Was it the ‘great missed opportunity of British manufacture’? Should they have given the Defiant a second chance as a bomber escort? James and Al have views on the Bolton Defiant. In short, those views range from ‘it was useless’ to ‘yes, it had four .303 caliber machine-guns in the turret behind the pilot, but oh, a waste of a Merlin…’ However, Verkaik’s book holds fulsome research into the technical details, unit fielding, and development of tactics for this controversial two-seat fighter. It has been called a ‘revisionist’ look at the utter self-belief of those Defiant crews; men who knew the aircraft best – its handling, potential, strengths and weaknesses – but ‘Defiant: The Untold Story of the Battle of Britain’ is well-written and worth reading if only to help bring your own views into focus.
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