The Battle of Britain: Book 2 of the Ladybird Expert History of the Second World War

Jan 16, 2025 6:05 AM

Author:James Holland

Part of the new Ladybird Expert series, Battle of Britain is an accessible, insightful and authoritative account of the most famous aerial battle in history.

Historian, author and broadcaster James Holland draws on the latest research and interviews with participants to bring colour, detail and a fresh perspective to the story.

Inside, you'll discover how tactics, organisation and new technologies were brought to bear, about the different challenges faced by both the RAF and the Luftwaffe, and, above all, the skill, bravery and endurance of the airmen engaged in a contest that was of critical importance to the outcome of the war.

Written by the leading lights and most outstanding communicators in their fields, the Ladybird Expert books provide clear, accessible and authoritative introductions to subjects drawn from science, history and culture.

Other books currently available in the Ladybird Expert series include:

· Climate Change

· Quantum Mechanics

· Evolution

· Shackleton

For an adult readership, the Ladybird Expert series is produced in the same iconic small hardback format pioneered by the original Ladybirds. Each beautifully illustrated book features the first new illustrations produced in the original Ladybird style for nearly forty years.

Reviews

Battle of Britain shines a light on some of the darkest and most dramatic moments of the six-year conflict.

—— The Daily Mail

Sweeps aside mythology and provides a rational explanation and cool description of what took place

—— Max Hastings , The Sunday Times

Nick Lloyd has unearthed a mass of new material for this harrowing account of one of the most infamous engagements of the Great War

—— Ian Thomson , The Guardian

Meticulously researched . . . A harrowing and important history

—— PD Smith , The Guardian

With clean, clear and often eviscerating writing, Nick Lloyd compels us to re-evaluate Passchendaele and all that word conjures

—— Paul Gross, director and star of the film 'Passchendaele'

Rigorously researched . . . one of the great features of this excellent book, absent from too many less rigorous histories of events in the First World War, is a clear account of how things were on the German side, and how the British attack not only gained ground, but devastated German morale . . . Lloyd's research is superb; the book is well-illustrated with photographs and maps; he brings the battle and its political context vividly to life . . . this is in almost every respect a model of what a work of military history should be, and is now perhaps the definitive account of this phase of the war on the Western Front

—— Simon Heffer , The Telegraph

I thought it both precise and compassionate - a properly definitive history, with clear sightlines from the strategic planning, to the horror of the battle itself from both sides, through to its consequences for the war as it entered its complex final phase

—— Dr Emily Mayhew

A fresh and thorough examination of the events of July to November 1917 is definitely needed. Dr Nick Lloyd has achieved this in his book Passchendaele: A New History, an account that is both scholarly and gripping.

—— Glyn Harper, Professor of War Studies, Massey University

Confirms his position among the best young scholars of WWI in this comprehensively researched, convincingly presented analysis of the still-controversial 1917 battle of Passchendaele . . .Lloyd's thesis is controversial, but his scholarship makes it impossible to dismiss

—— Publishers Weekly

His narrative of the campaign is superb and written with clarity and dispassion. He teaches military history at King's College London and has done his research thoroughly in German and Allied archives. It is fascinating to know the preoccupations, hopes and plans of the Kaiser ("The English must be made to grovel") and his generals, and to hear the voices of German frontline soldiers

—— Lawrence James , The Times

'An eloquent retelling of one of the First World War's most mismanaged battles. Lloyd movingly recounts the ordeal of German and British infantry in the mud and blood of Passchendaele

—— Professor Alexander Watson

Did Passchendaele mark the moment when German morale collapsed on the Western Front? Nick Lloyd makes a compelling case . . . both as narrative and analysis, this book is masterly

—— Allan Massie , Scotsman

Masterly . . . He argues convincingly

—— Allan Mallinson , The Times Literary Supplement

Very well-researched and well-written. Reminds us just how important this crushing endgame was

—— Andrew Roberts (on 'Hundred Days')

Lloyd enters the upper tier of Great War historians

—— Publishers Weekly

'Thoroughly engrossing . . . leaves no doubt that the Germans were beaten fair and square'

—— Dominic Sandbrook on 'Hundred Days'

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