On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. With political agreements in place to come to Poland’s aid, Britain and France both declared war on Germany within two days. It was the start of a conflict that would erupt over every continent, see the deaths of tens of millions of people, much of central Europe destroyed, and the development of jets, intercontinental missiles and computers as well as the atomic bomb.

The year 1941 saw the invasion by Nazi Germany of the Soviet Union, the biggest example yet of Blitzkrieg. The war would widen still further at the very end of the year when aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. The year would also see the sustained bombing of Malta, the German Blitz on British cities and the invasion of Greece and Yugoslavia.

This book is the third in a series covering the Second World War in the air year by year.

• Using

  many rare images, the author tells the story of 1941 in the air through

  photographs

• Third

  in new year by year in the Air series

• Seventy-five years ago, the Blitzkreig

  on Poland started the Second World War

• Review

  coverage in the National press and radio

• Reviews

  in the specialist military press

• Reviews

  in the paperback review sections of national dailies to include The Times and the Guardian