Six Weeks of Blenheim Summer, Alastair Panton
Six Weeks of Blenheim Summer, Alastair Panton
List: $10.13 | Sale: $7.10
Club: $5.06

Six Weeks of Blenheim Summer
One Pilot’s Extraordinary Account of the Battle of France

Author: Alastair Panton

Narrator: Jonathan Keeble

Unabridged: 3 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 05/03/2018


Synopsis

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Six Weeks of Blenheim Summer by Alastair Panton, read by Jonathan Keeble.

As I write, I can clearly recall the stinging heat of aburning Blenheim, smells, tastes, expressions, sounds of voices and, most ofall, fear gripping deep in me.

Flying Officer Alastair Panton was just twenty-three when his squadron deployed across the Channel in the defence of France. They were desparate days.

Pushed back to the beaches as the German blitzkrieg rolled through the Low Countries and into France, by June 4th 1940 the evacuation ofthe Allies from Dunkirk was complete. A little over two weeks later France surrendered.

Flying vital, dangerous, low-level missions throughout the campaign in support of the troops on the ground, Panton's beloved but unarmed Bristol Blenheim was easy meat for the marauding Messerschmitts. At the height of fighting he was losing two of his small squadron's crews to the enemy every day.

Discovered in a box by his grandchildren after his death in 2002, Alastair Panton's Six Weeks of Blenheim Summer is a lost classic. One of the most moving, vivid and powerful accounts of war in the air ever written. And an unforgettable testament to the courage, stoicism, camaraderie and humanity of Britain's greatest generation.

'THE BEST ACCOUNT OF THE CHAOS AND CONFUSION OF WAR OUTSIDE THE PAGES OF EVELYN WAUGH' THE TIMES

'ONE CAN'T HELP FEELING AWE AND REVERENCE. THERE ARE ENOUGHEDVENTURES HERE FOR A LIFETIME'
LOUIS DE BERNIERES

'SIMPLY WONDERFUL. ONE OF THE BEST ACCOUNTS OF WWii I HAVE EVER READ'
JOHN NICHOL

Reviews

Goodreads review by KOMET on June 10, 2015

This book approaches perfection in a way that I've rarely known among books I have owned. Hardback, its cover artwork is reminiscent of one from the 1940s with silhouettes of 2 aircraft flying over well-ordered farmland with a barn and silo in the background flanked by a tree in spring bloom. Its te......more

Goodreads review by Spad53 on April 23, 2025

This was a pearl of a book, quite unexpected, you tend to think that all the aviation biographies of the second world war have already been written, but now the grandchildren of these war heroes have begun publishing , some better than others, and this one is definitely one of the better. The blurb......more

Goodreads review by T.O. on July 09, 2018

One of my favourite Airfix kits as a child was the 1:72 scale Mark IV Blenheim, and I am currently going through a phase of reading and enjoying first hand accounts of the second world war (torpedo bombers in Malta, the man who sunk the Bismark, and the tank men). So I was doubly drawn to this slim......more

Goodreads review by William on February 19, 2017

What a fantastic read. Loved it. From someone who was there and did it all.......more

Goodreads review by Matt on March 28, 2024

So glad I stumbled across this! A fascinating account of an RAF reconnaissance pilot’s 6 weeks in the summer of 1940. He was shot down 3 times, once by the British Army. Evacuated from the beaches at Dunkirk, and survived bailing out of his plane with his parachute on fire, the author seemed to have......more


Quotes

Six Weeks of Blenheim Summer tells an amazing story of bravery and courage in the air and on the ground. former head of the British Army

This story grips you by the lapels and sometimes by the throat, and all who love tales of war will devour every page. Times columnist

It is the best account of the chaos and confusion of war - and a British defeat - outside the pages of Evelyn Waugh. It deserves to be a best seller. The Times

One can't help feeling awe and reverence for people like this. There are enough adventures here for a lifetime, let alone six weeks.