With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain

Have this book to my husband . He said it was the best written book that covered a short period if time when Britain was fighting for its life. Had they failed they would have been overrun by the Nazi forces. If you know someone who loves to read about WWII history, this is the one!!

There have been several books I have read about the Battle of Britain, that momentous air conflict over the English coast in 1940 when Britain stood alone against the aerial onslaught of the Nazi war machine. However, none of the others combined the colorful depictions of the dogfights five miles up with expert analysis of the scope and strategies on both the German and British sides as in With Wings Like Eagles by Michael Korda. For me, it is the quintessential historical account of this significant and decisive World War II military engagement.Korda, the former editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster from a prominent Hungarian family, has captured the totality of the battle and its implications for western civilization. He also makes the book engaging because he concentrates on the various players in the struggle and how and why they did what they did. They are all here in rich detail: Hitler, Goring, Churchill, Beaverbrook, Messerschmitt, and especially the unquestioned hero of the battle, Air Chief Marshall Sir Hugh Dowding who was the commander of the RAF’s Fighter Command at the time. As Korda says rightly, he was: “the architect of this victory.” In fact, the book is in large measure a fitting tribute to him for being the dogged and prophetic champion of the defense of the British Isles when that island realm faced thousand-plane sorties by the Luftwaffe in the summer and fall of 1940.In bases in occupied France, Holland, Belgium, and Norway, the Nazis had assembled 2,800 aircraft for the air siege to destroy the RAF before they attempted their land invasion of the United Kingdom. But Dowding was ready for them because he had prepared Britain with state-of-the art command and control facilities using the most advanced radar that British scientists had developed and that he promoted and constructed. Dowding, together with the financial backing of prime ministers Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain, created the air defensive infrastructure that was technically brilliant, visionary, effective, and available in 1940 when it was desperately needed.“A remote, stubborn, difficult man with strong opinions,” Dowding had little use for “those who did not share his vision or sense of urgency.” He went toe-to-toe with Churchill, a formidable opponent, regarding sending fighters to France when that country’s armed forces were losing badly, and won grudging respect from the great statesman for keeping fighters on hand to fight in the Battle of Britain when they were critical to the country’s defense. During the actual air combat, Dowding deployed his fighters judiciously and sparingly so that the RAF would eventually repulse the Nazis due to Luftwaffe pilot attrition and in the process, trick the Nazis into believing that they were winning. Contrary to popular belief, the number of Hurricanes and Spitfires that the RAF and the number of Messerschmitts that the Luftwaffe had at any given sortie were fairly equal, about 750 each. The bottom line from Korda: Dowding was the right leader with the right talents at the right time and with the right plan to prevent Goring and Hitler from invading. He outfoxed the Nazi leadership at every turn of the battle.Korda’s style of writing is a great plus here. It is fluid and conversational while being serious as it should be. Unlike other historical books about the battle that I’ve encountered, the reader will not get bogged down in minute statistical details that hamper the overall understanding of events. The author did his homework as well regarding the editing of the book and his research for the compelling story. For example, he had Sir Martin Gilbert, eminent author and official editor of the Churchill archives, and author Len Deighton, British military historian and spy novelist, read the manuscript and offer suggestions. And he explored the writings or interviewed air combat experts, like Geoff Wellum who fought valiantly in the Battle of Britain and wrote about it in his book First Light (a stirring, superb account), to produce the graphic descriptions of what it was like to be a fighter pilot during the dogfights in the battle.This book is a fabulous narrative with involving stories about what transpired among the RAF pilots, the ground crews, the radar operators, and the British military and political leaders. In addition, it is an incisive look into the Nazi preparations and air operations and the decisions by Goring and Hitler that were ultimately and thankfully disastrous for the Third Reich. With Wings Like Eagles makes for a riveting read about a crucial air battle, involving sorties 25,000 feet in the air with over two thousand aircraft at speeds of 350 miles an hour, which saved western civilization’s neck. As Prime Minister Winston Churchill proclaimed shortly after the Battle of Britain: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

It's tough to predict the future, especially because public attitudes and technology keeps changing and thus messing up the facts used to make predictions. One emphasis of this book is the arguments in the 1930s about the need for fighters or bombers to defend Britain. A massive fleet of heavy bombers was sought by military experts as an aggressive retaliatory force to deter bomber attacks. Politicians who wanted to keep taxes low wanted fighters as cheaper defence against bombers. Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain won the "cheap" arguments, which is why Britain had a large force of Hurricanes and Spitfires to defend the country in the summer of 1940. Luck? Foresight? Cost conscious wisdom in favour of low taxes? Or simple decency in not building an offensive force? Those issues of "Why?" are still open for debate. This book deals decisions and personalities of leaders in Britain and Germany, and outlines the almost inevitable reasons that Germany couldn't win a war in the air against an equal opponent. Thus, a cross-channel invasion was impossible. The RAF simply made it unthinkable. Instead, Hitler settled for what he thought he knew best -- a foot soldier's invasion of Russia in the summer of 1941. This isn't a tacka-tacka-tacka account of aerial warfare; instead, it examines the personalities and decisions that produced the Battle of Britain. There are plenty of books from both sides about the aerial combat; it's one of the few which analyze policy decisions. After reading it I'm left with two impressions: 1) Hitler was abully who backed down if he couldn't terrorize people into submission; and 2) the British are a lot smarter than is ever portrayed in the "peace in our time" of the Munich-and-umbrella scenario. The book solidifies the image of the German spur-of-the-moment war efforts, as seen in the aerial campaign to capture Crete in the spring of 1941 and later piecemeal reinforcements of the Afrika Krops. Bullies usually don't plan well or far in advance; Korda's book reinforces the image of Hitler as pure bully rather than military genius. When backed into a corner, bullies become desperate which is why the war was so long and hard; on their own, as seen in the Russian campaign, they waste efforts on non-essential flailing instead of decisive blows. The same failing doomed the German effort in the skies over Britain. In other words, Hitler couldn't have won the war; he was limited to the vision and foresight of a corporal. But, given German ability to produce vast amounts of superb weapons, he did inflict a lot of damage. Whether or not you share my assessment, it's a superb book and will give every reader due cause to think and re-consider everything they were taught or think they knew about the Battle of Britain. Instead of battles of numbers, miles per hour and other tech specs of equipment, it is a superb account of the personalities who won and those who were fated to lose.(One further point: For anyone wanting a beautiful film of the Battle of Britain, get the superb 1969 'Battle of Britain' DVD with lots of tacka-tacka-tacka action and Spitfires and Hurricanes plus dozens of Rolls-Royce powered re-painted made-in-Spain Me-109s and He - 111s -- it's available from Amazon.com. It's simply the best 'Battle of Britain' film.)

Excellent book VERY well researched and written - a real "must read" for all those devotees of this time in history. It combines information from both the British and the German points of view and makes it clear where conflict arose unjustifiably within the RAF and the British heirarchy. It is time that credit was given where it should have been to the one person with the vision to foresee what was likely to happen and how to reduce the severity of the events. It also shows others in a bad light and I am sure this will not be welcomed by those who thought their view of the conflict was correct.....

Order arrived well within delivery deadline and in very good condition.. thoroughy enjoyed reading this well researched account of the battle. Learned so much from this publication. Highly recommended.

excellent read and great history, delivered within two days great service

Highly recommended. A good read.

I am very impressed with the authorship of this important part of Britain's history. Michael Korda is an eloquent writer and gives both an insight into the strengths and weaknesses of key players, as well as providing a well researched and educational account of the Battle of Britain. I thought I had a reasonably good mastery of the English language & composition; it pales next to Michael’s. He included words I have rarely encountered and certainly not in typical use. Unfortunately there is no dictionary accompanying the Kindle e-book version for “my country” which is a nuisance and interrupted my enjoyment of reading. This is my first experience of reading a book on my computer although I read considerable reports and papers on line. It was quite a different experience, and I think I will buy the book and read it again. It is not that downloaded version is going to be a lesser experience, I just think the book version more conducive to my style of reading, and I will either have an on line dictionary nearby, or a hard cover dictionary close at hand.Great story, well written, and vivid account of one of the greatest Battles ever.