&lt;p&gt;Winner of the silver award for historical fiction (IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award).&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;'The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say: This was their finest hour'.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Prime Minister Churchill - Speaking on BBC Radio, June 1940.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is early in that long and vitally important month of August 1940.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany is at the peak of its triumphant powers after the Third Reich has successfully subjugated almost all of mainland Europe and Scandinavia under its jackbooted heels.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;All that now remains to stand against the Nazis and all the horrors they represent are, apart from a few still stubbornly neutral countries and territories, England and its Commonwealth of supporting nations who are Allied to its cause.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As the Reich's Wehrmacht prepares for an invasion inside the newly occupied 'Channel Ports' of France, Belgium and The Netherlands, a massive air assault by the Luftwaffe is already well underway from airfields in Western Europe and Norway. Against this growing onslaught of daylight and now slowly building night time attacks, the only offensive force remaining on the English continent is the poorly equipped Aircrew of RAF Bomber Command. Operational from day one of the war in 1939, due to mounting casualties it has now been forced into carrying out its attacks on German targets mainly at night - attacks which are by and large for a large variety of reasons at best a nuisance and at worst completely ineffectual. Now with the threat of invasion growing daily, RAF Bomber Command is ordered to disrupt the buildup around the channel ports of German Invasion 'Barges' and associated support units. Meantime the equally hard pressed Aircrews of RAF Coastal Command fight their own long range offensive campaign as they do their best to protect the now invaluable convoys from the joint attentions of the Aircrews of the Luftwaffe and the Sailors of the Kriegsmarine. These lifesaving convoys are&amp;nbsp; steadily becoming England's lifeblood as they bring in much needed supplies and reinforcements from her distant but loyal commonwealth allies.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At first disorganised and lacking in any kind of clearly cohesive strategic direction by August 1940 the Luftwaffe's attacks have become better organised and far more deadly, as they methodically go about destroying the RAF and its just as vital support services - both on the ground and in the air. Concentrating their efforts almost exclusively on RAF Airfields, Sector Stations, RDF Stations, Ports and Aircraft Factories, the steadily increasing pressure of the Luftwaffe is beginning to finally show results - as cracks start to develop in the defensive chain and senior RAF officers bicker among themselves like petty children.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is against this backdrop of growing RAF casualties and damage to ground stations, young inexperienced replacement pilots who are not even qualified to drive a car in the majority of cases, growing tactical disagreements and blame shifting at the highest of levels over continual failures to protect airfields from attack, nearly constant shortages in Aircraft, Pilot and Engine Fitters, and wholesale destruction from the air on a scale never before seen - that we are first introduced to the Scottish born pilot 'Johnnie' Shaux.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The son of a proud Scotsman and his wife, Johnnies father made a name for himself with the RFC during the Great War as a Pilot known for wearing his kilt into battle. Johnnie never met his Father, who was shot down and killed over the trenches just before the armistice was signed in November 1918, and was brought up by his Mother and their clan in Scotland. After joining the RAF in late 1939, he completed his basic training and volunteered for Aircrew selection.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Interviewed by representatives of the Air Board in the usual manner, he was deemed to be a suitable candidate for Pilot Training, and is rapidly posted off to join an Initial Training School where he learns the basics of flight inside a link trainer on the ground, while attending lectures on Navigation and Aero Engines. A few weeks later he is once again posted to a Flight Training School to learn to fly on Tiger Moth training aircraft, and a few more weeks after that is awarded his 'Wings' at the completion of that course. After qualifying on those underpowered aircraft as a qualified single engined RAF Pilot with a few more hours to add to his newly issued flying log book, Johnnie is posted once again to a Service Flight Training School to learn how to fly single engined high performance monoplane aircraft types. From there he is posted to an Operational Conversion Unit, the final stage in his training, to learn how to fly in formation and how to fight and hopefully survive the rigours and stresses of modern air to air combat.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the successful completion of his greatly condensed 22 week training course, Johnnie finds himself being Posted to 'where the losses are' - after being ordered to report to 11 Group, RAF Fighter Command. Among this Groups responsibilities was the vital defense of the airspace over South East England - including the countries capital city of London. One of a growing number of urgently needed replacement pilots with only a handful of hours recorded in his flying log book, Johnnie soon finds himself being interviewed and deemed to be operationally ready by Group Headquarters to 'join the fray'. On the same day he arrived at Group Headquarters from his OCU, and with no chance to do much more then compose a hurriedly written missive to his Mother and the rest of the clan back in Scotland, he is quickly posted to a squadron operational on one of the new monoplane high speed fighter types - the Supermarine Spitfire.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As a newly arrived operational pilot flying Spitfires Johnnie soon finds himself facing mental and physical stresses as he takes part in more and more hectic and confusing air battles - while trying his best to survive against the better trained and experienced Luftwaffe Pilots he now meets in daily air to air engagements. As Aircrew are killed in the air by Fighters and Ground Staff are killed in bombing attacks on the ground in larger and larger numbers, It isn't long before the young Airman comes to the grim realisation that death is now an almost inevitable fact of life. The only thing he can do about it is to survive - fly and fight in the air as long as possible - until his own luck expires and its his family's turn to receive the telegram notifying them of his own 'failure to return from operations' - something so many other families in England and Overseas had already experienced themselves.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The RAF commander of 11 Group was the highly experienced no nonsense New Zealander Keith Park, who was just as respected by those he commanded as he was disliked by those above him for his forthright directness. A member of the RAF since before its formation in 1918 who had initially served in the New Zealand Army at Gallipoli as part of the ANZAC landing on the Turkish peninsula, he was never one to sit on the ground and command his forces from the rear. Instead when not at Group Headquarters at RAF Uxbridge or at one of his groups sector stations, he would often take to the air after an attack to see and hear just how bad the situation really was on the ground first hand. Flying his own personally marked Hurricane fighter, he was known for his habit of 'dropping in unannounced' while carrying out these unofficial tours of inspection of bombed airfields. His willingness to do so, and listen to Aircrew and Ground Staff gripes while there regardless of the complainants rank or status - instead of just reading about them in reports behind his desk in the way other officers at his level of command did - combined with his habit of always speaking his mind, also helped to endear him to those often on the receiving end of these attacks.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At around this time Eleanor Rand, a brilliant and unorthodox thinker, mathematician and statistician is herself posted to&amp;nbsp;RAF Uxbridge to join the headquarters staff of Keith Park's 11 Group. She is also just as determined as Johnnie to Fight and contribute to the war in her own unique way, and is soon fighting her own battles against peoples dismissive attitudes to her and her work which some senior officers see as being unnecessarily complicated and unwanted. Desperate to prove herself of use as part of the newly formed 'Operational Research Section' of the RAF, she soon finds herself with a front row seat as she patiently carries out her assigned role of observing and collating attacks from inside the 11 Group plot room. It is while carrying out this duty that Eleanor starts to notice a pattern that is starting to develop in the Luftwaffe's Air raids which others of a less analytical bent have failed to notice occurring. The clearly defined pattern she soon finds herself identifying quickly resolves itself into something much more important and vital to the country's war effort. Ignoring the advice of others and her superiors commands not to bother the group commander with her rubbish, Eleanor makes a direct approach outside of the normal chain of command to Keith Park in the hopes of convincing him of the operational value of her research work and the tactical breakthrough heralded by what it reveals.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The characters and events that populate the world of the 'Breaking Point' trilogy are based on actual events and personalities who served in the peacetime RAF and went onto take part in the air campaigns of World War II. The storyline is based around two central fictionalised characters, whose joint experiences are also an amalgam of other real life stories of Airmen and Airwomen serving in the RAF from all over the world. Their experiences alternate between 'Johnnie' who is in daily face to face battles with the enemy, and 'Eleanor' who uses her analytical skills to support those flying on operations. Their own parallel stories ultimately dovetail together and merge into one continuing storyline.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Author John Rhodes is the award winning author of the recently completed 'Breaking Point' trilogy which is set in World War II, and of the ongoing Thomas Ford ‘cozy’ detective series.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Author graduated from Cambridge University where he studied history, and His lifetime focus on World War II stems from some of his earliest childhood memories — he was born while his father was serving at an RAF Fighter Command Airfield, and he grew up in London, where, he says, the shells of bombed-out buildings ‘served as our adventure playgrounds.’ Due to popular demand the Author has decided to continue the trilogy past his original planned end point of book III, intending if demand warrants it, to go through to VE-Day in 1945 - with that in mind he has already started working on the 1943 setting of book IV.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Reflecting on John’s search for historical authenticity, the battles in the 'Breaking Point' stories conform to the actual performance specifications of the aircraft types involved, such as their rate of climb and turning circles. He believes there is a difference between historical fiction, in which the reader is presented with imaginary fiction set in a factual context; and fantasy, in which the reader knows that what he/she is reading might be fascinating but cannot be possibly true. He hopes his imaginary characters, as they interact with real historical characters and events, will help bring the past to life and He describes his work as being ‘faction.’&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Like many scholars and readers of today John rues the decline of history as a required field of study. ‘If you don’t know where you came from, you don’t understand why you’re here, let alone the direction in which you’re heading.’ He also fears the efforts to rewrite history and the evils of old now reawakening. ‘George Orwell’s '1984' is not, unfortunately, turning out to be the work of fiction it once was,’ he says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;John grew up in an era when reading was still a major pastime, and he inherited a love of old-fashioned detective stories from his father. His favorite authors were, and still are, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey, Margery Allingham, and in John’s words, the ‘immortal Dorothy L Sayers.’ It is an extraordinary accomplishment, he thinks, that this remarkable group of women, writing in the early and mid-20th century, defined and exemplified the art of the British cozy, combining intellectual and literary skills of the highest order. Sayers’s fictional protagonist Harriet Vane is, John confesses, an architype for his character Eleanor Rand in the 'Breaking Point' series of books.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He is also a great admirer of the late English-Australian Author Neville Shute. John says his 'Johnnie Shaux', the Spitfire pilot, is drawn from the same pool as some of Shute’s early wartime writings - prosaic men and women who, as he says, ‘just get on with it and ignore the roadblocks ahead of them.’&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After a career spent in international banking he left the UK for good in disgust after 'Brexit' took place, and&amp;nbsp; now lives in semi retirement in America at Wilmington, North Carolina.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;John’s work has since he started self publishing his novels been recognised with several writing awards in recognition of his work as an Author including the 'Eric Hoffer', 'IPPY', and 'Benjamin Franklin writing award'.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Breaking Point (Book I Of Breaking Point Trilogy) PDF

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