Product Description

This volume covers the first year of World War II, the period from phoney war to total war: September 3rd, 1939 to September 6th, 1940. Beginning with endless air raid warnings and a sense of unreality, it was a phase which was to culminate in Hitler threatening to raze Britain's cities to the ground. As a direct source of the day-to-day effects of Luftwaffe operations over Britain at the time, the book utilizes extracts from the 24-hour log compiled by the Ministry of Home Security, and this provides a contemporary diary of events as they affected the Home Front. These entries ideally form the setting for a detailed record of the losses sustained by the Luftwaffe over Britain and within sight of land: a barometer of the air war, showing clearly the changing climate of hostilities. Every German crash on land is listed with its crew, and footnotes are included on all the crash sites which are known to have been investigated or excavated since the end of the war, together with photographs of some interesting discoveries. Also featured are articles by historians and eyewitnesses that interspace the daily happenings.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #103618 in Books
• Published on: 1987-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

Customer Reviews

A remarkable tome of information!
This is an excellent resource of information regarding the actions and results of Axis sorties and bombings on U.K. soil between September 1940 and May 1941.

Contained within this sturdy hardback is a chronological account of all recorded raids, crashes and wartime anecdotes of the time, throughout the British Isles. Every page contains detailed listings, maps, illustrations and photo's of aircraft and blitz scenes up and down the country, often with images showing the very same scene as it looks today. This is a real page turner, with something for everyone to appreciate.

There's a very detailed index and a useful source of photograph credits, listed. However, my only criticism is the lack of a Bibliography, as result, creative use of the Acknowledgements and photograph credits are as near as you'll get to finding out the sources. Otherwise, this is a remarkable volume, and a total joy to read.

This book is an essential read for anyone researching wartime activities over the U.K. and anyone interested in aviation and the Second World War in general. A must for any bookshelf.

Monumental.
The 'Blitz Then and Now' trilogy is a sometimes indigestible mass of dates, aircraft, names, bomb types, and catalogues of locations. Its multiple authorship sometimes becomes too obvious - and it can also be expensive if you buy the whole work as a three volume box set, as I did.

This being said if you want to know as much as possible about the air attacks on Britain during World War II, all in one encyclopedic hit, this has to be the set for you. Taken together the whole thing is something like 1800 pages, almost every one of which is packed with black and white photos, diagrams, and masses of text, tables, and facts. One of the best things about it is that you can look up targets by name, and then check what happened there on a given date.

The whole thing is a truly monumental work, unlikely ever to be attempted in this way again. I have had my three volume set for roughly 15 years and never once regretted what was at that time a considerable outlay.This has to be highly recommended to all libraries, and anyone interested in the Blitz, air warfare, 1940, or the Second World War in general.

Absolutely essential reading on WW2 Britain
What positive things cannot be said about the After the Battle series? All of their books have become the benchmark for WW2 research and once purchased, these books rarely remain on the shelf, as they are essential reference works with a great level of detail and rare photographs.

As has been said, the trilogy on the Blitz are breath-takingly impressive and form a worthy tribute to the victims of the Luftwaffe. Their large pagination and detail-packed format mean they enable both a definitive, national-level, detailed overall history of strategy and tactics plus a local study of towns and people, something that regular sized books are physically unable to do. A detailed index also enhances the reference aspect of the book(s).

The text is intelligently and soberly written and despite on first appearance it seeming like a mass of words, the text is broken down into managable chronological and subject sections.

My only criticisms (and why this review is four star rather than five stars like the previous two volumes in the series) are: the binding is not strong enough and several of the pages started to come loose after a few years, early in its use. My other more frustrating criticism of the third Blitz volume is that when it comes to the important V-weapon period, it break away from the detailed record-based research and chiefly switches to a schoolboys' diary to chronologically describe the period. This is perhaps interesting from a sociological point of view but not very useful for factual reference: it is almost as if the publishers ran out of money/steam and used the diary as filler.

Nonetheless these books are worth every single penny - just bite your tongue and don't look at the price - you won't regret it. I have thoroughly enjoyed this trilogy over the last 20 years and always use it for reference. Highly recommended.