Abstract
Of all of the amazing technological innovations to come out of World War II, the Supermarine Spitfire, or Spit, has become the most well-known and easily recognized fighter aircraft with its distinctive Rolls-Royce engine, wing shape, and markings. Almost 80 years later, the hero of the Battle of Britain continues to appeal to the imagination of the average Briton, both young and old. Royal Air Force (RAF) veteran, motivational speaker, journalist, broadcaster, and author John Nichol seeks to understand the British peoples’ love affair with the Spitfire in his latest oral history, Spitfire: A Very British Love Story. Unlike the vast array of works detailing the development and war record of the Spitfire, Nichol’s account sets out to tell the ‘“human” story of the Spitfire, the story of the men – and women – who flew, serviced and built her’ (p. 11).
The Spitfire rose to fame in the early years of World War II, particularly because of the plane’s successes in fending off German invasion during the Battle of Britain. Nichol wants to take his reader beyond Britain’s finest hour, however. Therefore, each chapter of Spitfire encompasses a chapter in the Spitfire’s war career, from the beginning of production in 1936, through the RAF sorties in North Africa, Italy, Burma, and back to Europe at the end of the war. Moreover, in order to show the human side of the plane, he interweaves his narrative of events with oral histories from the pilots and the crewmen who worked closely with the Spitfires during the war. While this does help to highlight the personal aspect of his narrative, the constant shifts of focus – from narrative to personal story to personal story, and so on – can get confusing to the reader. Yet, for the most part, Nichol is able to keep his audience engaged with his successful storytelling throughout the book.
One chapter, ‘Spitfire Women’, helps this book stand apart from the traditional accounts of World War II airpower. By focusing on the female pilots in the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), this brief chapter demonstrates that both sexes helped Britain win the war. While it is important to include a chapter highlighting women’s war work outside of the factory or field, in the end, this chapter did leave some room for improvement. Most disappointing, and unnecessary, was the addition of the female pilots’ stories of love and heartbreak. These stories detracted from the nuanced argument Nichol hoped to accomplish with this chapter by falling back on the tropes of a female love story.
From the touching accounts of RAF veterans Ken Farlow and Brian Bird’s final encounter with a Spitfire that introduced his narrative, to the other numerous personal stories and photographs lining his pages, John Nichol truly succeeds in finding the ‘human’ story of the Spitfire. Yet, Spitfire somehow leaves the academic audience searching for something new. A similar narrative has been spun in so many reiterations that this work fails to bring nuance to the historiography of World War II airpower. Having said that, the general public, or even an introductory collegiate audience, would find this piece hard to put down. Despite its limitations, Spitfire is a well-written, even gripping, tale of the people behind Britain’s much-loved war machine.