Book Review of
Battle of Britain Defenders
Spotlight On Series No, 24
Battle of Britain No. 80
Author: Andrzej M. Olejniczak
Stratus – MMP Books
ISBN: 978-83-66459-14-2
By Ray Mehlberger
MSRP: $29.00
ISBN: 978-83-66459-14-2
By Ray Mehlberger
MSRP: $29.00
HISTORY:
When WWII started with the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, few people in Britain expected that within ten months Hitler’s armies would control the entire continental coast of the North Sea and the English Channel.
Once France collapsed in June 1940, all that prevented the Nazi Germans from defeating Britain was the sea. In order to bring their panzers across it, Hitler’s commanders had to first neutralize the British naval and air power.
Goring was confident that his Luftwaffe would be able to achieve both these tasks If his fighters wiped RAF Fighter Command out of the sky, his bombers would take care of the Royal Navy. That was the point of the forthcoming Battle of Britain: would Fighter Command be able to survive and continue fighting in the face of aerial attacks on an unprecedented scale?
Or would Goring’s Jagdwaffe achieve air supremacy over England to allow Wehrmacht soldiers to defeat the British Army on land?
The Battle was fought above the land that was at stake, witnessed daily by those on the ground, both soldiers and civilians. Wrecks of downed aircraft littered the fields of England. Daily communiques of aerial victories and losses captured the imagination, like some extreme sports scores.
All this combined to make the Battle of Britain an iconic one. For the first time in history a major military campaign was fought entirely in the air. Unlike previous battles, fought by hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the dust and mud of battlefields, this one was fought by a handful of flyers.
On 20 August, about a month into the Battle and a few weeks before the decisive clashes over London of mid-September, Winston Churchill spoke his famous words “Soon The Few started to be used to refer to the relatively small number of fighter pilots who managed to resist the Luftwaffe onslaught and save Britain’s freedom.
This book commemorates them by depicting their mounts, Hurricanes and Spitfires. Although for the man in the street it is the Spitfire that symbolizes the Battle of Britain victory. It was, in fact, the less glamorous Hurricane that was used in larger numbers by Fighter Command units during the 1940 fighting. Both types did their job well during the Battle.
The aircraft were flown by young men from all parts of the world. Most were, obviously British, from the home islands. There were also those from every corner of the British Commonwealth, with large contingents from Canada and New Zealand, and smaller numbers from Australia and South Africa.
Hailing from occupied Europe there were the Poles and the Czechs in significant numbers, as well as the Belgians, plus a handful of pilots from other nations. They did what was expected from them. They saved the free world.
THE BOOK:
Stratus is based in Sandomierz, Poland. They are associated with MMP (Mushroom Model Publications). MMP is located in England.
Status prints MMP’s book in English and also their own line of books in both Polish and English. This book is all in English.
This book comes hard-bound of 43 pages in 8 ¼” x 11 ¾” page format.
The cover art shows a Hurricane IA flying above clouds. It is in a wave pattern of dark green and dark earth, over sky under surfaces. It has a small round Polish Air Force insignia high on its spine behind the cockpit. It carries a large medium grey fuselage code RF roundel F, followed by small black serial no. V6684. It was with no, 303 Squadron, Polish Air Force.
This aircraft is shown again inside the book on page 10.
The book contains a one page history of the Battle, followed by 18 color side profiles and two 3-views of Hurricanes, 10 color side views and one 3-view of Spitfires and 2 color side views of the Boulton Paul Defiant I.
The last pages of the book shows color illustrations of the dashboard of the Hurricane and the Spitfire, with all the names of the instruments called out.
All these color illustrations are printed across the 11 ¾” of the page and you open the book sideways, therefore, to look at them.
Some show victory markings, slogans and symbols on them.
Twelve of the color profiles are of RAF Hurricanes, four are of Polish Air Force Hurricanes and one is of a Czech Air Force Hurricane.
All twelve of the Spitfire profiles are RAF ones.
The 2 color Boulton Paul Defiant profiles are also RAF ones.
Andrzej M. Olejniczak did all the illustrations in this book and he has a long history of doing aircraft artwork.
This book will be of great interest to modelers planning on building an Hurricane or Spitfire models and also to aviation historians alike.
I sincerely want to thank Casemate Publishers, the N. American distributor of Stratus – MMD books. All of their titles can be viewed on Casemate’s web-address at:
When WWII started with the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, few people in Britain expected that within ten months Hitler’s armies would control the entire continental coast of the North Sea and the English Channel.
Once France collapsed in June 1940, all that prevented the Nazi Germans from defeating Britain was the sea. In order to bring their panzers across it, Hitler’s commanders had to first neutralize the British naval and air power.
Goring was confident that his Luftwaffe would be able to achieve both these tasks If his fighters wiped RAF Fighter Command out of the sky, his bombers would take care of the Royal Navy. That was the point of the forthcoming Battle of Britain: would Fighter Command be able to survive and continue fighting in the face of aerial attacks on an unprecedented scale?
Or would Goring’s Jagdwaffe achieve air supremacy over England to allow Wehrmacht soldiers to defeat the British Army on land?
The Battle was fought above the land that was at stake, witnessed daily by those on the ground, both soldiers and civilians. Wrecks of downed aircraft littered the fields of England. Daily communiques of aerial victories and losses captured the imagination, like some extreme sports scores.
All this combined to make the Battle of Britain an iconic one. For the first time in history a major military campaign was fought entirely in the air. Unlike previous battles, fought by hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the dust and mud of battlefields, this one was fought by a handful of flyers.
On 20 August, about a month into the Battle and a few weeks before the decisive clashes over London of mid-September, Winston Churchill spoke his famous words “Soon The Few started to be used to refer to the relatively small number of fighter pilots who managed to resist the Luftwaffe onslaught and save Britain’s freedom.
This book commemorates them by depicting their mounts, Hurricanes and Spitfires. Although for the man in the street it is the Spitfire that symbolizes the Battle of Britain victory. It was, in fact, the less glamorous Hurricane that was used in larger numbers by Fighter Command units during the 1940 fighting. Both types did their job well during the Battle.
The aircraft were flown by young men from all parts of the world. Most were, obviously British, from the home islands. There were also those from every corner of the British Commonwealth, with large contingents from Canada and New Zealand, and smaller numbers from Australia and South Africa.
Hailing from occupied Europe there were the Poles and the Czechs in significant numbers, as well as the Belgians, plus a handful of pilots from other nations. They did what was expected from them. They saved the free world.
THE BOOK:
Stratus is based in Sandomierz, Poland. They are associated with MMP (Mushroom Model Publications). MMP is located in England.
Status prints MMP’s book in English and also their own line of books in both Polish and English. This book is all in English.
This book comes hard-bound of 43 pages in 8 ¼” x 11 ¾” page format.
The cover art shows a Hurricane IA flying above clouds. It is in a wave pattern of dark green and dark earth, over sky under surfaces. It has a small round Polish Air Force insignia high on its spine behind the cockpit. It carries a large medium grey fuselage code RF roundel F, followed by small black serial no. V6684. It was with no, 303 Squadron, Polish Air Force.
This aircraft is shown again inside the book on page 10.
The book contains a one page history of the Battle, followed by 18 color side profiles and two 3-views of Hurricanes, 10 color side views and one 3-view of Spitfires and 2 color side views of the Boulton Paul Defiant I.
The last pages of the book shows color illustrations of the dashboard of the Hurricane and the Spitfire, with all the names of the instruments called out.
All these color illustrations are printed across the 11 ¾” of the page and you open the book sideways, therefore, to look at them.
Some show victory markings, slogans and symbols on them.
Twelve of the color profiles are of RAF Hurricanes, four are of Polish Air Force Hurricanes and one is of a Czech Air Force Hurricane.
All twelve of the Spitfire profiles are RAF ones.
The 2 color Boulton Paul Defiant profiles are also RAF ones.
Andrzej M. Olejniczak did all the illustrations in this book and he has a long history of doing aircraft artwork.
This book will be of great interest to modelers planning on building an Hurricane or Spitfire models and also to aviation historians alike.
I sincerely want to thank Casemate Publishers, the N. American distributor of Stratus – MMD books. All of their titles can be viewed on Casemate’s web-address at:
Highly recommended.