Research sources and links

In the following lists of books, a unit or airfield may appear in chapters or sections rather than the whole book. Many of these books are out of print. These books are NOT available from BAAC, but the best place to start tracking a title down is through the various online booksellers. Please email us if you know of any books with chapters about specific squadrons, other units or airfields - particularly biographical ones! If you've read any books listed under unknown RAF units, please email which units are mentioned.

Page continually updated...

 

The following list gives details of books which are either entirely about or give reference to specific events.

Arnhem

  • M Middlebrook 'Arnhem 1944'

Augsberg

  • J Currie 'The Augsberg Raid' (Goodall 1987)

Baedeker Raids

  • Story of the Exeter Blitz' (Wheaton c1943)
  • P Crampton 'Blitz of Canterbury' (Meresborough 1989)
  • L Kessler 'Great York air raid' (Dalesman 1979)
  • N Rothnie 'The Baedeker Blitz' (Ian Allen 1992)
  • M Wainwright 'Bath Blitz' (Kingston 1985)
  • C Whiting 'Three star Blitz: Baedeker Raids' (Leo Cooper 1987)
  • G Worrall 'Target Exeter' (Private)

Battle of Britain

  • R T Bickers 'Battle of Britain' (Salamander 1990)
  • E Bishop 'Battle of Britain' (George Allen & Unwin 1960)
  • Patrick Bishop 'Battle of Britain: a day-by-day chronicle 10 July - 31 October 1940' (2009)
  • M J Bowyer 'Battle of Britain 50 years on' (PSL 1990)
  • Brown 'Spitfire Summer' (2006)
  • S Bungay 'Most dangerous enemy' (Aurum 2000)
  • R W Clark 'Battle for Britain' (Harrap 1965)
  • Goss 'Luftwaffe Fighters Battle of Britain: the inside story' (Crecy 2000)
  • J Foreman 'Battle of Britain - the forgotten months' (Air Research 1998)
  • N R Franks 'Battle of Britain' (Bison 1981)
  • Holland 'The Battle of Britain: five months that changed history' (Bantam 2010)
  • Ishoven 'Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain' (1980)
  • D A Johnson 'Battle of Britain - and the American factor' (Combined 1998)
  • M Julian 'Battle of Britain' (Jonathan Cape 1967)
  • P Kaplan 'Fighter aces of the RAF in the Battle of Britain' (Pen & Sword 2007)
  • F K Mason 'Battle over Britain' (McWhirter Twins 1969)
  • D Middleton 'Sky suspended: Battle of Britain 1940-41' (Secker & Warburg 1960)
  • M Parker 'Battle of Britain' (Headline 2000)
  • A Price 'Battle of Britain' (A & A 1990)
  • A Price 'Battle of Britain: The Hardest Day: 18th August 1940' (BCA 1979)
  • J Ray 'The Battle of Britain - New Perspectives' (Arms & Armour 1994)
  • A Robinson 'RAF Fighter Squadrons in the Battle of Britain' (Brockhampton Press 1999)
  • J M Spraight 'Battle of Britain 1940' (Geoffrey Bles 1941)
  • J F Turner 'Battle of Britain' (Airlife 1998)
  • W G Ramsey (ed) 'The Battle of Britain Then and Now' (After the Battle 1985)

Berlin

  • A W Cooper 'Bombers over Berlin' (Kimber 1985)
  • Cooper 'Bombers over Berlin: the RAF offensive Nov 1943-March 1944' (Airlife 2003)
  • Ethell & Price 'Target Berlin: mission 250 6th March 1944' (Janes/ A&A 1981)
  • Richard Knot 'Black night for Bomber Command' (high loss raid on 16th December 1943) (Pen & Sword 2007)
  • M Middlebrook 'Berlin raids' (Viking 1988)
  • M Middlebrook 'The bomber battle for Berlin' (Pen & Sword 2010)
  • J Searby 'Bomber Battle for Berlin' (Guild 1991)
  • Wilson 'Men of air: the doomed youth of Bomber Command' (covers Berlin, Magdeburg, Leipzig & Nuremberg 1944; published 2008)

Birmingham

  • C Chinn 'Brum undaunted: Birmingham during the Blitz' (Birmingham Library Service 1996)

Blitz

  • W G Ramsey (ed) 'The Blitz Then and Now' (3 vols After the Battle 1987-90)

Bodenplatte

  • Norman Franks 'Battle of the airfields'
  • Manhro &Putz 'Bodenplatte: the Luftwaffes last hope' (Hikoki 2004)

Brighton

  • Rowland 'Out of the blue: the story of Brighton's worst air raid in 1943' (Finsbury 2003)

Bristol

  • J Dike 'Bristol Blitz Diary' (Redcliffe 1982)
  • H Reid 'Bristol Blitz (the untold story)' (Redcliffe 1988)
  • S Shipley 'Bristol Siren Nights: diaries & stories of the blitzes' (Redcliffe 1989 - first published 1944)
  • R Winstone 'Bristol Blitzed' (Winstone 1973)

Bruneval

  • G Millar 'Bruneval raid' (Bodley Head 1974)

Channel Dash

  • J D Potter 'Fiasco: break-out of the German battleships' (Readers Union 1970)
  • T Robertson 'Channel Dash' (QBC 1958)

Cologne

  • Ralph Barker 'The thousand plan' (Cahatto & Windus 1965; The Reprint Society 1966)
  • Feast 'Heroic Endeavour' (Pathfinder op December 1944) (Grub St 2006)
  • C Messenger 'Cologne: the first 1000 bomber raid' (Ian Allen 1982)
  • C Messenger 'Cologne: crucial battles of WW2' (Ian Allen 1982)
  • Eric Taylor 'Operation Millenium' (Robert Hale Ltd 1987 ISBN 0 7090 2967 5)
  • Taylor 'Operation Millenium: raid on Cologne May 1942' (Spellmount 2004)

Copenhagen

  • Reilly 'The sixth floor: RAF raid on Shell House, Copenhagen 1945' (Frewin 1969)

Coventry

  • Allan W Kurki 'Operation Moonlight Sonata' (Greenwood Press 1995)
  • 'Coventry's Blitz' (Coventry Evening Telegraph 1990)
  • N Longmate 'Air Raid - Coventry 1940' (Hutchinson 1976)

Crete / Operation Mercury

  • Comeau 'Operation Mercury: a British airmans first hand account of the fall of Crete in 1941' (PSL 1991)

D-Day

  • Stephen Darlow 'D-Day bombers: the veterans' story' (2010)
  • Delve 'D-Day: the air battle' (Crowood 2004)

Dams

  • A W Cooper 'The men who breached the dams' (Airlife, 1993)
  • H Euler 'Dams raid: through the lens' (After the Battle 2001)
  • Falconer 'Dambusters: breaking the great dams 16-17th May 1943' (Sutton)
  • S Harrison 'Dambusters 60th anniversary' (J & KH 2003)
  • J Holsgrove & H Graham 'Dambusters away' (Freelance Library 1998)
  • S Ottaway 'Dambuster: a life of Guy Gibson VC' (Leo Cooper 1994, reprinted softback 2007)
  • J Sweetman et al 'Dambusters' (Timewarner 2003)
  • J Sweetman 'The Dambusters raid' (A & A 1993)
  • Sweetman 'Operation Chastise: the dam raid: epic or myth' (Janes 1982)
  • Arthur Thorning 'The Dambuster who cracked the dam' (Pen & Sword 2008)
  • Ward & Wachtel 'Dambuster raid crash sites: in Holland and Germany' (2008)

Dieppe

  • N Franks 'Greatest air battle: Dieppe 19th August 1942' (Kimber 1979)
  • N Franks 'Greatest air battle: Dieppe 19th August 1942' (Grub St 1992)

Dresden

  • A Cooper 'Target Dresden' (Independent 1995)
  • D Irving 'Destruction of Dresden' (Kimber 1964)
  • A McKee 'Dresden 1945: The Devil's Tinderbox' (Souvenir 1982)
  • F Musgrove 'Dresden and the heavy bombers' (Pen & Sword 2005)
  • F Taylor 'Dresden' (Bloomsbury 2004)
  • 'Dresden: Tuesday 13 February 1945'

Dunkirk

  • N Franks 'Air Battle for Dunkirk 26 May - 3 June 1940' (Grub St 2006)

Essen

  • J Searby 'Great raids vol 2 - Essen' (Nutshell 1978)

Falaise gap

  • 'Firestorm: Typhoons over Caen, 1944'

Filton

  • Wakefield 'Target Filton: two Luftwaffe attacks in September 1940' (Redcliffe, 1990)

Folkestone/ WW1 bombing

  • Easdown/ Genth 'A glint in the sky' (WW1 Gotha & Zeppelin attacks on Kent) (Pen and Sword 2004)

Hamburg

  • J Heitmann 'Hamburg Firestorm' (After the Battle no. 70)
  • M Middlebrook 'Hamburg raid'
  • G Musgrove 'Operation Gomorrah: the Hamburg firestorm raids' (Janes 1981)

Le Portel

  • M Cumming 'Starkey Sacrifice: bombing of Le Portel 1943' (Sutton 1996)

Leipzig

  • Cooper 'Target Leipzig' (19-20 February 1944) (Pen & Sword 2009)
  • Wilson 'Men of air: the doomed youth of Bomber Command' (covers Berlin, Magdeburg, Leipzig & Nuremberg 1944; published 2008)

London

  • Hanson 'First Blitz' (1918 raids) (2008)
  • D Johnson 'City Ablaze: 2nd great fire of London 1940' (Kimber 1980)
  • J Neville 'Blitz - London: Then & Now' (Hodder & Stoughton 1990)
  • Nixon 'Raiders overhead: a diary of the London Blitz' (Scolar 1980)
  • L Whitnell 'Engines over London' (Carroll & Nicholson 1949)

Magdeburg

  • Wilson 'Men of air: the doomed youth of Bomber Command' (covers Berlin, Magdeburg, Leipzig & Nuremberg 1944; published 2008)

Mailly-le-Camp

  • Jack Currie 'Battle under the moon: the RAF raid on Mailly-le-Camp May 1944' (Crecy 1995)
  • Burkett/ Gilbert 'Not just another milk run' (2005)

Manchester

  • Smith 'Flying bombs over the Pennines: story of V-1 attack on Manchester 24th December 1944' (Smith)
  • P Smith 'Luftwaffe over Manchester: the Blitz years 1940-44' (Richardson 2003)

Munster

  • Ian Hawkins 'The Munster raid'
  • I Hawkins 'Munster: the way it was' (Robinson 1984)
  • I Hawkins 'The Munster raid: before and after' (FNP 1999)

Netherlands

  • Onderwater 'Operation Manna/ Chowhound: the Allied food droppings April/ May 1945' (Midland 1991)

Nuremburg

  • J Campbell 'Bombing of Nuremburg' (Alison & Busby 1973)
  • M Middlebrook 'The Nuremburg raid' (Allen Lane 1973)
  • G Taylor 'The Nuremberg massacre' (Sidewick & Jackson 1980)
  • Wilson 'Men of air: the doomed youth of Bomber Command' (covers Berlin, Magdeburg, Leipzig & Nuremberg 1944; published 2008)

Peenemunde

  • J Heitmann 'Peenemunde Rocket Centre' (After the Battle 1991)
  • M Middlebrook 'Peenemunde raid' (Allen Lane 1982; Pen & Sword 2000)
  • J Searby 'Great raids vol 1 - Peenemunde' (Picton 1987)

Ploesti

  • R Bujor, D Melinte & C Nastase 'Ploesti: Low Level Strike' (Modelism International, Romania, 2007)
  • Duggan & Stewart 'Ploesti: the great ground-air battle of 1st August 1943' (Cape 1963)
  • M Hill 'Black Sunday' (Schiffer 1993)
  • L W Newby 'Target Ploesti: view from a bombsight' (Arms & Armour 1983)
  • L Wolff 'Low level mission: Ploesti Raids' (Longmans 1958)
  • 'The Ploesti raid through the lens'

Plymouth

  • A Clamp 'Blitz of Plymouth 1940-44) (Clamp c1990)
  • F Wintle 'The Plymouth Blitz' (Bossiney Books 1989)

Portsmouth

  • 'Smitten City: Portsmouth under Blitz' (Portsmouth Newspapers 1981)

Regensburg/ Schweinfurt

  • E Jablonski 'Double Strike: Epic raids on Regensburg/ Schweinfurt' (Doubleday 1974)

Revigny

  • Oliver Clutton-Brock 'Massacre over the Marne' (1994)

Rjukan

  • Wiggan 'Operation Freshman: the Rjukan heavy water raid 1942' (Kimber 1986)

Sicily / Operation Husky

  • S W C Pack 'Operation Husky' (David & Charles 1977)
  • C Whiting 'Slaughter over Sicily'

Southampton

  • A Brode 'Southampton Blitz' (Countryside 1982)

Stockport Air Crash

  • S Morrin 'The day the sky fell down: The story of the Stockport Air Disaster' (Self published 1998)

Taranto

  • Newton & Hampshire 'Taranto' (Kimber 1959)
  • Smithers 'Taranto 1940' (Leo Cooper 1995)
  • Wragg 'Sword Fish: the story of the Taranto raid' (Weidenfeld 2003)

Tirpitz attacks

  • L Peillare 'Sink the Tirpitz' (Putnam 1968)
  • B Sweetman 'Tirpitz, Hunting the Beast' (Allied air attacks) (Naval Institute Press 2000)

Tobruk

  • Cull & Minterne 'Hurricanes over Tobruk: defence of Tobruk, Janaury - June 1941' (Grub St. 1999)

WW1 - UK

  • C Cole & E Cheeseman 'The air defence of Britain 1914-1918' (Putnam 1984)
  • Morris 'The German air raids on Great Britain 1914-1918' (1925, reprinted 2008)

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