Battle for the Channel: The First Month of the Battle of Britain 10 July - 10 August 1940

Description

This volume carries on where FIRST OF THE FEW finished, in the same style and format. 10 July-the official first day of the Battle of Britain-witnessed increased aerial activity over the Channel and along the eastern and southern seaboards of the British coastline. The main assaults by ever-increasing formations of Luftwaffe bombers, escorted by Bf109s and Bf110s, were initially aimed at British merchant shipping convoys plying their trade of coal and other materials from the north of England to the southern ports. These attacks by the Germans often met with increasing success although RAF Spitfires and Hurricanes endeavoured to repel the Heinkels, Dorniers and Ju88s, frequently with ill-afforded loss in pilots and aircraft. Within a month the Channel was effectively closed to British shipping. Only a change in the Luftwaffe's tactics in mid-August, when the main attack changed to the attempted destruction of the RAF's southern airfields, allowed small convoys to resume sneaking through without too greater hindrance.

Brian Cull is the author of some 30 books dealing mainly with WWII aviation, many of which were published by Grub Street and include 'Bloody Shambles', 'Malta: The Hurricane Years', 'Malta: The Spitfire Year', 'Spitfires over Malta', 'Hurricanes over Malta', '249 at War', 'Hurricanes over Singapore', 'Buffaloes over Singapore', 'Hurricanes over Tobruk'. He is also the author of 'Screwball Beurling', '249 at Malta', 'Gladiators over Malta'; 'Blue on Blue'; while for Fonthill he has written 'Fighters over the Aegean', 'First of the Few' and 'Blenheims over Greece & Crete'.