Official history of Britain's home front in the Second World War,
from the Phoney War, through the Battle of Britain and the Blitz to victory in
Europe.
The first in the 18-volume Official History of the Second World War
covers the defence of the British
Isles on land, sea, and in the air. Beginning with disarmament after
the Great War in 1918, Basil Collier traces Britain's gradual rearmament in the face of the
renewed threat from Germany. There are chapters on the
‘Phoney war' of 1939-1940; and on the effects of the disastrous
Norway campaign and the
Dunkirk
evacuation. The Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940 is extensively covered,
as is ‘Operation Sealion', Hitler's abortive plan for a seaborne invasion of
southern England. Collier describes the
Luftwaffe's switch from daytime raids on RAF fighter stations to night bombing
of the cities in the darkest days of the 1940-1941 Blitz. He recounts the German
bids to blockade Britain, and the energetic measures
for home defence - including the formation of the Home Guard - taken by
Churchill's government. Finally, the book tells of the terrifying threat from
the V1 Flying Bomb or ‘Doodle Bugs'; and ‘Hitler's secret weapons' - the V2
rockets launched in the last stages of the war in Europe. Profusely illustrated with 32 maps and 29
photographs, and accompanied by 50 appendices on specialised aspects of the war
on the home front.
