This elegant commemorative edition celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, as depicted by the world's finest aviation artist, Robert Taylor. More than thirty dynamic actions during the aerial battle are depicted, supported by expert text and contemporary accounts describing each scene. At the end of the summer of 1940, only one nation in Europe still remained defiant of Nazi Germany. After the collapse of France, Poland, Belgium, and the Netherlands, and given the professed neutrality of the Soviet Union and the United States, Adolf Hitler had only one remaining conquest in sight-the British isles-upon which he dispatched his mighty Luftwaffe. However, in Winston Churchill, he encountered a leader equal in combatant spirit to himself, who furthermore could call on the RAF to fight back against what was then the world's strongest air force.
The result was a desperate combat, wherein outnumbered British fighters rose to disrupt the enemy bomber streams, even as German fighters pounced on British formations, singling out individual pilots for aerial duels. In the end, the Spitfires and Hurricanes of Fighter Command were able to hold off the Nazi swarms, thus saving Britain from a full invasion and ensuring that the democracies would still have a springboard back into Europe, once the U.S. had entered the war. "Never in the course of human history," said Churchill later, "have so many owed so much to so few." His words were more true than he could have known at the time.
Featuring exceptional quality art-printing, "Robert Taylor's Battle of Britain" includes detailed information about the Battle of Britain, as well as the stories behind his paintings, augmented by the recollections of some of the most famous aces who fought in the battle, including Douglas Bader, Johnnie Johnson, and the German ace, Adolf Galland.
Robert Taylor's paintings of aircraft, more than those of any other artist, have helped popularize the genre. Based in the UK, he has exhibited throughout the US and Canada, Australia, Japan, and Europe. His paintings hang in many of the world's great aviation museums and adorn boardrooms, offices and homes, and his limited edition prints are avidly collected all around the world. This collected work to mark the 70th anniversary of the battle will be an essential acquisition for both aviation enthusiasts and serious students of World War II.
