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For 123 days in the summer of 1940, 3,000 youthful airmen in the Royal Air Force fought back against Hitler’s advancing forces with a heroism that astonished the world. Drawing on interviews with scores of surviving pilots as well as diaries and letters never before seen, military historian and journalist Patrick Bishop re-creates with astonishing intimacy and clarity this excruciating, exhilarating war of nerves. In their own words, the pilots describe what it was like to bale out from a stricken plane, to go into battle in the face of overwhelming odds, to hear the screams of a comrade as he went down in flames. With a riveting, taut narrative, Fighter Boys relates how those young heroes changed the course of World War II—and the history of the modern world.
| List of Illustrations | ||
| Preface | ||
| Prologue: The White Hart | 1 | |
| 1 | Sportsmen and Butchers | 9 |
| 2 | Fighters versus Bombers | 27 |
| 3 | 'Free of Boundaries, Free of Gravity, Free of Ties' | 48 |
| 4 | The Fatal Step | 81 |
| 5 | Winter of Uncertainty | 106 |
| 6 | Return to the Western Front | 126 |
| 7 | The Battle of France | 147 |
| 8 | Dunkirk | 181 |
| 9 | Doing It | 197 |
| 10 | Before the Storm | 212 |
| 11 | The Channel Battle | 231 |
| 12 | The Hun | 253 |
| 13 | Hearth and Home | 263 |
| 14 | Attrition | 284 |
| 15 | Brotherhood | 316 |
| 16 | 'The Day Had Been a Year' | 348 |
| 17 | Autumn Sunset | 373 |
| 18 | Rhubarbs and Circuses | 385 |
| Epilogue: The Last Note | 399 | |
| Notes and References | 407 | |
| Index | 423 |
Anonymous
Posted April 16, 2012
"Fighter Boys" is written in a 1940's style and it is not a novel. It is an accounting of the unseen everyday tensions and stresses that made hero's of young men tasked to save their country. It clearly documents the realities faced by a small & dated Royal Air Force against a larger and more experienced enemy with the future of Great Briton in the balance. This book has historical value.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted May 14, 2010
Winston Churchill's response reflecting how moved he was at the conduct of his Royal Air Force's "Fighter Boys" sums up this book very well. It lays out quite well just how antiquated, undermanned and outgunned the RAF was in 1940 against Germany's Luftwaffe aerial armada.
The neat thing about this book is that it mixes in personal accounts from letters, interviews etc of those that lived it, sprinkling them into the story of the attempted isolationist international politics of Neville Chamberlain and the internal jockeying between different RAF commands (bomber, fighter) as it becomes patently obvious that isolationism is giving way to aerial attack.
Though a fan of the British people and their RAF in those dark days now known as "The Battle of Britain," never before reading THIS book did I learn that the rebellious status symbol of a British fighter pilot was to wear their tunic with its top button undone. Well done, author Bishop!
A very enjoyable, enlightening read for those interested in this part of WW2 history.
Anonymous
Posted June 9, 2005
Yes, Len Deighton's 'Fighter' is a good book, but if you really want to know about these wonderful young men and what they went through at the Battle of Britain, then this is 'the' book to have. Told in a candid, first person narrative style that skillfully interweaves historical events with the personal memoirs of the 'few' who are left, this book puts you back to the days preceding and through September of 1940. One of the best World War II books that I have ever read, period!
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Posted September 19, 2010
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Posted March 29, 2011
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Posted January 12, 2011
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Posted April 30, 2011
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Posted June 13, 2011
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Overview
For 123 days in the summer of 1940, 3,000 youthful airmen in the Royal Air Force fought back against Hitler’s advancing forces with a heroism that astonished the world. Drawing on interviews with scores of surviving pilots as well as diaries and letters never before seen, military historian and journalist Patrick Bishop re-creates with astonishing intimacy and clarity this excruciating, exhilarating war of nerves. In their own words, the pilots describe what it was like to bale out from a stricken plane, to...