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July 1940: as Britain stood alone, the Army exhausted and defeated by the Wehrmacht and the Roval Navy, stretched worldwide, only the English Channel and the RAF remained between Britain and the expected German invasion. But the Luftwaffe's ill-prepared and last-minute assault on the RAF was met by a carefully planned system of fighter intervention, the defensive strategy devised by Hugh Dowding, Commander-in-Chief, RAF Fighter Command. Dowding fought and won Britain's most vital victory, the Battle of Britain. Yet he was dismissed in October 1940. Why?The full story of Dowding's struggle to victory is revealed in this masterly new study by Second World War historian John Ray. Dowding was under daily attack from rivals in the RAF and at the Air Ministry, who wanted a different approach to air defence, despite the severity of the threat and Dowding's success. John Ray tracks the course of the Battle and the internal arguments that threatened Dowding's position and RAF supremacy; this new perspective, matching the ebb and flow of bitter argument in the corridors of power with the drama of war in the air, makes for an engrossing study in RAF history and reveals the truth behind the Battle of Britain.

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World War II

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Publié par	eBookPartnership.com
Date de parution	25 novembre 2012
Nombre de lectures	9
EAN13	9781909270756
Langue	English

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THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN
DOWDING AND THE FIRST VICTORY, 1940 JOHN RAY
To Jack
also by John Ray The Night Blitz 1940-1941 The Second World War
© 1994, 2012 JOHN RAY
John Ray has asserted his rights in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
Published by John Ray
First published and printed in 1994 First published in eBook format in 2012
eISBN: 978-1-909270-75-6
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
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CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INTRODUCTION
1 - DOWDING’S POSITION IN JULY 1940
2 - THE THREAT FROM THE LUFTWAFFE
3 - THE OPENING PHASE OF BATTLE 10 JULY TO 18 AUGUST
4 - THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BIG WING CONTROVERSY 19 AUGUST TO 7 SEPTEMBER
5 - THE BATTLE WITHIN A BATTLE 7 SEPTEMBER TO 16 OCTOBER
6 - NIGHT AIR DEFENCE
7 - CHANGES AT FIGHTER COMMAND
EPILOGUE
PHOTOGRAPHS
APPENDIXES
A. WHO WAS WHO
B. THE BADER NOTES
C. WAS WRIGHT WRONG?
D. DOWDING, SPIRITUALISM AND THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN
E. THE AIRCRAFT
F. ABBREVIATIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
NOTES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks are due to a number of people who have provided help and advice in the preparation of this book, which has developed from my doctoral thesis, written at the University of Kent. First among them I must place the late Squadron Leader Bruce Ogilvie, who provided friendship, encouragement and contacts at the start of the research.
Of those who served in the Battle, I am particularly indebted to Air Marshal Sir Denis Crowley-Milling, whose reflections on No 12 Group have brought balance to my assessment. Others who have helped, either with recollection or judgement, by interview or correspondence, are: Squadron Leader Denis Armitage; Air Chief Marshal Sir Harry Broadhurst; Mrs Joy Caldwell; Richard Collier; Sebastian Cox; Air Chief Marshal Sir Kenneth Cross; Group Captain George Darley; Captain Alan Ellender; Dr Martin Gilbert; the late Group Captain Tom Gleave; Wing Commander Hal Ironside; Professor R. V. Jones; the late Air Vice-Marshal George Lott; Wing Commander Laddie Lucas; the late Dr H. Montgomery-Hyde; Dr Vincent Orange; Air Marshal Sir Kenneth Porter; Denis Richards; Andrew Roberts; Alec Ross; Squadron Leader Frank Usmar; Mrs June Ventris; and Professor Donald Wiseman.
I also acknowledge a debt to the following people and institutions for their assistance with comments or submissions for text or photographs, or permission to reproduce extracts from documents in their possession; Professor Richard Crampton; Dr Julian Hurstfield; Dr Michael Dockrill; Wing Commander P. J. T. Stephenson; Chriss Goss; J. Corbin; Squadron Leader C. S. Bamberger; Wing Commander N. P. W. Hancock; Fred Beacon; Wilf Goold; John Ridgeway and Jim Mitchell; Foster Services: Wing Commander G. C. Unwin; Squadron Leader J. R. Kayall; the Air Historical Branch Ministry of Defence; the House of Lords Record Office; the Battle of Britain Fighter Association; the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum; the RAF Museum, Hendon; the University of Kent; Churchill College, Cambridge; the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College, London; the Australian Archives, Belconnen, Canberra; the Conservative Political Centre; Lady Douglas of Kirtleside; Mrs Tania Paddison; the Staff of Arms and Armour Press and of DAG Publications Ltd.
No one deserves greater praise than my wife. She has been a constant help and scribe in gathering information about a battle under which we both lived and which is still refought when those who were involved meet.
John Ray, Tonbridge, Kent, March 1994
INTRODUCTION
At 10.30am on Sunday 30 October 1988, the Queen Mother arrived outside St Clement Danes, the Royal Air Force church in the heart of London. Beneath crisp autumn sunshine a Guard of Honour from the Queen’s Colour Squadron presented arms as the RAF Central Band played the National Anthem. After a short speech of welcome from Air Chief Marshal Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris, chairman of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association, Her Majesty was escorted to a nearby statue and plinth, which were shrouded in velvet. She drew a cord and the drapes fell away, revealing the figure of Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding, formerly Commander-in-Chief, Fighter Command. To a number of his old pilots it appeared that, as in life, ‘Stuffy’ was looking down with a blend of surprise, severity and faint disapproval at both spectators and proceedings. 1
Thoughts of the variations in treatment meted out to serving commanders were uppermost in the minds of a number of those present. The British can be generous to heroes. In their day, Marlborough, Nelson, Wellington and Haig were all adorned with honour and rewarded with wealth and high rank by a grateful nation. After the Second World War, Alexander and Montgomery, Cunningham and Tovey, and Portal and Tedder were among commanders who reached the highest pinnacle in their respective Services and received the accolade of ennoblement. Even Slim, commander of ‘The Forgotten Army’ was finally remembered. Why then, they reasoned, was Dowding, whose victory in the Battle of Britain stood unequalled since Trafalgar, treated less generously? In 1943 Churchill offered him a barony for his services three years earlier; 2 he was never promoted to the rank of Marshal of the Royal Air Force.
Nevertheless, many with long memories felt that at last some justice was being done. A degree of fair play had finally triumphed, as royal approval was accorded to a man who appeared to have been snubbed both by colleagues and politicians ever since leading ‘The Few’ nearly half a century earlier. Dowding had received neither palace nor estate, no special pension or earldom, yet in the opinion of his supporters had done at least as much as any previous hero to save his native land from the grip of the enemy. For his pains he had been the victim of a vendetta that denied him full reward and honour.
They believed that, after leading Fighter Command to a narrow victory over the Luftwaffe from July to October 1940, and having thereby prevented a seaborne invasion of Britain, the Commander-in-Chief was summarily dismissed in November. Against his will he was despatched to the USA on a mission to obtain aircraft and equipment. 3 Later he was offered no more than minor appointments within the RAF until his retirement in 1942.
For the Dowding camp, his removal from office was tainted with plot and intrigue. 4 In their view, the case against him revolved around differences over daytime air fighting tactics. He, together with his protégé, Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park, Air Officer Commanding, No 11 Group, Fighter Command, refused to employ Big Wings of at least three squadrons of fighters to counter large formations of Luftwaffe aircraft during battles. 5 However, Air Vice-Marshal Sholto Douglas, Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, together with Air Vice-Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory, AOC, No 12 Group, were advocates of Big Wings and disagreed with Dowding’s policy.
The C-in-C’s supporters believe that, during the quarrel, Leigh-Mallory used political influence to advance his cause. He did this, claim his accusers, through Squadron Leader Douglas Bader, the chief practitioner of Big Wings, who commanded No 242 Squadron, stationed in No 12 Group. The Adjutant of Bader’s squadron, Flight Lieutenant Peter Macdonald, was also a Member of Parliament; he was persuaded by Leigh-Mallory, Bader, or both, to meet the Prime Minister and expose the controversy. In this version Churchill followed up the matter with customary vigour, and steps were soon taken to accelerate the removal of Dowding and Park. A conference was held at the Air Ministry on 17 October 1940 at which their tactics were criticized, while the use of Big Wings was approved. Changes of command followed shortly. On 25 November Dowding was replaced by Douglas, and on 15 December Leigh-Mallory took over from Park. The accusers had not only removed the two commanders, but had also purloined their jobs.
This conspiracy theory has been nurtured ever since and, like Falstaff’s buckram men, has grown with the telling. The bitterness engendered by their removal affected both men for the rest of their lives. Park interpreted events mainly as a personal contest between himself and Leigh-Mallory, which the latter, using devious tactics, had won. ‘To my dying day I shall feel bitter at the base intrigue which was used to remove Dowding and myself as soon as we had won the battle,’ he wrote in 1968. 6
Dowding also believed that dirty tricks had been used by the Air Ministry, with whom he had suffered an acerbic relationship for several years. He carried his disappointment with dignity, yet was prepared after the war to allow two authors to set out his cause. The first, Basil Collier, wrote an authorized biography in 1957 and, although the book is a balanced account of the Commander-in-Chief’s career, the writer lacked access to several documents which have, more recently, placed different emphases on the battle and on Dowding’s subsequent treatment. 7 The second work, produced in 1969, was a panegyric written by Robert Wright, who, for a short time, had been Dowding’s Personal Assistant. The book, however, was often less than accurate, and was critical only of those Wright considered to be Dowding’s enemies. Its pages certainly reflected the C-in-C’s subdued anger at the tre