AIR BRITAIN BOOKS

Gifts of War
In the late summer of 1940 Britain stood alone against the Nazi onslaught, which had already overwhelmed much of Western Europe. All that stood between the homeland and the threat of invasion was the RAF, with only a relatively small number of Spitfire and Hurricane fighters available. Many more would be needed, and Winston Churchill appointed as a new Minister of Aviation Production his friend the Canadian-born newspaper magnate Lord Beaverbrook, owner of the "Daily Express", charged with expanding output of aircraft of all types. The people wanted to help too, and the idea was born of Spitfire Funds. Hurricanes would also be needed, but it was the Spitfire that inspired the public imagination.
Spitfire Funds sprang up in towns and villages around the country, to be quickly joined by counterparts in the Dominions and colonies as well as other countries around the world. Collecting boxes rattled everywhere and even small places somehow managed to scrape together £5,000 for a fighter (equivalent to £200,000 today), to have a local name painted on the cowling. Money poured in from all over the world for a variety of aircraft types until around £14,000,000 had been contributed by the end of the war. The full story has never been told, and this significant aspect of the aviation history of Britain and the Commonwealth was in great danger of being lost to posterity. There is much of local interest, and an in-depth county-by-county analysis, related to contemporary population figures, shows the contribution each made, with similar details for the many overseas donors.
With a vast amount of previously unpublished information, it deals with aspects never before covered in depth in any of the many Spitfire books and articles previously published over the last sixty years. Around 1,500 very detailed individual narrative Spitfire histories give donor details, full service records including operational use, known codes carried, accidents, any victories scored and comprehensive fates.
The name Spitfire is now renowned throughout the world and is synonymous with the Battle of Britain, but numerous detailed tables include a comprehensive listing of around a thousand other presentation aircraft of over 40 types, mainly Hurricanes but also including substantial numbers of Beaufighters, Blenheims, Defiants, Hudsons, Manchesters, Mosquitoes, Stirlings, Tiger Moths, Wellingtons and Whirlwinds.
Other appendices include extracts from files in the National Archives; extractions from contemporary newspapers and Ministry of Aircraft Bulletins; and the most complete listing yet published of over 1,700 known First World War presentations under a similar earlier scheme. An index covers the many thousands of pilot's names referred to in the text. Illustrated with over 430 black and white photographs, many of which have never previously been seen in print. 16 of the 464 pages are in colour, several with side views by Dave Howley.

 

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