All About History Book of The Battle of Britain
All About History Book of The Battle of Britain
All About History Book of The Battle of Britain
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WELCOME TO
BATTLE F
BRITAIN
The Second World War will always hold a legendary place
in Britains history, and indeed the history of the world. Few
campaigns within either of the world wars are as well-known and
remembered as the Battle of Britain. Immortalised in Churchills
speech before the battle even began, it was foremost a conflict in
the sky, but its effects were also felt keenly on the ground. In this
special 75th anniversary edition, youll find incredible images of
the battles people and planes, its devastating effects, and in-depth
information about key moments and strategies. Youll also find
fascinating insights into how people experienced the war, with
facsimiles of documents including letters sent home to loved
ones, instructional pamphlets used by pilots, and morale reports.
Discover the battle through the eyes of those who saw it, and
honour the sacrifices made three-quarters of a century ago.
BATTLE F
BRITAIN
Imagine Publishing Ltd
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Website: www.imagine-publishing.co.uk
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Publishing Director
Aaron Asadi
Head of Design
Ross Andrews
Production Editor
Alex Hoskins
Written by
Richard Overy
Senior Art Editor
Greg Whitaker
Designer
David Lewis
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Disclaimer
The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any unsolicited material lost or damaged in the
post. All text and layout is the copyright of Imagine Publishing Ltd. Nothing in this bookazine may
be reproduced in whole or part without the written permission of the publisher. All copyrights are
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This bookazine is fully independent and not affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned herein.
This bookazine is published under licence from Carlton Publishing Group Limited.
All rights in the licensed material belong to Carlton Publishing Limited and it may
not be reproduced, whether in whole or in part, without the prior written consent
of Carlton Publishing Limited. 2015 Carlton Publishing Limited.
Text copyright: Richard Overy
The content in this book appeared previously in the Carlton book The Battle of Britain Experience
All About History Book Of The Battle of Britain 2015 Imagine Publishing Ltd
ISBN 9781785460647
Part of the
bookazine series
Battle of Britain
The Exhibits
Contents
SEE EXHIBIT
SECTIONS
THROUGHOUT
THE BOOK
CONTENTS
12 FORGOTTEN HEROES
22 SPITFIRE SM520
30 BATTLE IN THE SKIES
34 THE FIRST BATTLE OF BRITAIN
36 AIR DEFENCE BETWEEN THE WARS
38 FIGHTER COMMAND
44 THE LUFTWAFFE
48 DOWDING VERSUS GOERING
50 HITLER TURNS TO BRITAIN
54 THE BATTLE BEGINS
58 THE HURRICANE AND THE SPITFIRE
68 DETECTING THE ENEMY
70 ADLERTAG
74 THE ASSAULT ON FIGHTER COMMAND
78 WOMEN IN THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN
82 BIGGIN HILL
86 THE OTHER BATTLE
90 CHURCHILL AND THE FEW
94 THE PILOTS
102 THE COMMANDERS
104 AMERICANS IN FIGHTER COMMAND
106 ALLIES IN FIGHTER COMMAND
108 THE BOMBING OF LONDON
112 BATTLE OF BRITAIN DAY
118 DEFEAT OF THE DAY BOMBERS
120 BIG WINGS
128 SEALION POSTPONED
134 END OF THE BATTLE
136 THE NIGHT BLITZ
138 THE COSTS OF BATTLE
140 REMEMBERING THE BATTLE
Battle of Britain
HAWKER HURRICANES
A group of Hawker Hurricanes y in formation
over southern England. The Hurricane was the
rst operational RAF aircraft that was capable
of ying at a top speed in excess of 300mph.
10
The Exhibits
11
12
Forgotten heroes
75 years ago,
Hitler was on the
verge of becoming
master of all of
Europe. Only the
Royal Air Force
stood in his way
BRENDAN
FINUCANE
NATIONALITY: IRISH
RANK: FLYING OFFICER, 65 SQUADRON
01
13
GEOFFREY
WELLUM
NATIONALITY: ENGLISH
RANK: PILOT OFFICER, 92 SQUADRON
He was just 18 when the Battle of Britain started, and officially the RAFs youngest
fighter pilot
Geoffrey Wellums first sorties
as a Spitfire pilot had come
in May 1940, covering the
evacuation of the British army
from Dunkirk. He then flew
several sorties a day from his
base at Biggin Hill, Kent, during the opening part
of the Battle of Britain, protecting shipping in the
Channel. Nothing, however, could prepare the
teenager for what he was to witness on 13 August
1940, when the Luftwaffe sent 1,500 aircraft to
destroy RAF bases.
In his 2009 memoir First Light, Wellum vividly
recalls the spectacle he encountered. Within
seconds were among them, he wrote, each
man for himself, fighting his own private battle.
Things move terribly quickly. There seem to be
hundreds of aeroplanes with everybody shooting
at everybody else. I am taken by surprise by the
sheer size of this battle in this tremendous arena.
Wherever I look the sky is full of aircraft.
I clamber for height and I have an
uninterrupted view. Its magnificent yet appalling.
03
JAMES
BRINDLEY
NICOLSON
NATIONALITY: ENGLISH
RANK: FLIGHT LIEUTENANT, 249 SQUADRON
02
14
Forgotten heroes
ELSPETH
HENDERSON
NATIONALITY: SCOTTISH
RANK: CORPORAL, WOMENS AUXILIARY
AIR FORCE (WAAF)
04
15
ERIC
LOCK
NATIONALITY: ENGLISH
JAMES
LACEY
NATIONALITY: ENGLISH
05
16
ANATOMY OF A WWII
RAF FIGHTER PILOT
TYPE B FLYING HELMET
Made from leather, lined with
chamois and with a layer of cotton
padding between, each helmet was
customised by the airbase tailor so
that the earpieces fitted the wearer.
MK II FLYING GOGGLES
The brass frames were usually
blackened and the backs of them
trimmed around the edges with
faux-fur for extra comfort. The
laminated lenses also had a blue-green
tint to deal with sunshine.
IRVIN JACKET
With no in-plane heating, sheepskin jackets
were worn over the top of the uniforms.
As the collars could restrict visibility, some
pilots would cut them off.
LIFE VEST
Being shot down over the Channel was a
real risk, so pilots wore a cotton and rubber
inflatable life vest. Pilots nicknamed it a
Mae West in honour of the notoriously
buxom Hollywood star of the day.
C-2 PARACHUTE
Pilots would grab their parachutes
and strap them on shortly after being
scrambled. Shoulder, waist and leg straps
met at a single point and clipped into
a quick-release clasp on the chest.
By the start
of September,
many pilots had
already notched
up more than
five kills, giving
them the coveted title of Fighter
Ace. On 5 September, 21-year-old
Eric Lock joined them by shooting
down three enemy planes in a
matter of minutes.
His combat report reads: We
intercepted a formation of enemy
aircraft, attacking the bombers first
I engaged a He111, which I followed
down until it crashed. I climbed
back up to 8,000 feet, saw
another He111, engaged that
and set his starboard engine
on fire. I closed in to about
75 yards and fired two long
bursts. Smoke came from the
fuselage. I was then attacked
by a Me109 who wounded me
in the leg. As he banked away,
he stall-turned. I fired at him.
He exploded in mid-air.
The understated tone of
Locks report belies the true
terror. By the time his squadron
intelligence officer had typed this
report up, Fighter Command had
lost over 500 planes while nearly
250 pilots had lost their lives.
06
Kevin McGivern
Forgotten heroes
LEFT: Bader was shot down over France
in 1941 and captured. While a POW, he
tried to escape so often that the Germans
ended up confiscating his tin legs.
DOUGLAS
BADER
NATIONALITY: ENGLISH
This legendary ace lost both his legs in a pre-war flying accident, but that didnt
stop him help turn the battle in Britains favour
At the age of 30, Douglas Bader
was older than most RAF pilots
and his leadership was to prove
inspirational to the younger
men. On 15 September, the
Luftwaffe launched its largest
attack in the belief that Fighter Command was so
stretched it could destroy its remaining aircraft.
With the fighter squadrons attacking in big
wing formations of up to 60 planes a tactic Bader
endorsed the RAF inflicted colossal damage on
the Luftwaffe at little cost to themselves. For Bader
it would prove a particularly successful day.
Just after noon, his wing ran into a great mass
of aircraft, both British and German, outside
07
17
WALERIAN
AK
NATIONALITY: POLISH
08
ALBERT
GERALD
LEWIS
NATIONALITY: SOUTH AFRICAN
As well as Britain
and Europe,
Fighter Command
pilots came from
all over the British
Empire. One of
the finest was South African Albert
Lewis, and as the campaign began
drawing to a close at the end of
September, he experienced the best
and worst that life as an RAF fighter
ace offered. On 27 September, he shot
down an astonishing six aircraft in
one day, taking his tally for the war
to 18. The very next day, however, he
was shot down himself.
While returning from a patrol,
the 22-year-old was jumped by a pack
09
18
RAY
HOLMES
NATIONALITY: ENGLISH
ABOVE: The plane that Holmes rammed out of the sky hit shops
close to Victoria Station. His plane crashed nearby at Ebury Bridge
on Buckingham Palace Road.
This pilots heroics saved Buckingham Palace from certain destruction and he
did it without bullets, too
By 11 October, the Battle of
Britain was over. Hitler hadnt
officially cancelled the invasion,
but he had formally postponed
it. It marked a true turning
point in the war. It was Nazi
Germanys first defeat and proof that the Fhrers
ideologically driven killers werent invincible.
What didnt stop was the bombing of Britain,
which only intensified over the next seven
months as the Battle of Britain became the Blitz.
London had first been bombed on 24 August,
accidentally and against the express orders of
Hitler himself, as it turned out. But the revenge
bombing of the city of Berlin by the RAF the very
next day so infuriated him that the focus of the
Battle of Britain was switched from destroying
Fighter Command and its bases to destroying
Britains infrastructure.
On Sunday 15 September, a force of 100 bombers
and 200 fighters approached London. As they
were tracked by the radar station at Uxbridge,
where Churchill just happened to be visiting, 250
fighters were despatched to deal with them.
By noon, the surviving bombers arrived over
central London. Here, they were engaged by
Hurricanes from 504 Squadron. One was being
piloted by 24-year-old Ray Holmes, who attacked
several bombers, before latching onto a badly
10
GERMANY'S
FIGHTER ACES
19
SPITFIRE SCRAMBLE
A group of RAF ghter pilots race to their waiting
aircraft after receiving the signal to scramble! Every
minute lost before take-off would be advantageous to the
enemy, as they could have allowed the pilots to gain
extra height above the advancing plane formations.
20
Forgotten heroes
21
SPITFIRE SM520
1948-1951
SPITFIRE SM520
YEARS BUILT: 1948-1951
LENGTH: 9.58M (31FT 5IN)
WINGSPAN: 11.23M (36FT 10IN)
MAXIMUM SPEED: 644KM/H
(400MPH)
RANGE: 724KM (450 MILES)
ENGINE: ROLLS-ROYCE /
PACKARD MERLIN 266
CREW 2 (STUDENT VAND
INSTRUCTOR)
ARMAMENT: 2 X .303
BROWNING MACHINE GUNS
22
Spitre SM520
23
COCKPIT
24
Spitre SM520
BELOW: Unlike the Messerschmitt, the
Spitfire never took to the use of cannon
and relied on its dual machine guns.
GUNS
25
26
Spitre SM520
ADLERTAG
27
SPITFIRE VS HURRICANE
WHICH BATTLE OF BRITAIN MACHINE WAS
THE SUPERIOR FIGHTER CRAFT?
28
Spitre SM520
THE
MERLIN
ENGINE
THE POWERHOUSE BEHIND THE SPITFIRES ICONIC SOUND
fuel-injected, so there was a danger of it cutting
out in steep dives.
However, this was mostly fixed in 1941 by the
addition of a new diaphragm in the engines float
chamber. This was affectionately known as the
Miss Shillings Orifice after its designer Tilly
Shilling. Even after World War II the Merlin was
still in assembly, and production only ceased in
1950 after 150,000 had been made to help Britain
win the war.
BELOW: The Spitfire was very nearly called the Shrew, which
wouldnt have been quite as intimidating .
SUPERMARINE
SPITFIRE
HAWKER
HURRICANE
29
Battle of Britain
30
31
Battle of Britain
32
The Exhibits
CHURCHILL INSPECTION
While en route to inspect defences in Kent,
a Messerschmitt Me 109 crashed near Dover,
at Church Whiteld. On seeing the wreckage,
Churchill stopped the car to inspect the scene,
joined by his bodyguard.
33
Battle of Britain
34
MAJOR
GENERAL SIR
FREDERICK
SYKES
(18771954)
Appointed in April 1918
as the second chief of the
air staff in succession to
General Trenchard, Frederick
Sykes had the task of nursing the fledgling RAF
through its first year. Sykes joined the army as a
volunteer at the start of the South African War
(18991902) and gained a full commission in 1901.
In 1911, he learned to fly, and in the pre-war years
played an important part in the formation of the
Royal Flying Corps. He became its first chief of
staff in 1914 under General Sir David Henderson,
but arguments with the army over the use of
aircraft led to a posting to the Royal Naval Air
Service in the Mediterranean. In 1918, he took
up his role as chief of staff of the new RAF, a
position he held until January 1919 when he went
to the Paris peace talks as head of the British Air
Section. He ran civil aviation in Britain for three
years from 1919 and entered parliament as a
Conservative. He retired from politics in 1945.
FIELD
MARSHAL
JAN SMUTS
(18701950)
ABOVE: The early air attacks called for improvised civil defence. Here a car carries the all clear sign after an air alarm in October 1917,
a month when south-east England was attacked both by Gotha bombers and by Zeppelins. By this stage of the war Britain was already
using black-outs in threatened areas at night.
35
Battle of Britain
36
STANLEY
BALDWIN
(18671947)
The Conservative
politician Stanley
Baldwin is perhaps
best remembered for
his remark made in the
House of Commons on
10 November 1932 that
the bomber will always get through. His view
of future air war as something that would utterly
destroy civilization played an important part
in shaping popular fears of bombing during the
1930s. He was three times prime minister between
1923 and 1937. Under the National Government,
set up in 1931, he was effectively deputy prime
minister with the title of Lord President of the
Council. It was during this period that he played
a part in helping to set up the Disarmament
Conference in Geneva and it was partly from
the hope that he could achieve a real measure
of disarmament in the air that he embarked on
his scaremongering campaign. When he became
prime minister in 1935, he oversaw the early
stages of British rearmament, despite his lasting
commitment to appeasement, seeing it as a better
way to avoid the prospect of a terrible war.
BELOW: Two young children try out the new respirators (gas
masks) distributed to almost everyone in Britain during 1939 and
1940. Beside the standard adult mask was a special respirator for
babies and the small childrens mask illustrated here.
AIR CHIEF
MARSHAL
SIR CYRIL
NEWALL
(18861963)
The most important
post in the RAF during
the Battle of Britain was
held by the chief of the
air staff Cyril Newall.
He began his military career in the army in 1905,
learned to fly in 1911, and served in the Royal Flying
Corps during the First World War, reaching the
rank of brigadier general. In 1917 he was assigned
to organize an aircraft wing for retaliatory raids
on Germany and became convinced that bombing
could have serious strategic effects. He became
deputy chief of the air staff between 1926 and
1931 and chief of the air staff in 1937. He played an
important part in expanding the pre-war RAF, both
its defensive capability and the power to hit back
with heavy bombers. He protected the fighter
force from Churchills demands for more aircraft in
the Battle of France, and remained in office until
the end of October 1940, when that battle almost
over. He became governor general of New Zealand
until 1946.
37
Battle of Britain
FIGHTER COMMAND
1940
38
BENTLEY PRIORY
The command headquarters of Fighter Command
was based in the eighteenth-century country
house of Bentley Priory in Stanmore, Middlesex.
The house began life as an aristocrats estate,
but by the late Victorian age it was a hotel,
and then briefly a girls boarding school. The
estate was bought by the RAF in 1926 and was
originally the site of RAF Training Command. In
the summer of 1936, the newly created Fighter
Command moved its headquarters to the Priory
from Uxbridge. Under its first commander-inchief, Hugh Dowding, the Priory was modified to
incorporate an operations room and filter room
to allow close central command over the whole
fighter force. The Observer Corps also moved to
Bentley Priory and the Anti-Aircraft Command
was stationed nearby. An underground
operations block was added in early 1940
and was in use by March of that year, but the
headquarters suffered almost no bomb damage
throughout the war. The Priory was finally
abandoned by the RAF in May 2008.
Fighter Command
LEFT: A flight of three RAF Defiant fighters
from 264 Squadron on 9 August 1940. The
Boulton Paul Defiant was designed to be able to
fire at bombers from below, from its rear turret,
but it had no forward-firing armament. It was
introduced in December 1939 but suffered heavy
losses to superior enemy fighters.
AIR
COMMODORE ALFRED
WARRINGTON-MORRIS
(18831962)
Alfred Warrington-Morris was the second commandant
of the Observer Corps attached to Fighter Command.
He saw service throughout the Battle of Britain. Morris
joined the Royal Navy in 1899, rising to the rank of
commander in the Royal Naval Air Service during the
First World War. In 1918 he joined the Royal Flying Corps
and by 1919 became a wing commander in the RAF. He
was an air commodore and commandant of the RAF
Signals Branch at his retirement in 1934. He was then appointed deputy commandant
of the new Observer Corps, and became its commandant in April 1936. He helped
transfer the Corps to Fighter Commands control and was still commandant when the
title Royal was added and the Corps became a uniformed part of the RAF in 1942. He
finally retired from RAF duties in 1944.
39
Battle of Britain
FIGHTER HQ MAP
A map of the United Kingdom showing the disposition
of air defences in July 1940. The map shows the sector
and group boundaries, and details of radar, Observer
Corps and Fighter Command stations.
40
The Exhibits
41
Battle of Britain
BIRD-WILSON'S HURRICANE
On 24 September 1940, Squadron Leader Harold
Bird-Wilson was shot down by the German
ace Adolf Galland over the Thames. This is a
photograph of the Hurricane he was ying.
42
The Exhibits
43
Battle of Britain
THE LUFTWAFFE
1940
GENERAL
HANS
JESCHONNEK
(18991943)
Hans Jeschonnek was
appointed Chief of the
German Air Force Staff
by Hermann Goering on
1 February 1939 after a
meteoric rise through the ranks of the fledgling
German air force. He joined the German army
aged 15 at the outbreak of the First World War
and rose by 1917 to be a lieutenant, at which point
he enrolled in the air service. He subsequently
returned to army duties and joined the revived air
force in September 1933 when it was still secret.
He became operations chief in February 1938 and
a year later chief of staff. He favoured tactical
air power in support of the army, but argued in
September 1940 for terror attacks against British
cities to achieve a quick end to the war following
failure in the Battle of Britain. Struggling later in
the war to keep the Allied bombers at bay and
subject to growing criticism, he committed suicide
at Hitlers headquarters on 18 August 1943.
44
RIGHT: A German
pilot and crew in the
cockpit of a German
bomber in September
1939. German air
personnel were
highly trained and
their aircraft among
the most technically
sophisticated in the
world at the time.
The Luftwaffe
RIGHT: German twin-engined destroyer aircraft, Messerschmitt Me 110s,
flying over Paris on 15 June 1940, two days before the French sought surrender.
Paris was earlier declared an open city to avoid German air attacks, but Hitler had
already been reluctant to order raids on Paris because of its architectural beauty.
JUNKERS 87B
Dive Bomber
t: 12 8
gth: 35 4 Heigh
Span: 45 3 Len
MESSE
RSCHM
ITT
l09
Single-S
Span 32
eat Fig (D.B 60l)
hter
5 Len
gth 28
3 Hei
ght 8 4
BELOW: A long line of Messerschmitt Me 109 fighter aircraft under construction in a factory in 1943. The fighter
was the mainstay of the German fighter force but was produced in quantities too small for what was needed in 1940.
Mass production and rationalization only began to make an impact on German aircraft output later in the war.
WILLY MESSERSCHMITT
(18981978)
45
Battle of Britain
46
The Exhibits
MESSERSCHMITT DIAGRAM
A poster showing the cutaway interior of the
Messerschmitt Me 109 (originally designated the
Bf 109) single-seat ghter, the mainstay of the
German ghter force in 1940.
47
Battle of Britain
48
SIR
ARCHIBALD
SINCLAIR
(18901970)
Goerings direct opposite
on the British side
was the air minister,
Archibald Sinclair. But unlike the German system,
the air minister was not simultaneously the
commander-in-chief of the air force. Sinclair
began an army career in the Life Guards, and
served in France throughout the First World
War. He became Churchills secretary at the War
Office between 1919 and 1921. In 1922, he began
a political career as Liberal MP for Caithness and
Sutherland, a constituency he represented until
1945. In 1940, he was appointed air minister
by Churchill and became an enthusiast for the
strategic bombing of Germany, a policy that he
defended against all criticism in parliament.
He was defeated in the 1945 election, and was
created Viscount Thurso in 1952, acting as leader
of the Liberal Party in the House of Lords. He
retired from public life in 1964.
GENERAL ERNST
UDET (18961941)
A well known air ace from the First World
War, Ernst Udet flew with the famous
Richthofen squadron under the command
of Hermann Goering. In the 1920s, he
became a popular air stuntman and film
star until he was recruited by Goering
to join the German air force. He joined
the National Socialist Party and in 1936
became head of the air force Technical
Office where he advocated dive-bombing
as the most effective form of bomb attack. In 1939, he was created
General Quartermaster of the Air Force in charge of all procurement
and technical development. A bon viveur and womanizer, Udet was
completely inadequate for his job. When it was evident that German
aircraft production and development had stagnated due to his failures, he
committed suicide in November 1941 and was given a state funeral.
49
Battle of Britain
50
ADOLF
HITLER
(1889-1945)
Adolf Hitler was born
in Braunau am Inn,
Austria, the son of
a customs official.
He had ambitions to
become an architect,
but lacked sufficient talent. In 1914, he
volunteered for service in the German army and
became a runner between the lines, decorated
twice for bravery. In 1919, he joined a small radical
nationalist party, the German Workers Party, and
by 1921 had become its leader under the changed
title of National Socialist German Workers Party.
He staged a failed coup dtat in 1923 and was
briefly imprisoned. He campaigned against the
Versailles Treaty and demanded a national revival
and German living space. On becoming ruler
of Germany in 1933, he launched large-scale
rearmament. By 1938, when he became the armed
forces supreme commander, he had formed plans
for German expansion in Eastern Europe. In 1939,
he attacked Poland in the belief that Britain and
France would back down. During the world war
that resulted he tried to conquer most of Europe
and Western Asia in order to establish a German
empire. He also authorized the mass killing
of Europes Jews. In 1945, with Allied armies
closing on Berlin, he committed suicide in his
underground bunker.
SS INFORMATION HANDBOOK GB
In the summer of 1940, the SS officer Walter Schellenberg,
responsible for counter-espionage in Office IVE of the Gestapo
organization, helped make a comprehensive guide for the SS and
secret policemen who would be trying to make Britain a secure
part of Hitlers empire after the success of Operation Sealion. The
handbook covered the main areas of public life, including the masons,
the churches and the British intelligence services. Appended to
the survey was a list of those who might be subject to arrest and
imprisonment once the Germans had arrived. An SS colonel Dr Franz
Six, later tried for war crimes, was to have been the commander of
the Einsatzkommandos (Action Commands) carrying out the arrests.
The list included both Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill, and
the distinguished philosopher Bertrand Russell. Some 20,000 copies
of the handbook were made, but were destroyed in Berlin during a
bombing raid in 1943.
ABOVE: Heinrich
Himmler, head of
the SS.
51
Battle of Britain
TRANSLATION
B) Within Army Group A, A.O.K. 9 takes over
the section on both sides of the Seine.
Proposal for a new dividing line between
A.O.K. 16 and A.O.K. 9 is to be submitted by
Army Group A.
C) Take-over of command is to take place as
soon as possible.
Army Group B shall report after
agreement with Army Group A, when takeover can take place.
TRANSLATION
The Fhrer has ordered preparations for the attack
on England.
The preparations will take place on the principle:
That one Calais (A.O.K. 16) attack wing is deployed
from the Ostendmouth of the Somme area against
the enemy coast between Margate and Hastings.
One Le Havre (A.O.K. 9) attack wing is deployed
from the DieppeCaen area against the enemy coast
between Brighton and Portsmouth.
One Cherbourg (A.O.K. 6) attack wing is deployed
from the area around Cherbourg against the enemy
coast, both sides of Weymouth.
52
The Exhibits
TRANSLATION
The units designated for the parade in
Paris will not be transferred until after
the parade. The units will fall under the
command of the appropriate army once
they arrive at their new army section.
SUMMARY OF
TRANSPORT
This document gives an overview of
the transport for the army. It lists the
transport unit, where and at what time
loading should begin and end, where they
should unload and where higher staff
should join to immediately load.
53
Battle of Britain
GRAND
ADMIRAL
ERICH
RAEDER
(18761960)
54
COASTAL
COMMAND
Coastal Command
was created in the
reorganization of 1936.
Its role was to provide a
dedicated air force for
attacks on enemy shipping in the seas
around Britain, for protection of British convoys,
and for reconnaissance over sea and coastal areas.
On the outbreak of war, it was commanded by Air
Chief Marshal Frederick Bowhill with three Group
headquarters at Plymouth, Chatham and Rosyth,
where the airmen worked side-by-side with naval
staff. Coastal Command had 19 squadrons of
largely obsolescent aircraft on the outbreak of war
but expanded rapidly as the war at sea became a
greater threat in 1940. From May 1940 onwards,
Coastal Command had to undertake dangerous
long-range reconnaissance missions over the
North Sea and the Channel, and losses of its slow
and vulnerable aircraft were high. Over a sixthmonth period, the command lost 158 aircraft and
600 crew out of an August 1940 strength of only
470 planes. In the war at sea, the command could
contribute little with old-fashioned or ineffective
equipment. It became a more modern and effective
fighting force only from 1941 onwards.
55
Battle of Britain
MORALE LETTERS
British Home Intelligence reports from 23 August 1940. The reports were collected
from local informers and sent to the Ministry of Information where they were
used to draw up daily assessments of morale. Despite the onset of bombing, the
London report noted the widespread return of evacuated children.
56
RUBBLE RESCUE
While the reports may have assured the
Ministry that morale was high, the Blitz
of 1940 and 1941 meant that rescues from
the rubble, like the one shown here, were
all too often necessary.
57
Battle of Britain
REGINALD MITCHELL
(18951937)
R. J. Mitchell began his engineering career
helping to design high-performance
locomotives. He learned aeronautics in his spare
time, and became an aeronautical engineer for
the Vickers Supermarine works in Southampton,
where he was appointed chief designer in 1919.
He designed some 24 aircraft, but is best known
as the designer of the Spitfire, which he began
working on in summer 1934. He based its high
performance on his designs for the Schneider
Trophy-winning S6B racing aircraft and another
fighter project, the Type 224, which the RAF
rejected. He was a shy but single-minded
personality, who struggled against ill health in
the last years of his life while completing the
Spitfire. He died of cancer in June 1937, and
his design was taken over and improved by his
successor, Joseph Smith.
58
THE ROLLS-ROYCE
MERLIN ENGINE
The Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, named after
the small bird of prey, was one of the wars
most successful aero-engines. Around 150,000
were produced, used principally in the British
Spitfire, Hurricane, Lancaster, Halifax and
Mosquito, and later in the American P-51
Mustang fighter. A liquid-cooled V12 piston
engine, the Merlin, first designated the PV-12,
was developed in 193435. It suffered a great
many teething problems until the war, by which
time Rolls-Royce had produced an engine of
high reliability, capable of regular modification
and upgrading. When used with high-octane
fuels, the engine gave British fighters a great
boost during the Battle of Britain, though it
could not be used easily in a steep dive until
the invention in March 1941 of Miss Shillings
orifice, a diaphragm developed by the engineer
Beatrice Shilling to prevent fuel from escaping
from the carburettor during a dive.
59
Battle of Britain
60
The Exhibits
61
Battle of Britain
62
The Exhibits
63
Battle of Britain
64
The Exhibits
65
Battle of Britain
ARP WARDEN
An emotional scene as a female ARP
warden rescues a young girl from
a bombed London building in 1940.
Female civil defence workers were vital
to rescue and rehabilitation.
66
The Exhibits
67
Battle of Britain
68
SIR HENRY
TIZARD
(18851959)
Henry Tizard wanted
a career in the Royal
Navy but was prevented
by poor eyesight
from joining. After
studying chemistry and
mathematics at Oxford,
he began a study of
aeronautics. During
the First World War
he became an officer
in the Royal Flying
Corps responsible for
experimental equipment
and ended the war in
1919 as an officer in the
RAF. He returned to Oxford but then took a post
in the government Department of Scientific and
Industrial Research. In 1929, he became rector
of Imperial College, London, a post he held until
1942. In 1933, he was appointed chair of the Air
Ministrys Aeronautical Research Committee
where he played a key role in the development
of the British radar defences. Between 1948
and 1952, he was chief scientific adviser to the
Ministry of Defence, where he pioneered the
serious scientific study of UFOs.
ABOVE: A portrait of Sir Henry Tizard. In 1933 Tizard
became chairman of the Aeronautical Research
Committee and was a pioneer of operational radar.
69
ADLERTAG
13 AUGUST 1940
FIELD MARSHAL
WOLFRAM VON
RICHTHOFEN
(1895-1945)
A cousin of the famous Red Baron, Manfred
von Richthofen, Wolfram was commissioned
in a German hussar regiment in 1913 before
training to fly in 1917. In 1918, he became a
pilot in his cousins squadron. After the war
he trained as an engineer and returned to the
army in 1923, where he worked in the secret
preparation of a new German air force. In 1933
he became chief of the Development Division in
the newly formed German Air Ministry, and was
promoted in 1936 to lieutenant colonel. He led
the Condor Legion sent by Hitler to aid Franco
in the Spanish Civil War and was responsible for
ordering the notorious air attack on Guernica in
April 1937. He also led the German air force unit
that attacked Poland first, early on the morning
of 1 September. In the Battle of Britain he was
commander of the VIII Fliegerkorps, which he
continued to lead in the Balkan campaign in
1941 and in the assault on the Soviet Union.
He was promoted to field marshal in 1943, but
the following year was diagnosed with a brain
tumour. He retired from service and died in an
American POW camp on 12 July 1945.
70
Adlertag
KAMPFGRUPPE
100
On 18 November 1939,
two squadrons of German
bombers were activated as
pathfinder units tasked
with leading bombers
accurately to distant
targets. On 13 July 1940, a third squadron was
activated. The force was named Kampfgruppe
100 (Bomber Group 100) and received special
training in navigating with a new system of
radio beams known as X-Gert. Using four radio
beams from different directions, the force
was able to arrive over the target with a high
level of accuracy. During the Battle of Britain,
the unit was commanded by Captain Kurt
Aschenbrenner. On the night of 13 August, the
group first attacked the large Spitfire factory at
Castle Bromwich in Birmingham with 11 bombs,
doing little serious damage. Later Kampfgruppe
100 led the major raids against British cities
during the Blitz.
MESSERSCHM
ITT Me
71
Battle of Britain
GERMAN MAP
A German map for the period 1416
August showing aircraft losses for both
sides, airelds hit and the radius of
the raids. This period saw the onset of
sustained attacks against RAF Fighter
Command stations and auxiliary airelds.
72
The Exhibits
ADLERTAG REPORT
An extract from a report from the British Wireless
Intelligence Service for Adlertag on 13 August 1940.
The service was able to intercept a large amount of
German wireless trafc, some of which was sent en
clair without the need for deciphering. This report
covers German air activity in the North Sea area.
73
74
AIR VICEMARSHAL
QUINTIN
BRAND
(1893-1968)
Quintin Brand, the son of a South African
policeman, moved to Britain in 1915 to join
the Royal Flying Corps. After serving on the
Western Front, he commanded one of the first
night-fighter squadrons in Britain in 1918. He
remained in the RAF and was knighted in 1920
for an attempted record flight from London
to Cape Town. He worked at the Royal Aircraft
Establishment in the 1920s, and was DirectorGeneral of Aviation in Egypt from 1932 to
1936. He became commander of 10 Group,
Fighter Command, when it was activated in
1940 and played an important part in the
defence of southern England in 1940. He
retired from the RAF in 1943 and moved to
Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) in 1952.
GERMAN AIR
INTELLIGENCE
One of the great failures in the Battle of Britain
was the German air intelligence organization.
It was led during the Battle of Britain by
Colonel Josef Beppo Schmid. The reports
produced by his staff about the strength,
deployment and operation of Fighter
Command, and about the levels of British
aircraft production played an important
part in encouraging wildly exaggerated
expectations about the defeat of the RAF. On
7 August, Air Intelligence reported that the
radar stations would tie British squadrons
closely to their local airfields and prevent
any concentration of effort. Schmid failed
to grasp the nature of the link between
radar, observation and operations and so
underestimated the capacity of Fighter
Command to intercept German attacks.
Thanks to a stream of poor intelligence
provided by German secret agent Ostro,
British aircraft production was estimated at
only half its true volume. In early September,
Schmid relayed to Goering the news that
Fighter Command had been reduced at one
point to only 100 serviceable aircraft when
the true figure was six times as great.
75
Battle of Britain
AIR DOCUMENT
Air Vice-Marshall Keith Park's letter to all group controllers with
details of changed tactics in response to the German attacks on
ghter stations in mid-August 1940. The requests to 12 Group to patrol
and protect airelds north of London were not always complied with.
76
77
Battle of Britain
ABOVE: A famous image from the early years of war shows an RAF
pilot and a WAAF standing side-by-side. The first womens air force
had existed at the end of the First World War but was closed down.
The WAAF was founded again in June 1939.
ABOVE: Fighter Command Operations Room in which the WAAFs had a key
role to play in collecting and collating information and making sure the plot
maps were kept entirely up to date.
DAME KATHERINE
TREFUSIS-FORBES
(1899-1971)
The first commander of the Womens Auxiliary Air Force in the
Second World War was Katherine Trefusis-Forbes, a redoubtable
woman who ran a kennel business until she volunteered for
emergency service work in 1935. She had been a member of
the Womens Volunteer Reserve during the First World War and
achieved the rank of second lieutenant. In 1939, she played a key
part in organizing the support role of women in the RAF, rising
to the rank of air chief commandant by October 1943, when she
was succeeded by Mary Welsh. She promoted womens services
abroad from 1943 and returned to civilian life in 1945. In 1966, she
married Robert Watson-Watt, the pioneer of British radar.
78
WAR WORK
FOR WOMEN
During the early stages of
the war, women workers
were recruited to fill the
jobs vacated by men as a
result of conscription. Even
before the war, around
a quarter of the British
workforce was female,
but it proved necessary
to move many of them
from inessential industries
to work with armaments. The proportion of
women workers in the motor and aircraft
industries rose from nine per cent in 1939 to 23
per cent two years later, and eventually to over
36 per cent in 194344. Women were generally
paid at a much lower rate than men, and their
work often classified as unskilled even when
they performed similar functions to men. In
1940, new wage rates were negotiated but
they were still well below male levels, and led
to considerable complaint among the growing
army of women employed in armaments,
who were essential for keeping British war
production going.
ABOVE: Female workers in a Supermarine Spitfire
factory in April 1941.
79
Battle of Britain
80
The Exhibits
81
BIGGIN HILL
30 AUGUST 1940
LYMPNE AIRPORT
The airport at Lympne in Kent, founded in 1916
as an emergency landing ground for Royal
Flying Corps aircraft, played an important part
during the Battle of Britain acting in a similar
role for aircraft from the fighter stations in
Kent and Sussex. Lympne became a civil airport
in the interwar years, host to airmail aircraft
and, from 1923, annual air races. The final race
staged before the war was on 5 August 1939,
by which time it had been requisitioned by the
Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. Though not a fighter
station, it was heavily bombed on 15 August
and temporarily put out of action. A raid on
30 August killed five local workmen. Fighters
landed there only to refuel or in emergencies.
Later in the war, Spitfires and Typhoons were
stationed at Lympne for the war in Europe. Civil
flying and racing was restored in 1946, but the
airport finally ceased commercial flying
in 1974.
82
Biggin Hill
RIGHT: A group of Mark
1A Spitfires from No. 610
Squadron, based at Biggin Hill
JulyAugust 1940, fly
in formation over Kent, in
July 1940.
SPITFIRE l (MERLIN)
Fighter
Height: 9 3
Span: 36 10 Length: 29 11
RAF MANSTON
83
Battle of Britain
LETTER TO BUNTY
A letter to Section Ofcer D.J.G. "Bunty" Nash
from Robert Holland, a pilot with 92 Squadron
stationed at Biggin Hill during early September
1940. He writes with enthusiasm that the house
he was stationed in was a "wizard billet".
SQUADRON CASUALTIES
Poor old Bill Williams and Drummond
were killed this morning, they must move
us soon for a rest, Tony Bartley, Alan
Wright and myself are the only original
members of the Squadron left
MY DEAR BUNTY
Well I returned some days ago and we
are at it all day and every day, my
God, the peace of Pembrey after this
place would be heaven.
84
The Exhibits
ANNIVERSARY PARTY
So we are having an anniversary party
to-night. By the way did you know that
Alan Wright, Bring Kingcombe and Tony
Bartley all had D.F.C.'s (Distinguished
Flying Crosses).
A FAVOUR TO ASK
P.S. I am enclosing my mess bill, could you
hand it in for me, it will save a stamp.
85
LIEUTENANT
GENERAL
HANS-JRGEN
STUMPFF
(1889-1968)
The commander chosen
to lead the Norway-based
Air Fleet 5 for attacks
on British ports and
shipping was a former
Prussian army officer,
Hans-Jrgen Stumpff. He was
commissioned in the army in 1907 and served
as a staff officer during the First World War. He
stayed on in the small peacetime army and as a
lieutenant colonel was made head of personnel in
the secret German air force in 1933. He became air
force chief of staff in 1937 in succession to Albert
Kesselring. He held the post until January 1939
after which he held combat commands, first of Air
Fleet 5, based in Scandinavia, then, from January
1944, as commander of the home defence of the
Reich against the Combined Bomber Offensive.
He was one of the three German signatories of the
unconditional surrender of May 8 1945 in Berlin.
Captured by the British, he was released in 1947.
ABOVE: A photgraphic portrait of Lieutenant General
Hans-Jrgen Stumpff, who led attacks on British ports
and shipping.
86
AIR VICE-MARSHAL
RICHARD SAUL
(1891-1965)
Richard Saul was the commander of 13 Group
during the Battle of Britain, and later of 12
Group. He was born in Dublin and entered an
army career in the Royal Army Service Corps.
He joined the Royal Flying Corps and became
a squadron commander by the end of the war.
He was a keen sportsman and was RAF tennis
champion twice, in 1928 and 1932. He was sent to
Basra in Iraq in 1933 to command a squadron but
returned to command 13 Group in 1939. He went
on to command 12 Group and then the Eastern
Mediterranean Air Defences. In June 1944, he
retired from the RAF and became head of the
UNRRA branch in the Balkans before moving to
Rome as the vice chairman of the International
Transport Commission. He left Rome in 1951 and
became the manager of a university bookshop
until retiring for good in 1959.
87
Battle of Britain
CHURCHILL'S VISIT
Churchill is pictured visiting the
aftermath of a bomb attack on the
borough of Battersea on 10 September
1940. The devastation throughout
London fuelled his wish for vengeance.
88
The Exhibits
89
WINSTON CHURCHILL
(1874-1965)
Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was
born into the Marlborough family, son of
the Conservative politician, Lord Randolph
Churchill. He was educated at Harrow and
the army college at Sandhurst, and gained his
first commission in the Queens Own Hussars
in 1895. He saw action in northern India and
the Sudan before resigning his commission
in 1899. He became a Conservative MP in
1900, switched to the Liberal Party in 1904
and back again to the Conservatives 20 years
later. He achieved high office at a remarkably
young age and by 1910 had been appointed
Home Secretary, then a year later First Lord
of the Admiralty. In the First World War he
resigned over his handling of the campaign at
Gallipoli, briefly served on the Western Front,
then returned to Britain where he became
Minister of Munitions in 1917. During the 1930s
became an isolated backbencher, opposed to
appeasement. In 1939, he was again appointed
First Lord of the Admiralty and on 10 May 1940
became prime minister. Defeated at the 1945
election, he returned as prime minister in
1951 before retiring from political
life in 1955.
90
LORD
BEAVERBROOK
(1879-1964)
A close friend of
Churchill, William
Maxwell Aitken was
a leading newspaper
proprietor and
Conservative
politician. He was
born in Canada,
where he made his
fortune, then moved
to Britain where
he became an MP
in 1910. During the
First World War, he
bought the Daily
Express and two
years later launched
the Sunday Express.
He was created Lord
Beaverbrook in 1917.
In 1923 he added the
Evening Standard
to his list of papers. He served as Minister of
Information in 1918 but did not achieve high
political office again until Churchill made
him Minister of Aircraft Production in 1940.
He succeeded in speeding up fighter output
at the cost of the wider aircraft production
programmes. In 1941, he was moved to the
Ministry of Supply and between 1943 and 1945
was Lord Privy Seal. His son served in the socalled Millionaires Squadron during the battle.
91
Battle of Britain
THE FEW
Douglas Bader in 1940 with a crew relaxing in front of a
Hurricane. Bader was the principal spokesman for the
idea of Big Wings, the idea of sending up at least three
squadrons together to attack with strength.
92
The Exhibits
CHURCHILLS SPEECH
The page notes from Winston Churchills speech to
the House of Commons on 20 August 1940 in which
he talks about the few. The praise was tempered
by his immediate reminder that bomber pilots
endured even more difcult combat conditions.
93
THE PILOTS
T
94
12 2
COLONEL WERNER
MLDERS
(19131941)
The most famous German air ace
of the Second World War, Werner
Mlders claimed 100 enemy aircraft
destroyed as his remarkable tally
of victories. He joined the German
army in 1931, and after learning
to fly was posted to the German air force in 1934 as
a lieutenant. Despite debilitating physical reactions
to flying, Mlders became an effective combat pilot.
In April 1938, he joined the German Condor Legion in
Spain, fighting for Franco, where he scored his first
15 kills. He led a unit in the Battle of France and on
19 July was promoted to major and given command
of JG51 (51st Fighter Squadron), a unit that became
distinguished for its remarkable fighting skills. By the
end of the Battle of Britain, Mlders had claimed 30
more kills. His unit was posted to the Soviet war in
1941, where his grand total of aircraft destroyed finally
passed the record set by the Red Baron, Manfred von
Richthofen. He was promoted to colonel and made
Inspector General of Fighters in August 1941 at the age
of only 28. On 22 November 1941, travelling from Russia
to Berlin for the state funeral of Ernst Udet, he died in
an air crash. His state funeral followed shortly after.
The pilots
BELOW: A dead German airman in the wreckage of his
Junkers Ju 87B dive-bomber brought down over Sussex in
August 1940. German pilot losses escalated dramatically
during August and September, and included many experienced
crew trained in the 1930s.
GROUP
CAPTAIN
ADOLPH
SAILOR
MALAN
(19101963)
On 18 November 1939,
two squadrons of German
bombers were activated as
pathfinder units tasked with leading bombers
accurately to distant targets. On 13 July 1940,
a third squadron was activated. The force was
named Kampfgruppe 100 (Bomber Group 100)
and received special training in navigating with
a new system of radio beams known as X-Gert.
Using four radio beams from different directions,
the force was able to arrive over the target with
a high level of accuracy. During the Battle of
Britain, the unit was commanded by Captain Kurt
Aschenbrenner. On the night of 13 August, the
group first attacked the large Spitfire factory at
Castle Bromwich in Birmingham with 11 bombs,
doing little serious damage. Later Kampfgruppe
100 led the major raids against British cities
during the Blitz.
95
Battle of Britain
96
The Exhibits
97
Battle of Britain
TUESDAY 17 SEPTEMBER
"We scrambled at about 3.00 pm and ew up
over London, above clouds at 18,000 [feet]!
My thoughts wondered to America and
lms, as I turned on the oxygen..."
98
The Exhibits
99
Battle of Britain
71 EAGLE SQUADRON
Pilots from the all-American 71 "Eagle"
Squadron, formed in September 1940. The
three existing all-American squadrons were
later absorbed into British-based forces.
100
The Exhibits
101
THE COMMANDERS
T
102
The Commanders
FIELD
MARSHAL
ALBERT
KESSELRING
(18851960)
ABOVE: German air force commanders in dress uniform
at a reception held in Hitlers office on 4 September
1940. To Hitlers left stand Hermann Goering and Albert
Kesselring, commander of Air Fleet 2. To his right are
Hugo Sperrle, commander of Air Fleet 3, and Erhard
Milch, state secretary of the Air Ministry.
103
GENERAL CARL
TOOEY SPAATZ
(18911974)
General Spaatz (above centre) was the
commander of the US 8th Air Force in Britain
in 1942. He was chosen to go to Britain two
years earlier, in 1940, as an observer of the
Battle of Britain. He was a career airman, first
seeing action on the US-Mexican border in
1916 and again in France at the end of the First
World War. He served in various command
and staff positions in the interwar years,
and in November 1940 became Chief of the
Plans Division of the US Air Corps. After
serving in Britain in 1942 he was sent to the
Mediterranean as commander of Allied Air
Forces under Eisenhower. In December 1943 he
was also appointed commander-in-chief of all
US Strategic Air Forces in Europe. After the war
he became the first chief of staff of the newly
formed US Air Force in September 1947. He
retired from the service in 1948.
104
THE SWEENYS
105
A
RAF SQUADRON 303
(POLISH)
One of the Polish squadrons formed during
the Battle of Britain was 303 Kociuszko
Squadron, named after the eighteenth-century
Polish hero General Tadeusz Kociuszko. It
was formed on 2 August 1940 at Northolt, and
became operational at the end of the month
with 21 Polish pilots and 135 Polish ground staff,
together with RAF commanders to familiarize
the crews with Fighter Command requirements.
By the time it was withdrawn to rest on 11
October, the squadron claimed the highest
number of kills of all RAF squadrons. The 126
claimed was almost certainly an exaggeration
though subsequent research has shown at
least 44, the highest number for any Hurricane
squadron. It maintained its high scoring record
in operations over France in 194143 and came
top in a gunnery competition organized in 11
Group. It remained based in Britain for the
rest of the war and was the most successful of
the Polish squadrons. Its pilots were the only
Poles invited to the victory parade in London,
but they refused to attend because other
Polish units were not included. The unit was
disbanded in December 1946.
106
107
GENERAL
SIR
FREDERICK
PILE
(18841976)
A career soldier who
joined the British
army in 1902 and
served in the Royal
Artillery throughout
the First World War,
Frederick Pile had
the responsibility
of organizing the
anti-aircraft artillery for the Battle of Britain.
He joined the Royal Tank Corps in the 1920s
and later served in Egypt from 1932 to 1936.
The following year he was made a major general
and posted to command the 1st Anti-Aircraft
Division guarding London. In 1939, he became
Commander-in-Chief Anti-Aircraft Command,
a post he held throughout the war. After the
war, he became Director-General of Housing,
Ministry of Works, helping to rebuild the cities
his guns had earlier defended.
108
JUNKERS
JU 88 BOMBER
One Polish squadron formed during the Battle
The Junkers medium bomber became the
mainstay of the German bomber force during
the Second World War and was also converted
to a major role as a night-fighter against the
threat of Allied bombing of Germany. Over the
course of the war, over 15,000 were produced.
Designed in 1936 by the Hugo Junkers company
in Dessau, it first flew on 21 December 1936.
Its high speed was undermined by insistence
from the air force technical office that it should
be capable of diving and by the decision to
install on-board armament. Technical problems
delayed its introduction; too few were available
for the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. The nightfighter version was introduced in July 1940.
The aircraft was vulnerable to fast modern
fighters and 313 were destroyed between
July and October 1940, but it later became
the backbone of the bomber force as well as a
versatile heavy fighter, torpedo-bomber, divebomber and reconnaissance aircraft.
109
Battle of Britain
110
The Exhibits
BOMB CRATER
Some of the bomb damage from the Blitz
included a crater outside Buckingham
Palace. Luckily, it only destroyed a part
of the wall and little else. This photo was
captured on 14 September 1940.
111
15 SEPTEMBER 1940
FLIGHT
LIEUTENANT
JOHN MUNGOPARK
(19181941)
John Mungo-Park was a
descendant of the famous
eighteenth-century
explorer, Mungo Park. He
joined the RAF in 1937,
and was posted just after the outbreak of war
to 74 Squadron based at Hornchurch in Essex.
He was a flamboyant flyer and a popular
commander and was one of the top-scoring
British aces by the end of the battle, with at
least 12 kills to his name. He commanded a
squadron flight in September 1940 and took
over command of the whole squadron in
March 1941. During 1941, he took part in the
Fighter Command operations over northern
France and Belgium, known as circuses, and
was shot down and killed over the Belgian
town of Adinkerke on 27 June 1941.
BELOW: The Sector G Operations Room at Duxford in September 1940. The fighter
squadron callsigns can be seen on the wall behind the operator, third from left. The
controller is fifth from the left, and on the far right, behind the army liaison officer, are
the R/T (Radio Telephone) operators in direct touch with the aircraft.
ABOVE: RAF 66 Squadron pilots wearing their Mae Wests (life-jackets) resting in a crew-room between flights
during the Battle of Britain. Souvenirs of shot-down planes can be seen on the wall above the fireplace.
112
GENERAL
ADOLF
GALLAND
(19121996)
RIGHT: A Heinkel
He 111 spotter card.
HEINK
EL He.l
llK . Mk
. V. (2-J
U
MO 2iiD
Bomb
er
)
3 Le
ngth 5
4 6 H
eight 13
9
Span 74
113
Battle of Britain
114
The Exhibits
115
Battle of Britain
RECYCLING WRECKAGE
What looks like a scrapyard was actually an
important resource. Downed German aircraft
were recycled, and equipment was inspected to
see what could be learned.
116
The Exhibits
117
MARSHAL OF
THE RAF
SIR CHARLES
PORTAL
(18931971)
During the critical
weeks of the Battle of
Britain, Charles Portal
was commander-in-chief of RAF Bomber
Command, a post he assumed in April
1940. He began studying law in 1912, but
volunteered as a dispatch rider in the Royal
Engineers in 1914. A year later he joined the
Royal Flying Corps and, after a distinguished
wartime career, joined the infant RAF in 1919.
He became director of organization in the Air
Ministry from 193739 and was air member
for personnel when he was posted to Bomber
Command. An enthusiast for long-range
bombing, he oversaw the first tentative
attacks on German targets during the summer
and autumn of 1940. In October that year, he
became Chief of the Air Staff and held the post
until 1945. In 1944 he was created Marshal of
the Royal Air Force. After the war he played a
part in the British nuclear energy programme
and was later chairman of the British Aircraft
Corporation from 196068.
118
EVACUATION
Long before the outbreak of war, the British
government began to plan the evacuation of
children and mothers from the main urban
areas threatened by bombing. By the outbreak
of war the plan was to move up to four million
people from their homes. In the end only
one-and-a-half million left on government
schemes, with an estimated two million leaving
voluntarily. Millions returned once it became
clear that there would be no bombing. When
the attacks on London started in September
1940, the government organized a second wave
of evacuees, but only 20,500 children were
moved out of London that month and a year
later the figure was still only 60,000. Many
families preferred to stay together and resisted
evacuation plans, with the result that there was
heavy loss of life among women and children
during the winter of 194041. Evacuees were
placed with foster families in less threatened
areas, though this did not guarantee safety.
Thousands were moved to Devon, but the
bombing of Exeter in April and May of 1942
resulted in the death of a number of those
evacuated there during the Blitz.
119
BIG WINGS
ne of the major controversies
provoked by combat in the Battle of
Britain was over the optimum size
of the units Fighter Command put into the
air to meet enemy aircraft. So serious did the
arguments become that what was known as
the Big Wing controversy cost Keith Park
his job as commander of 11 Group and
contributed to the efforts to remove Dowding
from overall command.
The origins of the controversy were to be
found in the sector stations of 12 Group and in
particular the Duxford station, where Douglas
Bader was a squadron commander. Bader and his
fellow pilots were frustrated during the main part
of the battle at having to guard northern airfields
and installations rather than fight in the thick of
the combat in Hells Corner in Kent and Sussex.
This was a view shared by the commander of 12
Group, Air Vice Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory,
who resented the fact that Park, as commander
of 11 Group, was in the thick of the fight. Bader
developed the idea that by scrambling at least
three squadrons together it would be possible
to attack the enemy in real strength. These Big
Wings would be assembled north of London
at a height necessary to give the fighters the
advantage, and then thrown against the bomber
120
AIR VICE-MARSHAL
SIR TRAFFORD LEIGHMALLORY (18921944)
Commander of 12 Group during the Battle of
Britain, Leigh-Mallory went on to become
commander-in-chief of the Allied Expeditionary
Air Force for the invasion of Normandy. He joined
the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War
and then stayed in the post-war RAF. In 1938, he
was appointed to command 12 Group in Fighter
Command and retained his command throughout
the Battle of Britain. In December 1940, he
succeeded Park as commander of 11 Group. In
November 1942, he became commander-in-chief
of Fighter Command and then of the D-Day air
forces. In October 1944, he was posted to SouthEast Asia, but was killed in an air crash on his way
to take up the post.
Big Wings
WING
COMMANDER
DOUGLAS
BADER
(19101982)
The son of a soldier,
Douglas Bader was one
of a generation of young
university graduates
attracted into a career
in flying. He joined the
RAF in 1928 but was
invalided out after crashing his plane late in
1931 and losing both legs. He proved able to
fly with artificial limbs, and on the outbreak of
war in 1939 managed to persuade the RAF to
reinstate him. He became a squadron leader in
June 1940 and was posted to Duxford air base
in command of a squadron of Hurricanes during
the Battle of Britain. He shot down his first
German aircraft of the battle in July. He was
an inspirational commander and a fine pilot,
recording at least 22 kills. In August 1941, he
was shot down in a raid over France. He tried to
escape from German POW camps on a number
of occasions and was eventually incarcerated
in Colditz Castle from where he was liberated in
April 1945.
121
Battle of Britain
122
The Exhibits
123
Battle of Britain
18 SEPTEMBER 1940
Formation south of the Estuary at
about 17.30. We were at 20,000! ... No
casualties in Squadron.
124
The Exhibits
14 SEPTEMBER 1940
Sighted large enemy formation & tried to
attack, but too low. Was attacked by ME
109s & had to break away. Spun off [pilot's
name]'s slipstream & out of the ght.
125
Battle of Britain
126
The Exhibits
AIRCRAFT CAMP
The crew of a Hurricane aircraft are pictured
here camping out on the aireld, as they await
the call to scramble. This picture was taken in
April, 1940.
127
Battle of Britain
SEALION POSTPONED
F
CODEWORD
CROMWELL
In the summer of 1940,
British forces prepared
for possible invasion. The
preparations included
two signals to be sent
out to forces in the event
of a probable German
landing. The first was for
eight hours notice, the
second, activated by the
codeword CROMWELL,
was for immediate action.
On 7 September, the
information suggested an imminent invasion and in the evening of that day
the signal CROMWELL was sent to all units in eastern and southern England.
The RAF had a three-level warning with number one, attack imminent, as
the most severe. On 7 September, that warning was also sent out to all air
squadrons. The warnings caused some panic and sightings were reported
of German parachutists and German boats, but all proved groundless. Not
until 25 October did the RAF release the signal to units that invasion was
improbable, by which stage it was evident that German forces were not going
to come that autumn.
ABOVE: Members of the Home Guard training with a Lewis gun in 1940. German
commanders had orders to treat them like partisans and shoot them.
128
Sealion postponed
THE GERMAN
BLOCKADE
One of the central features of German strategy
during 1940 was to find ways of blockading
British trade and undermining British warwillingness and the British war economy.
Throughout the Battle of Britain and beyond,
German aircraft and submarines attacked
British vessels around the coast, in port or in
the western approaches to the British Isles.
During 1940, over 1,000 ships were sunk,
totalling four million tons, one-quarter of
the British merchant fleet. By 1941, British
imports were down to 38 per cent of the level
of 1938. The food crisis was met by rationing
and large scale propaganda for turning gardens
and parks into allotments for growing food.
By the end of the war, there were 1.7 million
allotments, producing enough food to secure
reasonable rations and to reduce food imports
by half.
129
Battle of Britain
1 AUGUST 1940
It is appreciated that the nature of the
preparations to be undertaken must depend
largely upon the geographical location of
the expected attack, and whether by airborne or sea-borne forces.
130
The Exhibits
131
Battle of Britain
BIRD-WILSON TELEGRAM
Below is a telegram sent by Squadron Leader
Harold Bird-Wilson to his family on 24 September
1940, reassuring them that he was alive. On the
reverse is a 1999 archiving note, indicating that it
was used for a BBC programme that year.
132
The Exhibits
CYPHER MESSAGE
Above is a cypher message marked 'Secret' and
dated from 7 September. The message warns
of an "invasion imminent" for the following
day, 8 September. Cyphers were vital to
keeping intelligence safe during the war.
133
AIR CHIEF
MARSHAL
SHOLTO
DOUGLAS
(18931969)
Dowdings successor as
commander-in-chief of
Fighter Command was
Sholto Douglas, a career
airman with a reputation
for speaking his mind. He joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1914 and had a
distinguished career as commander of 84 Squadron. He worked briefly as
a commercial pilot before rejoining the RAF in 1920. In 1938, he became
assistant chief of staff and in November 1940 succeeded Dowding as
head of Fighter Command. In 1942 he was sent to be RAF Commanderin-Chief Middle East and in 1944 took charge of Coastal Command. After
the war, he became military governor of the British zone of occupation
in Germany from 194647. He retired in 1948 and became chairman of
British European Airways from 1949 to 1964.
134
MAJOR
HELMUT
WICK
(19151940)
One of the leading German
air aces, Helmut Wick
joined the German air
force in 1935. He was
rapidly promoted and
in 1939 served in the
squadron commanded
by Werner Mlders. On
the outbreak of war, he
was flying with the Richthofen fighter wing
and shot down his first aircraft on 22 November
1939. He enjoyed continued success, and was made
a captain in September 1940 and commander of a
fighter group. In October, he was made the youngest
major in the air force and took over full command
of the Richthofen unit. On the morning of 28
November, Wick made his 56th kill, making him the
highest-scoring German ace, but just a few minutes
later he was shot down by a Spitfire close to the
Isle of Wight. Neither his aircraft nor his body were
subsequently found.
135
THE ANDERSON
SHELTER
The sturdy metal garden shelter designed in
1938 by William Paterson and Oscar Kerrison
was named after Sir John Anderson, the
government minister responsible for preparing
air-raid precautions. The shelter was made of
14 corrugated steel panels, with a curved roof
section which was supposed to be covered
by at least 0.4 metres (15 inches) of soil. They
were issued free to householders with an
income of less than 250 a year and there
was also help with installation costs. Some
3.6 million shelters were distributed between
February 1939 and the end of the war. They
held up to six people and could contain bunks
and other small items of furniture. The shelters
were not able to withstand a direct hit and
many became waterlogged. Those shelters
deemed by the authorities to be unsuitable
because of water either had a concrete floor
laid down or were removed altogether, forcing
the household to use local public shelters. At
the end of the war, they were supposed to be
returned to the authorities for scrap, but could
be kept on payment of a small fee.
136
MASS OBSERVATION
ABOVE: Londoners listening to a concert in the London Underground station at Aldwych where they had sought shelter on 21 October
1940. This station was among the first converted to provide shelter in September 1940. It was closed to trains and the tracks were
covered in concrete.
RIGHT: A Junkers Ju
88 spotter card.
BELOW: Earl Street
in Coventry following
the disastrous raid of
1415 November 1940.
Much of the city centre,
including the cathedral,
was destroyed. The
government chose to
release the details to the
press, the first time a city
had actually been named
in newspaper reports.
JUNKERS Ju.88 A-l (JUM
O 2ll)
Long Range Bomber
Span: 59 0 Length:
46 6 Height: 15 0
137
138
CASUALTIES
Aircraft losses JulyOctober 1940
German air force 1,887
RAF Fighter Command 1,023
RAF Bomber Command 376
RAF Coastal Command 148
139
140
BATTLE OF BRITAIN
In 1969, one of the most famous of all British
war films was released, Battle of Britain.
Produced by Harry Saltzman and S. Benjamin
Fisz, the films cast was a roll call of famous
British actors and actresses, including
Laurence Olivier as Hugh Dowding and Trevor
Howard as Keith Park. Unusually, the German
parts were played by native Germans and their
conversation subtitled. Over 100 aircraft were
used in making the film, including a dozen
airworthy Spitfires and three Hurricanes
still capable of flying. The German aircraft
were represented by Spanish versions of the
Heinkel He111 bombers and Messerschmitt
Me109 fighters which had served in the
Spanish air force. They were powered by
British Merlin engines. Filming took place at
four surviving Fighter Command stations,
including Duxford, where a hangar was blown
up for the film. Poor weather hampered
production and shots of clear blue skies were
filmed in Spain.
THE BATTLE OF
BRITAIN MONUMENT,
LONDON
The Battle of Britain Monument stands on
Londons Victoria Embankment not far from
the Houses of Parliament. It was formally
opened in September 2005 in front of 70 pilot
veterans from the battle and was the result
of collaboration between the Battle of Britain
Historical Society and Westminster Council.
The monument site granted by the Council was
a 25-metre (82-foot) granite structure which
had originally been built as a smoke outlet for
steam-powered underground trains. A walkway
was cut through the structure, and bronze
panels depicting the battle and Britain at war in
1940 attached on either side. A full list of those
who fought in the battle is included, organized
by nationality. The monument was sculpted by
Paul Day.
141
Battle of Britain
CREDITS
The publisher would like to thank the following
for their help with the production of this book:
MEMORABILIA
PHOTOGRAPHS
The vast majority of photographs reproduced in
this book have been taken from the collections
of the Photograph Archive at the RAF Air
Historical Branch.
Photographs from the following sources have also
been included with their permission:
RAF Air Historical Branch (UK Crown Copyright.
Reproduced with permission of the Controller,
HMSO, London), Corbis, Bettmann, HultonDeutsch Collection, Underwood & Underwood,
Getty Images, Popperfoto, Time & Life Pictures,
Imperial War Museum, The Kobal Collection:
United Artists, Mirrorpix.com, The News,
Portsmouth, Press Association Images, Private
Collection, Rex Feature, Royal Air Force, HMSO,
Scal, Bayerische Staatbibliothe, Atelier Bieber/
Nather, Arthur Grimm, Herbert Hoffmann, Hans
Hubmann, Benno Wundshammer, Topfoto.co.uk,
Alinari, The Granger Collection, Ullsteinbild.
Every effort has been made to acknowledge
correctly and contact the source and/or copyright
holder of each picture, and Imagine Publishing
apologizes for any unintentional errors or
omissions, which will be corrected in future
editions of this book.
For more information regarding the rights and
ownership of specific images, please contact
books@imagine-publishing.co.uk
142
FURTHER INFORMATION
Royal Air Force:
www.raf.mod.uk
Royal Air Force Air Historical Branch:
www.raf.mod.uk/ahb/
Royal Air Force Museum:
www.rafmuseum.org.uk
The National Archives, Kew:
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
The Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge:
www.chu.cam.ac.uk/archives/
Credits
143
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