Piece of Cake is much more than just a very well written war novel - which it is. In Piece of Cake, aviation author Derek Robinson uses the small group genre by focuses on the notional "Hornet squadron" as a means to bring to light many of the Royal Air Force's doctrinal, equipment and personnel deficiencies in the first year of the Second War. Piece of Cake is also a darn good examination of character and leadership - or lack of - in warfare. Typically, "the few" who flew for Britain in 1939-1941 are presented as an exemplary elite, who sacrificed themselves for the greater good. In Piece of Cake, Robinson may have angered those who favored such a hallowed historiography, but he gives the reader a greater insight into what was probably much closer to the actual mark in Fighter Command in this early phase of the war. Indeed, it would be fair to rank Piece of Cake among the best war novels ever written.
Robinson's plot line follows the notional Hornet Squadron from 1 September 1939 to 15 September 1940, and the unit is equipped with Hurricane I and II fighters (not Spitfires, as in the film version). The reader is presented with three different leadership styles in the squadron leaders: the self-destructive style of Ramsey, the arrogant style of Rex and the fatalistic style of "Fanny" Barton. The squadron adjutant "Uncle" Kellaway and the intelligence officer "Skull" Skelton also add considerable depth on the human and scientific sides of warfare. The pilots themselves are a pretty stock bunch, as they are in most Robinson novels, with the exceptions of the sociopath "Moggy" Cattermole and the American, Chris Hart. Indeed, one of the major differences between the book and the film is the relationship between "Moggy" and Squadron Leader Rex, which is never explained in the film. In the book, Robinson paints "Moggy" in the role of the "squadron enforcer," who is fiercely loyal to Rex due to perks provided. Indeed, "Moggy" even kills to protect Rex, which is odd for a character that displays no loyalty to anyone else in the squadron.
Robinson's portrayal of the RAF's inadequate tactics and doctrine is quite interesting. In particular, the large formation "fighting area attacks" put the RAF at a major disadvantage against the Luftwaffe's more fluid "finger four" tactics. Indeed, through A Piece of Cake, the reader is presented with a year's worth of tactical and doctrinal evolution in the RAF, with the initial faulty methods yielding grudgingly to more sensible means of waging air warfare. Robinson also seems to include every fighter pilot "lesson learned" in A Piece of Cake, which makes the novel virtually a primer for dog fighting (e.g. never climb away from the sun, don't always break left - the favored direction). Yet despite Hornet Squadron's tactical improvements, Robinson shows that survival in warfare still comes down to a certain matter of luck, as even the veteran pilots succumb to mistakes and fatigue. Few other accounts of the Battle of Britain demonstrate how punishing the August-September 1940 campaign was to RAF fighter squadrons as well as Robinson's fictional account.
Probably the only defect in A Piece Cake is the lack of perspective from the enemy side. In Robinson's later A Good Clean Fight, he does provide some insight from the enemy perspective, but this is lacking in A Piece of Cake. The number of squadron veteran pilots is ever dwindling in the face of the massed Luftwaffe attacks, but the results are uncertain given Skull's exposure of dubious pilot "kill" claims. In Robinson's novel, the reader is unsure who is actually winning the Battle of Britain (certainly the actual participants would have been uncertain at that moment, too), but it is suggested that the British are exaggerating their "kill" claims for propaganda purposes. Certainly in retrospect, the Battle of Britain seems more like a "goal line stand" than an outright victory, but Robinson's portrayal may strike some readers (armed with knowledge of the end result) as ambiguous or even defeatist in tone. Furthermore, the Luftwaffe also suffered from faulty doctrine (being designed as a tactical, not a strategic bombing force) and inadequate equipment (short-range Me-109s, the clumsy Me-110). If Robinson had provided a bit of enemy perspective, even with a captured pilot or two, this might have shown that the campaign was punishing and frustrating for both sides.
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Top reviews from other countries
Ian Lee
The Battle of Britain told brilliantly
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 2, 2023
Bryn Rhidian
One of the best World War Two novels
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 26, 2023