During the early hours of 8 August 1940 over twenty merchant ships set sail in Convoy CW9 “Peewit” and edged past Dover, hugging the shore in complete darkness. Whilst unseen to human eyes, the Germans had picked up the large convoy on its Freya radar at Cap Gris Nez and flashed warning messages to the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe. At Boulogne E-Boats were readied and left port in the early hours to take up station off Beachy Head to watch and wait for the inevitable convoy. With horrendous suddenness, the E-Boat Flotilla was amongst the convoy as it passed Newhaven. Like a pack of wolves into a flock of sheep, the German boats scattered the convoy and mayhem ensued until the E-Boats called off the attack in the gathering light. The rest would be left to the Luftwaffe. What ensued was recorded in history as the first day of the Battle of Britain. It was the commencement of all-out attacks on channel convoys and resulted in the heaviest losses witnessed in the war so far. After sustaining massive damage, RAF fighters scrambled from Tangmere to defend the convoy and clashed with attacking Me 109s and Ju 87s in a vicious battle over the channel. Andy Saunders gives a blow by blow account from the perspective of the RAF, Luftwaffe, Merchant Navy, Royal Navy and Kriegsmarine on this milestone day. Using personal accounts of the action, official diaries, logbooks and contemporary records, 'Convoy Peewit 1940' gives a chronological breakdown of events on land, sea and air, successfully setting them into context against the wider picture that was the Battle of Britain. Published to coincide with the screening of a BBC program, based on the author’s research and writings.

During the early hours of 8 August 1940 over twenty merchant ships set sail in Convoy CW9 "Peewit" and edged past Dover, hugging the shore in complete darkness. Whilst unseen to human eyes, the Germans had picked up the large convoy on its Freya radar at Cap Gris Nez and flashed warning messages to the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe. At Boulogne E-Boats were readied and left port in the early hours to take up station off Beachy Head to watch and wait for the inevitable convoy. With horrendous suddenness, the E-Boat Flotilla was amongst the convoy as it passed Newhaven. Like a pack of wolves into a flock of sheep, the German boats scattered the convoy and mayhem ensued until the E-Boats called off the attack in the gathering light. The rest would be left to the Luftwaffe. What ensued was recorded in history as the first day of the Battle of Britain. It was the commencement of all-out attacks on channel convoys and resulted in the heaviest losses witnessed in the war so far. After sustaining massive damage, RAF fighters scrambled from Tangmere to defend the convoy and clashed with attacking Me 109s and Ju 87s in a vicious battle over the channel. Andy Saunders gives a blow by blow account from the perspective of the RAF, Luftwaffe, Merchant Navy, Royal Navy and Kriegsmarine on this milestone day. Using personal accounts of the action, official diaries, logbooks and contemporary records, 'Convoy Peewit 1940' gives a chronological breakdown of events on land, sea and air, successfully setting them into context against the wider picture that was the Battle of Britain. Published to coincide with the screening of a BBC program, based on the author's research and writings.

The Battle of Britain is the epic story of the fight for control of the skies over England in the bitterly long summer of 1940. Bestselling author Patrick Bishopâ??s compelling day-to-day chronicle is enhanced with eye-witness accounts, diary extracts and pilot profiles, as the horrific reality of air combat is vividly portrayed in this account of the life and death struggle between the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe. This is the story Britainâ??s "finest hour," a fight for national survival that had a profound impact on servicemen and civilians alike, and ultimately proved to be a key a turning point in the course of the war.

The Battle of Britain saved the country from invasion. If the RAF had been defeated all the efforts of the British Army and the Royal Navy would hardly have averted defeat in the face of complete German air superiority. With all Europe subjugated, Germany and Japan would later have met on the borders of India. This remarkable 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 summer of 1940 and won a great victory by the narrowest margins. It provides a comphrensive account of the Battle of Britain, including the day-by-day summaries of the battle. It is illustrated with photographs and maps, an appendix of the aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and by the Luftwaffe with schematic drawings, also a list of all pilots who flew in the Battle of Britain from July 10 to October 31 1940. The authors are military aviation experts and The Narrow Margin has been published in translation in France and around the world. They also wrote A Summer for Heroes and Jane's World Aircraft Recognition Handbook.

From the comfortable distance of seven decades, it is quite easy to view the victory of the Allies over Hitler’s Germany as inevitable. But in 1940 Great Britain’s defeat loomed perilously close, and no other nation stepped up to confront the Nazi threat. In this cogently argued book, Robin Prior delves into the documents of the time—war diaries, combat reports, Home Security’s daily files, and much more—to uncover how Britain endured a year of menacing crises. The book reassesses key events of 1940—crises that were recognized as such at the time and others not fully appreciated. Prior examines Neville Chamberlain’s government, Churchill’s opponents, the collapse of France, the Battle of Britain, and the Blitz. He looks critically at the position of the United States before Pearl Harbor, and at Roosevelt’s response to the crisis. Prior concludes that the nation was saved through a combination of political leadership, British Expeditionary Force determination and skill, Royal Air Force and Navy efforts to return soldiers to the homeland, and the determination of the people to fight on “in spite of all terror.” As eloquent as it is controversial, this book exposes the full import of events in 1940, when Britain fought alone and Western civilization hung in the balance.

Over the past 80 years, histories of the Battle of Britain have consistently portrayed the feats of 'The Few' (as they were immortalized in Churchill's famous speech) as being responsible for the RAF's victory in the epic battle. However, this is only part of the story. The results of an air campaign cannot be measured in terms of territory captured, cities occupied or armies defeated, routed or annihilated. Successful air campaigns are those that achieve their intended aims or stated objectives. Victory in the Battle of Britain was determined by whether the Luftwaffe achieved its objectives. The Luftwaffe, of course, did not, and this detailed and rigorous study explains why. Analysing the battle in its entirety in the context of what it was – history's first independent offensive counter-air campaign against the world's first integrated air defence system – Douglas C. Dildy and Paul F. Crickmore set out to re-examine this remarkable conflict. Presenting the events of the Battle of Britain in the context of the Luftwaffe's campaign and RAF Fighter Command's battles against it, this title is a new and innovative history of the battle that kept alive the Allies' chances of defeating Nazi Germany.

An extraordinary true story of combat in the Battle of Britain. Includes some of the most graphic and atmospheric accounts of air combat between Spitfire and Nazi Messerschmitt fighters ever published.