Blitz on Britain 1939-45,

by Alfred Price

(Sutton, £20)

SIXTY years ago this month Britain was fighting for its very existence against the might of the German military machine.

Outnumbered but undaunted, the pilots of the Royal Air Force daily hurled back the massed bomber and fighter fleets of Goering's aerial armadas.

This is the legend. Except that if one looks beneath the surface - as Alfred Price does in this remarkable book - it becomes apparent that the Nazis never really stood much chance of invading these islands.

Their failure to put Operation Sealion into effect was because the Germans probably realised the Royal Navy would have easily blown the troop barges out of the water. Surviving units of the Wehrmacht who waded ashore would inevitably have been mown down by the best units of the British Army. Then there was the weather factor.

In many respects, the German onslaught was ultimately doomed. For as soon as the shipping convoys came under attack in July, 1940, there was a relentless, steady plucking of the Luftwaffe's feathers.

Then Hitler invaded Russia in June, 1941, resulting in many squadrons being withdrawn to the Eastern Front.

But there was something else. Technology - and the fact that the British had the edge on the Germans throughout the entire struggle. Crucially, our radar systems picked up the enemy fleets forming over the French coast, giving the RAF time to take off and gain vital height.

British scientists also eventually cracked the radio beam system of bombing which initially caused so much damage to British cities. This, together with improved radar on night fighters and increasingly accurate anti-aircraft gunnery, started to take their toll on the intruders.

During the attacks on British cities between November 1940 and May 1941, the night defences were almost helpless and the attackers almost had a free hand. But by 1944, they were paying the price of one bomber and four trained crew for every five British civilians killed. No combatant could sustain such a casualty rate.

It was the bravery of our armed forces and the indomitable spirit of the British people that triumphed in the end. But there is also a debt to the unsung heroes and heroines - the boffins who ensured science was on the side of right.

John Phillpott.