Fighter Boys and Bomber Boys: Saving Britain 1940-1945

Fighter Boys and Bomber Boys: Saving Britain 1940-1945
Patrick Bishop

Two of Patrick Bishop’s bestselling books, ‘Fighter Boys’ and ‘Bomber Boys’, are combined in one eBook edition.FIGHTER BOYS: In the summer of 1940, the future of Britain and the free world depended on the morale and skill of the young men of Fighter Command. This is their story.The Battle of Britain is one of the most crucial battles ever fought, and the victory of Fighter Command over the Luftwaffe has always been celebrated as a classic feat of arms. But, as Patrick Bishop shows in this superb history, it was also a triumph of the spirit in which the attitudes of the pilots themselves played a crucial part. Reaching beyond the myths to convey the fear and exhilaration of life on this most perilous of frontlines, Patrick Bishop offers an intimate and compelling account that is a soaring tribute to the exceptional young men of Fighter Command.BOMBER BOYS: Patrick Bishop looks at the lives and the extraordinary risks that the painfully young pilots of Bomber Command took during the air-offensive against Germany from 1940-1945.Like RAF pilots, the thousands of brave young men who joined Bomber Command took to the air to help Britain triumph in World War Two. But in the glow of victory, the fighter pilots were lauded for their efforts while the Bomber Boys faded in national memory. Crucial in the heat of combat, they were politically awkward afterwards. Yet with an average life expectancy shorter than that of soldiers on the Western front in WWI, these men faced death, injury and capture time and again to send bombs through the shrieking flak onto enemy territory. ‘Bomber Boys’ is a tribute to their strength, courage and heroism – filling in the historical blanks and immortalising their memory.

PATRICK BISHOP

Fighter Boys and Bomber Boys: Saving Britain 1940–1945

Copyright (#ulink_d7be046a-f202-5d5d-b548-5b8762243328)

HarperPress

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www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/)

This omnibus edition first published by HarperPress in 2012

Fighter Boys: First published in Great Britain by HarperPress in 2003

Copyright © Patrick Bishop 2003

Portrait © Max Arthur 2004

Bomber Boys: First published in Great Britain by HarperPress in 2007

Copyright © Patrick Bishop 2007

PS Section copyright © Louise Tucker 2007

PSTM is a trademark of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

Patrick Bishop asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Cover photograph courtesy of the trustees at The Imperial War Museum — CH7745

Maps of Cologne and Berlin © Copyright Royal Geographical Society

Maps of Bomber Command Stations, Targets in Europe, Germany, and the Ruhr Valley by John Gilkes

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Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2013 ISBN: 9780007511037

Version: 2016-09-19

Contents

Title Page (#u823841fb-c11a-5244-9fbc-f985c9b881a0)

Copyright (#ulink_4a3e5a71-af4b-5367-8b09-892f3200cfa0)

Fighter Boys: Saving Britain 1940 (#ufd7da1bc-350d-5ce9-8084-b6edac559e14)

Bomber Boys: Fighting Back 1940-1945 (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Patrick Bishop (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Fighter Boys

Saving Britain 1940

Patrick Bishop

Dedication (#ulink_26a80fbe-cd00-5cf5-a7e1-dafba9c04fce)

To Kelly and Bill

Contents

Title Page (#ufd7da1bc-350d-5ce9-8084-b6edac559e14)

Dedication (#ub4881d95-82f4-52d8-abda-7b73b819bfcf)

Preface (#u45558ff3-f3a1-532a-9a1c-969829e87db7)

Prologue: The White Hart (#u0f3f8220-3794-5ab7-92bd-82d7cacb5477)

1 Sportsmen and Butchers (#ub62f3550-ce57-53e4-8b43-f34718d239a9)

2 Fighters versus Bombers (#uba71727e-7dc8-5d68-b70a-ec0ba6639645)

3 ‘Free of Boundaries, Free of Gravity, Free of Ties’ (#u08fa5d09-21a0-5558-9517-1416a5e160d5)

4 The Fatal Step (#u3bf106da-5d51-580f-8df0-584a9dcbce11)

5 Winter of Uncertainty (#u82a2696f-956d-5148-9c39-a1601cc5ab2e)