The Few: Summer 1940, the Battle of Britain by Philip Kaplan and Richard Collier. Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. (http://www.sterpub.com/ sterling.htm), 387 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10016-8810, 2001, 224 pages, $21.95.

Although I love reading about the Battle of Britain, when I first picked up this book, my initial, mixed reaction was, "Great, another Battle of Britain book." There always seems to be yet another study of arguably the greatest air battle of all time. Unfortunately, many of them just rehash old information. Although this one was released in 1989 under the title Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain Remembered, it is still refreshing to find a book with enough of a clever slant to make the reading worthwhile and refreshing.

The authors have done a fantastic job of presenting the Battle of Britain to the reader. Philip Kaplan is the author of several books, including Little Friends, Round the Clock, Wolfpack, Fighter Pilot, and Bombers, while Richard Collier authored The Sands of Dunkirk, The General Next to God, Eagle Day, D-Day, and Duce! These two men have combined their knowledge to create a very readable and attractively presented book. Not only is it well written, but it also contains over 100 wartime and current photographs- both black and white and color- of the battle’s men, machines, and significant locations.

Although The Few can in no way be considered a definitive work on the Battle of Britain, it does contain fascinating facts and anecdotes. Throughout, the authors creatively weave stories of the pilots, the people who supported them, and the civilians who witnessed the battle. We find great quotations from both sides of the conflict as well as personal stories, such as Geoffrey Page’s account of being shot down and severely burned in his Hurricane. The book offers a wealth of good, well-articulated, historical information (e.g., the birth of British radar). It also tells of German airmen killed on the ground by British soldiers and gives due credit to the highest scoring Allied unit of the battle- the Polish 303d Squadron.

As a Joint Doctrine Air Campaign Course instructor, I was very interested in the authors’ pre-sentation of the Germans’ operational-level conduct of the battle. Anyone who has ever studied this battle surely comes away with the notion that the Germans were never quite sure of their overall strategic- and operational-level objectives. German intelligence officers admit that they made little or no distinction between key Fighter Command airfields like Biggin Hill, Tangmere, and Manston and minor airfields in southern England. Likewise, quotations from high-ranking officers clearly reveal the Germans’ indecisiveness and operational ineptitude. The 60-year-old question regarding actual German invasion plans remains clouded: for example, on 2 September, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring admitted to Gen Kurt Student, commander of all airborne troops for Operation Sea Lion, that Hitler did not intend to invade England. "I don’t know," shrugged Göring, "There’ll be nothing doing this year at any rate." The authors also accurately portray the Germans’ intelligence efforts for what they were- ineffective, inaccurate, and subject to the political whims of the moment.

The Few is a good coffee-table book, one I recommend both to anyone moderately interested in this key period of history and to the scholar more familiar with the battle. An attractive and informative book, it will certainly be a welcome addition to any library on the Battle of Britain. Perhaps somebody can convince Kaplan and Collier to write a sequel- but from the German perspective.

Lt Col Robert F. Tate, USAFR
Maxwell AFB, Alabama