The Sky Suspended

With his last book: "The British", Mr. Drew Middleton gave a brilliantly balanced picture of the customs, problems and achievements of post-war Britain. In The Sky Suspended he gives an equally unforgettable account of those last six months of 1940 when Britain's survival was assured, the period of the Battle of Britain, and the Blitz.
Mr. Middleton at that time was the London Correspondent of the Associated Press (a position he holds today for the New York Times). This is in fact an eyewitness account by one of the great objective reporters of our day. His story deals with the "big days" of the battle when every available fighter plane on either side was engaged; with every phase of the struggle as seen through the eyes of a single squadron (No. 85 Hurricane Squadron, then commanded by Squadron Leader Peter Townsend) to whose records he has had access; and with the night raids on London and the Provinces when the citizens of Britain stood firm. The book is "illustrated" with extracts from the diaries the author kept at the time.
It is a thrilling story—probably one of the decisive battles of the world—and Mr. Middleton has placed it in the perspective of history. He has chapters on the pre-war development of the Luftwaffe and the R.A.F., he describes as perhaps only an outside sympathiser could, the physical and moral state of British arms and the British nation after Dunkirk, he relates the epic deeds in the skies of Britain to the world picture at the time, and he provides answers to many hotly debated questions—why the Germans delayed in launching the attack, why was it called off when victory was still possible? The Sky Suspended is important, heart-stirring and absorbing reading.




by Drew Middleton
Published by Secker and Warburg 1960 1st edition. 255pp 14x20 boards slightly bowed, very slight foxing to edges, otherwise good including d/j.





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"Long" descriptions, where shown, may have been taken from the book's dust jacket notes, and as such are relevant to the date of publication (e.g. any references to "new edition" "previously unpublished photographs" etc.) and not the present.