Content provided in partnership with
The Battle Of Britain Remembered. - Review - book review
Contemporary Review, Sept, 2000 by Richard Mullen
The Battle. Richard Overy. Penguin Books. [pounds]4.99 p.b. 177 pages. ISBN 0-14-029419-8.
Sixty years ago one of the most important battles in modem history took place in the sky above the southeast of England: the prolonged combat between the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe. Although it has become a cliche, it is still true to say that while the Battle of Britain could be called the first modem battle, it had aspects of a more chivalric age with young 'knights of the air' battling with skill and courage.
- Most Popular Articles in News
- The Ten Best Laptop bags
- Tata plans cheapest-ever car for Indian market
- GLOBALIZATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT OF THE THIRD WORLD
- Corn is good for you; Corn is not only a tasty treat, but also a cereal that ...
- THE 50 BEST STYLISH HANDBAGS TO CARRY
- More »
In the last few years a tribe of 'revisionist' historians has arisen who delight in denigrating virtually every achievement by the Allies in the Second World War. This has been most marked in Britain. There can be little surprise in this for at present we have a Blairite Home Secretary who seems to think it his principal duty to prance about denouncing the English people as 'racists' addicted to the 'baggage of Empire'. It is the fashion among the cognoscenti to belittle the glorious history and traditions of this island and its people.
Given this debased intellectual climate, it is all the more welcome that Richard Overy, Professor of Modem History at King's College, London has written a masterful account of the Battle of Britain. Far too often today historical works are churned out in unreadable academic jargon and at such vast size and price that only the super fit can lift them and only the super-rich can buy them. Here we have a short -- about 130 pages of text -- well written paperback that provides a perfect introduction to a complicated story. There was another good example of a brief well written account of the war in John Lukacs' Five Days in London May 1940 (see Contemporary Review, July 2000, p.60).
Prof. Overy admits that there are aspects of 'myth' in the popular belief about the Battle of Britain. Yet he shows, with great skill, that this myth is basically true. When he points out places where folk memory may have exaggerated the historical reality, he does not do this in the self-satisfied and clever smugness of the 'revisionists'. He shows that the 'few' of Churchill's inspiring oratory were not all that 'few'. He also demonstrates that Britain had many advantages in equipment. British air defences were better organised than any other aspect of the country's military effort at that point. He points out that the dazzling tactics of the Luftwaffe which made them so formidable in their victory against the French proved a handicap when they tried to fight a different type of war against the RAF.
This small book makes a large contribution to the story of yet another occasion when Britain refused to be at what is now called 'the heart of Europe'. As the German Foreign Minister said recently at the re-opening of the British Embassy in Berlin, all Europe and the world owes Britain a debt for this great victory in 1940. Professor Overy and his publishers are to be congratulated on producing a worthy and highly readable account of that historic victory.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Contemporary Review Company Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group
