What
everybody knows about air fighting in WW2 turns out to
be less than the whole story. Fighter Command fought obsolete tactics, Bomber Command fought unpredicted weather, and the Desert Air Force fought plagues of flies. Then there was the enemy, of course. And after the war, a different kind of enemy and a different kind of bomb. |
Published December 2008: 'Hullo Russia,
Goodbye England' |
Nutshell:
Deterrence calls for a threat of
retaliation.
If an enemy nukes Britain, RAF
Vulcans will go and nuke
the enemy. No hesitation. And no return, either. But nobody mentions that fact.
Hullo Russia, Goodbye England
sees the return of Flight Lieutenant Silk. Having survived a double
tour on Lancasters in WW2 (and won two DFCs), he rejoins Bomber
Command much later and qualifies to fly the Vulcan bomber. |
Nutshell: Disliked by the air marshals, but many ex-Battle of Britain pilots read it and said this was the way it was. "An outstanding novelist's brilliantly researched portrait of the war in the air and the men who fought it." - Max Hastings "Dead on target: midway between Catch-22 and The Winds of War." - TIME MAGAZINE Author's Notes |
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Nutshell: Hornet Squadron is in North Africa. The bad news is that it's all sand. The good news is you can have as much as you like. "Nobody writes about the war quite like Derek Robinson. He has a way of carrying you along with the excitement of it all before suddenly disposing of a character with a casual, laconic ruthlessness that is shockingly realistic..." - THE INDEPENDENT "Biggles was never like this." - DAILY EXPRESS Author's Notes |
Author's Notes |
Nutshell: RAF Bomber Command fought the enemy from Day One of WW2, night after night. Somebody had to. "Robinson.. should be mentioned in the same breath as Mailer, Ballard or Heller. A masterpiece. " - DAILY EXPRESS "..tough, taut prose that pulls you through the book like a steel cable." - THE GUARDIAN Author's Notes |
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Non-fiction
Nutshell: 1940 was a rich year for myths, from unstoppable German paratroops disguised as nuns, to expert predictions that six months bombing would cause two million British casualties.But the most enduring myth is twofold. First: that RAF Fighter Command could have stopped a seaborne German invasion. Second: that, without the RAF, Hitler would have conquered England. Neither of them true. "A tremendously interesting and fun read! .... a thought-provoking book that will change the way most of us look at the Battle of Britain..." - NOVEDGE BOOK SHOW |
Hullo Russia, Goodbye England The four-engined delta-wing Vulcan was RAF Bomber Command's last hurrah, and piloting it was an unforgettable experience. A Vulcan could let a jet fighter take off first and then leave it standing in a climb that soared to fifty or sixty thousand feet. A Vulcan could be airborne in under two minutes from the scramble order, and nudge the speed of sound as it penetrated the Yet if Vulcans ever carried out their task, the act must be a colossal failure, the worst in human history, perhaps the end of all history. For Vulcans existed only to make a second strike, in retaliation for the enemy's first strike. Thus Vulcans would pile nuclear annihilation upon nuclear annihilation. How could their crews - intelligent, mature men with homes and families - live with that knowledge? It was a question that nobody wanted to ask, and few knew how to answer. Return to Top of Page |
Piece of Cake (1983; paperbacked 1984, 1993, 2002) From the Phony War of 1939 to the Battle of Britain in 1940, Hornet Squadron learns its lessons the hard way. On the ground, young pilots have fun, but at twenty thousand feet the best killers are not necessarily the jolly good chaps. And sometimes Fighter Command, with its obsolete tactics, is the real menace. Promoted CO, Fanny Barton has to kick his squadron into shape before they get hit by Jerry bullets they never even heard fired. Forget honour. There's no honour in dying for your country. Make the other bastard die for his. That's the truth of war. Return to Top of Page |
A Good Clean Fight (1993; paperbacked 1994, 2002) Return to Top of Page |
Damned Good Show (2002; paper backed 2003) |
Invasion 1940 NON-FICTION
(2005:
paperbacked 2006) Why didn't Hitler invade Yet the historians fail to explain exactly how Fighter Command could have prevented an invasion fleet from crossing the Channel. The hard fact is that the RAF's fighters could never stop a seaborne invasion, any more than the Luftwaffe could guarantee one. So what frightened Hitler? The Royal Navy. Read all about it. Return to Top of Page |