Innumerable books have been published on the two most famous fighter aircraft of all time, the Supermarine Spitfire and the Messerschmitt Bf109. But books setting out to tell the story of both aircraft are very much rarer - probably fewer than the fingers of one hand. Yet their joint story is one which bears retelling since both were essential to the air campaigns of World War Two.Incredibly, the men who designed them lacked any experience of designing a modern fighter. R J Mitchell had begun his career working on industrial steam locomotives, Willy Messerschmitt had cut his aeronautical teeth on light and fragile gliders and sporting planes. Yet both men not only managed to devise aircraft which could hold their own in a world where other designs went from state-of-the-art to obsolete in a staggeringly short time, but their fighters remained competitive over six years of front-line combat. Despite the different ways their creators approached their daunting tasks and the obstacles each faced in acceptance by the services for which they were designed, they proved to be so closely matched that neither side gained a decisive advantage in a titanic struggle. Had either of them not matched up to its opponent so well, then the air war would have been a one-sided catastrophe ending in a quick defeat for the Allies or the Axis powers, and the course of twentieth century history would have been changed beyond recognition.

Churchill's words, 'never was so much owed by so many to so few', came to encapsulate how, in a few critical months, the entire fate of the British Empire, if not the war, hung in the balance, to be determined by a handful of pilots fighting tirelessly in the skies over Britain. Tony Holmes describes the Battle of Britain, the clash between the Spitfire I/II and the Bf 109E - detailing not only the key elements of both aircraft types - the airframe, engine, armament and flying characteristics, but also the pilots' training and tactics accompanied by diagrams of actual flight formations. The growing influence of radar and the efforts of British air defences are also examined, as are real-life engagements - from both German and British perspectives. With a wealth of first-hand accounts from the veterans who strapped themselves into these legendary machines as well as illustrations and cockpit-view artwork, this book puts the reader in the midst of a dogfight, providing a unique insight into one of the greatest duels of history in the world's first major aerial battle.

London, 15 September 1940. The air battle over Britain on that day saw two of the most advanced fighter planes, the British Supermarine Spitfire and the German Messerschmitt Bf 109, battle for supremacy of the skies. The Decisive Duel tells the stories of these iconic, classic aircraft and the people that created them: Willy Messerschmitt, the German designer with a love for gliders and admiration for Hitler; R.J. Mitchell, his brilliant British counterpart, who struggled against illness to complete the design of the Spitfire. In fascinating detail, David Isby describes the crucial role the two opposed planes played, from the drawing boards to Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain to the final battles over Germany.

With stunning artwork and detailed analysis, this volume provides a pilot's view of the dramatic clashes between these two legendary fighters, as some of the most gifted and 'big name' aces of World War II went head to head in the skies of North-West Europe. As the Battle of Britain approached its conclusion, two new versions of the famous Spitfire and Messerschmitt Bf 109 arrived on the scene. The RAF could see that the Luftwaffe were stepping down their incursions into British airspace, and went on to the offensive. The Spitfire Mark II, and increasingly the Mark V, would fly over the picturesque English channel in fighter sweeps, or to escort vulnerable Blenheim bombers – waiting for them was the Bf 109F 'Friedrich'. Yet despite the reversal of offensive and defensive dispositions, and despite the Luftwaffe deploying the bulk of their fighter strength to the Eastern Front in 1941, the Jagdflieger were able to inflict severe losses on their RAF counterparts.

Stephen Bungay’s magisterial history is acclaimed as the account of the Battle of Britain. Unrivalled for its synthesis of all previous historical accounts, for the quality of its strategic analysis and its truly compulsive narrative, this is a book ultimately distinguished by its conclusions – that it was the British in the Battle who displayed all the virtues of efficiency, organisation and even ruthlessness we habitually attribute to the Germans, and they who fell short in their amateurism, ill-preparedness, poor engineering and even in their old-fashioned notions of gallantry. An engrossing read for the military scholar and the general reader alike, this is a classic of military history that looks beyond the mythology, to explore all the tragedy and comedy; the brutality and compassion of war.

Although the P-40 and the Bf 109 joined the air war over North Africa at nearly the same time in 1941, the German fighter had already racked up a considerable combat career, dating back to 1937 in Spain. In contrast, the P-40 was a bit of an unknown quantity and was making its combat debut in the hands of the RAF's Desert Air Force. Discover how the huge differences between the veteran Bf 109 and the new P-40 determined the tactics they adopted and the ultimate outcome of their epic confrontation in this new book. The author covers all aspects of the aerial battle, from the small, agile Bf 109's ability to operate more effectively at high altitudes through to the P-40's advantage in manoeuvrability, which outweighed its poor high altitude performance.

The legendary German fighter is shown here in all new photographs, and on a variety of war fronts. All early to late models are covered.