Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding (portrait by Sir Walter Russell) (Imperial War Museum)
Bombing the Channel ports, September 1940 (painting by Eric Ravilious) (Imperial War Museum)
Air fight over Portland, September 1940 (painting by Richard Eurich) (Imperial War Museum)
A heavy anti-aircraft battery about to open fire (painting by C. W. Nevinson (Imperial War Museum)
The Battle of Britain (painting by Paul Nash) (Imperial War Museum)
Junkers 87 Stukas en route to England (Robert Hunt Library)
Messerschmitt 110 flying above the white cliffs of South-East England (Robert Hunt Library)
Messerschmitt no crews at an outdoor briefing (Robert Hunt Library)
Messerschmitt 109s in ‘finger four’ formation over St Margaret’s Bay (Robert Hunt Library)
Group Captain Peter Townsend’s decorations (Sotheby’s)
Civil Defence control room (painting by John Piper) (Imperial War Museum)
Early London bomb damage from Zeppelin raid in 1915 (Popperfoto)
Gotha GIV of 1917 (E. F. Cheesman)
Staaken ‘Giant’, just airborne (E. F. Cheesman)
Hendon airshow, 1936 (RAF Museum)
The German Aviation Monument in Berlin, 1935 (US National Archives)
Sir Hugh Trenchard (RAF Museum)
Sholto Douglas (Imperial War Museum)
The Luftwaffe hierarchy on 19 July 1940 (Weidenfeld Archives)
R. J. Mitchell, creator of the Spitfire (Popperfoto)
Willy Messerschmitt, responsible for the Me 109 and 110 fighters (Robert Hunt Library)
Sir Robert Watson-Watt (Imperial War Museum)
A CH radar tower (Imperial War Museum)
A Remote Reserve aerial (Imperial War Museum)
Heinkel 111 in the standard ‘stepped vies’ formation (Imperial War Museum)
Messerschmitt 109E (Heinz Nowarra)
Junkers 87 Stuka dive-bombers (Imperial War Museum)
First prototype Hurricane in flight (Popperfoto)
First prototype Spitfire (RAF Museum)
Gloster Gladiators in tight vie (Popperfoto)
Bristol Blenheim IVs in stepped-up echelon (Imperial War Museum)
Winston Churchill (Imperial War Museum)
Lord Beaverbrook and Sir John Anderson (Popperfoto)
Hurricane assembly (Tom Graves)
Sir Cyril Newall, Chief of the Air Staff (D. Bateman)
Keith Park, AOC 11 Group (Imperial War Museum)
Sir Quintin Brand, AOC 10 Group (RAF Museum)
Trafford Leigh-Mallory, AOC 12 Group (Imperial War Museum)
Werner Moelders, the Luftwaffe’s greatest fighter pilot (RAF Museum)
Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering with Adolf Galland (Weidenfeld Archives)
Sir Frederick Bowhill, AOC-in-C Coastal Command (Imperial War Museum)
Sir Charles ‘Peter’ Portal, AOC-in-C Bomber Command (Imperial War Museum)
H. A. V. ‘Harry’ Hogan, CO 501 Squadron (courtesy of Air Vice-Marshal Henry Hogan CBE, DFC)
John Hannah VC (Imperial War Museum)
Flight Lieutenant R. A. B. Learoyd VC (Imperial War Museum)
Josef Frantisek (Imperial War Museum)
Alan Deere (Imperial War Museum)
A. G. ‘Sailor’ Malan (Imperial War Museum)
Johnny Kent (Imperial War Museum)
Spitfire pilots of 610 Squadron recovering from yet another operation (Imperial War Museum)
German pilots off duty (authors’ collection)
The Duke of Kent talking to pilots of A Flight 302 (Polish) Squadron (authors’ collection)
Goering and his staff study a troop-landing exercise (Imperial War Museum)
Personnel of an Army Airfield Defence Unit (Imperial War Museum)
The filter room, RAF Fighter Command, Bentley Priory (D. Bateman)
Bofors light anti-aircraft guns and crew (Imperial War Museum)
Balloons over London (Imperial War Museum)
Observer Corps post (RAF Museum)
Sound locators for the guns being inspected by King George VI, 14 August 1940 (D. Bateman)
Pilots of A Flight 607 Squadron relaxing (courtesy of William Blackadder DSO, DBE)
610 Squadron pilots at Biggin Hill (RAF Museum)
Ground crews servicing guns: bombing up in France (RAF Museum)
Refuelling in England (RAF Museum)
Me 110 under attack (RAF Museum)
‘Near miss’ between attacking Spitfire and He 111 (Keystone)
‘Bombs away!’ – from a Heinkel (RAF Museum)
Crew away – from a ditched Me 110 (RAF Museum)
Local Defence Volunteers as viewed by Edward Ardizzone (Imperial War Museum)
Home Guard on duty over a wrecked Dornier (RAF Museum)
Aircraft salvage dump (Imperial War Museum)
He 111, flying north over Millwall, London (Imperial War Museum)
Sir Hugh Dowding with the King and Queen at Bentley Priory, 6 September 1940 (Imperial War Museum)
Peter Townsend with two of his ground crew, Kenley (RAF Museum)
Five Czech sergeants of 310 Squadron (authors’ collection)
James Nicolson of 249 Squadron (Imperial War Museum)
George Barclay of 249 Squadron (courtesy of A. R. F. Thompson DFC)
Roland ‘Bee’ Beamont of 87 Squadron (courtesy of R. Beamont CBE, DSO and Bar, DFC and Bar, US DFC)
Biggin Hill photographed during an evening raid on 30 August (Crown copyright)
Some of the pilots of 249 Squadron in September (Air Historical Branch)
Low-level Dornier attack on Kenley (RAF Museum)
The end for one more Dornier (courtesy of Bruce Robertson)
Two captured German crew survivors, 11 September 1940 (Imperial War Museum)
London’s dockland burns, 7 September 1940 (RAF Museum)
The ‘blitz’: a heavy rescue team and helpers (RAF Museum)
Shelterers in the London Underground, 1940 (Imperial War Museum)
The Battle fades; the ‘blitz’ continues (Cecil Beaton photograph, courtesy of Sotheby’s Belgravia)
MAPS
1 The Air Defences of Great Britain, August 1940: The South
2 The Air Defences of Great Britain, August 1940: The North
3 15 August: The Northern Thrust
4 Ordeal of the Airfields: 15 August
5 ‘Sealion’: The German Invasion Plan – Final Version, September 1940
6 One Target: London, 7 September, Daylight
7 The Culmination: 15 September
LINE ILLUSTRATIONS
Front page of the Daily Telegraph, 16 August 1940
Punch cartoon, 4 September 1940
Front page of the Daily Telegraph, 7 September 1940
Production and Wastage of Hurricanes and Spitfires, July-October 1940
Front page of the Daily Telegraph, 9 September 1940