Duel of Eagles

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{detailed description}The Battle of Britain was more than a desperate struggle to decide the whole future course of the war. It represented the final clash towards which developments on both sides had been converging for more than twenty years.
In Britain, a new air force had been created in the face of iron opposition from politicians and the Admiralty. Its young men had eagerly absorbed the new concepts and values of 'airmanship' and 'air spirit' and its advent marked the beginning of a new era in warfare. Victory in September 1940 was a triumph for the imagination and foresight of such men as Dowding, Commander-in-Chief, Fighter Command, whose faith in his fighting men and their aircraft was unshakeable.
For Germany the Battle came as the pinnacle of years of secret preparation. For Air Marshal Goering's mighty Luftwaffe began as a clandestine air section under the Reichministerium, with air bases like Lipezk in Russia where young German airmen learned the tricks of their craft from veteran fliers of the First World War. The Battle also revealed the full power of a new, purposeful Germany which had burst the the humiliating shackles imposed by the Versailles Treaty.
In Duel of Eagles Peter Townsend — himself a Battle of Britain pilot — has traced the background to the conflict from the defeat and destruction of the Kaiser's air force to the long days of 1940 when Spitfires and Messerschmitts fought their battles to the death over England. Dogfights in the sky, ruthless political manoeuvres, legendary heroes of the air like Richthofen (the 'Red Baron') and Douglas Bader - Duel of Eagles combines all these in a colourful, dramatic and evocative account of the furious air conflict that saved Britain from German invasion.
{Author / Publisher / Date}by Peter Townsend
published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson 1970 1st English edn. 455pp illustrated, index, appendix 16x24
{condition}edge worn otherwise good in torn d/j.
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