Hi All, Having nearly finished "Eagles Day" by Richard Collier, I have found a very interesting, and alarming, summing up and description of the famous battle in the skies. Most of our pilots, that were left, were absolutely on their last legs, our production and airfields were nearly all to the point of failing. Air Chief Marshall Dowding didn't know if we could survive another onslaught from the air. However, even though we were nearly beaten, with all priorities being directed to the repulse of an invasion, we had retaliated in such a way that Hitler and his Goring decided that we were still a formidable foe, and at this point gave up their dreams of invasion, turning instead to the defeat of Russia. A lot of credit must go to the Polish Air Force in England, who had been held back because of their lack of English, which it was thought may cause too much confusion during the battle. When as a last resource they were let loose on the Germans, the fought with such ferocity they gave the Luftwaffe a painfull bloody nose, helping to turn the tide in our favour, by way of kill-ratio. We were very few against very many To find that we had been so near to losing, if it had not been for the stupidity of Hitler, really amazed me. They were fantastic pilots who fought against such high odds, giving all and very much more of what was asked of them, so it in no way detracts from their bravery to find they were on the point of deafeat. It is a very interesting book, very vivid. Cheers Keith We were so lucky.
The contributions of the non-British pilots was amazing, and the anger felt by the exiled Europeans really showed when they were finally let lose in the air. Non-British personnel in the RAF during the Battle of Britain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eagle day is a very good book. Also try, 'The Most Dangerous Enemy' by Stephen Bungay, which I found excellent. The Most Dangerous Enemy: A History of the Battle of Britain: Stephen Bungay: Amazon.co.uk: Books
I can't remember where i saw this photograpgh but there was even muslim men pilots in the R/A/F,they were freash from there own homeland.
