The Breaking Storm: 10 July 1940 - 12 August 1940

1-240940

In The Breaking Storm, the first of Dilip Sarkar's unprecedented seven-volume series exploring the Battle of Britain, the events that led up to the outbreak of war in 1939, and which set the scene for the epic aerial conflict of summer 1940, are fully explored. The author provides a day-by-day chronicle of the Battle of Britain's first phase - the so-called Kanalkampf - which was fought over the Channel-bound convoys between July 10 and August 12, 1940. This account, though, does not simply concern RAF Fighter Command, as the author recognizes the operations and efforts of the RAF's Bomber and Coastal commands, the Royal Navy, and mercantile marines - making this book part of what he calls 'the Big story.'

Hitler's actual policies and intentions toward the ongoing war with Britain are also explored. If the Battle of Britain was fought to deny Germany the aerial superiority required to launch a seaborne invasion of southern England, then, the author argues, the conflict could surely only have begun when the Germans committed to Operation Seelowe - which was not until July 21, 1940. It has previously been accepted that Hitler's War Directive of July 16, 1940 signaled the intention to invade, but the author proves that this was no more than another example of the brinkmanship that Hitler was renowned for, which was intended to frighten Britain into accepting the Fuhrer's 'last appeal to reason' of July 19, 1940.

In his broadcast of July 22, 1940, Lord Halifax made the nation's unbowed position quite clear. He called Hitler's bluff: previously reluctant to fight Britain, Hitler's preferred policy in the ongoing war had been blockade and diplomacy - but now he had no choice but to unleash the Luftwaffe against Britain. All of this is investigated in detail, aligning these wider events and high decisions with action in the air. Through diligent research, combined with crucial official primary sources and personal papers, Dilip unravels many myths, often challenging the accepted narrative. Drawing upon unique first-hand accounts from a wide-range of combatants and eyewitnesses, along with Daily Home Intelligence Reports and numerous other primary sources, this book forms part of what is likely to be the first and last such comprehensively woven account of this epic air battle.