The Battle of Britain
Page 83
Page 8
Douglas Mann: photo courtesy Douglas Mann; Hilda Müller: photo courtesy Hilda Müller.
Section 2
Page 1
Hans-Ekkehard Bob and Chica: both photos courtesy of H-E. Bob.
Pages 2 and 3
The Royal Ulster Rifles on the beach at Bray: Imperial War Museum/HU 1137; abandoned trucks at Dunkirk: Dr Peter Caddick-Adams; Norman Field: photo courtesy Richard Field; evacuation of Dunkirk, June 1940: © Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans Picture Library; burning oil tanks at Dunkirk: Imperial War Museum C 1721.
Pages 4 and 5
George VI and the Queen with Sir Hugh Dowding, 6 September 1940: Imperial War Museum/CH 1233; Chain Home Bawdsey CH station, Suffolk: Imperial War Museum/CH 15337; Observer Corps Post: Imperial War Museum/CH 2477; Filter Room, HQ Fighter Command, Stanmore: Imperial War Museum/MH 27894.
Pages 6 and 7
English freighter in the sights of a German U-boat, from Fahrten und Flüge Gegen England by ‘Oberkommando der Wehrmacht’, 1941; Günther Prien, 1940: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-2006-1130-500/Annelise Schulze (Mauritius); Germans bomb British ship in a harbour on the south coast of England, from Fahrten und Flüge Gegen England by ‘Oberkommando der Wehrmacht’, 1941.
Page 8
Hitler and Göring in conversation: Bundesarchiv-Militärachiv, Freiburg-am-Brieisgau; William L. Shirer, Compiègne, France, June 1940: Getty Images.
Section 3
Page 1
Tom Neill: photo by Cecil Beaton.
Pages 2 and 3
Junkers Ju 88: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-409-0885-30A/Kahler; Me 177: Imperial War Museum/HU 2965; Ernst Milch: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-760-0165N-26/Lange; Junkers 88, 1940/41: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-409-0885-30A/Kahler; Me 109: Eric Dumigan; Zerstörer setting out for England, from Fahrten und Flüge Gegen England by ‘Oberkommando der Wehrmacht’, 1941; Hawker Hart: © Chiltern Image Service/Alamy; Spitfire: Richard Paver Photography.
Pages 4 and 5
Victorious soldiers enter Berlin, 18 July, 1940: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-L07586/Eisenhardt; ‘… meanwhile, in Britain, the entire population, faced by the threat of invasion, has been flung into a state of complete panic …’ cartoon by Pont, Punch, 14 August, 1940; Churchill and Beaverbrook: Popperfoto/Getty Images; Spitfire Assembly Hall, Castle Bromwich: Hugh W. Cowin/Rex Features; Oxford Street, 1940: George Rodger/Magnum Photos.
Pages 6 and 7
Me 109s at Guines: photo courtesy H-E. Bob; Julius Neumann at Euston; Neumann’s Me 109: both courtesy Julius Neumann; German airmen, 12 September 1940: Getty Images.
Section 4
Page 1
Ulrich Steinhilper: Peter Osborne/Independent Books.
Pages 2 and 3
Andrew Jackson: photo courtesy Andrew Jackson; Joe Steele: photo courtesy Joe Steele; Allan Wright; Tommy Bartley: both photos courtesy Vicky Bartley; Jimmy Corbin: photo courtesy Jimmy Corbin.
Pages 4 and 5
German soldier on watch, Channel coast, France, from Fahrten und Flüge Gegen England by ‘Oberkommando der Wehrmacht’, 1941.
Pages 6 and 7
London bomb damage: both Cecil Beaton; Berlin bomb damage: Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L09712; crew of U-48: Imperial War Museum/HU 54070; U-47 at surface: Imperial War Museum/HU 105585.
Pages 8
John and Cocky Dundas: photo courtesy Lady Robbie Dundas.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Holland was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, and studied history at Durham University. A member of the British Commission for Military History and the Guild of Battlefield Guides, he also regularly contributes reviews and articles in national newspapers and magazines.
His many interviews with veterans of the Second World War are available at the Imperial War Museum and are also archived on www.secondworldwarforum.com.
David Crook. A pre-war regular with 609 (West Riding) Auxiliary Squadron, David’s transformation from carefree ‘weekend flier’ to battle-hardened fighter ace typified the entire squadron’s transition as, over the course of the summer, they became one of the most successful units in RAF Fighter Command.
Halifax (left) with Ambassador Joe Kennedy: the peace-monger and the arch-defeatist. Both mendid little to help Britain’s cause during the dark days of May and early June.
Prime Minister and former Prime Minister. The two forged a surprisingly strong relationship once Churchill had taken over, and Chamberlain would play a crucial role during Britain’s moment ofgreatest crisis.
General Lord Gort (left) with Lieutenant-General Henry Pownall, his Chief of Staff. Poor communications, unreliable allies and a chaotic staff system dogged their efforts to effectively command the BEF.
Hermann Göring, the second most powerful man in the Reich. Although chief of the Luftwaffe, he was a more effective and talented businessman and industrialist than military commander. Relishing the trappings of power, no man enjoyed being a leading Nazi more.
Franz Halder, Chief of Staff of the German Army, and no fan of Hitler. A brilliant staff officer, and the chief planner of the western campaign, he was nonetheless repeatedly frustrated by interference from above.
This picture sums up well the uneasy relationship between Hitler and the Commander of the Army, von Brauchitsch (right). The Führer mistrusted the army and more than once reduced von Brauchitsch to a quivering wreck with his tirades.
Rommel discusses his division’s latest positions. A fearless commander who led from the front, he was by background an infantryman, and a late convert to mobile panzer tactics.
General Guderian, one of the main architects of the panzer thrust through the Ardennes. Another commander never far from the vanguard of his troops, he was also prepared to repeatedly defy his senior commanders, and was one of the few men in the Wehrmacht to believe a rapid victory in the West to be possible.
German forces had far more radios than the Allies and unquestionably better communications, a crucial ingredient of their success. However, despite the myth of the blitzkrieg, they had fewer tanks, guns, motorized transport and even troops than the Allies. Of 135 divisions to take part in the western campaign, only ten had any tanks, and only 278 of these were Mk IV Panzers like those shown below.
The reality. Most German troops got around on foot, on horseback (above left), or by bicycle (bottom) if they were lucky. The majority of panzers were Mk Is and IIs, underarmed and under-armoured. The men beside this Mk I (top right) are almost as tall as the tank itself, which was armed with nothing more than a machine gun.
Gridlock in the Ardennes. Had the Allies responded to reports of large-scale traffic movement through the Ardennes, and sent their bombers over, the campaign could well have been over before it had barely begun.
The Allies were stunned by the apparent might of the Luftwaffe, even though the Germans lost a staggering 353 aircraft on 10 May alone. This picture of Rotterdam, heavily bombed on 14 May, was taken by Julius Neumann from his Me 109.
Feldmarschall Kesselring talks with Hauptmann Walter Rubensdörffer and the men of Erpro 210, one of the crack Zerstörer units
Left to right: Three of the Luftwaffe’s best. A bomber pilot, Stuka pilot and fighter pilot: Hajo Herrmann, Paul-Werner Hozzel and Günther Rall.
The charismatic Dolfo Galland, cap at rakish angle and ever-present cigar between his gloved fingers.
Ulrich Steinhilper (standing left) and the men of 3/JG 52 outside their billet in France. Some of the unnecessarily wide array of Luftwaffe uniforms are on display here.
Siegfried Knappe, his hand and wrist bandaged after being wounded in the final days of the Battle for France.
Siegfried Bethke, his hand on hip, in the middle of a group of pilots and ground crew from 2/JG 2.
Left to right: Stan Fraser, Arthur Hughes and Billy Drake. The Blenheim squadrons in France were decimated – Arthur was one of only four pilots from 18 Squadron to return to Britain and was wounded himself soon after. Billy Drake, although managing to score several ‘kills�
�, was lucky to survive when he was shot down on 13 May. The air fighting over France and the Low Countries provided a steep learning curve for all those involved.
A squadron of Hawker Hurricanes. Although a stable gun-platform and powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin, the Hurricane was nonetheless outclassed by both the Spitfire Mk I and the Messerschmitt 109E.
Douglas Mann, who with friends from his school OTC joined the Marlborough Local Defence Volunteers to guard against invasion. Later, during the summer holidays back home in Kent, he found himself living directly under the heaviest of the air fighting over England.
Three of those on the Home Front: Londoner Olivia Cockett (top), and Berliners Else Wendel (middle) and Hilda Müller (bottom). There was a greater shortage of everyday goods in Germany than there was in Britain.
Beware the enemy. Fear of German parachutists, especially, reached fever pitch in Britain in the panic of May and early June. Yet even by September, Göring had still not finally agreed to the deployment of any of his paratroop units in the SEALION invasion plans.
Hans-Ekkehard Bob in France in June. A highly gifted fighter pilot, Hans flew throughout the long summer of 1940, both in the western campaign and over Britain. A companion throughout that time was his dog, Chica, here standing on the wing of his Me 109. Chica enjoyed nothing more than a trip in the cockpit with Hans, a treat he indulged her with whenever moving airfields.
Dunkirk. British soldiers wait to be lifted from the beaches. Most got home, but the majority of the BEF’s equipment was left behind (below left), a loss that took a long time to recover, and which left Britain’s army desperately weakened.
Norman Field, who with the 2nd Royal Fusiliers was amongst those heroically defending the Dunkirk perimeter. Many of the wounded were left behind; Norman was one of the lucky ones to make it safely back across the Channel
Sometimes a drawing or painting can convey the atmosphere, mayhem and mess of war better than a grainy black and white photograph. One can only imagine what it must have been like being a soldier waiting to be evacuated amidst all this.
Oil depots at Dunkirk burning. The smoke rose thousands of feet into the air and could be seen for a hundred miles, but provided the port with an invaluable screen that made the Luftwaffe’s task that much harder.
While Germany finished off France and wondered what to do next, Britain prepared to face the onslaught. Orchestrating Britain’s aerial defences was Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding (at right), seen here with the King and Queen at Fighter Command Headquarters, Bentley Priory.
A key cog in those defences was the RDF, or radar, chain along Britain’s southern and east coast. These are the tall, ungainly and conspicuous masts of Chain Home, whose comparative lack of sophistication actually worked to Britain’s advantage. Another crucial component was the Observer Corps, made up of civilian volunteers (below). Here one man watches with binoculars and a headset ready to report information, while another uses the specially designed pantograph.
The Operations Room at Bentley Priory (above) taken from the gallery as the controllers look down on the plotting table and towards the tote board, while (below) WAAF plotters at 11 Group Headquarters in Uxbridge move plots around the table. Every operations room was set up in precisely the same way.
A common sight along Britain’s beaches in the early summer of 1940. Sandbags, mines and wire were laid along large stretches of the coast as Britain was gripped with invasion fever.
Kurt ‘Bobby’ Fimmen, one of the S-boat aces, here receiving his Knight’s Cross. The S-boats (opposite, right) were superb pieces of kit: fast, heavily armed and able to move safely over magnetic minefields. They wreaked havoc on the east-coast convoys, but as with the U-boats, could have been so much more effective were there more of them.
Bee Beamont, a Hurricane pilot with 87 Squadron, who like many of his Luftwaffe counterparts fought throughout that long summer, both in France and over Britain.
A British merchantman seen through the periscope of a U-boat.
Günther Prien, one of the greatest U-boat captains of them all. Famous all around Germany – and indeed the world – for having sunk the British battleship the Royal Oak at Scapa Flow, Prien and his boat, U-47, continued to sink gargantuan amounts of Allied shipping throughout the summer of 1940.
An east-coast convoy under attack. Although ocean-going convoys soonstopped using the Dover straits, coal trampers never did. Coal was what drove Britain’s power stations and was absolutely essential were Britain to maintain her industrial war effort, not least the production of aeroplanes.
The photograph of Hitler and Göring discussing the invasion of England taken secretly on 20 June by Gerhard Hartmann, a young guard at the Wolf’s Ravine, the Führer’s Headquarters in Belgium.
William Shirer, the American CBS reporter, taps out another broadcast, somewhere near the front in June 1940.
Cecil Beaton’s photograph of Tom Neil, a young Hurricane pilot with 249 Squadron. The squadron had been re-formed in May 1940 at Church Fenton in Yorkshire, and not until August was the squadron moved south, allowing Tom and many of the other pilots a crucial few months in which to build up flying and combat experience in a mostly quiet sector.
The Luftwaffe High Command became obsessed with dive-bombers. The Junkers 88 was originally conceived as a fast, long-range bomber, but lost much of its speed when it was decided to give it dive-bombing capability. This also massively set back production.
The four-engine Heinkel 177 suffered the same fate. Dive-bombing properties simply could not be applied to such a big aircraft, something that was realized too late. It was one of the reasons the Luftwaffe had almost no heavy bombers.
The Junkers 87, better known as the Stuka, the only operational aircraft conceived as a dive-bomber, but whose flaws were first exposed over Dunkirk. Here Feldmarschall Milch addresses Stuka pilots and crews on one of his many airfield visits.
Two Messerschmitts, the 109E (above)and the 110 Zerstörer (below). The former was the outstanding aircraft of 1940, the latter something of a dud, but since the Zerstörers were a pet project of Göring’s, they continued to be used throughout the Battle.
Britain’s two principle fighters were the Hurricane and Spitfire. The Hurricane was a direct descendent of Hawker’s earlier biplanes, as can be clearly seen when compared with the Hart (top). The Spitfire (right), on the other hand, was something entirely new, and a superb aircraft even when still at the beginning of its development life in 1940.
The Führer’s triumph through Berlin in July 1940. This was possibly the greatest day of Hitler’s career.
Colonel Raymond Lee, the US military attaché, and, unlike the Ambassador, a confirmed Anglophile with an uncanny knack of predicting how events would play out.
Pont was a genius and in this cartoon brilliantly reflects the more phlegmatic mood of most in Britain by the time Adlertag was finally launched.
Churchill with his great friend and Minister for Aircraft Production, Lord Beaverbrook. Not only did Beaverbrook give aircraft production (below) the kick up its backside that was needed, he also understood a thing or two about public relations – as did the Prime Minister. With Churchill’s great oratory and Beaverbrook’s schemes such as the Spitfire Fund (bottom), these two men gave Britain back its self-belief and galvanized the country.
Me 109s of 9/JG 54 at Guines, tucked away under netting and by the trees at the edge of their makeshift airfield.
A downed Heinkel 111 over England. It has been riddled with bullet holes – but it often took a great many .303 rounds to knock such an aircraft out of the sky.
Paul Temme’s Me 109 at Shoreham in Sussex.
A downed Blenheim in Northern France being picked over by the Luftwaffe. The Blenheims were flying over France attacking German airfields every day.
Me 109s of JG 27, taken by Julius Neumann, mid-flight.
Julius was shot down over the Isle of Wight on 18 August and taken into captivity. This photograph of him, looking ev
ery inch the blond, good-looking and rather dashing archetypal German fighter pilot, was printed all around the western world.
A Luftwaffe bomber crew are led away from the burning wreck of their aircraft. Downed RAF pilots could often fly again – and frequently that same day – but this was not the case for German crews shot down over England. For them, the war was over.
An attack on Ventor Chain Home RDF station on the Isle of Wight. Although Ventor was temporarily knocked out, radar masts proved nigh-on impossible to destroy, and the Luftwaffe soon gave up trying.
Cherbourg after an attack by British bombers. RAF Bomber Command never let up with their attacks on German targets, both along the continental coast, on airfields, and in Germany itself. It proved a major thorn in Hitler’s side.
Ulrich Steinhilper. An intelligent and thoughtful young man, Ulrich began the summer eager to enter the fray and to put his pre-war training to the test. Over the long ensuing months, however, he became increasingly disillusioned, frustrated by the Luftwaffe’s shortage of aircraft and properly trained pilots, and by what he perceived to be the wrong fighter tactics. As summer turned to autumn he also began to struggle against the demons of combat fatigue. He was far from alone.