Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain - Softcover

Deighton, Len

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007531184 ISBN 13: 9780007531189

Publisher: William Collins, 2014

Synopsis

Summer, 1940: western Europe has been conquered, and all that stands between Hitler and the invasion of England is the matter of air supremacy. And the RAF...

Hitler’s top-secret Directive No. 16, July 1940: ‘The English air force must be beaten down to such an extent, that it can no longer muster any power of attack worth mentioning against the German advance.’

‘Fighter’ is Len Deighton’s thrilling history of the ensuing Battle of Britain – the aerial combat between the RAF and the Luftwaffe that was fought over the summer of 1940. Ex-RAF pilot Deighton has written a balanced study of strategies and tactics that also expertly recounts the development of the aeroplanes that fought each other in the skies – the Spitfires and Messerschmitts – and of radar. Behind the strategies and tactics, and in the cockpits of the aeroplanes, are the men brought vividly to life by Deighton’s skill as a novelist.

About this title

Review:

‘Compelling reading ... a praiseworthy attempt to compress into one short volume one of the most vital albeit brief periods of European history’ Financial Times

‘[Fighter] must surely rank as the most honest attempt yet to tell how the Battle of Britain really was’ Observer

‘The best, most dispassionate story of the battle that I have read, and I say that even though the book destroyed many of my illusions’ New York Times

About the Author:

Born in London, Len Deighton served in the RAF before graduating from the Royal College of Art (which recently elected him a Senior Fellow). While in New York City working as a magazine illustrator he began writing his first novel, ‘The Ipcress File’, which was published in 1962. He is now the author of more than thirty books of fiction and non-fiction. At present living in Europe, he has, over the years, lived with his family in ten different countries from Austria to Portugal.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Collins
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0007531184
• ISBN 13: 9780007531189
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 360