First Blitz - Couverture souple

Hanson, Neil

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0385611714 ISBN 13 : 9780385611718

Editeur : Doubleday, 2008

A propos du livre

Quatrième de couverture :

'If I were asked what event of the last year has been of most significance to the future of humanity, I should reply that it is not the Russian Revolution, nor even the stern intervention of the United States in a sacred cause, but the appearance of a single German aeroplane flying at high noon over London last November.'

Lovat Fraser, The Times, 1917

A world away from the killing fields of France was a battle that could have changed the face of history. In the early years of the First World War, London had been subjected to sustained bombing attacks from German Zeppelins, but by late 1916 improvements in British aircraft technology had put paid to the threat they offered.

Undeterred, the German airforce took up the assault and over the course of 1917, threatened to engulf London in firestorms - a portent of the London Blitz and the Battle of Britain over twenty years later. Their determination to bring London to its knees was fuelled by a growing ability to do so.

In less than four years, the Luftwaffe's England Squadron had moved from crude, canvas and wire light aircraft to four-engined giants as big as anything that flew in the Second World War. The First Blitz took place over eight nights in 1917, but it was the second wave of attacks in the summer of 1918, following the development of the 'Elektron' incendiary bomb, that came within an ace of obliterating London. The margin between the survival of the world's greatest capital city and its total destruction came down to less than one hour.

The events and decisions taken in the course of those fateful days were as important as anything that happened on the Western Front. With breathtaking insight, compelling drama and supreme narrative clarity, Neil Hanson tells the story of the air war that could have altered the course of the conflict, and with it the history of the twentieth century itself . . .

Revue de presse :

"Neil Hanson is that rare beast - a popular historian who never talks down to his readers. Clearly and engagingly written, his book puts more academic historians to shame by discovering a big subject, investigating it thoroughly and drawing bold but far-reaching conclusions from it." (Sunday Telegraph)

"The 1940s bombing raids over London have taken such a powerful grip upon our imagination that the existence of an earlier Blitz, in World War I, will come to many readers as a complete surprise. Yet as Neil Hanson...demonstrates in this gripping and well-researched book, it was in may ways more terrifying" (Daily Mail)

"Using first-hand witnesses plus government war records, Hanson draws a powerful picture of the impact of these first air raids" (Time Out)

"History invariably falls into two categories: academic and narrative...To marry the two is a rare art - and it is an art Neil Hanson has mastered...This is a compelling story compellingly told...Gripping" (Navy News)

"An author who shows a remarkable talent for dipping into history and pulling out gems has done it again" (Bradford Telegraph & Argus)

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Doubleday
• Date d'édition: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0385611714
• ISBN 13: 9780385611718
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 448