Agent Palmer

There is something remarkable about reading Battle of Britain by Len Deighton. First, it is hardly the first book about the Battle of Britain I’ve read, second, all the others, even if they were more broadly World War II based, were all written by him, and third, I still learned something new.

I’m not sure if he uncovered more information during his research for this book or was just more able to tell the story, but this book is not only direct in its retelling of history but it’s also a work of art.

Len Deighton’s Blitzkrieg is a focus on the many pieces of innovation, lessons learned, battles fought and won that lead to blitzkrieg, which “was quite different from anything ever experienced in previous wars.”

Deighton doesn’t go into much about the origin of the word, but he doesn’t mince words when describing what the short success of the blitzkrieg has been made of in hindsight where he writes “German triumphs in this campaign have caused their military recklessness to be hailed as genius, their dangerous gambles to be thought of as miracles.”

Zeppelins, or rigid airships, are now just a distant memory. While there are still blimps occasionally in the sky over our heads, they are in fact similar but not the same. The airships discussed in this book, Airshipwreck, are what was and at one time they were the future.

For author Len Deighton, who wrote this book, “the airship has a magic that the aeroplane cannot replace. The size is awesome, the shape Gothic, a pointed arch twirled into a tracery of aluminum. And the reality is not disappointing.”