There is good reason for titling Graham Simons’
book De Havilland Enterprises rather than “De Havil-
TIVL)QZKZIN\;QVKM!!º<PMUW[\XZWTQÅKVIUM
in British aviation, de Havilland embodied far more
than airplanes. The company developed its own
piston and jet aircraft engines, as well as aircraft
propellers. It produced successful aircraft designs in
subsidiary companies operated in other countries,
such as Canada and Australia. And de Havilland
operated its own aeronautical technical school,
which produced unique designs of its own.
8ZQWZ\W!_PMV/MWٺZMaLM0I^QTTIVL
established his own company, he designed many of the most
successful World War I airplanes produced by other com-
panies, notably the Royal Aircraft Factory and the Aircraft
Manufacturing Company (Airco). His DH.9A became one of
the few WWI biplanes to remain in widespread military ser-
vice long after the war ended.
The only U.S.-built combat aircraft to see action in
WWI—the Liberty DH-4—was based on a de Havilland
LM[QOV1\_I[VW\\PMUW[\IٺMK\QWVI\MTaZMUMUJMZMLIQZ-
XTIVMWN\PI\KWVÆQK\J]\\PM,0 ¼[XZWJTMU[ZM[]T\MLNZWU
MٺWZ\[\WILIX\Q\\W\PM)UMZQKIVJ]QT\4QJMZ\aMVOQVMZI\PMZ
\PIVNZWUÆI_[QV\PMWZQOQVITLM[QOV6M^MZ\PMTM[[,0 [
remained in service throughout the 1920s, both as military
planes and as mailplanes.
De Havilland really came into its own during the 1920s
and ’30s. The company virtually created the template for the
light sporting airplane with its famous line of Moths, powered
by its equally successful line of Gipsy engines. Alongside the
light aircraft, it developed a successful line of commercial air-
liners, powered by one to four engines. It also built the famousDH.88 Comet racer, which won the 1934 Britain-to-Australia
MacRobertson Trophy Air Race.
De Havilland’s greatest contribution to military aviation
JM\_MMV\PM_IZ[_I[\PMNIUW][<QOMZ5W\P\ZIQVMZÅZ[\
ÆW_VQV!)N\MZ_IZJZWSMW]\QV!!\PMKWUXIVa
XZWL]KMLWVMWN\PMKWVÆQK\¼[UW[\[XMK\IK]TIZTa[]KKM[[N]T
warplanes, the multirole Mosquito.
De Havilland was among the earliest proponents of jet
XZWX]T[QWVÆaQVOQ\[ÅZ[\RM\ÅOP\MZ\PM>IUXQZMQV! IVL
developing its own line of turbojets to power it and its succes-
sors. After the war, the company continued to develop both
UQTQ\IZaIVLKWUUMZKQITRM\[QVKT]LQVO\PM_WZTL¼[ÅZ[\XZW-
duction jet airliner, the DH.106 Comet.
In 1960 the British government consolidated the British
avia tion industry, and de Havilland became part of the
Hawker-Siddeley Group. Several of its last designs remained
in production for many years thereafter under the Hawker-
Siddeley aegis. De Havilland Canada also continued to oper-
ate as a separate entity until it was sold to Boeing in 1986.
Robert GuttmanDE HAVILLAND ENTERPRISES
A History
by Graham S. Simons, Pen & Sword Books, Ltd., 2017,
$44.95.LIBERTY BOMBERS DH-4 fuselages
with Liberty engines are assembled at
the Dayton-Wright Company factory.68 AH
NATIONAL ARCHIVESJULY 2018REvIEWS
Arkady Fiedler, a Polish-
born writer of popular trav-
elogues, reached his zenith
as a wordsmith when he
chronicled the impressive
early exploits of free Polish
ÅOP\MZXQTW\[ÆaQVO_Q\P\PM
Royal Air Force in the his-
toric air battle to save Britain
in the summer of 1940. His
poignant account focused
WV6W;Y]ILZWVIT[W
known as the Kosciuszko
Squadron, which distin-
guished itself from the day it
MV\MZMLKWUJI\QV\PMÅVIT
climatic weeks of the clash. It
was a time, as Fiedler’s elo-quently crafted book makes
clear, in which human des-
tiny hung in the balance.
The squadron was named
after 18th-century Polish war
hero Tadeusz Kosciuszko,
whose Lafayette-like example
during the Revolutionary
War had inspired American
^WT]V\MMZ[\WNWZUIÆaQVO
unit in 1919 to help defend
Poland against the Soviet
Union. Twenty-one years
TI\MZ\PM8WTM[XZW]LTaÅOP\-
ing under this banner not
WVTaPMTXMLNMVLWٺ*ZQ\IQV¼[
tormenters, but sought to
eventually liberate their
besieged homeland from
the latest in a long string of
foreign occupiers. Fiedler
vividly describes these Polish
ÆQMZ[¼IMZQIT^QK\WZQM[_PQKP
resulted in one of the top
squadron tallies by the endof the Battle of Britain.
The Polish airmen were
initially greeted with skep-
ticism by their British hosts.
But once the shooting started
and the expatriates were
given the opportunity to
avenge the loss of their coun-try, it soon became clear that
they were extraordinarily
MٺMK\Q^M_IZZQWZ[QV\PMQZ
Hawker Hurricanes.
Security concerns
prompted Fiedler to use
pseudonyms in his wartime
book rather than the pilots’
actual names. With the pub-
lication of a new translation
on the 70th anniversary of
the Battle of Britain, the
names were incorporated.
Also, when Fiedler wrote
this highly inspirational story
about the forces of good
triumphing over the forces
of evil, he had no way of
knowing that the pilots he
so revered would sadly have
their dream of a free Poland
deferred until the collapse of
the Iron Curtain a genera-
tion later.
Philip HandlemanCLASSICS
SQUADRON 303
The Polish Fighter
Squadron with the
R.A.F.
by Arkady Fiedler, 1943.