Spitfire Summer

Malcolm Brown, formerly a distinguished television documentary director, has been a freelance historian at the Imperial War Museum since 1989. He has written a substantial list of books including The Imperial War Museum Book of the Western Front, The Imperial War Museum Book of the Somme and Verdun 1916. His latest books are Tommy Goes to War, The Last of the Ebb: The Battle of the Aisne, 1918 with Sidney Rogerson and Lawrence of Arabia: Selected Letters. He lives in Ruscombe in Reading.

• Foreword * Personal Prologue * The Hour, The Man, The Weapon * Operation Sicklecut: Defeat in Europe * Operation Dynamo: Escape from Dunkirk * "If necessary, alone" * "Go to it" * Waiting for the Enemy * Battle in the Skies * When the Bomber got Through * "In Peril on the Sea" * Blitz and Closedown * Postscript: Ottawa, Winter 1941 * Maps * Abbreviations and codenames * Chronology * Acknowledgements * Notes and sources * Bibliography * Index of Contributors * Index.