The families of the R. A. F. servicemen killed flying Defiants believed that their husbands, brothers and sons had died in vain, but the truth is that their vital contribution to battle of Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain has been erased from the official history. Robert Verkaik has uncovered new records, including top secret memos written by Hugh Dowding, the head of Fighter Command, combat reports, pilot logs and recordings of the last interviews with Defiant crews, as well as traced the relatives of Defiant pilots, to tell the story of the Battle of Britain as it has never been told before.
In 1940, when Britain was preparing to defend itself against the threatened Nazi invasion, the nation put its faith in three frontline fighter planes. Much has been written of the heroic feats and sacrifices of the R. A. F. pilots who took off in their Spitfires and Hurricanes against the larger Luftwaffe, but what of the third British fighter, the Boulton Paul Defiant?
Very little has been written about this fighter plane and the brave airmen who flew it. Instead, history has treated the aircraft as a military design failure and its participation in the battle as an unmitigated disaster, costing the lives of dozens of young pilots and gunners. But this official version of the Battle of Britain underplays the heroism of the airmen who flew the Boulton Paul Defiant against all the odds. It also fails to show how the Defiant was as much a victim of political in-fighting and mismanagement as it was of the much faster German Messerschmitts.