Pictorial History of the RAF - Volume Two 1939 – 1945 (TAYLOR, J. W. R. – MOYES, P. J. R.)

Winner of the 1969-70 Diploma by the Commission d’Histoire Arts et Lettres of the Aero-Club de France.

This second volume, with the aid of more than 250 photographs, tells of the tremendous contribution made by the Royal Air Force to victory in World War II.

Officially-released information, including the results of research not available to earlier historians, has enabled the authors to compare with unprecedented clarity the qualities of the aircraft used by both sides in World War II. We are shown how Bomber Command’s offensive, largely ineffective up to the Autumn of 1941, was so changed by the introduction of secret new equipment, formidable new aircraft and bold new tactics that it was able to pave the way for victory in the West.

Other chapters take the reader to North and East Africa, the Far East, over the Atlantic— wherever the Royal Air Force and its allies waged and won the war in the air—and shows clearly why the Royal Air Force was unbeatable in the face of what should have been impossible odds.