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Churchill's Few - The Battle of Britain (Hardcover)
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Churchill's Few - The Battle of Britain (Hardcover)
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Eighty years after the Battle of Britain this vivid and dramatic
book tells the story, in their own words, of six brave young men
who fought courageously in the skies above England to prevent
Hitler's invasion of Britain. This thin blue line in their
Hurricanes and Spitfires were the 'few' to whom Churchill said the
nation owed so much. It was, as one pilot's wife put it 'a queer,
golden time', when men in their teens and twenties fought each
other in a brutal but still gentlemanly conflict. At stake was the
very future of Britain. The six men in this sympathetic but honest
portrayal were from vastly contrasting backgrounds. Geoffrey Page,
shot down in his Hurricane and the victim of horrendous burns, was
a founder member of the legendary Guinea Pig Club. Bob Doe, also
badly injured, was one of the most successful fighter aces but
remained unheralded and out of the public eye. Cyril Bamberger rose
from humble origins as a Sergeant Pilot to win a DFC and bar.
Joseph Slagowski was one of the small band of heroic Polish pilots
whose contribution to the Battle, as this book shows, remains
scandalously undervalued. Former Daily Telegraph journalist
Geoffrey Myers, Intelligence Officer in a squadron that was
hopelessly and fatally led, wrote eloquent contemporaneous letters
to his family, extracts of which are published here for the first
time. Not all the heroes fought for Britain. Unusually this book
includes the parallel but contrasting story of Luftwaffe pilot
Ulrich Steinhilper, shot down and captured over Kent and destined
to become one of the greatest escapers of World War II, evading
British and Canadian prison camp guards five times. This unique and
moving record throws light on the long-term consequences of the
Battle of Britain on the lives of the young pilots in the
frontline. These insightful portraits illuminate the ineradicable
marks that one momentous battle made on the brave participants of
both sides. Just a few months of brutal aerial combat changed their
lives and history forever. As Geoffrey Page said: 'I still find it
hard to take when children point at me because of my burnt face and
hands. They are my enemies now, not the Germans.'
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