The Hardest Day PDF Download

Author: Alfred Price
Publisher: Haynes Publishing UK
ISBN: 9781844258208
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This is the story of one single day in the Battle of Britain. Sunday 18 August 1940 saw the Luftwaffe launch three major air assaults on Britain and the events of that day changed the destiny of the war. Alfred Price gives a compelling minute-by-minute account of that hardest day as experienced by those involved – RAF and Luftwaffe aircrew, behind-the-scenes planners and strategists, and members of the public above whose towns and villages the battle was waged. The author’s exhaustive research was indeed timely because many of those he interviewed during the 1970s are no longer alive.

Author: Alfred Price
Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
On Sunday, 18 August 1940, the Luftwaffe launched three major air assaults against targets in southern England. In the course of these and numerous smaller actions, 100 German and 136 British aircraft were destroyed or damaged in the air or on the ground. On no other day during the battle of Britain would either side suffer a greater number of aircraft put out of action. This book describes the events of that 24-hour period. - Introduction.

Author: Hammond Innes
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448156920
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
Summer, 1940. The skies above Britain are criss-crossed with the white scars of dog-fights as fighter pilots clash with the merciless German Luftwaffe. But one air defence gunner suspects the greatest threat to his country's safety might not come from the air, but from a secret plot now unfolding around him on the ground. Can he convince anyone to listen to his fears? Will they hear him in time?

Author: Douglas C. Dildy
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 147283917X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Over the past 80 years, histories of the Battle of Britain have consistently portrayed the feats of 'The Few' (as they were immortalized in Churchill's famous speech) as being responsible for the RAF's victory in the epic battle. However, this is only part of the story. The results of an air campaign cannot be measured in terms of territory captured, cities occupied or armies defeated, routed or annihilated. Successful air campaigns are those that achieve their intended aims or stated objectives. Victory in the Battle of Britain was determined by whether the Luftwaffe achieved its objectives. The Luftwaffe, of course, did not, and this detailed and rigorous study explains why. Analysing the battle in its entirety in the context of what it was – history's first independent offensive counter-air campaign against the world's first integrated air defence system – Douglas C. Dildy and Paul F. Crickmore set out to re-examine this remarkable conflict. Presenting the events of the Battle of Britain in the context of the Luftwaffe's campaign and RAF Fighter Command's battles against it, this title is a new and innovative history of the battle that kept alive the Allies' chances of defeating Nazi Germany.

Author: Williamson Murray
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 178625770X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 883

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Book Description
Includes the Aerial Warfare In Europe During World War II illustrations pack with over 200 maps, plans, and photos. This book is a comprehensive analysis of an air force, the Luftwaffe, in World War II. It follows the Germans from their prewar preparations to their final defeat. There are many disturbing parallels with our current situation. I urge every student of military science to read it carefully. The lessons of the nature of warfare and the application of airpower can provide the guidance to develop our fighting forces and employment concepts to meet the significant challenges we are certain to face in the future.

Author: Jonathan Fennell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107030951
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 967

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Book Description
Jonathan Fennell captures for the first time the true wartime experience of the ordinary soldiers from across the empire who made up the British and Commonwealth armies. He analyses why the great battles were won and lost and how the men that fought went on to change the world.

Author: Dilip Sarkar
Publisher: Air World
ISBN: 1399057952
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
In this unprecedented series exploring the big story of the Battle of Britain, renowned historian Dilip Sarkar investigates the wider context and intimate details of the epic aerial conflict in the summer of 1940 from all sides. In so doing, he gives due acknowledgement to the roles of Bomber and Coastal Commands in addition to the fabled Few of Fighter Command. This unique narrative draws upon a lifetime of research, the author having enjoyed a long relationship with survivors and the relatives of casualties; his innumerable interviews and first-hand accounts collated, in addition to privileged access to personal papers, providing essential human interest to this inspirational story. In this the third volume, Battle of Britain: Attack of the Eagles, Dilip continues to examine the fighting on a day-by-day, combat-by-combat basis between 13 and 18 August 1940. This period began on ‘Eagle Day’ and the start of the Luftwaffe’s ‘Eagle Attack’ on Fighter Command. This period of intense fighting saw the defeat of the much-vaunted Stuka dive-bomber and the great attack on north-east England on 15 August 1940. It was during the aerial combats the following day that Flight Lieutenant James Brindley Nicolson’s Victoria Cross winning action took place over Southampton. All of these actions, and many others, are critically analyzed. Through diligent research, combined with crucial official primary sources and personal papers, Dilip unravels many myths, often challenging the accepted narrative. This is not simply another dull record of combat losses and claims – far from it. Drawing upon unique first-hand accounts from a wide-range of combatants and eyewitnesses, along with Daily Home Intelligence Reports and numerous other primary sources, this book forms part of what is likely to be the first and last such comprehensively woven account of this epic air battle.

Author: Rob Langham
Publisher: Fonthill Media
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
Bloody Paralyser: The Giant Handley Page Bombers of the First World War tells the story of the largest British bombers of the First World War and the men who flew them. In 1915, the biggest plane ever seen in Britain took flight for the first time a twin-engine monster with a 100- foot wingspan, designed to be a Bloody Paralyser to the Germans. Operating mainly at night, the Handley Page bombers attacked Germany and Germanoccupied towns and cities, disrupting the enemy s industry and transport and targeting U-boats that were causing heavy losses to merchant shipping. The men that flew in the Bloody Paralysers were the forerunners of the crews of Bomber Command in the Second World War, and now their story is told in their own words.

Author: Allen Packwood
Publisher: Grub Street Publishers
ISBN: 1473893917
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 374

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Book Description
An analytical investigation into Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s decision-making process during every stage of World War II. When Winston Churchill accepted the position of Prime Minister in May 1940, he insisted in also becoming Minister of Defence. This, though, meant that he alone would be responsible for the success or failure of Britain’s war effort. It also meant that he would be faced with many monumental challenges and utterly crucial decisions upon which the fate of Britain and the free world rested. With the limited resources available to the UK, Churchill had to pinpoint where his country’s priorities lay. He had to respond to the collapse of France, decide if Britain should adopt a defensive or offensive strategy, choose if Egypt and the war in North Africa should take precedence over Singapore and the UK’s empire in the East, determine how much support to give the Soviet Union, and how much power to give the United States in controlling the direction of the war. In this insightful investigation into Churchill’s conduct during the Second World War, Allen Packwood, BA, MPhil (Cantab), FRHistS, the Director of the Churchill Archives Centre, enables the reader to share the agonies and uncertainties faced by Churchill at each crucial stage of the war. How Churchill responded to each challenge is analyzed in great detail and the conclusions Packwood draws are as uncompromising as those made by Britain’s wartime leader as he negotiated his country through its darkest days.

Author: Alistair Horne
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141937726
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1243

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Book Description
In 1940, the German army fought and won an extraordinary battle with France in six weeks of lightning warfare. With the subtlety and compulsion of a novel, Horne’s narrative shifts from minor battlefield incidents to high military and political decisions, stepping far beyond the confines of military history to form a major contribution to our understanding of the crises of the Franco-German rivalry. To Lose a Battle is the third part of the trilogy beginning with The Fall of Paris and continuing with The Price of Glory (already available in Penguin).