When the RAF rearmed to meet the growing threat from Nazi Germany's remorseless expansion in the late 1930s, it faced immense challenges. It had to manage a huge increase in size as well as mastering rapid advances in aviation technology. To protect Britain from attack, the RAF's commanders had to choose the right strategy and the right balance in its forces. The choices had to be made in peacetime with no guidance from combat experience. These visions then had to be translated into practical reality. A shifting cast of government ministers, civil servants and industrialists with their own financial, political and military agendas brought further dynamics into play. The RAF's readiness for war was crucial to Britain's ability to respond to Nazi aggression before war broke out and when it did, the RAF's rearmament was put to the acid test of battle. Adrian Phillips uses the penetrating grasp of how top level decisions are made that he honed in his inside accounts of the abdication crisis and appeasement, to dissect the process which shaped the RAF of 1940. He looks beyond the familiar legends of the Battle of Britain and explores in depth the successes and failures of a vital element in British preparations for war.

After a career as an investment analyst and strategist in London and Frankfurt with a special focus on the political influences on markets, Adrian returned to university for a postgraduate degree in history, which had long been his passion. He focused on how top level decisions were taken in Whitehall and how bureaucrats could often wield greater power than politicians. This features in his books: The King Who Had To Go, which covered the abdication and Fighting Churchill, Appeasing Hitler, which covered appeasement. Rearming The RAF applies his knowledge of how the hidden mechanisms of power operate to military strategy. www.adrianphillips.co.uk