"Can you recommend a good book on the Battle of Britain?" Topic

Hope for a good book title to increase my knowledge. I would not only like a good read, good info, but maybe most importantly some good pictures. I don't need authentic b&w photos as much as more Osprey-style artwork which will help me choose the best Vallejo paints to use for painting miniatures.

Thanks! Or should I say Tally Ho!

I like Len Deighton's "Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain".

Albert Speer liked it too…

I believe Len Deighton's "Fighter" got a bit of stick from historians. On the other hand since Len Deighton was a renown thriller writer by trade it's a damn good read.

Johnnie Johnson's book is an excellent read.

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Also Peter Townsend's Duel of Eagles is one of the best descriptions of BOB I've ever read.

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'Fighter' is quite well written, but if you're looking for an historical account of the battle, rather than a sensationalist one, you're looking in the wrong place there.

Alfred Price's 'The Hardest Day' gives a great insight into just one day of the Battle, intimately detailed, and exhaustively researched. Alas, no colour plates!

For colour 3-views, and loads of info on squadron codes, etc, as well as being a very comprehensive overview, Jon Lake's 'The Battle of Britain' is hard to beat. A big book, but not hard to read in terms of style.

Also, 'Top Colours 16 – The Battle of Britain' by Polish publisher Kagero has drool-worthy, full-colour artwork of Spits, Hurricanes, 109s and 110s. There's other books in the series. A bit slender at just 34 pages, but worth it.

Len Deighton's book gives you a good feel for the battle. You might say that he gets the story right, though he gets many of the details wrong. A good read. Not going to provide inspiration for painting, nor color matching.

I also like Johnnie Johnson's book, Wing Leader. Again, not going to provide color pictures, unless one of the updated releases has added them.

"The Narrow Margin" c1961 It Has a day by day account as well.

James Holland's "The Battle of Britain" is about the best I've read.

As far as colour pics/camouflage:

AIRCAM books has a set on the BoB, fighters and bombers(if you can find them).

Also, this is a good website with colour camo illustrations:

wp.scn.ru/en/camo/schemes/2/s1

Another couple:

users.hol.gr/~nowi

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Just on the colour photos side of things, for the 70th anniversary (so 2010), one of the British aircraft/history magazines did a big special issue with lots of good stuff, including camo diagrams/painting guides/aircraft markings. I'll try to remember to look it up tonight, I expect issues are still available one way or another.

I am partial to this one:
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Good discussion of the aircraft, tactics, the personalities, and some really good first person accounts. I don;t think any color photos though, so may not meet your needs.

The Most Dangerous Enemy: A History of the Battle of Britain
by Stephen Bungay

I'd second the Bungay book. Definitely the best book I've readon BoB.

….but no colour plates whatsoever

:-(

another vote for Dempster and Wood's Narrow Margin. And, of course, the appropriate chapters of Basil Collier's Defence of the United Kingdom (the official history) – a treasure trove of information.

The most dangerous enemy is an outstanding piece of history writing

The Battle of Britain could not stop Operation Sealion, the planned German invasion. The historians got it wrong. This is a big claim to make, yet the reasoning behind it is remarkably straightforward. In Invasion 1940, author Derek Robinson asks why historians have dovetailed the Battle of Britain with Operation Sealion. Military experts say the Battle prevented an invasion, but they don't exactly explain how. Why is it taken for granted that an air battle could halt an assault from the sea? The skill and courage of the RAF pilots isn't in question, but did the Luftwaffe's failure to destroy them, plus bad weather, really persuade Hitler to cancel Sealion? That's what Hitler said, and Churchill claimed a great victory for 'The Few'. The Battle of Britain ended; Sealion died. One followed the other, so the first must have caused the second. But Derek Robinson challenges that assumption and reaches a startling conclusion. The real obstacle to invasion was a force that both Churchill and Hitler failed to acknowledge. In this fascinating reexamination, Robinson doesn't seek to downplay the heroism and achievements of the RAF; rather, he wants the true picture of that brilliant moment in history—Invasion, 1940— to emerge

Without reading the book, is it saying something other than the Luftwaffe needed to beat down the RAF so they could focus on the RN? The RN was the real obstacle (plus Germany's lack of a real invasion fleet), provided it was thrown into the Channel and had the RAF flying top cover.

An interesting take is "Battle of Britain: The Making of a Film" by Leonard Mosley – chapters alternate (IIRC) between telling the story of the BoB & the story of the making of the film – I found that it worked really well & gave an interesting insight.
The other would be the full colour booklet that came out when the original movie was released (off topic, but they did one when Waterloo" came out, too) – unfortunately, my copy is lost in the mists of time
Then there's Aircraft for the Few: The R.A.F.'s Fighters and Bombers in 1940 by Michael Bowyer – no colour photos but shows the wide range of stuff that the RAF had to play with

Just bought The Most Dangerous Enemy: A History of the Battle of Britain by Stephen Bungay on the strength of the comments here. 3 chapters in. OK so far.