1/ Just finished Stephen Bungay's "The Most Dangerous Enemy" about The Battle of Britain (Aurum Press 2000). There is no way I can do justice to the book, but here are a few things to say...
2/ The book is supremely well researched, and brilliantly organized. It also upsets many myths about the 1940 battle, when the UK stood alone. More importantly, Bungay is a scholar, a poet, a contrarian thinker (open to all data), and...
3/ ...he extensively researched the facts of what actually happened, consulting both UK and German records, cutting through (and explaining the "why" of) the exaggerated claims each side made at the time.
4/ Every page of the book is gripping, either in its account of the happenings, or its insights in to the personalities, or in its assessments of what it all meant. But, get behind the details of aerial warfare, and dig deeply into the meaning of life....
5/ That is what the bookends do. The extraordinary Introduction & Prologue at the start. The deeply moving Appraisal, Meanings, Epilogue, and Postscript at the end. I have read many magnificent WW2 histories, but none this profound in every sense.
6/ I am grateful to know of the unappreciated but invaluable contributions to the freedom (ever fainter, ever more fleeting, but still a great feature of my lifetime) we enjoy today thanks to E.B. Ashmore, Henry Tizard, Robert Watson-Watt, Sydney Camm, Reginald Mitchell...
7/ ...Ernest Hives, Ralph Sorley, Hugh Dowding, Keith Park... Okay, I'm guessing most of you are unfamiliar with all of the first nine. Number ten you know: Winston Churchill.
8/ Each of them receives a proper appreciation, with important context. But, alongside them, you will meet some unforgettable pilots on both sides of the conflict. Most extraordinary: Robert Doe & James Sanders, but so, so many others, many of whom perished.
9/ And, you will never forget the courage, heroism, determination, and invaluable contribution of the Polish pilots. Hard to imagine it could have been done without them.
10/ Heinkel, Messerschmit 109 & 110, Spitfire, Hurricane, Blenheim... you'll meet the whole cast of aircraft characters, come to appreciate their virtues & vices, and how they were handled & mishandled...
11/ But to the main point. This is history. This is poetry. This is brilliant insight. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
amazon.com/Most-Dangerous…
amazon.com/Most-Dangerous…
12/ I should mention that Churchill was even more apprehensive about The Battle of the Atlantic than The Battle of Britain. That battle was crucial, and is often overlooked, as much of it happened before the US entered the war. Excellent book here: amazon.com/Battle-Atlanti…
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