John Terraine's 'The Right of the Line'

Managed to get my hands on this for only £5 at the RAF Museum on Monday. Seemed a bargain (for 850 pages of text and 30 illustrations) and judging by the first 100 pages seems to be a decent read at the moment.

Anybody here read it themselves?

 

I read it some years ago, Greenjacket, and still have it on my shelves.

It's justifiably regarded as a classic - it's probably the best one-volume book covering all aspects of the RAF's WWII operations. Enjoy !

 

Yeah, it is an excellent piece of work. As martin says probably the best single volume account of RAF Ops in WWII. Unfortuanatly though it does only concentrate on european ops and leaves out the considerable operations that occured out in the Far East.

 

Thanks for pulling me up on that one, Ross - I'd clean forgotten that Terraine's book is subtitled 'European Theatre'....

I gues a one-volume detailed look at all RAF ops worldwide would be asking a bit much !

Still a benchmark title, though.

 

Good to hear glowing reviews! I'd first started reading Terraine through his writings on the First World War in 'The Smoke and the Fire', and liked his style. Knew he'd written on the RAF and when I saw it going for a fiver it seemed much too enticing an offer to pass up.

 

Terraine is a great writer. One of the first Revisionist on the first world war, which is his speciality. He is a great writer. He was attacked by some academics in the 60's when he started for his views on the first world war. People didn't like what he was writing.

 

Just remembered this thread. What would people recommend for a book on the RAF air war in the Far East?

-Ian

 

Greenjacket - Try Henry Probarts 'The Forgotten Air Force' It is the authoritive accounts of air ops in the region.

 

Cheers