Subtitled 'Britain's Hidden Civilian Army,' this is an account of the dispersed production, in 'secret' locations including bus depots, garages and small industrial premises, of several thousand Spitfires during World War Two. The authors cover the organisation of the dispersed operations under Beaverbrook's Ministry of Aircraft Production as well as relating the human stories of the thousands of workers, many of them women, involved. The story is well-told and well-illustrated. That said, the book's design has prioritised 'artiness' over functionality. Many pages, one of which is shown here, feature text printed over images of clouds, which makes for difficult reading. The reader should not, as a prerequisite, need to go to Specsavers. Page numbers feature only sporadically, with none appearing between pages 67 and 91. Just as well this volume has no index! Better proof-reading would - and should -have noted that 'Mutt' Summers, who made the first flight of prototype K5054, was a test pilot with the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment, not the Aircraft and Armaments Engineering Establishment, at Martlesham Heath, while Hermann Goring's Christian name is consistently misspelled with just one 'n'.
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