The Battle of Britain

World War II #3

by Leonard Mosley

Book 3 of the Time-Life World War II series. The editors of Time-Life Books have produced another exciting World War II. The Battle of Britain is brought to you in extraordinary detail through vivid photography and engaging, informative text.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Military History, World War II, War, Aviation, Military Fiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Leonard Oswald Mosley OBE OStJ (11 February 1913 – June 1992) was a British journalist, historian, biographer and novelist. His works include five novels and biographies of General George Marshall, Reich Marshall Hermann Göring, Orde Wingate, Walt Disney, Charles Lindbergh, Du Pont family, Eleanor Dulles, Allen Welsh Dulles, John Foster Dulles and Darryl F. Zanuck. He also worked as chief war correspondent for London's The Sunday Times.

Reviews

[Sleepy Boy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gold standard of WW2 histories in my opinion, excellently blending text and pictorial study. Despite its age, it still holds up quite well in being accurate with the information it provides not succumbing to post war myths for either side.

[Malcolm Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was obviously written as a tie in with the release of the film in the cinema. It is a detailed account of the making of the film.
In those days everything had to be done for real.Today it would be CGI.This helped inflate the budget to $13 million. Unfortunately it only grossed $14 million.War films were out of fashion and it was not a film that would appeal either to the younger generation, those under 25,or to all countries eh America.It is an excellent and easy read.

[Michel Siskoid Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Battle of Britain shows how the Time-Life World War II series covers more specific topics, the air war against Britain a relatively short (if not insignificant) affair. Obviously, there are more picture essays, and that's fine (it is LIFE magazine, after all). Less fine is principal writer Leonard Mosley focusing on certain battles or bombings almost as prose. He favors dialog as if we were in the room with history and though the words are probably recounted in a diary or other, it nevertheless sounds like we're in the realm of docu-drama. You get a little lost in play-by-play aerial action, and bogged down in numbers (planes lost on each side, but there's also the fact that German aircraft have numerical "names"). Despite the problems, the book is still a strong portrait of both countries' air aces, of the British people's reactions to the Blitz, and of course, of Hitler's continual mishandling of the conflict with the isle across the Channel. And while there are some graphic descriptions of the carnage, none of the ghoulish pictures found in the series' Prelude to War.

[William Razavi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty straightforward coverage of the Battle of Britain in volume 3 of the Time Life series. Unlike Prelude to War and Blitzkrieg this volume reduces the scope of the narrative down to Britain itself (naturally) so it's not a narrative about the global war but just about the Battle of Britain (with some reference to global events once we get to the middle of 1941 and how they signaled the end of the battle.)
Nice photo essay on the Channel Islands being occupied for fans of Island at War (the mini-series that was set in the islands).
There are other books that cover the Battle of Britain in even greater depth and so this almost feels like a Cliffs Notes version of some of those, but then that's the value of having a more brief version of it like this.
Right at the beginning of this book we get a sense of how much the presentation of the Battle of Britain involved feeding the public at large a crock full of propaganda by both sides.
So, the real story was that the British were never short of planes, really. (To the annoyance of the Germans, who kept thinking that surely they had finished off the last planes.) They were short on experienced pilots, and this was the real strain on the British. Both sides inflated the numbers of enemy planes they publicly reported to have shot down, but the Germans committed the fatal of error of swallowing their own bullshit.
It's interesting to read quotes from Goring about how wrong and ineffective terror bombing of cities would be. And then of course he comes around to doing just that.
There are photo essays on Goring and Churchill that dive into their biographies and give a little of their lives leading up to 1940.
Another interesting point is how Churchill deliberately lied about imminent invasion to the public in order to help boost morale especially in 1941 as it became more and more clear that the Luftwaffe was packing most of its bags and moving east for the invasion of Russia.
At any rate, this is a good short volume about this crucial part of the war. Worth a look and it's held up pretty well in the intervening years.

[Ari · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the volumes of the iconic 39-volume Time Life history of WW2. All the volumes have very much the same feel. There are numbered chapters, interspersed with lavish photo sections. The pages are broken up with boxes on side points, infographics, etc.

There's no critical apparatus, no footnotes or anything like that. The books don't talk down to the reader or lose the basic historical narrative. The assumption is that you want to know what happened and they'll tell you, and you also want to know what it felt like, and they'll tell you that too. So the narrative tends to personalize; there are point-of-view characters who show up for a few pages and then are replaced. (Like Adolph Galland, Luftwaffe fighter commander, or a London Fire Brigade officer.)

I read this to my war-interested six-year-old. The child was into it.

[spike marlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. It was easy to read and had some amazing pictures in it. The third part n a series of books on World War II, this book tells the story of the Battle of Britain. In this battle Germany was trying to destroy the Royals Airforce as prelude to Operation Sealion, the invasion of Great Britain. This book gives a broad survey of the battle from the attempt to draw out the RAF over the English Channel, to the focus on destroying the RAFs ground installations to the bombing of London and other major British cities. The book explores the tactics of both sides, the aircraft, and the destruction. It also explores the battle from the view point and f the civilians who suffered and from the politicians and senior airforce staff who were trying to manage the battle. Would s recommend this book and others in the series, if you can get them.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Mosley's book tells two separate stories. The main focus is on the making of the film and the second story is on what happened in 1940. This is a fine companion to the movie, Battle of Britian.
I've been watching the movie while reading the book. Learning the behind the scenes story, enhanced viewing the film. The book also includes beautiful color photographs of the films real stars, the aircraft.

[Peter Toomey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a fun and interesting book about the making of a classic film. I remember going to see the movie at age 9, with a friend, and enjoyed reading behind the scenes stories about what went into making this movie happen.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is arguably the deciding factor in the war before Hitler made his great mistake. Read this to find out how the British came all too close to losing everything.

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each book in the series has gotten exponentially better. Learned a lot about the Battle of Britain and the pilots of the RAF and nazi Germany.

[Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a Non-Fiction book. This book has 208 pages. This may be a challenging read because some words are hard to pronounce. The setting is in the past during World War Two over the seas and land between Britain and Germany. I enjoyed this book because of the topic and because I got to learn about my favorite topic. I think people who like to learn would enjoyed this book because it gives so much information. This book was very interesting to me and included illustrations which may help you understand the information more. I like how the author wrote in chronological order. The facts that are shared are accurate and true. This book includes a bibliography and acknowledgments. My favorite part of the book is when it talks about the first air raid on the British by the Germans this fighting was intense and the British became heavily outnumbered. The information given was helpful to me because I like learning about stuff like this and talking about it. This book is mainly used for information. If I was the author I wouldn’t have done anything different I probably would have made it worse because I'm not an author. Hope you will enjoy reading this if you ever decide to read it.

[T.O. Munro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another book picked up in a second hand bookshop. A contemporaneous account of the making of the 1968 film, which - shot less than 30 years after the events it depicted - had plenty of the survivors now in their 50s to pitch in with expert advice and revisit old rivalries. Adolf Galland comes out well as an honourable, precise and slightly pedantic advocate for the German side. The reality of Douglas Bader it seems was beyond caricature, with a ferocity of pride, independence, patriotism (to the point of prejudice) and loyalty to his colleagues. Peter Townsend and Anthony Armstrong-Jones also make brief appearances in this chronicle of a movie. Also, I finally found out why big star Michael Caine’s character got written out/shot down so early on in the movie – slippage in the shooting schedules meant he simply couldn’t be available for the length of time originally envisaged. The book also interleaves brief notes on the real history and how close run a thing it was. What if the Germans had used their radar to look at planes like the British did, rather than at shipping?

[Manish · Rating 4 out of 5]

While most of us know that the Battle of Britain was all about the heroic fightback by the numerically weaker RAF pilots against the full fury of the Luftwaffe; few of us know the actual manner in which events unfolded. Hitler's vacillation against bombing London which in his opinion was a city of the race of the Anglo Saxons, the tactics of Goering, the technical comparison of the German aircrafts such as the Messerschmidts with the British Hurricanes and Spitfires, coping mechanisms of the British families (sending their kids to the countryside for adoption), the role of the London Tube as an air raid shelter and the final decision to call it a day with the opening of the Russian Front and much much more are described in fascinating detail in this book.

[Mark H · Rating 3 out of 5]

These other reviews appear to refer to a different book entirely. The one by Leonard Mosley is about the making of the 1969 movie The Battle of Britain.
It covers beginning of the project and how it nearly didn’t happen, and then the production team have to track down working models of all the aircraft involved. The book spends as much time with the logistics of filming as the characters and psychology involved in handling stars, the press, and the German and British military advisors.
An easy read, not as in depth as I’d have liked, but many interesting anecdotes. Written well before ‘making of’ books were formulaic.

[D-day · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chapters
1- German peace overtures and invasion plans
2- Assessments of the strengths and weaknesses of both sides
3- The first phase- German concentration on military targets
4- The second phase- German bombing of civilian targets
5- The third phase- German switch to night bombing
6- The final phase- Germany winds down bombing in preparation for war with Russia

[Robert Snow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought this Life Time series in the early 1980's on WWII, a volume came to the house every 2 or 3 months so I could take my reading. It was very informative and enjoyable read, I still use it for reference.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating read of the adventures of the fliers and the aircraft assembled along with the actors and movie production crew to make this classic film about war in the air in World War II. This was my introduction to 'the making of' genre and it is still a favorite (as is this book!).

[Valerie Sherman · Rating 3 out of 5]

So many airplane technical schematics... But really interesting stories, too. Loved the gangster photo of Churchill.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly, I just looked at the photographs and read their captions.

[Jerome Otte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and easy to read.