Authors:Dilip SarkarPublisher:Air WorldPrice: £30.00
This year is the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, and is likely to see a mass of new publications on the subject, adding to the hundreds if not thousands already out there. Dilip Sarkar has written more than a few himself, and his name will be familiar to most aviation enthusiasts. Many of these new works will doubtless cover the usual ground in telling the dramatic and historically important story of the battle, but in this book Sarkar has managed to find a fresh and interesting angle. He has selected 23 men and women from a range of nationalities and services who were killed during the Battle of Britain, and uses their lives and deaths to bring out the human dimension. He includes not just RAF fighter pilots (British, Commonwealth and European), but also other RAF aircrew, ground crew and members of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. Uniquely he also includes an Indian merchant crewman who died of wounds after his convoy was attacked in the English Channel, two members of staff killed when the Supermarine factory in Southampton was bombed, and a German fighter pilot to round out his selection.