A Bigger RAF Battle of Britain Win

According to 'Dowding of Fighter Command', it seems Duxford nearly ended up as part of 11 Group. Vincent Orange suggests that if it had, then Bader would have got more of the battle he was after and Leigh Mallory would have been denied his support.

The other solution would have been, to send Bader and his Squadron to join 11 Group. It's a mystery why it never did, 'Sailor' Malan, came from 11 Group and joined the Bader wing for a short time, before going back to 11 Group, yet Leigh-Mallory ensured that Bader stayed put.
 

Markus

Banned
The 20mm cannon is not ready, the cal.303 too light, so what about a test of the cal.50 once the ACAS report is out?
Take the biggest, toughest bomber you got and shoot at it.

Result: Unlike the cal.303, the cal.50 bullets are neither stopped by the armour, nor the aluminum frames.
Conclusion: The cal.50 Vickers machine gun is good enough.
Action: Install cal.50 guns as a stop gap measure until the 20mm is ready.


 
Merlin hit the one part on the head,

Canada was initially in oposition to the British Commonwealth Air Training plan due to concerns of loss of Canadian Identy and lack of desire to fund the infrastructure needed.

Upon it's establishment (in the middle of the BoB) almost nothing was in place...airfields, command, instructors, and students were all lacking yet by the end of the war hundreds of thousands of aircrew had been trained at over 50 facilities around the nation. The first graduates of this program had started to arrive in Britian just as the BoB ended..

This, even more so that corvette contribution in the western atlantic, is arguably Canada's most valuable contribution during WW2. A change in political will earlier would have potentially way more impact on both the U-boat campaign (fewer pilots transfered from observation duties) and less pilot burnout.
 
I sure 'Tony' can correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't the problem with the canons confined to those fitted in the wings?
Hence, an earlier decision to utilise the Gloster twin, would have had the Gloster F.9/37 available as a day & night-fighter, rather than the ineffectual Blenheim 1f.
Though, some may say the Whirlwind would have been better - but I think the Gloster route is more plausible, and while the Whirlwind was great in the air, but with maintenance problems (12 man-hours to change a wheel) I'm wary about serviceability.
 
The post BoB RAF strategy took a number of forms. Agressive fighter sweeps in what came to be known as 'Circus' Operations in 1941 were largely a failure. Achieving little and having a high loss rate.
"10 Jan 1941 - The RAF begins Circus operations - coordinated bomber and fighter attacks on targets in France. Six Blenheims, escorted by six/nine squadrons of Spitfires and Hurricanes attack supply dumps south of Calais."Source

By Feb 1941, you have Bomber Command using its resources against German cities at night now.


If I am not mistaken the Luftwaffe also made such an attack against US bombers landing in Russian bases during the war. It also proved quite effective.
 
On your second point, why though? Using up fuel and flying time and fighting them on their turf (giving them home advantage in rescue and AAA), the RAF doesn't achieve much, I can see.
I take intercepts over the Channel preferable to ones where British targets are threatened, which allowing them to cross does. I also doubt FC would actually manage to reach them actually assembling (they might), but it's highly likely, IMO, FC would be able to intercept before LW fighters joined up...
Re: (2) Set up something like the Empire Training Scheme earlier than OTL, I thing the Canadians were against it initially, but at least earlier the Austrlians would have been interested - having the Japanese to worry about!
There were issues over who was going to pay for it... Had HMG been expressly willing in '37-8, King would have offered no resistance; he hoped OTL to avoid sending Canadian infantry, relying instead on airmen & sailors. (OTL, it turned out RCAF losses were pretty high...)
(3) Yes, how did Leigh-Mallory get to be in charge of 12 Group in the first place? His experience prior to that was with Army Co-operation - should have been in France. But who to have in his place?
An excellent question. Another is, why didn't Dowding order Group commanders to provide assistance when Park asked for it? One more: why weren't all FC's Spits in 11 Group? And why were there Blenheim squadrons? (IIRC, this predates Blenheim NFs...which FC managed to bugger up & get annihilated on other duty anyhow...)

The 20mm Hispano had issues of delay & failures, which could readily have been cured had Air Ministry been less stupid.
 
From Tami Davis Biddle's 'Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare: The Evolution of British and American Ideas about Strategic Bombing 1914 - 1945'

...in return for 1,097 sorties against airfields (and a loss of sixty-one aircraft), Bomber Command destroyed five German planes on the ground and damaged twelve. Damage to airfields was hard to assess, but, as the official historian of the Battle of Britain explained dryly, it 'seems to have caused the enemy no serious embarrassment.'


It would be interesting if fast recce Spitfires had been available at this time to assess damage (and later on damage against cities) but even if they had there is a good chnace the photos wouldn't be believed - this is apparently what happened in the early stages of photographs taken after early raids on cities.
 
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