With Wings Like
Eagles - A History of the Battle of Britain
Michael Korda
Read it in
paperback, a short read at 352 pages.
I really enjoy
reading about the golden age of aerial combat, more specifically what is known
as the Dog Fight. As someone who owns a
dog that likes to fight, this is the perfect terminology. The fundamentals are simple, the
biggest-baddest dog in the pack picks a target and then it becomes a swirling
aerial melee of carnage as each dog attempts to use speed, altitude, and
positioning to rend an opponent from the sky.
The limitations of aerial technology in the 1930's pushed the envelope
in a realm that was still being hastily flushed out, especially aerial combat,
in war time conditions. It's interesting
to read because flying these things took courage, real courage and nerves of
steel. When your own aircraft could
simply stop working (engine malfunction, gun jam, landing gear failure, etc.)
when you needed it the most or be turned into a molten ball of burning
wreckage, streaking down from the heavens in an instant, all because you didn't
see the enemy racing in above you using the sun as cover at 648 km/h, and all
he had to do was flip the trigger for two seconds.
But where to
begin? WW2 was frantic with aerial
combat. Personally the European Theater is the most interesting to me. At the
time in which The Battle of Britain would commence, Germany had swept west with
such efficiency and speed that they controlled most of the European continent
with little loss, effectively rendering the general populace to their control
while beginning to fortify their positions.
The only point of opposition still standing being the British. Hitler, who was holding out for what he
believed was imminent surrender from the British was apprehensive about
committing to a land invasion over the channel and left it to his air force to
pummel the British into this surrender.
As the months from the disaster at Dunkirk ticked on, one man, was
tasked with formulating the defense of Britain.
This man's name was Hugh Dowding and this is widely the story of his
efforts leading up to and during the Battle of Britain from a technical
perspective.
The book itself
covers, generically, the efforts of Dowding to formulate an ingenious plan for
defense of Britain in the face of opposition within his country and from the
obvious impending external monster camped on the beaches of France and Norway
followed by the execution of that defense during the highest frenzy of aerial
combat. It details out the plan, the
execution, the players (both politically and militarily during the time), as
well as the aircraft and pilots that would take part.
I thoroughly enjoyed
it despite Mr. Kurdas' use of fact repetition, often covering content he had
just captured in the chapter before. It
happens with some frequency but really isn't that much of a big deal. Full of references and some pretty pictures
this is a good read if you want some more detailed information about the Battle
of Britain. It most certainly not an
account from the pilots point of view however.
