Australia’s Few and the Battle of Britain
Kristen Alexander
Randwick, NSW: New South Books, 2024
Paperback 440pp RRP $44.99
Reviewer: Robert Dixon, October 2024
This is a very well written and well researched book (in its fifth edition) which seamlessly blends biographies with history. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in the Battle of Britain and/or the history of RAAF recruitment and Flying Training at Point Cook.
During the summer and autumn of 1940, the Luftwaffe conducted a campaign to gain superiority over the RAF, especially Fighter Command. The result was the first major battle of World War II (or any war) fought entirely in the air. The Luftwaffe's defeat by 'The Few' not only put an end to Hitler’s planned invasion of Britain but also ensured that Britain could be the base for an Allied invasion of Europe at some time in the future. Thirty-five Australians flew combat operations during the Battle of Britain yet the role of the Australian 'Few' has received little attention. This book gives a personal account of eight of the Australian participants, drawing heavily on logbooks, RAF and other official archives, diaries, letters, newspaper articles and interviews with family members. The author follows these eight young men from childhood, through their education, training, personal relationships and flying careers to death in combat (in the case of seven of the eight men), and beyond that to commemoration.
The eight pilots that the author decided to cover in her book are: Jack Kennedy and Ken Holland from Sydney, Stuart Walch from Hobart, Dick Glyde from Perth, Pat Hughes from Cooma, Bill Millington from Adelaide, John Crossman from Newcastle, and Des Sheen of Canberra. Of these eight pilots only one (Des Sheen) survived the war, all of the others were killed during the Battle of Britain. All of these men flew in RAF fighter squadrons. (The first RAAF fighter squadron to be in action in Britain did not become operational until 22 May 1941, well after the Battle of Britain had ended.) Only four of the men (Hughes, Sheen, Kennedy and Walch) completed their basic flying training with the RAAF in Australia, before taking up the offer of ‘short service‘ commissions in the Royal Air Force and moving to Britain. The others travelled to Britain ‘as civilians’ and undertook flying training there. Of the eight pilots, four - Millington, Glyde, Hughes and Sheen - were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC, the third highest award for gallantry in the air) with Sheen also being awarded a bar to his DFC. The highest scoring Australian ace of the Battle of Britain was Flight Lieutenant Pat Hughes, of No. 234 Squadron RAF, who was credited with 14 kills before his death on 7 September 1940.
Eschewing the approach of devoting a chapter to each of the men the author very skilfully weaves the stories of the men into the chronology of the Battle of Britain. The accounts of their training and combat are extremely detailed and well written. The chronological approach allows the author to show that over time physical tiredness and mental strain took their toll.
The book contains 30 photographs, including photographs of all eight men but not all show them in uniform and displaying their ‘wings’. For example the only photograph in the book of Dick Glyde is captioned “Young Dick Glyde” and shows him in civilian clothes. I think a more fitting tribute would be include a photograph of him in uniform. (Such a photo exists and indeed it appears in the Author’s Blog page - see Australia's Few. Kristen Alexander's Battle of Britain Blog: Australians in the Battle of Britain. 13 August 1940.) The only photograph in the book of aircraft flown by the pilots shows fighter pilots of the RAF’s 87 Squadron racing to get to their Hawker Hurricanes in an airfield in France early in 1940. Although not taken during the Battle of Britain this is relevant to the story as before the Battle of Britain one of the pilots (Glyde) was in France serving with 87 Squadron. I think it unfortunate that the book does not contain a photo of a Supermarine Spitfire given that three of the men (including Pat Hughes) flew Spitfires.
An enormous amount of research has gone into the book and this is reflected in the 34 pages of notes & references and also in the very detailed and thus very useful index covering 14 pages. The publisher is to be commended for allowing such a lengthy index to be included in the book.
Kristen Alexander is a Canberra-based writer and researcher. In 2020, Kristen was awarded a PhD by UNSW Canberra for her thesis 'Emotions of Captivity: Australian Airmen Prisoners of Stalag Luft III and their Families'. Australia’s Few which is her fourth book, won the nonfiction category of the 2015 ACT Writing and Publishing Awards.
The RUSI – Vic Library is most grateful to the publishers for making this work available for review.