Air War Normandy

June 1944. Allied soldiers win the Normandy beaches in a storm of blood and bullets.

But how many lives do they owe to the allied air forces?

How much would have been possible without the air superiority gained over the Luftwaffe in advance of the invasion?

In this absorbing book Richard Bickers, who himself served in the RAF during the Second World War, describes how that superiority was won, and held.

He describes in close detail how the vital necessity for air/land cooperation was brought home to the senior officers in North Africa and emphasizes how valuable this lesson was to prove later in the war.

He tells of several of the French and Belgian units who had managed to escape from Nazi-held Europe to fight on and were now returning home.

He recounts the experiences of German pilots who by then were seeing things in a very different light.

He also describes the war of the men on the ground, the crews who serviced the planes and the Airfield Construction Squadrons who built and ran the runways as the Allies advanced into Occupied France.

A worthy tribute to a supremely gallant band of men who played a vital part in restoring liberty and democracy to the Continent of Europe.

Richard Townshend Bickers is the author of many successful flying novels of the Second World War. Born in India and educated at St Paul’s he volunteered for the RAF on the outbreak of war and served as a regular officer until 1957. He has lived in many countries, travelled all over the world, and speaks and writes nine European and four oriental languages. He has written several radio plays and features as well as articles and short stories, and values bravery, kindness, humour, good food and good wine.