The Battle

by Richard Overy

This text is an attempt to recreate the circumstances of the summer of 1940, looking at questions the conflict raised, such how close did Britain really come to invasion; what were Hitler and Churchill's intentions; and what was the real effect of the battle on World War II's outcome

Genres: History, Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

Published July 30, 2002

About the author

Richard James Overy is a British historian who has published extensively on the history of World War II and the Third Reich.

Educated at Caius College, Cambridge and awarded a research fellowship at Churchill College, Professor Overy taught history at Cambridge from 1972 to 1979, as a fellow of Queens' College and from 1976 as a university assistant lecturer. In 1980 he moved to King's College London, where he became professor of modern history in 1994. He was appointed to a professorship at the University of Exeter in 2004.

His work on World War II has been praised as "highly effective in the ruthless dispelling of myths" (A. J. P. Taylor), "original and important" (New York Review of Books) and "at the cutting edge" (Times Literary Supplement.)[

Reviews

[Elizabeth]

Informative; succinct.

[Karin]

I liked this. Having grown up watching war movies with Dad, it was nice to add some more context to the Battle of Britain.

[Eric Lee]

This book has now gone through several editions, and was recently re-issued with a slightly different title. It is a very short history of the Battle of Britain of 1940-41 and in just a few pages, Overy manages to demolish a number of long standing myths about the period. Among these are the idea that the British or Germans at that time were deliberately engaged in terror-bombings of each other's cities. Or that either the RAF or the Luftwaffe was significantly "better" than the other; both air forces had cutting-edge aircraft and outstanding pilots. He attributes Britain's "victory" (he's not convinced it can be called that) to something rarely discussed: Britain was far better at producing large numbers of Spitfires and other aircraft, while the Germans (despite their having conquered most of Europe) struggled to meet their production targets. A good introduction to the subject, but not without controversy.

[Grant Kisling]

An interesting overview of the Battle of Britain. I enjoyed the book, but had to rate it lower due to its short length over less than 150 pages.