ebooks The Battle of Britain: The Myth and the Reality by Richard Overy Ph.D. in History

Review

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Nice little book for WWII enthusiastsBy Patrick L. BoyleI can't quiet remember how many books I have read on the 'Battle of 'Britain'. Maybe half a dozen.And of course I saw the movie. I saw it in the theater when it first came out and I've seen it on my Home Theater screen several times over the years. It's a great movie - but of course this book is in a sense a debunking of the conventional story related in the film.Yes the dramatic and romantic plot of the movie isn't quite true. Pity. But the first responsibility of a movie is to tell a good story. If a historical film is a little loose with the facts - well it won't be the first time.This is a least the second book I've read debunking the 'Battle of Britain'. Len Deighton had done it a decade ago but this book has new scholarship and new facts. It's a short book but it held my interest.Overy seems to imply that the Bf-109 had a two stage supercharger and the Merlin didn't. That's wrong of course. Other than that Overy seems to have gotten his fact straight.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. The Battle as it really was ...By WryGuy2In "The Battle of Britain; the Myth and the Reality"; historian Richard Overy analyzes the battle; digging deeper than the by-now traditional telling of the fighting; while discarding cherished myths and long-believed bits of propaganda; and attempting to describe what really happened in the skys of Great Britain during the late summer and fall of 1940.This is a short book; and is a high level analysis of the two sets of combatants ... the aircraft; the tactics used; the defenses on the British side; and the leaders and people on both sides; rather than a tactical; day-by-day account of the battle. While most of the "myths" Mr Overy exposes are known to serious students of the war ... such as far from being outnumbered; the British had about the same number of single engined fighters as the Germans; and had a much higher production of replacement fighters and pilots than the Germans so that they could more easily replace their losses... he presents a complete; complex strategic overview that does a far better job of showing how and why the battle was fought as it was than most longer and more tactically detailed accounts of the battle.Given the circumstances as they were in 1940; the British advantages (such as having radar and better aircraft production); and the German shortcomings (such as increasingly poor tactics as the Battle went on and the fact that every German pilot downed over Britain was lost to the war effort while the British pilots similarly shot down were often back in the air in hours); it appears very unlikely that the Germans could have won the Battle of Britain in any case. However; this was not clear to the combantants at the time; nor does this diminish the courage and sacrifices made by either side; or lessen the impact of the defensive strategic victory won by the British.I would have liked the book to have been a bit longer and perhaps have more tactical details; but these are minor nits. I recommend this book to anyone wanting to look past the popular history of the Battle of Britain and see how the fight really played out.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. A very succinct but good book on the battleBy YodaThis is a review of the seventieth anniversary edition (published in 2010)Any review of this book would have to start out by emphasizing that it is short. The book is only about 120 short pages of main text; as opposed to appendices (with each page consisting of only 2-3 paragraphs). It is something that can be read in about 2 hours or so (at most). Hence if one is looking for a scholarly tome on the subject this is not the book to read. Even the chapters on the subject; in Dr. Overy’s opus of bombing in the Second World War; “The Bombing War: Europe 1939-1945”; are longer. [Please note that I am referring to the version of the book published outside North America. The version published in North America; called “The Bombers and the Bombed” is unbelievably missing the chapters on the Battle of Britain as well as British air defense policy in the late 1930s.]The book serves as a very succinct survey of the situation before the battle; how it played out and what the results were on the course of the war. In the first part Dr. Overy describes British and German pre-war and early war air policies; experiences and force strengths and what role they played in the battle. One learns of the importance of British early warning system and the 2 excellent fighters that were designed before the war; the Hurricane and Spitfire. This system and the fighters were an excellent example of pre-war planning (and one of the few pre-war plans that actually was of any value) that played a decisive role in the battle. Without these the battle would probably have been lost. One also learns that German air policy was; pretty much; geared to supporting ground operations (as was actual German experience in the war up to that point). As a result the Germans did not have the appropriate bomber aircraft; long range fighters; experience and doctrine to fight such a battle. Thus British air policy and assets were appropriate for the battle to come while Germany’s were not. Also; the author shatters the myth that British fighter forces were vastly outnumbered by Germany’s in either the number of fighter aircraft or fighter pilots available for operational service. Unfortunately Dr. Overy does not mention the main reason for this; which was the severe mauling that Germany’s air force experienced before the Battle of Britain (about a third of the German air force was destroyed).In the second section of the book; the battle; Dr. Overy provides an excellent narrative on how the battle played out. German indecision on what strategy to pursue; British fixation on the correct policy along with vast overestimates of British losses by German leaders (and British underestimates of German losses) that lead to asymmetrical strategies (as the Germans believed that England air power was finished they adopted aggressive policies that lead to unsustainable losses while Britain adopted conservative policies that enabled them to minimize their losses) all played a role in the final results of the battle.In the final third of the book Dr. Overy provides an overview of the battle in terms of what in meant in regard to the war (up to that point). He emphasized it was one; and only one; aspect of the war and that what was happening in other fronts (i.e.; battle of the Atlantic; middle east and most importantly Hitler’s decision to attack the Soviet Union) were also of great importance . He also is careful to mention that there were other factors that were of great importance to the feasibility of operation Sea lion (i.e.; British naval superiority and the questionable ability of Germans to carry out the requisite amphibious aspects of such an operation even if they had achieved air superiority). These all greatly mitigated the importance of the battle in terms of its consequences on the war.In short; a very succinct and readable book that hits all the nails on the head with respect to this battle. Highly recommended.