Blitz on Britain

by Dr Alfred Price

During the latter half of the 1930s, the fear of a possible aerial knock-out on Great Britain became a dominating factor in the formulation of national policy. This text examines how justified these pre-war fears were in light of the Luftwaffe’s capabilities in 1939 and describes the bombing attacks on Britain during the years that followed, together with the operations of the defenses to parry them. From the start, the air defenses proved able to take a heavy toll on the bombers attacking Britain by day. By night it was a different matter. Initially, the fighter and gun defenses were lucky if between them they were able to knock out one or two bombers out of 300 or 400 involved in a night attack. From this poor beginning the defenses improved out of all recognition and when the Germans launched a series of attacks on London early in 1944, it cost them one bomber and four trained crewmen for every five British civilians killed. Blitz on Britain makes compelling reading for anyone interested in the Luftwaffe’s wartime raids on Britain, and how the air defenses ultimately succeeded in defeating this long running aerial onslaught.

224 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 2009

Reviews

[Robert Hepple · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1977, 'Blitz on Britain 1939-1945' tells the story of the German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in WW2. This is supported by over 140 well captioned photos and other illustrations. The book perhaps tries too hard to cram a large subject into a small volume, wit the result that coverage is often sparse, although often offset by Alfred Price's excellent analytic style of presentation of facts. A large section is devoted to the Battle of Britain, and especially to the events of August 18, 1940, so I'm guessing that he makes use of his initial research subsequently added to and forming his excellent 'The Hardest Day' of 1979. Not as detailed or as in-depth as his later stuff, but well worth a read.