particularly the personality clashes in the RAF that frequently threatened to be more dangerous than the Luftwaffe attacks. There is also a detailed view from the Luftwaffe side, and an answer to the question: why, at the end of his finest hour, was Dowding immediately retired to obscurity and not rewarded as every other successful commander was?
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The Battle of Britain: The myth and the reality by Richard Overy (W W Norton, 2002). US edition only; may be available from online bookshops.
In his account, Overy analyses every element of the battle on both sides, from the men and machines who fought and the tactics they employed to the leadership and their strategies, and clarifies the significance of this pivotal moment for Britain and the world. He holds that one of the most important results of the battle was the urging of influential Americans for the United States to take Britain's side. More importantly, the battle galvanised popular opposition to Hitler in Britain and kept the country in the war at a time when many politicians and citizens sought some accommodation with the Nazi regime.
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The Narrow Margin: The Battle of Britain and the rise of air power 1930–1949 by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster (Pen & Sword Books/Leo Cooper, 2003). US edition only; may be available from online bookshops.
Originally published in 1961, this book traces the varied fortunes of the Royal Air Force in the 1930s, and shows how it readied itself for the mighty German onslaught in the beautiful summer of 1940 and won a great victory by the narrowest of margins. It provides a comprehensive account of the Battle of Britain, including the day-by-day summaries of the battle. It is illustrated with photographs and maps, and an appendix of the aircraft used by both the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe with schematic drawings, plus a list of all the pilots who flew in the battle from 10 July to 31 October 1940.
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Finest Hour by Tim Clayton and Phil Craig (Hodder & Stoughton, 2000) £12.99
An accessible layperson's ride through the political and military manoeuvrings of 1940, a year that included a defeated, retreating British Expeditionary Force, the miraculous evacuation at Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, the evacuation of children to America and the Blitz. The book particularly excels in the quality of its eyewitness testimonies.
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Men of the Battle of Britain by Kenneth G Wynn (Gliddon Books, 1992). Out of print; may be available from libraries or second-hand bookshops.
Short profiles of all the pilots: name, rank, serial number, squadrons served in, number of claims, status and personal history if they survived the war, as well as promotions and awards.
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Fighter Boys: Saving Britain by Patrick Bishop (HarperCollins, 2003) £20
The Battle of Britain was one of the most crucial ever fought. For most of the 3,000 young British airmen involved, this was their first real experience of combat. The pressure on the pilots, ground crew and their controllers was unimaginable; at certain points in the battle, a single blunder or failure of nerve could have tipped the balance of the contest. Bishop creates a surprising portrait of the battle, drawing on previously unseen source material and testimonies from survivors on both sides. Against the background of wider strategic considerations, he focuses on the lives and thoughts of the combatants, their attitudes towards 'the enemy' and their aircraft, the fear, horror and exhilaration of flight and battle, attempts by each side to gain the upper hand through daring technological innovations, and the men's coping tactics, mess room life and friendships.
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Duel of Eagles: The struggle for the skies from the First World War to the Battle of Britain by Peter Townsend (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000) £12.99
Although Townsend – a former Battle of Britain pilot himself (and Princess Margaret's great love) – gives a thorough background to events, especially to the rise to power of Hitler and Hermann Goring (commander of the Luftwaffe), he concentrates on the lives of the young pilots on both sides. For this book, originally published in the late 1960s, he interviewed pilots and their relatives (even Goring's daughter), and collected some of the best eyewitness accounts available. Interspersed are the poignant last letters home from pilots who did not survive.
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Reach for the Sky: The story of Douglas Bader – hero of the Battle of Britain by Paul Brickhill (Cassell Military, 2000) £6.99
In 1931, Douglas Bader was the golden boy of the RAF. But all his ambitions came to an abrupt end when he crashed his plane and surgeons were forced to amputate both his legs to save his life. He did not fly again until the outbreak of World War II. Flying Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain, he led his squadron to kill after kill. Shot down in occupied France, his German captors had to confiscate his tin legs in order to stop him trying to escape.
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Dowding and Headquarters Fighter Command by Peter Flint (Airlife, 1996). Out of print; may be available from libraries or second-hand bookshops.
A history of HQ Fighter Command at Bentley Priory, which recounts its preparations for the D-Day assault, and its involvement with the flying bomb crisis, with discussion of the contribution of Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding to the organisation and its operations.

The Last Enemy by Richard Hillary (Pimlico, 1997) £10
This classic, first published in 1942, recounts Hillary's experiences as a fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain, during which he was shot down in flames and terribly burned and spent months in hospital, undergoing operations to rebuild his face and hands. His autobiography came out just seven months before his death in a second crash.
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Park: The biography of Air Chief Marshall Sir Keith Park GCB, KBE, MC, DFC, DCL by Vincent Orange (Grub Street, 2001) £12.99
As commander of No. 11 Group, Fighter Command and responsible for the air defence of London and south-east England, Park took charge of the day-to-day direction of the Battle of Britain. This book covers the whole of his career – ace fighter pilot in World War I, postings to South America and Egypt, Battle of Britain, command of the RAF in Malta 1942/43, and finally Allied Air commander-in-chief of South-east Asia under Mountbatten in 1945. Drawn largely from unpublished sources and interviews with people who knew Park, and illustrated with maps and photographs, this is an authoritative biography of one of the world's greatest unsung heroes.
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Fly for Your Life: The story of Bob Stanford-Tuck by Larry Forrester (Cerberus, 2002) £7.99
Bob Stanford-Tuck was a biographer's dream: brilliant pilot, born leader, high-scoring Spitfire pilot, public hero and close friend of great British aviation figures. In this book, originally published in 1956, Forrester's easy style captures the tension, excitement and laconic humour of RAF life from the 1930s through the Battle of Britain and into the early fighter offensives into France.
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The Big Show: The greatest pilot's story of World War II by Pierre Clostermann (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, to be published April 2004) £16.99
Pierre Clostermann was a Free French fighter ace who flew with the RAF. His account of the air war over Britain and France has become one of the most famous memoirs of the Second World War. Unabridged for the first time, it contains everything one could wish for in a war memoir: wonderfully observed descriptions of wartime Britain, frighteningly evocative stories of in-the-cockpit action, an amazing cast of characters and all the drama and bravery of a man fighting a desperate war thousands of feet above the ground.
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First Light by Geoffrey Wellum (Penguin, 2003) £7.99
Wellum joined the Royal Air Force in 1939, at the age of 17. After piloting Spitfires during the Battle of Britain and flying nearly 100 missions over occupied France, he was mentally and physically exhausted – an old man at 22. Drawing on notes he wrote at the time, here he re-creates his wartime experiences. The book vividly evokes the realities of wartime flying – the camaraderie, the scrambles, the dogfights, the night flights, the foul weather. But it also gives us a moving portrait of a boy in anguish over the loss of friends during training, who broods over fears of failure – and survives to become a battle-hardened ace, inured to death but never unaffected by it.
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Stapme: The biography of Squadron Leader Basil Gerald Stapleton DFC, DFC (dutch) by David Ross (Grub Street, 2002) £17.99
South African Gerald 'Stapme' Stapleton was one of the outstanding fighter pilots of the Battle of Britain, accounting for nearly 20 enemy aircraft destroyed, probably destroyed or damaged, all while flying Spitfires. One of the real 'characters' to survive the war and, to many, the quintessential image of a Battle of Britain fighter pilot.
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Spitfire into Battle by Group Captain W G G Duncan Smith DSO
DFC (John Murray, 2002) £8.99
Duncan Smith flew front-line operations continuously from the Battle of Britain through the struggle for Malta to the invasion of Italy and the liberation of France. In this personal and exhilarating account, the reader experiences first hand the dramatic story of the air war from the cockpit of the now legendary Spitfire.
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The Hardest Day: Battle of Britain, 18 August 1940 by Alfred Price (Cassell Military, 1998) £6.99
The story of a single day – Sunday, 18 August 1940 – when the Luftwaffe launched three major assaults, in the course of which, and in numerous smaller actions, 100 German and 136 British aircraft were destroyed or damaged. On no other day in the Battle of Britain would either side suffer a greater number of aircraft put out of action. This is a minute-by-minute account of that day from the perspective of everyone involved – British and German aircrew, behind-the-scenes planners and strategists, and members of the public above whose countryside the battle was waged.
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Spitfire Ace: Flying the Battle of Britain by Martin Davidson and James Taylor (Channel 4 Books, 2004) £20
The authors have interviewed many of the surviving pilots whose role in the air was so pivotal in deciding the fate of a nation. Their personal accounts are interwoven with a historical narrative of the events that led up to the war, and a modern re-creation of the Spitfire flight.
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The Spitfire Log: A 60th anniversary tribute, edited by Peter Haining (Souvenir, 1997) £10.99
Originally published in 1985 and now revised, an account of the Spitfire's creation and its role in the Battle of Britain, including a list of Spitfire squadrons and a guide to where to see the plane today.
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A Piece of Cake by Derek Robinson (HarperCollins, 1993) £7.99
Derek Robinson's novel about an RAF fighter squadron during the Battle for France and the Battle of Britain won critical acclaim but upset Daily Telegraph readers. His pilots are real human beings, far from convinced of the wisdom of their military leaders or that of Churchill, for that matter. The likelihood of being burned to death in a Hurricane concentrated their minds on other things. Some turned to drink. Some turned on their own in order to survive. Others – most notably the brilliantly drawn anti-hero Flight Lieutenant 'Moggy' Cattermaul – scored a succession of aerial victories even if his behaviour on the ground was utterly unforgivable. A vivid and unforgettable portrait of young men at war: real men, not the two-dimensional stiff-upper-lip heroes of legend.
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