Do the names; Arthur Donahue, John Haviland, Vernon Keough, Phillip Leckrone, William Fiske, Andrew Mamedoff, Hugh Reilley or Eugene Tobin ring a bell in your Roledex of WW 2 history? Probably William Fiske may strike a cord with you if you are fan of bobsleding and Winter Olympic history.

To most of us who think we are knowledgeable of WW 2 and the Battle of Britian, these not familiar names, yet these eight selfless young men risked everything and paid the ultimate price in defense of liberty. These few were the first Americans to fly for the RAF and the only ones to fight in the Battle of Britian.

What Alex Kershaw has done is told a story most of us have never heard, about eight men who loved to fly and who risked the loss of their American citizenship to come to Britian's aid in its most trying time of the war. From their recruitment by the mysterious Colonel Sweeney to intially fly for the French, their escape to Britian as France fell, winning their acceptance into the RAF and lastly details of their wartime deaths; this is an intriguing fast moving tale that is well written and a read that is hard to put down.

Kershaw has done a superb job of showing us the human aspect of the Battle of Britian through lives of these 8 aviators. In addition he takes the reader into the squadrons of the Luftwaffe and we are afforded the opportunity to view the German air campaign through the lives of Germany's top aces as they competed to be their nation's top fighter pilot.

This is a book well worth reading, so aviation buffs, strap into your Spitfire and head off into combat.

This book is supposed to be about the Americans who flew with the RAF in the Battle of Britain.

Why would an author allow an inaccurate dust jacket for his book?

The cover shows a Spitfire in pursuit of a German FW-190. Odd, really, because the FW-190 was not in Luftwaffe service during the Battle of Britain. The Germans flew BF-109Es.

Should one judge a book by its cover? I did. If the author cannot do better than this inaccurate dust jacket, the book does not seem worth additional time.

Great book. Easy and detailed read of a most exciting time in Britain's history that was the first effective block put up to stop Hitler. Excellent addition to my library on WWII.

Never in the field of human literature was so much written so poorly about so few.
I really looked forward to this book, and maybe the disappointment I felt after reading it is a reflection of this sense, but in general this book is a severe let down. Between its narrative, its portrayal of historical facts and its inconsistent logic this is something to avoid.

It is suppose to follow the true story of the eagle squadrons, those American who, for what ever reason, joined the Royal Air Force in 1940 to fight the Germans before the US entered the war. The problem is the coverage is spotty at best and when away from the Americans, the tone setting in the book, seems little more than the most basic history that anyone can get from any source.

Even the pacing, instead of making the book exciting, becomes a drag. Early on Kershaw jumps back and forth between pilots trying to get into the fight, and Winston Churchill watching the collapse of France and directing the British response. I think this is to put the pilots' actions into the wider world view. What it achieves however is a sense that the author is padding his thin work.

Kershaw focuses on a handful of the Americans and one has to wonder "why these guys?" for example when France started to fall, the man who had organized Americans coming to France to fight, sets in motion a network to smuggle them out to Britain. The men Kershaw focuses on missed this and so we are treated to the adventures of the exceptions to the rule rather than what happened to most of the men, who successfully used the net work. While great "boys own" type stuff it is hardly a history of the eagle squadron. Indeed it seems to rather follow the sad sacks who couldn't get with the program than covering the Americans who fought.

There are some real slip ups in the historical details as well, that anyone doing a modicum of research should have caught. Such as saying the Americans wished to emulate the famous Escadrille squadron of WW1. "Escadrille" is the French word for `squadron.' According to Kershaw these men wanted to be in the `Squadron squadron.' The Americans who flew for France in WW1 were in the Lafayette Escadrille, named for the French nobleman who fought for the US in its revolution. This may seem like a small point, but when you realize the author has gaffed on something easily checked, you start to wonder about the fact checking on other, far more important details.

Indeed, after a while one starts to suspect his research was limited to having access to a few diaries and a weekend at the local Blockbuster store. Early on we are told the Americans feared being arrested by the FBI as the violated US law to leave the country. Although the laws were on the books they were not enforced with more than a wink and a nod. American mercenaries were gaining fame serving in overseas military, such as the "Flying Tigers" in China. Indeed with gaff this bad so early on one starts to wonder about any facts given.

It is not even consistent with its own internal logic. For example the lead character, in leaving the US leaves word that he's off to fly the sweetest plane there is, the Super-Marine spitfire. The problem is this man is leaving the US to enlist in the French Air Force, which did not use Spitfires.

In short this book, while approaching a topic that could have been fascinating and inspiring is such a poor turn out that I'm hard pressed to find anything worthwhile from cover to cover, beyond telling Americans about what their countrymen did in WW2 that they might not know about. Facts? Pacing? Heck it's so padded in areas that it doesn't even make good fiction, never mind an historical work.