The Desert Air War: a gripping historical account of the RAF’s role in North Africa during World War Two

Book Synopsis: 1940. World War Two has just begun… Fighting breaks out across the continent of Europe, as Hitler and his generals face off against the French and their allies in Churchill and Montgomery. But across the Mediterranean, another storm brews… Italy takes its chances in Northern Africa. And if it were not for the Royal Air Force, the Second World War might have had a severely different outcome. During those long months when the men on the ground went back and forth across the desert in a dizzying succession of triumphs and reverses, the men of the Royal Air Force, often woefully under equipped, struggled valiantly to keep possession of the skies under which the troops were fighting.

Richard Bickers, author of several books on the history of aerial warfare, saw the war in North Africa and Italy from both the ground and the air, and uses his own experiences, interwoven with the recollections of numerous contemporaries, to create a vivid picture of what it was like to fly, to fight and to control operations over the desert at that time. The Desert Air War is at once a gripping historical account of the RAF’s role in North Africa during World War Two, and an endearing and empathetic portrayal of the indomitable spirit of the men who risked their lives for their country.

Praise for Richard Bickers: ‘His sympathy with the fighting man (and woman) shines out of every page’ - Liverpool Daily Post Richard Townsend Bickers volunteered for the RAF on the outbreak of the second world war and served, with a Permanent Commission, for eighteen years. He wrote a range of military fiction and non-fiction books, including Torpedo Attack, My Enemy Came Nigh, Bombing Run, Fighters Up and Summer of No Surrender.