In the years since it was fought, the Battle of Britain has become one of the most discussed episodes in British history. There is some justification for this; it was, after all, the first time foreign forces had seriously threatened to invade Britain since 1066 - if you exclude the Spanish Armada - and the combatants, most of whom were young men, battled in beautiful machines like the Spitfire and Hurricane. Despite desperate odds, Britain also emerged victorious, inflicting on the Germans their first major defeat of the war.
Almost as soon as it was over, the first memoirs started to appear. Richard Hillary's classic account, The Last Enemy, was published in 1942. Most of the battle's celebrated heroes have either written their own accounts or had their stories told for them. Countless histories, picture books and novels have also appeared. In recent decades, Battle of Britain publishing has stalled, but with the 60th anniversary another batch of books appeared, including the bestselling Finest Hour and Richard Overy's more controversial The Battle.
What is there possibly left to say? The answer is not a lot. Any new history therefore has to rely heavily on excellent writing and a new approach. Fortunately, Patrick Bishop succeeds on both counts. Bishop sets out to discover exactly who the small number of airmen who took part in the Battle were, and how they came to be fighting over British skies in 1940.
He begins by taking the reader back to the first aces who fought over the Western Front in the First World War. These men became eulogised as "knights of the skies" - glamorous heroes engaged in a modern and exciting form of warfare. The RAF of the 1920s suffered cutbacks like the other services, but it was young and progressive enough to train young men from different walks of life. This diversity increased as a result of the rapid expansion of the RAF in the second half of the 1930s, when it became the "greatest flying club in the world". Working-class lads, as well as the wealthy, were paid to learn how to fly at weekends and during mid- week evening classes; this ensured there were a large number of men already partially or completely trained by the time war began. During the Battle of Britain, almost a third of RAF pilots were non-commissioned sergeants. As Bishop points out, Fighter Command became "the most socially diverse elite ever seen in British military history".
Bishop is particularly good on the advances in air fighting that occurred during this period. The RAF's first real experience of action came during the Battle for France and over Dunkirk, when it became clear that the prescribed tactics were largely ineffective. The bruising lesson proved invaluable in the build-up to the Battle of Britain. In an era when the new rules of air fighting were constantly being rewritten, experience counted for everything.
From the start, Bishop bases his narrative on the words of the pilots themselves. Using diaries, memoirs and interviews, he ensures that his account is convincing and dramatic throughout. It's all here: the fear, the differing experiences of combat, the deaths of close friends, the boozing while off-duty, the baling out at 15,000 feet, the battle fatigue. No one reading this book can possibly doubt the heroism of those involved, or what the contest meant for those watching it from the ground. "By the end of the summer everyone in Britain was in love with [the air force]," Bishop writes. "Those below had only to look up to see an unprecedented spectacle: huge masses of bombers and fighters skidding across the cerulean summer sky, scribbling vapour trails on its placid surface and stitching the blue with the red and gold of cannon and tracer. It was thrilling, and from a distance beautiful and unreal."
To those acquainted with the Battle of Britain, many of the characters will be familiar, but for anyone new to the subject, there can't be a finer history.
James Holland's latest book is Fortress Malta: an island under siege, 1940-1943 (Orion)
