Download or read book Spitfire Voices written by Dilip Sarkar and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2010-09-15 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spitfire fighter pilots tell their extraordinary stories of combat during the Second World War.
Download or read book Spitfire written by Dilip Sarkar and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2019-09-30 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A really excellent, detailed, comprehensive and moving history of 19 Squadron, RAF during the Second World War” from the author of Arnhem 1944 (Clash of Steel). As a child, Dilip Sarkar was fascinated by the haunting image of an anonymous RAF Spitfire pilot. Taken minutes after landing from a Battle of Britain combat, this was Squadron Leader Brian Lane DFC, the commander of 19 Squadron, based at Fowlmere. Deeply moving was the discovery that, in 1942, Brian was reported missing after a futile nuisance raid over the Dutch coast. During the mid-1980s, Dilip began researching the life and times of both Brian Lane and 19 Squadron, forging close friendships with many of the unit’s surviving Battle of Britain pilots and support staff. Nearly thirty years later, sadly all of the survivors are now deceased, but Dilip’s close relationship has provided a huge archive of correspondence and interviews in addition to a unique photographic collection. Furthermore, the author, a retired police detective, has thoroughly investigated the life—and death—of Squadron Leader Lane. This completely new Spitfire! covers everything we would ever need to know about such a unit during the critical pre and early war period: the social, political, aviation and military history all in one volume—emphasizing the human experience involved and the stories of casualties. With an immense photographic collection—many published here for the first time—this book is destined to become a classic. “The most thorough book about any squadron in RAF service during the Battle of Britain . . . an impeccable source of information and a gripping story—Most Highly Recommended.” —Firetrench
Download or read book Bader s Spitfire Wing written by Dilip Sarkar and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Spitfire Ace of Aces written by Dilip Sarkar and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2011-07-15 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The biography of the RAF's top fighter pilot, Johnnie Johnson, who shot down more enemy aircraft than any other pilot during the Second World War.
Download or read book Spitfire Ace of Aces The Album written by Dilip Sarkar and published by Air World. This book was released on 2021-08-04 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Air Vice-Marshal James Edgar ‘Johnnie’ Johnson CB, CBE, DSO & Two Bars, DFC & Bar, DL was a character literally from the pages of Boys’ Own: an individual who became the RAF’s top-scoring fighter pilot of the Second World War. A one-time household name synonymous with the superlative Spitfire, Johnnie’s aerial combat successes inspired schoolboys for generations. As a ‘lowly Pilot Officer’, Johnnie Johnson learned his fighter pilot’s craft as a protégé of the legless Tangmere Wing Leader, Douglas Bader. After Bader was brought down over France and captured on 9 August 1941, Johnnie remained a member of 616 (South Yorkshire) Squadron, in which he became a flight commander and was awarded the DFC a month after Bader’s devastating loss. In time, Johnnie came to command a Canadian wing in 1943, when the Spitfire Mk.IX at last outclassed the Fw 190, and participated in some of the most important battles of the defeat of Nazi Germany, including Operation Overlord and the D-Day landings in 1944, Operation Market Garden and the airborne assault at Arnhem, and the Rhine Crossings, throughout all of which Johnnie also commanded Canadian wings. Johnnie’s remarkable career is revealed through this unparalleled collection of archive photographs, the majority of which are drawn from his own personal album or from other members of the Johnson family. Many have not been published before. Between them, they present a fascinating insight into the man himself, the machines he flew, and the men he served alongside.
Download or read book How the Spitfire Won the Battle of Britain written by Dilip Sarkar and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2010-10-15 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finally lays to rest the myth that the Hurricane won the Battle of Britain rather than the numerically inferior, yet more glamorous, Spitfire.
Download or read book Spitfire Down written by Dilip Sarkar and published by Air World. This book was released on 2022-09-15 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Profoundly moved by the stories of wartime casualties as a child, Dilip Sarkar has since spent a lifetime reconstructing the lives of many of the fallen and is passionate about recording and sharing this very personal hidden history. In Spitfire Down he explores the stories of thirteen pilots who failed to return, all killed, either in action or flying accidents, while a fourteenth, Flying Officer Buck Casson, was brought down by a German ace over France and captured. There is, for example, the virtually unknown story of ‘The Baby of the RAF’, Sergeant Geoffrey Painting. Posted to fly Spitfires with 118 Squadron at RAF Ibsley in Hampshire, Painting was hit by flak during an attack on enemy shipping off Cherbourg on 30 September 1941. Still listed as missing, at just 17, he is believed to have been the youngest RAF pilot killed during the Second World War. The author has reconstructed Painting’s short life with help from his family, and forensically deconstructed that last flight with the help of the now late Wing Commander Peter Howard-Williams DFC, who was flying with the teenage pilot that day. The author also explores the heart-rending story of an American trainee fighter pilot, Pilot Officer ‘Jim Bob’ Lee, whose Spitfire collided with a Wellington bomber over Gloucestershire – resulting in the loss of all airmen involved. Two Canadian pilots perished on Pen-y-Fan, the highest peak in South Wales. The multi-national effort that defeated Hitler is further emphasised, in fact, through the stories of both Wing Commander Piotr Laguna and Flying Officer Franek Surma. But perhaps most tragic of all is how lightning struck Joan Welch twice: her first fiancée, Flight Lieutenant Lester Sanders DFC, was killed test-flying Spitfires in 1942, and her second, Pilot Officer Ian Smith, was killed flying in Palestine in 1945. Using correspondence, diaries and other personal papers of the pilots concerned, the author has reconstructed their all-too brief lives and provided a lasting and profusely illustrated record of these sacrifices.
Download or read book Battle of Britain The Gathering Storm written by Dilip Sarkar and published by Air World. This book was released on 2023-07-31 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dilip Sarkar has studied the Battle of Britain period for a lifetime and is renowned for his meticulous research and evidence-based approach, setting events within the broadest possible context. In doing so, he has helped enrich our appreciation and understanding of the past. In this, the first of a new seven volume series on the Battle of Britain, we have the background to the aerial conflict of the summer of 1940 revealed in great detail and told comprehensively as never before. No stone has been left unturned, no angle unexplored. This meticulous approach the research, combined with the human stories and events, many revealed for the first time, tells what Dilip calls ‘the Big Story’. The development of air power, the creation of Britain’s defenses, the German side, the Home Front and political events are all covered – and much more. After considering the background threads prior to the outbreak of war in 1939, this book then describes the developing conflict on land, sea and in the air. The German invasion of Norway, the Fall of France and the air fighting over Dunkirk are all explored, along with Hitler’s actual preferred policy towards Britain, which at first was one of blockade – not invasion. The author, with justification, questions the validity of the Battle of Britain’s official start-date being 10 July 1940, evidencing the fact that the fighting actually began eight days earlier. From that date onwards, a day-by-day, hour-by-hour, account of the fighting is provided, giving due recognition to those aircrew lost or wounded before 10 July 1940, and whose names are not, therefore, found amongst ‘The Few’. Due accord is also given to the Royal Navy, and efforts of both Bomber and Coastal commands, emphasizing just what a ‘big’ story this actually is – far from simply concerning a handful of Spitfire and Hurricane pilots. Through diligent research with crucial official primary sources and personal papers, Dilip unravels many myths, often challenging the accepted narrative. This is not, however, simply another dull record of combat losses and claims, far from it. Drawing upon unique first-hand accounts from a wide-range of combatants and eyewitnesses, along with the daily Home Intelligence Reports and the papers of politicians such as Italian Foreign Minister Count Ciano, this really is an unprecedented approach to understanding the build-up to and times of the Battle of Britain.
Download or read book The Breaking Storm written by Dilip Sarkar and published by Air World. This book was released on 2023-10-31 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Breaking Storm, the first of Dilip Sarkar’s unprecedented seven-volume series exploring the Battle of Britain, the events that led up to the outbreak of war in 1939, and which set the scene for the epic aerial conflict of summer 1940, are fully explored. Continuing his examination of the events of the Spitfire Summer, in The Breaking Storm Dilip provides a day-by-day chronicle of the Battle of Britain’s first phase – the so-called Kanalkampf – which was fought over the Channel-bound convoys between 10 July and 12 August 1940. This account, though, does not simply concern RAF Fighter Command, as the author recognizes the operations and efforts of the RAF’s Bomber and Coastal commands, the Royal Navy and mercantile marine – making this book part of what he calls ‘the Big story’. Hitler’s actual policies and intentions towards the ongoing war with Britain are also explored. If the Battle of Britain was fought to deny Germany the aerial superiority required to launch a seaborne invasion of southern England, then, the author argues, the conflict could surely only have begun when the Germans committed to Operation Seelöwe – which was not, in fact, until 21 July 1940. It has previously been accepted that Hitler’s War Directive of 16 July 1940 signaled the intention to invade, but the author proves that this was no more than another example of the ‘brinkmanship’ that Hitler was renowned for, and the air attacks at that time little more than ‘Air Fleet Diplomacy’, all of which was intended to frighten Britain into accepting the Führer’s ‘last appeal to reason’ of 19 July 1940. In his broadcast of 22 July 1940, Lord Halifax made the nation’s unbowed position quite clear. He called Hitler’s bluff: previously reluctant to fight Britain, Hitler’s preferred policy in the ongoing war had been blockade and diplomacy – but now he had no choice but to unleash the Luftwaffe against Britain. All of this is investigated in detail, aligning these wider events and high decisions with action in the air. Through diligent research, combined with crucial official primary sources and personal papers, Dilip unravels many myths, often challenging the accepted narrative. This is not simply another dull record of combat losses and claims – far from it. Drawing upon unique first-hand accounts from a wide-range of combatants and eyewitnesses, along with Daily Home Intelligence Reports and numerous other primary sources, this book forms part of what is likely to be the first and last such comprehensively woven account of this epic air battle.
Download or read book Sailor Malan Freedom Fighter written by Dilip Sarkar MBE and published by Air World. This book was released on 2021-06-09 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adolph Gysbert Malan was born in Wellington, South Africa. A natural leader and driven individual with a totally positive outlook, aged fourteen Malan became an officer cadet in the South African Merchant Navy, before being commissioned into the Royal Navy Reserve. Well-travelled and worldly-wise, aged twenty-five the intrepid adventurer applied for a Short Service Commission in the RAF. Universally known as ‘Sailor’ in the RAF, Malan became a fighter pilot. Shortly after war was declared, Malan was involved in the infamous ‘Battle of Barking Creek’, in which 74 Squadron mistakenly destroyed friendly Hurricanes. Then, over Dunkirk in May 1940, Malan’s exceptional ability was immediately demonstrated in combat and a string of confirmed aerial victories rapidly accumulated. The following month, Malan scored the Spitfire’s first nocturnal kill. By August 1940 he was commanding 74 Squadron, which he led with great distinction during the Battle of Britain. In March 1941, Malan was promoted and became the first Wing Commander (Flying) at Biggin Hill, leading the three-squadron-strong Spitfire wing during operations over northern France. After a break from operations, Malan went on to command a succession of fighter training units, passing on his tactical genius and experience, and producing his famous ‘Ten Rules of Air Fighting’ which are still cited today. By the war’s end, Group Captain Malan was the RAF’s tenth top-scoring fighter pilot. Leaving the RAF in 1945 and returning to South Africa, he was disgusted by Apartheid and founded the ‘Torch Commando’ of ex-servicemen against this appalling racist policy. This part of Malan’s life is equally as inspirational, in fact, as his wartime service, and actually tells us more about the man than just his RAF record. Tragically, in 1963, he died, prematurely, aged just fifty-three, of Parkinson’s. Written with the support of the Malan family, this biography is the full story of a remarkable airman and politician.
Download or read book Battle of Britain Attack of the Eagles written by Dilip Sarkar and published by Air World. This book was released on 2024-07-04 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this unprecedented series exploring the big story of the Battle of Britain, renowned historian Dilip Sarkar investigates the wider context and intimate details of the epic aerial conflict in the summer of 1940 from all sides. In so doing, he gives due acknowledgement to the roles of Bomber and Coastal Commands in addition to the fabled Few of Fighter Command. This unique narrative draws upon a lifetime of research, the author having enjoyed a long relationship with survivors and the relatives of casualties; his innumerable interviews and first-hand accounts collated, in addition to privileged access to personal papers, providing essential human interest to this inspirational story. In this the third volume, Battle of Britain: Attack of the Eagles, Dilip continues to examine the fighting on a day-by-day, combat-by-combat basis between 13 and 18 August 1940. This period began on ‘Eagle Day’ and the start of the Luftwaffe’s ‘Eagle Attack’ on Fighter Command. This period of intense fighting saw the defeat of the much-vaunted Stuka dive-bomber and the great attack on north-east England on 15 August 1940. It was during the aerial combats the following day that Flight Lieutenant James Brindley Nicolson’s Victoria Cross winning action took place over Southampton. All of these actions, and many others, are critically analyzed. Through diligent research, combined with crucial official primary sources and personal papers, Dilip unravels many myths, often challenging the accepted narrative. This is not simply another dull record of combat losses and claims – far from it. Drawing upon unique first-hand accounts from a wide-range of combatants and eyewitnesses, along with Daily Home Intelligence Reports and numerous other primary sources, this book forms part of what is likely to be the first and last such comprehensively woven account of this epic air battle.
Download or read book Arnhem 1944 written by Dilip Sarkar and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2018-11-30 with total page 527 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The airborne battle for the bridges across the Rhine at Arnhem ranks amongst the Second World Wars most famous actions inspiring innumerable books and the star-studded 1977 movie. This book, however, is unique: deeply moved, the author provides a fresh narrative and approach concentrating on the tragic stories of individual casualties.These men were killed at different junctures in the fighting, often requiring forensic analysis to ascertain their fates. Wider events contextualize the authors primary focus - effectively resurrecting casualties through describing their backgrounds, previous experience, and tragic effect on their families. In particular, the emotive and unresolved issue of the many still missing is explored.During the course of his research, the author made numerous trips to Arnhem and Oosterbeek, traveled miles around the UK, and spent countless hours communicating with the relatives of casualties achieving their enthusiastic support. This detailed work, conducted sensitively and with dignity, ensures that these moving stories are now recorded for posterity.Included are the stories of Private Albert Willingham, who sacrificed his life to save civilians; Major Frank Tate, machine-gunned against the backdrop of blazing buildings around Arnhem Bridge; family man Sergeant George Thomas, whose antitank gun is displayed today outside the Airborne Museum Hartenstein, and Squadron Leader John Gilliard DFC, father of a baby son who perished flying his Stirling through a hail of shot and shell during an essential re-supply drop. Is Private Gilbert Anderson, who remains missing, actually buried as an unknown, the author asks? Representing the Poles is Lance-Corporal Czeslaw Gajewnik, who drowned whilst escaping the hell of Oosterbeek, and accounts by Dutch civilians emphasize the shared suffering sharply focussed by the tragedy of Luuk Buist, killed protecting his family. The sensitivity still surrounding German casualties is also explained.This raw, personal, side of war, the hopes and fears of ordinary men thrust into extraordinary circumstances, is both deeply moving and revealing: no longer are these just names carved on headstones or memorials in a distant land. Through this thorough investigative work, supported by those who remember them, the casualties live again, their silent voices heard through friends, relatives, comrades and unpublished letters.So, let us return to the fateful autumn of 1944, and meet those fighting in the skies, on the landing grounds, in the streets and woods of Oosterbeek, and on the bridge too far at Arnhem.Now, the casualties can tell their own stories as we join this remarkable journey of discovery.
Download or read book Johnnie Johnson s 1942 Diary written by Dilip Sarkar and published by Air World. This book was released on 2020-12-28 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique insight into how fighter pilots lived, loved—and died—through the diary of the top-scoring RAF Ace who survived the Battle of Britain. A one-time household name synonymous with the superlative Spitfire, Air Vice-Marshal “Johnnie” Johnson’s aerial combat successes of World War II inspired schoolboys for generations. As a “lowly Pilot Officer,” Johnson learned his fighter pilot’s craft as a protégé of the legless Tangmere Wing Leader, Douglas Bader. After Bader was brought down over France and captured on 9 August 1941, Johnnie remained a member of 616 (South Yorkshire) Squadron. By the beginning of 1942, when Johnnie’s diary begins, Fighter Command was pursuing an offensive policy during daylight hours, “reaching out” and taking the war to the Germans in France. It was also a period in which the Focke-Wulf Fw outclassed the Spitfire Mk.V. In Johnnie’s words, the Fw 190 “drove us back to the coast and, for the first time, pilots lost confidence in the Spitfire.” As well as his participation in Rhubarb and Circus sorties, Johnnie was also involved in Operation Jubilee on 19 August 1942. In this diary, published here for the first time, we get a glimpse of the real Johnnie, and what it was really like to live and breathe air-fighting during one of the European air war’s most interesting years: 1942. Presented on a day-by-day basis, each of Johnnie’s entries is supported by an informative narrative written by the renowned aviation historian Dilip Sarkar, drawing upon official documents and his interviews and correspondence with the great man. “Provides a number of insights into life in the RAF Fighter Command of that period.—Most Highly Recommended.” —Firetrench
Download or read book Johnnie Johnson s Great Adventure written by Dilip Sarkar and published by Pen and Sword Aviation. This book was released on 2020-12-14 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The World War II fighter Ace’s previously unpublished draft—an account of the “Long Trek” from Normandy into the heart of the Third Reich itself. Having published two of his own books, Wing Leader and The Circle of Air Fighting, Air Vice-Marshal Johnnie Johnson co-authored several more with another fighter ace, namely Wing Commander P.B. “Laddie” Lucas. In 1997, the “AVM” suggested to his friend, the prolific author Dilip Sarkar, that the pair should collaborate on The Great Adventure. “Greycap Leader” was to produce a draft, after which Dilip would add the historical detail and comment. Sadly, the project was unfulfilled, because Johnnie became ill and passed away, aged eighty-five, in 2001. Years later, Johnnie’s eldest son, Chris, discovered the manuscript among his august father’s papers. In order to keep Johnnie’s memory evergreen, Chris turned to Dilip to finally see the project through to its conclusion. In this book Johnnie revisits certain aspects of his wartime service, including the development of tactical air cooperation with ground forces; his time as a Canadian wing leader in 1943, when the Spitfire Mk IX at last outclassed the Fw 190; and details his involvement in some of the most important battles of the defeat of Nazi Germany, including Operation Overlord and the D-Day landings in 1944, Operation Market Garden and the airborne assault at Arnhem, and the Rhine Crossings, throughout all of which Johnnie also commanded Canadian wings. Johnnie Johnson’s Great Adventure “brings to life the man of the book in such an interesting and heroic manner . . . if it wasn’t for these brave heroes we might not have won the war” (UK Historian).
Download or read book Battle of Britain 1940 written by Dilip Sarkar and published by Air World. This book was released on 2020-05-30 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The summer of 1940 remains a pivotal moment in modern British history – still inspiring immense national pride and a global fascination. The Fall of France was catastrophic. Britain stood alone and within range of German air attack. America, with its vast resources was neutral, Hitler’s forces unbeaten, the outlook for Britain bleak. As Britain’s wartime leader, Winston Churchill, rightly predicted, ‘the Battle of Britain is about to begin’. Famously, Churchill mobilized the English language, emboldening the nation with rousing rhetoric. In this darkest of hours, Churchill told the people that this was, in fact, their ‘Finest Hour’, a time of unprecedented courage and defiance which defined the British people. Connecting the crucial battle with Shakespeare’s heroic Henry V and Agincourt, Churchill also immortalized Fighter Command’s young aircrew as the ‘Few’ – to whom so many owed everything. The Few comprised nearly 3,000 aircrew, 544 of which gave their lives during the Battle of Britain’s sixteen weeks of high drama. Arguably, however, the official dates of 10 July – 31 October 1940 are arbitrary, the fighting actually ongoing before and afterwards. Many gave their lives whose names are not included among the Few, as of course did civilians, seamen, and ground staff – which is not overlooked in this groundbreaking book. In this unique study, veteran historian and author Dilip Sarkar explores the individual stories of a wide selection of those who lost their lives during the ‘Finest Hour’, examining their all-too brief lives and sharing these tragic stories – told here, in full, for the first time. Also included is the story of a German fighter pilot, indicating the breadth of investigation involved. Researched with the full cooperation of the families concerned, this work is a crucial contribution to the Battle of Britain’s bibliography.
Download or read book Faces of the Few written by Dilip Sarkar and published by Air World. This book was released on 2023-04-20 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There remains an enduring fascination with the Battle of Britain, and the RAF aircrew who fought and won this unprecedented aerial conflict, immortalized by Churchill in August 1940 as The Few. Unlike today, when photography is a huge part of peoples daily lives, not least because of mobile phone cameras and the sharing of images via social media, back then photography involved comparatively primitive and expensive items of equipment and was not, therefore, as accessible as it is today. Furthermore, unofficial photography on service installations in Britain was strictly prohibited for security reasons, and consequently such photographs, often taken surreptitiously, are comparatively rare (although, interestingly, amateur photography was much more popular in Germany, and German servicemen took countless photographs, especially during the Blitzkrieg years). The authors personal relationships and friendships with many of The Few, however, enabled him to unlock their personal archives, photograph albums and personal snapshots. The result of this research represents a substantial and unique archive. These photographs are not, in the main, posed official pictures, but those snapped by air and groundcrews who were keen amateur photographers, their images often shared around their squadron mates. The photographs presented here, some for the first time, provide the reader with a fascinating window on the past, through which we get an authentic glimpse of the summer of 1940 and The Few themselves. Indeed, in some cases, these are the only known images of certain individuals, while the likeness of others has been lost to history. That fact, therefore, emphasizes the importance of this photographic record.
Download or read book Forgotten Voices of the Blitz and the Battle For Britain written by Joshua Levine and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010-09-30 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing material from the Imperial War Museum's extensive aural archive, Joshua Levine brings together voices from both sides of the Blitz and the Battle of Britain to give us a unique, complete and compelling picture of this turbulent time. In June 1940, British citizens prepared for an imminent German onslaught. Hitler's troops had overrun Holland, Belgium and France in quick succession, and the British people anticipated an invasion would soon be upon them. From July to October, they watched the Battle of Britain play out in the skies above them, aware that the result would decide their fate. Over the next nine months, the Blitz killed more than 43,000 civilians. For a year, the citizens of Britain were effectively front-line soldiers in a battle which united the country against a hated enemy. We hear from the soldiers, airmen, fire-fighters, air-raid wardens and civilians, people in the air and on the ground, on both sides of the battle, giving us a thrilling account of Britain under siege. With first-hand testimonies from those involved in Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain, Black Saturday on 7th September 1940 when the Luftwaffe began the Blitz, to its climax on the 10th May 1941, this is the definitive oral history of a period when Britain came closer to being overwhelmed by the enemy than at any other time in modern history.
