The War in the Air: 1939-45

Description

Volume II in a unique trilogy of books which comprise brilliantly vivid eyewitness accounts of war at sea, in the air and on land in the Second World War. Here are victories and defeats, the extraordinary and the typical, the tragic and the comic From the brilliant summer nonchalance of 1940 to the grim, anonymous exhaustion of the bomber crews delivering the infernos of Hamburg and Dresden. All the great dramas of the air war are here, described by the men in the British and Commonwealth Air Forces who did the fighting. We accompany them in the desperate days of the fall of France; during the Battle of Britain; throughout the agony of Bomber Command; over the high seas, Malta, the desert battles and in the struggle with Japan. This is the second volume in the unique Freedom's Battle trilogy, which provides intensely vivid accounts of war at sea, in the air and on land. Far better than any single narrative, the extracts build up a complete picture of the War as it was experienced by the men and women who actually took part in it.

Born in 1932, Gavin Lyall read English Literature at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He is a former RAF pilot and has worked as a journalist with Picture Post and the Sunday Times. His books include The Wrong Side of the Sky, Midnight Plus One, Operation Warboard and Spy's Honour. He died in 2003.

Comprehensive, skilfully edited and eminently readable. * Sunday Times * A wonderful selection. * Yorkshire Post * It presents a faithful and graphic series of pictures linked by the briefest and clearest summaries... Well balanced and comprehensive. * Times Literary Supplement *