The few

Summer 1940 saw an aerial struggle over England that many regard as the most important of its kind. Winston Churchill's tribute to the pilots who fought in it, "the few," captures how a small group of airmen helped stop the invasion Hitler had planned.

The book assembles more than 160 photographs alongside first-hand accounts from Allied and German Luftwaffe pilots, ground crews, and ordinary civilians. Together these build a wide picture of the battle from many vantage points. Vintage snapshots from private scrapbooks and excerpts from personal diaries add an intimate, individual view of those months.

Alongside the historic images, the author includes present-day photographs of the sites where the events took place, so readers can compare the locations then and now.