Air Force Blue

Author: Patrick Bishop

Stock information

General Fields

  • : 36.99 NZD
  • : 9780007433148
  • : HarperCollins Publishers Limited
  • : Harper Element
  • :
  • : 0.6
  • : August 2017
  • : 234mm X 153mm X 15mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : 36.99
  • : October 2017
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  • :
  • : books

Special Fields

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  • :
  • : Patrick Bishop
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  • : Paperback
  • :
  • :
  • : en
  • : 940.544941
  • :
  • :
  • : 400
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Barcode 9780007433148
9780007433148

Description

In a return to sweeping social history of wartime, Patrick Bishop - author of bestselling Fighter Boys and Bomber Boys - explores the lives and wartime experience of thousands of men and women who served in all units of the airforce. To mark the centenary of the RAF in 2018. On 1 April 2018, the Royal Air Force will be a hundred years old - a short life by military standards but an extraordinarily important and eventful one.From the start it was special, standing sometimes awkwardly but always proudly a little apart from the existing services. It was a product of the modern age, whose fortunes depended on ever-more sophisticated machines and the right calibre of men to fly them and to keep them airborne.Its achievements between 1939 and 1945 - when it was Britain's last line of defence and the spearhead of its counter-attack, were central to the entire war effort.During these years, one in four of those in uniform wore air force blue and the ethos of the RAF was indistinguishable from the spirit of the nation.Following his bestselling books Fighter Boys and Bomber Boys, Airforce Blue tells personal stories of those who served, using the letters, diaries and memoirs of the participants to create a true picture of what it was like to be a pilot, a navigator, a gunner, a fitter or a WAAF ops room clerk. It recreates the reality of operations, whether wheeling over Kent in a Spitfire in 1940, rumbling towards the Ruhr in a Halifax the 1942 or looking down from the cockpit of a Liberator at the grey corrugated waters of the North Atlantic in 1943. It will also light up the humanity of the participants at every level; their values and motivations, their desires and ambitions.Air Force Blue is a substantial work of history, a monument to the wartime RAF as a whole and a must-buy for the descendants of the million-plus men and women from not just Britain but Canada, Australia and New Zealand who served.

Reviews

Praise for Patrick Bishop: `I know of no more thoughtful nor yet more moving study of their achievement.' Max Hastings, Sunday Telegraph `Deeply humane, lucidly written and powerful...Bishop, a war correspondent, has a keen eye for the stresses and strains of the job these boys did...All this bravery, and the way of life that supported it, are faithfully recorded in Bishop's refreshingly unpretentious account.' Michael Burleigh, Sunday Times `This is the best kind of military history - the kind in which the author never loses sight of the impact of war on its victims, German as well as British, and those who were left behind. "Bomber Boys" will remind the survivors that they and their lost comrades are not forgotten. And it reminds the rest of us what their war was all about.' Daniel Johnson, Evening Standard `This is a terrific book, so riveting, exciting and moving that it must help bring back the Bomber Boys to their rightful place of honour. A true war memorial.' Montagu Curzon, Spectator `A compelling account of life in RAF Bomber Command...[Bishop] covers every aspect of their lives...as he tells their stories, he keeps hold of the strategy that led these men to be flying in the first place.' Telegraph `A living, breathing monument to the fighter boys.' Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday `As a vivid chronicle of who the Battle of Britain pilots were, what motivated them, and why they were ultimately successful, "Fighter Boys" is unsurpassed.' Daily Telegraph `No one reading this book can possibly doubt the heroism of those involved...there can't be a finer history.' James Holland, New Statesman

Author description

Patrick Bishop is the author of the critically acclaimed and best-selling `Fighter Boys', `Bomber Boys', `3 Para' and `Ground Truth'. Previously, he was a foreign correspondent for over twenty years, reporting from conflicts all over the world.