by Norman Gelb
15 September: Huge bomber raids directed against London are driven off by the RAF. Germans suffer very heavy losses on what was later to be known as ‘Battle of Britain Day’.
16 September - 31 October: Fifth and final phase of the Battle of Britain. Daytime German raids over England gradually cease, signalling the end of German efforts to seize mastery of the skies over England.
17 September: Hitler officially postpones the invasion of Britain ‘until further notice’.
Appendix II
EYEWITNESSES
The following were interviewed for this narrative account of the Battle of Britain. All were Royal Air Force Fighter Command pilots during the battle with the exception of those otherwise identified.
D.J. Anderson
Robert Angell (anti-aircraft gunner)
Joyce Atwood (civilian)
Wing Commander John Barnes
Wing Commander Patrick Barthropp
Wing Commander Roland Beamont
Air Vice Marshal H.A.C. Bird-Wilson
Group Captain John Bisdee
Len Bowman (Defiant gunner)
Squadron Leader Benjamin Bowring
Air Commodore Peter Brothers
Squadron Leader M.P. Brown
John Burgess
Peter Burney (radar operator)
Air Vice Marshal G.P. Chamberlain
Philip Coad (gunner, field artillery)
Brian Considine
Wing Commander David Cox
M.E. Croskell
Air Marshal Sir Denis Crowley-Milling
Group Captain John Cunningham
Wing Commander C.F. Currant
Group Captain H.S. Darley
Group Captain Dennis David
Squadron Leader G.G.A. Davies
Squadron Leader Peter Davies
Air Vice Marshal Robert Deacon-Elliott
Wing Commander Christopher Deanesly
Air Commodore Alan Deere
Wing Commander Peter Devitt
Wing Commander Robert Doe
Air Commodore E.M. Donaldson
Group Captain Hugh Dundas
Group Captain G.R. Edge
Wing Commander J.F.D. Elkington
Air Commodore John Ellacombe
Wing Commander John Fleming
Air Chief Marshal Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris
Commander R.E. Gardner (Royal Navy, seconded to Fighter Command during the battle)
Wing Commander Richard Gayner
Squadron Leader E.D. Glaser
Group Captain T.P. Gleave
Peter Hairs
Roger Hall
Wing Commander H.J.L. Hallowes
Wing Commander N.P.W. Hancock
Albert Hargraves (bowser driver)
Sir Barrie Heath
Wing Commander H.M.T. Heron
Air Vice Marshal H.A.V. Hogan
Wing Commander Eustace Holden
Group Captain Sir Archibald Hope
Wing Commander G.L. Howitt
Major General B.P. Hughes (Royal Artillery)
Air Vice Marshal F.D. Hughes
Squadron Leader Iain Hutchinson
Wing Commander Bernard Jennings
Air Vice Marshal A.V.R. Johnstone
Cyril Jones (hospital operating-room assistant)
Elizabeth (Cook) Jones (civilian)
Richard Jones John Kemp
Squadron Leader J.R. Kilner
Group Captain Brian Kingcome
Squadron Leader R.A. Kings
Edith (Heap) Kup (Operations Room plotter)
Lady Kyle (Molly Wilkinson) (Operations Room plotter, cipher officer)
EYEWITNESSES
Elaine Leathart (civilian)
Air Commodore J.A. Leathart
Ivy Linggard (civilian)
Leslie Linggard (civilian, fire warden)
David Looker
Wing Commander Peter Matthews
Group Captain A.G. Miller
Group Captain A.D. Murray
Tom Naylor (senior NCO, Operations Room)
Group Captain R.W. Oxspring
Wing Commander Peter Parrott
Dame Felicity (Hanbury) Peake (WAAF officer)
Francis Pecket (groundcrew)
F.S. Perkin
Group Captain G. Powell-Sheddon
Claire (Legge) Quill (Operations Room plotter)
Wing Commander Jeffrey Quill
Air Commodore David Roberts (Sector and Station commander)
Ruth Roberts (civilian)
Ursula Robertson (Operations Room plotter)
Air Chief Marshal Sir Frederick Rosier
Group Captain W.A.J. Satchell
Edith Seils (civilian)
Wing Commander Gordon Sinclair
Derek Smythe (Defiant gunner)
Ann Standen (nurse)
Wing Commander Robert Stanford-Tuck
Wing Commander H.M. Stephen
Squadron Leader Donald Stones
Wing Commander J.E. Storrar
Frederick Taylor (anti-aircraft gunner)
Kathleen Taylor (civilian)
Squadron Leader R.W. Wallens
P.T. Wareing
Squadron Leader Denis Wilde
Sylvia Yeatman (civilian)
Appendix III
DESCRIPTIONS OF AIRCRAFT
Spitfire
The most famous of the British fighter aircraft, the Supermarine Spitfire was extremely fast for the period, with a maximum speed of 362 mph. It was light to handle, the most manoeuverable of all the aircraft involved in the Battle of Britain, with extraordinary powers of sudden acceleration, though it lost some of its vigour at very high altitudes. When asked by Goring during the course of the battle what he could do to help his Luftwaffe fighter pilots, German ace Adolf Galland angered the Reichsmarshal by replying that they could use some Spitfires.
Wingspan: 36' 10”. Length: 29' 11”. Weight loaded: 6,200 pounds. Power: 1,030-hp Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. Armament: eight wing-mounted .303 Browning machine-guns. (A brief experiment with cannon instead during the battle proved a failure.)
Hurricane
Though not as widely acclaimed as the Spitfire, the Hawker Hurricane was Fighter Command’s main workhorse during the Battle of Britain. Not as fast as the Spitfire (maximum speed 328 mph) and less manoeuverable, it was, nevertheless, a steadier gun platform and could sustain a great deal more damage than the Spitfire without being knocked out of the sky. It was estimated that eighty percent of Luftwaffe losses during the battle could be credited to Hurricane pilots, though that may be partly because the bombers were main Hurricane targets, while the Spitfires were regularly dispatched to tangle with the less vulnerable German fighters escorting the bombers.
Wingspan: 40'. Length: 31' 4". Weight loaded: 6,447 pounds. Power: 1,030-hp Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. Armament: eight wing-mounted .303 Browning machine-guns.
Blenheim
The Bristol Blenheim, a twin-engined fighter, modified from a bomber design, quickly proved to be no match for German fighters. It was widely employed against night raiding bombers and for experimentation in the development of airborne radar.
Wingspan: 56' 4". Length: 39' 9". Weight loaded: 12,500 pounds. Power: two 840 Mercury air-cooled engines. Armament: five .303 machine-guns.
Defiant
A two-seater fighter with a rear gun turret, the Boulton Paul Defiant scored a significant triumph over Dunkirk when German pilots, apparently mistaking it for the Hurricane, attacked it from the rear and lost twenty-seven planes to its rear gunners in one day. But the error wasn’t repeated, and from then on the aircraft was extremely vulnerable to attacks by German fighters, having no forward firing gun, which left both pilot and gunner in difficulties in close aerial combat. Withdrawn from daylight duty, it was consigned to night fighting.
Messerschmitt 109 (Me 109)
The main fighter escort for German bombers, the 109 was a sleek, excellent war machine, with direct fuel injection to assist its performance in close comb
at. Marginally faster than the Spitfire, it was, however, less manoeuverable. This difference had an important bearing on the outcome of the battle. By the time 109s, flying cover for the bombers, disentangled themselves from Spitfires sent to deal with them, Hurricanes sent after the bombers at the same time were often well into their assigned task. Nevertheless, at the most critical part of the battle, Fighter Command pilots felt that 109s always seemed about to swoop down on them, their guns blazing.
Wingspan: 32' 4 ½ '. Length: 28' 8". Weight loaded: 5,520 pounds. Power: 1,150-hp Daimler-Benz engine. Armament: two 7.9-mm machine-guns and two 20-mm cannon.
Messerchmitt 110 (Me 110)
A two-seater fighter-bomber which established a reputation for performance and invulnerability during the Spanish Civil War, the 110, nicknamed the ‘Destroyer’, was used primarily as an escort for bombers, supplementing the 109s. Towards the end of the battle, it was also often sent over on bombing missions when it became too hazardous to send over bombers during daylight hours. The 110 was a disappointment to the Luftwaffe during the battle, proving to be no match for Spitfires and Hurricanes, and probably would have been withdrawn from combat by the Germans if more 109s had been available to them.
Wingspan: 53' 4 ¾". Length: 39' 8 ½ ". Weight loaded: 15,290 pounds. Power: three 7.9-mm machine-guns and two 20-mm cannon.
German Bombers
Four types of aircraft did most of the bombing of British targets during the Battle of Britain — Dorniers 17 (Do 17), Junkers 87 (Ju 87), and particularly the Heinkel 111 (He 111) and Junkers 88 (Ju 88). None was fast enough or well enough armoured to cope with British fighters when inadequately escorted by 109s. The Ju 87, the famous Stuka, had been used as airborne artillery bv the Germans during their sweep across Europe, diving down ahead of advancing German ground forces to clear the way by wreaking havoc and generating terror with its siren, designed to emit a high-pitched screech as it plummeted down almost vertically on its target. But it was soon apparent that the Stuka was a very easy target for British fighters, and it was withdrawn from the Luftwaffe’s assault on Britain.
Appendix IV
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Although the foregoing is based on interviews with men and women who fought the Battle of Britain, some of the material included has been drawn from sources listed here with thanks: The Ironside Diaries, edited by Colonel R. Macleod and Denis Kelly, published by Constable; The Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan, edited by David Dilks, published by Macmillan Inc.; Skies to Dunkirk, by Sir Victor Goddard, published by Wm Kimber; A Chelsea Concerto, by Frances Faviell, published by Macmillan Inc.; This is London, by Edward R. Murrow, published by Simon and Schuster, copyright 1941 by Edward R. Murrow, renewed 1969 by Janet H.B. Murrow and Charles Casey Murrow; The Nine Days of Dunkirk and Dunkirk, by David Divine, by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd; Spitfire Pilot, by David Crook, by permission of Dorothy Hessling; The Royal Air Force, by Denis Richards, published by Her Majesty’s Stationery Office; Plague Year, by Anthony Weymouth, published by Harrap; Diaries and Letters of Harold Nicolson, published by Collins; The Home Guard of Britain, by Charles Graves, published by Hutchinson; London War Notes, by Mollie Panter Downs; the wartime diary of Leonard Marsland Gander, by permission of the diarist; the letter from Flight Lieutenant Frank Howell, drawn from The Narrow Margin, by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster, by permission of the authors; The London Journal of General Raymond E. Lee, published by Little, Brown and Company; the letter from John Dundas to his brother Hugh, by permission of Group Captain Hugh Dundas; Readiness at Dawn, by Ronald Adam, published by Gollancz; The Memoirs of General the Lord Ismay, published by Heinemann; Survivor’s Story, by Sir Gerald Gibbs, published by Hutchinson; the War Diary of Mrs Gwladys Cox, by permission of Alex Mitchell; The Second World War, Volume II, by Winston Churchill, published by Houghton Mifflin and Cassell; Invasion 1940, by Peter Fleming, published by Collins, by permission of Nicholas Fleming; St Paul’s Cathedral in Wartime, by the Very Reverend W.R. Matthews, published by Hutchinson; The Ultra Secret, by F.W. Winterbotham, published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson; The Man Who Won the Battle of Britain, published by Scribners, by permission of the author, Robert Wright. Material from Crown-copyright records of the British Public Record Office, from files Air 4, 16, 22, 24 and 25, CAB 65 and 66, and WO 199, appear by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Two books invaluable to any person wishing to look further into the Battle of Britain are the aforementioned The Narrow Margin, by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster, and Battle over Britain, by Francis Mason.
Thanks are due to the following for the loan of books and documents related to the Battle of Britain which might otherwise have been difficult to track down: Air Vice Marshal H. Bird-Wilson, Air Vice Marshal Peter Chamberlain, Air Commodore Alan Deere, Group Captain Tom Gleave, Wing Commander H.M.T. Heron, Edith Kup, Tom Naylor, Group Captain W.A.J. Satchell, Ursula Robertson, Sylvia Yeatman and Wing Commander J. E. L. Zumbach.
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Table of Contents
FOREWORD
PREFACE
PRELUDE
BRITAIN AT BAY
THE BATTLE IS JOINED
ATTACK OF THE EAGLES
CRISIS
LONDON’S BURNING
FINALE
POSTSCRIPT
Appendix I
Appendix II
Appendix III
Appendix IV
