Bombs dropped by the German Luftwaffe whistled through the air and exploded noisily while, deep underground, the people of London sang in their air-raid shelters.  Most often, it was the words of "There'll Always Be an England" that added cheer to the gloomy caves in the earth.  And strangely enough, the Londoners believed the words they sang.

It was October, 1940, and the Battle of Britain had been going on for 83 days.  Each night German bombs fell, and each night the English people labored to undo the Nazi work of destruction.  Fires started by the Luftwaffe were put out by morning, the rubble was cleared away, and life went on as usual in the cities of Plymouth and Coventry and Liverpool.

Quentin Reynolds, war correspondent and author of many books about World war II, tells with warm admiration this story of a courageous nation with its back against the wall.  Mr. Reynolds not only shared the ordinary trials of the English people during the Battle of Britain; his search for news took him wherever there was a good story.  He sailed in a convoy through the heavily mined waters of the English Channel.  He was in London during the worst air raid of the war.  He made numerous friends among the RAF, those gallant airmen who fought and won, against fantastic odds, the Battle of Britain, a turning point of World War II.

From the dust jacket