SPITFIRE ON MY TAIL : A VIEW FROM THE OTHER SIDE

On October 27th, 1940, having completed over 150 missions, Oberleutnant Ulrich Steinhilper's fighter was shot down, crashing into the Kent countryside near Canterbury. For Ulrich that was the end of everything for which he'd been prepared in the Luftwaffe since his acceptance in 1936. But there is more than a pilot's story to tell. He shares with the reader what it was like to grow up in Germany as the crippling conditions of the Treaty of Versailles bled away the country's economy ; how it was inevitable that the people would succumb to the fatal attraction of Hitler and The Party. And, more personally, how the intrigues and politics of a small town were to shape his destiny.

From a mountain village in southern Germany to Berlin swollen with people for the 1936 Olympic Games, we follow Ulrich to the start of his military career and through the rigorous basic training to his first faltering flights as a pilot. Onwards, towards the Battle of Britain and his uncompromising views of the conduct of the battle both by the Luftwaffe High Command and the R.A.F.

In a Fighter Group decimated by losses and battle fatigue Ulrich still carries on, but is he really prepared for what has befallen his friends and colleagues ? If the Luftwaffe's estimates of British fighter strength were correct, then why are they still facing such determined resistance ? Will the Army ever start the invasion of Britain ? Will the sacrifice of so many airmen have been for nothing ?