The story of the aerial fighting in the summer and autumn of 1940 told from "Ace" to "Women's Auxiliary Air Force".

The book covers the commanders, the aircraft, the events and many other aspects of the Battle of Britain.

Between its covers too are many of the human stories of the period. A Hurricane pilot expresses his disgust after watching a comrade shot under his parachute and is killed himself a few days later when his parachute fails to open; a woman watches a Spitfire crash on the White Cliffs of Dover and then writes an emotional letter to the dead pilot's mother; a young WAAF is caught in a bomb blast but crawls into a wrecked shelter to tend the wounded; the Observer Corps reports on Saturday September 7 that "many hundreds" of enemy aircraft are approaching the Kent Coast.

A Dictionary of the Battle of Britain by Geoff Simpson, published by Halsgrove in association with the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust at £19.99, large format (A4) hardback, with 160 pages and more than 50 photographs. www.battleofbritainmemorial.org; www.halsgrove.com.



Geoff (left) chatting at the launch of A Dictionary of the Battle of Britain to Flight Lieutenant William Walker, AE. In the Battle Pilot Officer Walker flew Spitfires with No 616 (South Yorkshire) Squadron. On August 26 1940 he baled out wounded off Dover and was rescued by the Royal Navy.

Head on attacks – Amongst the pilots who developed the hair-raising technique of attacking German bomber formations head on were Sqn Ldr Mike Crossley of 32 Squadron and Flt Lt Dennis Armitage of 266 Squadron. Sqn Ldr John Thompson of 111 Squadron was also an advocate for this form of attack, as indeed was AVM Park. Very fine judgement was, of course, called for.

The theory was that you were firing, directly at the key crew members, if you didn't shoot down an aircraft, you were likely to scatter the formation, making attacks by other RAF fighters easier and you might well send a damaged bomber limping back home with dead aircrew on board as a demonstration of what Fighter Command could do.

Not all pilots thought this concept was sensible and it certainly produced RAF casualties. Among those to be killed while flying head on at German aircraft were Fg Off Tom Higgs of 111 on July 10, Fg Off Mike Ferriss also of 111 Squadron on August 16 and Sqn Ldr Cedric Williams of 17 Squadron on August 25. Higgs was the first Fighter Command airman to die in combat in the Battle.

You can purchase your very own copy of A Dictionary of The Battle of Britain here