A detailed and highly readable account of how the RAF became obsessed with the bomber in the decades before the Second World War, yet even after six years of continual expansion Bomber Command was unable to mount a credible offensive against Germany in 1940. Adrian Phillips skilfully uses archival sources to show how the clash of personalities inside Whitehall combined with false orthodoxies within the Air Ministry to leave Britain with no counter to Hitler's Luftwaffe - except, almost by accident, the Spitfires and Hurricanes of Fighter Command.
Brett Holman, author of 'The Next War in the Air: Britain's Fear of the Bomber, 1908–1941'

Featured on [link=https://www.ww2today.com/p/the-terror-raids-of-1942?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjozOTg2NTg4MSwicG9zdF9pZCI6NTI2MzgyMzAsIl8iOiJJa2xTLyIsImlhdCI6MTY1MTE0MzU5NiwiZXhwIjoxNjUxMTQ3MTk2LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMzYzMDk1Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.rydppAUa04UhBpeTXViTxeIHuJRw7JpSyTCDAwLv_oo&s=r]WW2 Today[/link]
WW2 Today

[b]Rating[/b]: 5 out of 5 stars I am delighted to say that I learned at least as much about the Soviet support for the Republic as I did about the Germans and their formidable investment in Franco's success. The book is far from comprehensive but instead offers a solid understanding of the fundamental German,, Italian, and Soviet commitment to providing air support to their respective client states in this struggle. Just as important, it provides significant support for the widely acknowledged role of the struggle as a testbed for aeronautical technology and the strategic and tactical implications inherent in the emerging technology of aerial warfare. Significantly, a read of this text suggests strongly that little was actually learned about broad strategic and tactical applications and their limitations because so many of the institutions involved were already committed to misguided notions like "the bomber will always get through." It is not that careful study of events like the bombing.. Read more
NetGalley, William Harris

As Featured In
Model Aircraft Monthly, December 2021

'Very good'. Full review [link=https://www.tracesofwar.nl/books/3603/Spitfire.htm?fbclid=IwAR1IqEqgJ10v2F4MrtBAbuaow7svFQBrEbGLsQdRtlNIHUcdvqQTciy2hQE]here[/link]
Traces of War