The Good Fight: Battle of Britain Propaganda and the Few

399 Pages·2009·3.715 MB·English

by  Garry Campion (auth.)

The Good Fight
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The Good Fight
Battle of Britain Propaganda and the Few
Garry Campion
©GarryCampion2009
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-1-4039-8998-7
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Campion,Garry,1963–
Thegoodfight:BattleofBritainpropagandaandthefew/Garry
Campion.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
For Suzanne
FromaSergeantPilot
God,giveusgracethatwe,
Flyingourfighterstoeternity,
Maymeteor-likebeforewefall
Leavefierytrailsoflight,thatall
Truth’ssonsmayclutch,andclutchingrise
ToblastHell’sspawnfromHeaven’sskies.
PilotOfficerO.C.Chave
3July1940[452,p.11]
Contents
ListofIllustrations x
AcknowledgementsandPermissions xi
Abbreviations xiii
Chronology–May1940–March1941 xv
Introduction 1
Thedisputedinvasionthreat 1
Thepropagandawar 6
1 ATangleofVapourTrails 9
Definingpropaganda 9
TheAirMinistry 12
‘MinistryofMorale’ 25
WinstonChurchill 33
Conclusions 35
2 SquadronsUp 36
RAFFighterCommand 36
TheLuftwaffe 48
TheBattleofBritain 51
Reckoning 58
3 ArisetoConquer 64
RAFpilots’combatexperiencesandmorale 64
LuftwaffemoraleandtheFew 71
ContemporarytributestotheFew 73
British,Empireandinternationaltributes 85
Deliverance 90
4 WingedWords 91
Collatingandbroadcastingtheclaims 91
Breakingthenews 96
PersuadingBritain 101
Theaircraft-claimingcontroversy 104
Significance 114
vii
viii Contents
5 MasteryoftheAir 116
Wirelesspropagandists 116
BBChomenewscoverage 120
Contribution 133
6 FinestHour 134
‘Hot’propaganda:thepress 134
Warrior-heroes 140
Offthefrontpages−TheMirrorandTheTimes 147
Magazinesandjournals 151
Conclusions 159
7 MenLikeThese 161
Newsreelsaspropaganda 161
NewsreelcoverageofFighterCommand 163
Americannewsreels 175
MOI‘shorts’ 179
Arestrospective 187
8 TheSky’stheLimit 189
TheRAFinfocus 189
PhotographingtheFew 192
PortrayingtheLuftwaffe 197
Newspaperandmagazinecartoons 198
Magazineillustrations 206
Newspaperandmagazineadvertisements 208
Posters 212
Warart−officialandsemi-official 214
Battleiconographyinretrospect 222
9 CombatReport 224
People’swar:BritainandtheBattle 224
PersuadingAmerica 236
TheAxis:GermanyandItaly 244
Persuadingtheworld 246
Winningthepropagandawar 249
10 TheR.A.F.inAction 251
Cinema,propagandaandtheRAF 251
AmericaandtheFew 266
Retrospectandpost-warcinema 275
Contents ix
11 ToSoFew 278
Publishingpropaganda 278
Officialandsemi-officialpropaganda 280
Unofficialpropaganda 301
Inspiringtheyoung–officialandunofficialpublications 304
Post-warhistoriography 307
Conclusion 311
WarArtists’Appendix 315
Bibliography 317
Index 336