AHC: Peerless Air Ministry
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How the Germans sustaining 10% more losses over Britain would change such a fundamental italian policy decision? For that to happen, you need two PODs: Germans not establishing themselves in Romania AND give Benny a different way to analyze the world around him.
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No, the Italian invasion of Greece goes ahead as OTL. The Debacle of the Regia Aeronautical in northern france is not exactly advertised to the Italian people!!
If anything the Regia Aeronautica's failure over the channel makes the Italian invasion of Greece more likely. The Fascists need to show they aren't Paper Tigers. I've said elsewhere the Italian R.A. was actually very good, at least in terms of people, and I stand by that. They were let down by their aircraft as Italy was paying the price for starting to rearm earlier than the other European powers and ended up with out dated aircraft when they needed better.
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PLP, is absolutely correct, as shown in the PAM, the drubbing the R.A. just received had nothing to do with lack of fighting/flying ability in the aircrew but was all about biplanes and obsolescent twin engine bombers facing cannon armed mono plane fighters. If you read the post again you will notice that the skill of the Italian fighter pilots is credited with keeping their losses down and frustrating the RAF pilots!
No fighters involved in the first raid ... at night
In fact I can't see any mention of Italian fighters over Britain
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Sorry Getting ahead of myself!!! commenting on a post I have yet to put up on the forum. Yes the first night raid lost three out of sixteen aircraft as non combat losses. One was a take off accident, not uncommon with heavily laden bombers at the time. The other two losses were due to the inexperience of the navigators in flying in north sea conditions, without the advantage of the German bombers electronic navigation aids, when they encountered haze and fog at night, two of the navigators got horrible lost and kept their aircraft wandering around the north sea until they ran out of fuel.
10.55 The numbers tell the story and the defence stays strong
10.55 The numbers tell the story and the defence stays strong
October 28th
Day, Convoy off Dover and shipping in Estuary attacked. London the main afternoon target.
Night, Widespread attacks throughout the country.
Weather. Misty in northern France. Fog over the Estuary and Straits, clearing later. Cloudy (1)
The misty start to the day in northern France reduced the german morning activity to raids by single aircraft attacking coastal targets and shipping. The afternoon saw another major effort by the Luftwaffe withraids of forty and twenty aircraft raiding kent in quick succession and being duly repulsed by the duty squadrons of Eleven Group. Following this at four thirty in the afternoon another raid consisting of fifty aircraft consisting of a mix of fighters and fighter bombers attacked Folksstone whilst a portion of the raid hrade inland towards London. Intercepted and attacked by squafron sized formations in quick succession this incursion was again repulsed.
Hoping to exploit any gaps in the defences caused by theis attack follow up raids totaling over an additional one hundred aircraft attempted to reach London. By rotating squadrons the controllers in Eleven Group always managed to have sufficient fully armed and fuels aircraft at altitude to intercept these raids. One again the contious RDF coverage afforded by the PPI stations showed their worth, as unless the intruders decended to tree top hight they could be tracked comtinously and the RDF operator and controllers were by now well practiced in their roles.
As darkness fell the RAF tallies indicated a quieter day with a sortie number only in the mid six hundreds but a favourable score of thirteen enemy aircraft detroyed for the loss of two RAF aircraft and the death of a single pilot.
Night time saw further attacks on London and the south east. Whilst the AI equipped night fighters were achieving a steady stream of success, a new tactic was tried by two reaper squadrons, these were 137 in Twelve Group and 263 in Ten Group. This new tactic consisted of sending standing patrols of the longer range reaper fighters to loiter around beacxons on the edge of the gun zones of major cities where if enemy bombers were coned by the search lights they could pounce and attack. It meant risking fighters within the gun zones but that was a rik the volunteer pilots were willing to take. Tonight a reaper fron 263 squadron based at Filton managed to intercept and shoot down a bomber over Bristol and in a separate incedent another reaper from 137 sqhadron of Twelve Group based at Wittering succeeded in shooting down an enemy bomber coned by the lights around the ROF, At Enfield.
(1) Daily summary quoted verbatim from the The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster
October 29th.
Day, London and Southampton Main targets.
Night, Heavy raids on the capitol and midlands.
Weather, Channel overcast . Haze in northern France and Dover straits. Winds southerly. (1)
Again today seemed to be making a major effort despite the haze in northern France hampering operations from bases there. The opening gambit was an attack towards London by a forec of some forty german fighters. Intercepted by multiple RAF squadrons over Kent a hanful of bomb carrying fighters manged to reach central London and drop their boms but then had to run the gauntlet of vengeful fighters to regain the safety of occupied France. Just after noon a further large incursion was received by a text book interception arranged by the controllers of Eleven Group. As this raid headed across Kent a duty squadron at altitude from Hornchurch was vectored to intercept. Whilst a further squadron on standby at Hornchurch was scrambled to gain altitude, A duty squadron from Kenley was vectored to make a climbing attack on the approaching raid whilst a further standby squadron from Biggin Hill was srambled to gain hight to the south of the raid track. All four squadrons were flying Spitfires which eased the complexity of co-ordinating their interceptions. So it came to pass that the enemy raid found themselves confronted by a 602 squadron from Hornchurch diving from altitude even as they were concentrating on repulsing the attack of the climbing 64 squadron from Kenley . realising that they were fighting at a disadvantage the enemy sought to break contact before Biggin Hill’s 603 squadron coming from the south and Hornchutch’s 74 squadron coming from the east completely blocked their line of withdrawl. Using the now familiar finger four formation and fighting in pairs the intial bounce by 602 squadron resulted in four Me 109’s falling to their cannon fire. The climbing attack by 64 squadron pinned the enemy fighters in a dogfight at odds, that saw a further two Me 109’s shot down. Having regained the altitude advantage 602 squadron commenced a diving chase as the enemy broke for the coast, this hasty retreat saw a further four Me109’s fall to the guns of 602 squadron, these four aircraft all crashed into the channel before 602 had to break off the chase due to the proximity of the French coast, lack of fuel and the exhausting of their ammunition. The Air Sea rescue services and Folkstone life boat recoverd two of these Luftwaffe pilots alive and the body of a third.
This was not the only excitement of the afternoon even as this ariel battle was in progress further to the west, Luftflotte Three were taking the opertunity of what they thought would be the ditraction of the defence to the attack on London to make a concerted assault on Portsmouth consisting of a main group of some fifty aircraft and a second wave of a futher twelve machines. Ten Group responded by scrambling the entire Middle Wallop wing of three Hurricane Squadrons and calling in 263 squadron in their Reaper fighters from patrol over their base at Filton. Eleven Group also vectored 43 and 145 Hurricane squadrons from Westhampnet and Tangmere.
Whilst the Ten Group controllers and the GCI/PPI station at Sopely concentrated in getting the Middle Wallop fighters into an advatageuos interception, the GCI station at Cricklade controlled the Reapers as thye came in at high altitude from the north west. Meanwhile the Tangmere sector controller was vectoring his two squadrons to swing around to the south west behind the approaching raids where they would have the advantage of attacking out of the afternoon sun. Sir Phillip visiting Fighter Command at Bentley Priory had a ringside seat for the afternoons deadly ariel ballet and was again impressed with the calmness of all around him as no less than three major engagements took place over southern England almost simultainiously. Here was the Dowding system living upto to the high expectations of its creators and it was a wonder to behold. Faced by a whole wing of Huricanes diving on them from the north the Luftflotte Three aircraft unceromonously jettesoned their bombs into the Solent, Spithead and in a few unfortunate cases onto the Isle of Wight. As they turned south to make their escape the tardy ones were bounced by the Eleven Group fighters even as the diving Reapers from Filton chased any stragglers across the channel towards the airfields of Normandy and the Cotlin Peninsular.
Frustrated, the Middle Wallop wing could do little but loiter for a time before returning to their airfield. However even if they had not actually managed to intercept this raid, they had been effective in thwarting it, in its purpose as not a single bomd fell on Portmouth.
What of the third attack, about as far east in Kent as you can get the Regia Aeronautica were mounting their first daylight raid on the harbour and town of Ramsgate. This raid consisted of fifteen BR20 twin engine bombers with an escort of seventy three fiat CR.42 biplane fighters.
Three squadron from Hawkinge in their Hurricanes had been scrambled to intercept this raid and had excitedly informed their controllers that they were facing strange twin engine bombers that could only be Italian. Seventy four squadron in their Spitfires then just completing their climb towards the earler attack were re directd towards this new assault to their east. Hardly believing their eyes the twelve pilots, in their cannoned armed Spitfires, found themselves diving into a melee of over five times their number of biplane fighters that were trying to keep the Hurricanes of Three Squadron from destroying the Italian bombers. Making a fighting withdrawl towards Dunkirk the Italians retreat was marked by trails of smoke, patches of burning fuel and the white silk of parachutes dotting the water like large jelly fish. One damaged BR.20 made a forced landing on Manston airfield and discourged a crew of no less than seven airmen, resplendent in steel helmets and bayonets on their belts much to the surpise and bemusement of the RAF ground crew who having rapidly grabbed some small arms took the Italians surrender. The excited pilots of both Three and seventy Four Squadrons remarked to their intelegence officers that the Italian’Falco’ fighters were extrodinarilly manouverable and that they literally swarmed over the RAF fighters, whenever a Hurricane of Spitfire pilot atemted to get a bead on one of the Italian aircraft several others would be manouvering to fire at them. They did not miss the fact that the Italian fighters were lightly armed and seemed to be ineffectual against the armour and self sealing tanks of the RAF fighters. On the other hand if one of the RAF pilots managed to score hits with their 20mm cannon it was often devistaingly effective against what seemed to be rather fragile aircraft.
Come nightfall the now customary heavy attack on London was mounted with the night fighters and guns again exacting their toll. A second attack on the Midlands also resulted in a couple of successful interceptions by the night fighters with one confirmed and one probable claimed.
Today was a major success for the defence, with ten enemy aircraft downed from the London raid and seven confirmed Italian aircraft destroyed the days total tally was twenty one enemy aircraft for a loss of six aircraft with four pilots safe. For the Italians it had been a harsh introduction to the realities of a daylight attack by escorted bombers in contested skies.
(1) Daily summary quoted verbatim from the The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster
October 28th
Day, Convoy off Dover and shipping in Estuary attacked. London the main afternoon target.
Night, Widespread attacks throughout the country.
Weather. Misty in northern France. Fog over the Estuary and Straits, clearing later. Cloudy (1)
The misty start to the day in northern France reduced the german morning activity to raids by single aircraft attacking coastal targets and shipping. The afternoon saw another major effort by the Luftwaffe withraids of forty and twenty aircraft raiding kent in quick succession and being duly repulsed by the duty squadrons of Eleven Group. Following this at four thirty in the afternoon another raid consisting of fifty aircraft consisting of a mix of fighters and fighter bombers attacked Folksstone whilst a portion of the raid hrade inland towards London. Intercepted and attacked by squafron sized formations in quick succession this incursion was again repulsed.
Hoping to exploit any gaps in the defences caused by theis attack follow up raids totaling over an additional one hundred aircraft attempted to reach London. By rotating squadrons the controllers in Eleven Group always managed to have sufficient fully armed and fuels aircraft at altitude to intercept these raids. One again the contious RDF coverage afforded by the PPI stations showed their worth, as unless the intruders decended to tree top hight they could be tracked comtinously and the RDF operator and controllers were by now well practiced in their roles.
As darkness fell the RAF tallies indicated a quieter day with a sortie number only in the mid six hundreds but a favourable score of thirteen enemy aircraft detroyed for the loss of two RAF aircraft and the death of a single pilot.
Night time saw further attacks on London and the south east. Whilst the AI equipped night fighters were achieving a steady stream of success, a new tactic was tried by two reaper squadrons, these were 137 in Twelve Group and 263 in Ten Group. This new tactic consisted of sending standing patrols of the longer range reaper fighters to loiter around beacxons on the edge of the gun zones of major cities where if enemy bombers were coned by the search lights they could pounce and attack. It meant risking fighters within the gun zones but that was a rik the volunteer pilots were willing to take. Tonight a reaper fron 263 squadron based at Filton managed to intercept and shoot down a bomber over Bristol and in a separate incedent another reaper from 137 sqhadron of Twelve Group based at Wittering succeeded in shooting down an enemy bomber coned by the lights around the ROF, At Enfield.
(1) Daily summary quoted verbatim from the The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster
October 29th.
Day, London and Southampton Main targets.
Night, Heavy raids on the capitol and midlands.
Weather, Channel overcast . Haze in northern France and Dover straits. Winds southerly. (1)
Again today seemed to be making a major effort despite the haze in northern France hampering operations from bases there. The opening gambit was an attack towards London by a forec of some forty german fighters. Intercepted by multiple RAF squadrons over Kent a hanful of bomb carrying fighters manged to reach central London and drop their boms but then had to run the gauntlet of vengeful fighters to regain the safety of occupied France. Just after noon a further large incursion was received by a text book interception arranged by the controllers of Eleven Group. As this raid headed across Kent a duty squadron at altitude from Hornchurch was vectored to intercept. Whilst a further squadron on standby at Hornchurch was scrambled to gain altitude, A duty squadron from Kenley was vectored to make a climbing attack on the approaching raid whilst a further standby squadron from Biggin Hill was srambled to gain hight to the south of the raid track. All four squadrons were flying Spitfires which eased the complexity of co-ordinating their interceptions. So it came to pass that the enemy raid found themselves confronted by a 602 squadron from Hornchurch diving from altitude even as they were concentrating on repulsing the attack of the climbing 64 squadron from Kenley . realising that they were fighting at a disadvantage the enemy sought to break contact before Biggin Hill’s 603 squadron coming from the south and Hornchutch’s 74 squadron coming from the east completely blocked their line of withdrawl. Using the now familiar finger four formation and fighting in pairs the intial bounce by 602 squadron resulted in four Me 109’s falling to their cannon fire. The climbing attack by 64 squadron pinned the enemy fighters in a dogfight at odds, that saw a further two Me 109’s shot down. Having regained the altitude advantage 602 squadron commenced a diving chase as the enemy broke for the coast, this hasty retreat saw a further four Me109’s fall to the guns of 602 squadron, these four aircraft all crashed into the channel before 602 had to break off the chase due to the proximity of the French coast, lack of fuel and the exhausting of their ammunition. The Air Sea rescue services and Folkstone life boat recoverd two of these Luftwaffe pilots alive and the body of a third.
This was not the only excitement of the afternoon even as this ariel battle was in progress further to the west, Luftflotte Three were taking the opertunity of what they thought would be the ditraction of the defence to the attack on London to make a concerted assault on Portsmouth consisting of a main group of some fifty aircraft and a second wave of a futher twelve machines. Ten Group responded by scrambling the entire Middle Wallop wing of three Hurricane Squadrons and calling in 263 squadron in their Reaper fighters from patrol over their base at Filton. Eleven Group also vectored 43 and 145 Hurricane squadrons from Westhampnet and Tangmere.
Whilst the Ten Group controllers and the GCI/PPI station at Sopely concentrated in getting the Middle Wallop fighters into an advatageuos interception, the GCI station at Cricklade controlled the Reapers as thye came in at high altitude from the north west. Meanwhile the Tangmere sector controller was vectoring his two squadrons to swing around to the south west behind the approaching raids where they would have the advantage of attacking out of the afternoon sun. Sir Phillip visiting Fighter Command at Bentley Priory had a ringside seat for the afternoons deadly ariel ballet and was again impressed with the calmness of all around him as no less than three major engagements took place over southern England almost simultainiously. Here was the Dowding system living upto to the high expectations of its creators and it was a wonder to behold. Faced by a whole wing of Huricanes diving on them from the north the Luftflotte Three aircraft unceromonously jettesoned their bombs into the Solent, Spithead and in a few unfortunate cases onto the Isle of Wight. As they turned south to make their escape the tardy ones were bounced by the Eleven Group fighters even as the diving Reapers from Filton chased any stragglers across the channel towards the airfields of Normandy and the Cotlin Peninsular.
Frustrated, the Middle Wallop wing could do little but loiter for a time before returning to their airfield. However even if they had not actually managed to intercept this raid, they had been effective in thwarting it, in its purpose as not a single bomd fell on Portmouth.
What of the third attack, about as far east in Kent as you can get the Regia Aeronautica were mounting their first daylight raid on the harbour and town of Ramsgate. This raid consisted of fifteen BR20 twin engine bombers with an escort of seventy three fiat CR.42 biplane fighters.
Three squadron from Hawkinge in their Hurricanes had been scrambled to intercept this raid and had excitedly informed their controllers that they were facing strange twin engine bombers that could only be Italian. Seventy four squadron in their Spitfires then just completing their climb towards the earler attack were re directd towards this new assault to their east. Hardly believing their eyes the twelve pilots, in their cannoned armed Spitfires, found themselves diving into a melee of over five times their number of biplane fighters that were trying to keep the Hurricanes of Three Squadron from destroying the Italian bombers. Making a fighting withdrawl towards Dunkirk the Italians retreat was marked by trails of smoke, patches of burning fuel and the white silk of parachutes dotting the water like large jelly fish. One damaged BR.20 made a forced landing on Manston airfield and discourged a crew of no less than seven airmen, resplendent in steel helmets and bayonets on their belts much to the surpise and bemusement of the RAF ground crew who having rapidly grabbed some small arms took the Italians surrender. The excited pilots of both Three and seventy Four Squadrons remarked to their intelegence officers that the Italian’Falco’ fighters were extrodinarilly manouverable and that they literally swarmed over the RAF fighters, whenever a Hurricane of Spitfire pilot atemted to get a bead on one of the Italian aircraft several others would be manouvering to fire at them. They did not miss the fact that the Italian fighters were lightly armed and seemed to be ineffectual against the armour and self sealing tanks of the RAF fighters. On the other hand if one of the RAF pilots managed to score hits with their 20mm cannon it was often devistaingly effective against what seemed to be rather fragile aircraft.
Come nightfall the now customary heavy attack on London was mounted with the night fighters and guns again exacting their toll. A second attack on the Midlands also resulted in a couple of successful interceptions by the night fighters with one confirmed and one probable claimed.
Today was a major success for the defence, with ten enemy aircraft downed from the London raid and seven confirmed Italian aircraft destroyed the days total tally was twenty one enemy aircraft for a loss of six aircraft with four pilots safe. For the Italians it had been a harsh introduction to the realities of a daylight attack by escorted bombers in contested skies.
(1) Daily summary quoted verbatim from the The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster
Wait ... so there were RAF pilots trying to dogfight biplanes, or were the Italians really good at getting deflection shots against zooming monoplanes? Not that it seemed to have matter in the end.
Edit: 10 Germans and 7 Italians lost, but it says 21 enemy planes down. Is that claims vs. actual? It seems the Italians would have lost more planes given their inferior fighters.
Edit 2: NVM that was only for the London raid. Still, surprisingly few Italian losses.
Edit: 10 Germans and 7 Italians lost, but it says 21 enemy planes down. Is that claims vs. actual? It seems the Italians would have lost more planes given their inferior fighters.
Edit 2: NVM that was only for the London raid. Still, surprisingly few Italian losses.
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When you have been trained to take on peer monoplane fighters and that is what you have been dog fighting with for the last few months of maybe hours, then finding yourself in a swirling melee of biplanes could be a little disconcerting. Boom and zoom is a tactic against peer fighters and bombers but booming and zooming gets a bit hectic when you are trying to avoid an inadvertent collision with a load of twisting and jinking fighters that are also trying to shoot you down.
The CR.42 was a very manouverable bit of kit and could apparently easily turn inside a Hurricane or Spit ol 'Winkle' Brown praised it for its agility and the Italian pilots are no doubt trained to use that agility to the fullest and if an RAF fighter gets suckered into a dogfight in the middle of a storm if twisting, turning bi-planes then he's not going to have a good time of it. But the CR.42 is also under-armed and apparently quite vulnerable
As always, great stuff and a great write up
These continued attacks are not doing anything good for the Luftwaffe and the Italian's have been roughed up twice now.
As always, great stuff and a great write up
These continued attacks are not doing anything good for the Luftwaffe and the Italian's have been roughed up twice now.Thanks for reminding us about the Corpo Aero Italiano.
Personally I had always assumed it got involved earlier in the BoB. However, it is appearing at roughly the same date.
In both OTL and TTL, they began trying escorted raids by medium bombers in daylight (just as the Luftwaffe is abandoning that tactic!) while also bombing at night.
AIUI in OTL the CAI tried substantial daylight attacks exactly twice... once on the 29th as you have it and once more on 11 Nov.
OTL the 29th raid was not intercepted by the RAF and got away lightly from Flak
though the force on the 11th took some losses from RAF fighters despite added Luftwaffe escort.
After that, the bombers only went out at night until Jan 41 when withdrawn to the Med.
The fighters were confined to sweeps; ~50% offensive till Jan then purely defensive til also withdrawn in Spring 41
The whole effort only achieved
ITTL you have already documented more daylight losses in the first raid than the whole of the CAIs OTL 1940 "campaign"
due to better RAF defences and the RAF cannon armament which killed rather than damaged if a hit could be achieved.
The questions now are
(the second because even the G50 fighters lacked range and capacity)
I suppose the Italian fighters could act as additional escorts to LW Jabos on shorter ranged daylight incursions
(provided integrated tactics and control could be worked out)
Greater Night losses are almost certain in TTL given the better Radar and Nightfighters.
In any case, I doubt that the ITTL CAI will achieve more than OTL
Personally I had always assumed it got involved earlier in the BoB. However, it is appearing at roughly the same date.
In both OTL and TTL, they began trying escorted raids by medium bombers in daylight (just as the Luftwaffe is abandoning that tactic!) while also bombing at night.
AIUI in OTL the CAI tried substantial daylight attacks exactly twice... once on the 29th as you have it and once more on 11 Nov.
OTL the 29th raid was not intercepted by the RAF and got away lightly from Flak
though the force on the 11th took some losses from RAF fighters despite added Luftwaffe escort.
After that, the bombers only went out at night until Jan 41 when withdrawn to the Med.
The fighters were confined to sweeps; ~50% offensive till Jan then purely defensive til also withdrawn in Spring 41
The whole effort only achieved
- ~30 bomber sorties by day,
- ~ 100 by night
- ~ 100 fighter escort missions
- ~ 500 offensive sweeps
- ~1000 defensive
ITTL you have already documented more daylight losses in the first raid than the whole of the CAIs OTL 1940 "campaign"
due to better RAF defences and the RAF cannon armament which killed rather than damaged if a hit could be achieved.
The questions now are
- Will there will be any more daylight bombing by the CAI?
- Will the CAI attempt to copy the Luftwaffe's escorted fighter-bomber sweeps?
- Will the CAI night offensive suffer greater losses
(the second because even the G50 fighters lacked range and capacity)
I suppose the Italian fighters could act as additional escorts to LW Jabos on shorter ranged daylight incursions
(provided integrated tactics and control could be worked out)
Greater Night losses are almost certain in TTL given the better Radar and Nightfighters.
In any case, I doubt that the ITTL CAI will achieve more than OTL
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Things might well happen that could induce the Italians to withdraw the CAI earlier!! Though that is still being researched and written again, as that post was amongst the 30,000 words lost when I had an unfortunate incident with a dogey throat, a mug of tea and my lap top.
I wish authors on this site got forced to use realtime cloud mirroring of docs, so many good idea and stories rescued from errant pets, children and liquids.
No apologies needed, I just wanted to make sure that your post did get to the right thread!! you should see some of my miss-posts from the past!!
10.56 With a Whimper not a Bang!
10.56, With a Whimper not a Bang!
October 30th
Day. Nuisance raids on a reduced scale.
Night. Activity reduced,
Weather. low cloud and continuousdrizzle in all areas. (1)
There was a later start to the days raids as the RDF screens remained clear until almost midday. When some eighty raiders making a foray up the Thames Estuary were detected as another raid atempted to cross the coast around Dymchurch. The Eleven Group controllers alredy had ten squadron airborn on patrol lines. Of these six were squadrons were vectored onto these two raids. Due to the poor flying conditions interceptions were problematical but contact was made and some enemy aircraft destroyed. Activity then died down until late afternoon when Luftflotte Three sent several formations total around one hundered and fifty machines to again test the defences, some of these aircraft managed to reach and bomb the southern suburbs of London without doing any signifigant damage. Again engagements were sparodic and frequently inconclusive in the prevailing conditions, as darknes fell the last of the enemy fighters returned to their bases in France.
Today it was gazzeted that Air Vice Marshall Keith Park had been made a Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath.
October 31st.
Day. Fighter bomber and fighter sweeps.
Night, Activity greatly reduced.
Weather. Drizle in Channel, Haze in the estuary and Dover Straits. (1)
Today the weather was the most important factor and ariel activity was greatly curtailed. Those enemy incursions tha did occur were desultory and not pressed home, October finished vey much on a whimper. However the changes in tactics by the Luftwaffe had ensured that the last month had put as much strain on Fighter Command as the massed daylight raids of earlier months. These tactical changes had forced Eleven Group in particular to abandon one of the founding precepts of the ‘Dowding System’ by employing standing patrols in order to counter the high altitude fighter sweeps. These standing patrols were problymatical in that they increased flying hours of both pilots and aircraft and it was a certanty thet eventually tired pilots would make a fatal mistake.
Only later would historian determin that today marked the end of the arial campaign that was known as the ‘Battle of Britain’ for those at the sharp end in Fighter Command whilst the daylight incursions tailed of eventually to the level of nuisance raids, what was known as the ‘Blitz’ at night continued to intensify and gather momentum. At night the much vaunted pre-war adage of ‘The Bomber will always get through’ still had a ring of truth but there was also this rider ‘but not always bomb the intended target’ that should have been added .
With the War Cabinet accepting at last that the immiadette threat of invasion was past and that there could in reality be no serious renewl of that threat till the early summer of 1941, now was the time for the British Goverment to decide their priotities on how Britains War aims were to be achieved.
As he prepared to leave Fighter Command and Bentley Priory Sir Hugh refelected that having been AOC Fighter Command since July 1936 he had had the privalllage of shaping the command far beyond the normally expected tenure of three years. After over four years at Bently Priory and over a year since the start of the war, Sir Hugh could not but help feeling some sadness at the end of what had been a long but absorbing struggle to shape and build a command, that at the time of it’s inception was an unwanted orphan in the eyes of the devout Trenchardians then commanding the RAF. As Sir Hugh payed his farewells to the staff at Bentley Prioty he took pains to ensure that each and everyone of them was aware that however small it might seem to them, they had played their part in enuring the safety of the nation in its hour of peril.
One of Sir Hugh Dowdings first tasks as CAS was to confirm the appointment of Sir Keith Park as AOC. Fighter Command. Though there were those in the AM and RAF who thought that they should have got the job there really was only one candidate. Not only had Sir Kieth just fought a brilliant defensive campaign as AOC Eleven Group but he had also served two years as SASO at HQ Fighter Command prior to taking command of Eleven Group. The promotion of Sir Keith after only eight months at Number Eleven Group had raised some eyebrows within certian circles of the RAF but having served as the Cheif staff officer at Bentley Priory Sir Keith understood better than most the intricate workings of the system, it’s strengths as well as it’s weaknesses and was in the eyes of Sit Hugh more than qualified to buildsa on the success achieved so far.
It was the very nature of the battle just fought that in some circle made people whisper that just like his predecessor at Bentley Priory Sir Keith was not Offensive minded enough to take the war to the enemy. Sir Phillip considered these murmurings as complete dross having observed closely Sir Kieths conduct in the Batlle just fought he was keenly aware that not only was Sir keith and adaptable and adroit leader he was also a master tactitian who fostered a unique ‘Espirit Due Corps’ in any force he commanded. Sir Phillip and Sir Hugh had had a few descrete discustions in the previous weeks as to a reshuffle of the RAF command pack. There were a few officers who were just not up to the task they were now expected to do, others were a ‘shoe in’ for promotion in certain fields, whilst other officers were so valuable where they were that moving them would be detrimental. Balalancing all these factors and resolving the in service politics invoved was not something tha Sir Hugh was skilled at, in fact he Adhored ‘service politics’ and therefore was much relieved when Sir Phillip had suggested that they very much work together on as Sir Phillip put it ‘ rearranging the peices on the chess board’ some major appointments would need at least the tacit approval of the prime minister and the war cabinet.
Sir Hugh was confident that the Command would be in safe hands when Sir Keith Park took over in a couple of days. Sir Hugh had already dicussed with Sir Keith that as CAS Sir Hugh would have to pinch some of the current Fighter Command Group Commanders for other appointments and that Sir Keith should consult with him as quickly as possible about his choices for filling the voids left.
(1) Daily summary quoted verbatim from the The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster
October 30th
Day. Nuisance raids on a reduced scale.
Night. Activity reduced,
Weather. low cloud and continuousdrizzle in all areas. (1)
There was a later start to the days raids as the RDF screens remained clear until almost midday. When some eighty raiders making a foray up the Thames Estuary were detected as another raid atempted to cross the coast around Dymchurch. The Eleven Group controllers alredy had ten squadron airborn on patrol lines. Of these six were squadrons were vectored onto these two raids. Due to the poor flying conditions interceptions were problematical but contact was made and some enemy aircraft destroyed. Activity then died down until late afternoon when Luftflotte Three sent several formations total around one hundered and fifty machines to again test the defences, some of these aircraft managed to reach and bomb the southern suburbs of London without doing any signifigant damage. Again engagements were sparodic and frequently inconclusive in the prevailing conditions, as darknes fell the last of the enemy fighters returned to their bases in France.
Today it was gazzeted that Air Vice Marshall Keith Park had been made a Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath.
October 31st.
Day. Fighter bomber and fighter sweeps.
Night, Activity greatly reduced.
Weather. Drizle in Channel, Haze in the estuary and Dover Straits. (1)
Today the weather was the most important factor and ariel activity was greatly curtailed. Those enemy incursions tha did occur were desultory and not pressed home, October finished vey much on a whimper. However the changes in tactics by the Luftwaffe had ensured that the last month had put as much strain on Fighter Command as the massed daylight raids of earlier months. These tactical changes had forced Eleven Group in particular to abandon one of the founding precepts of the ‘Dowding System’ by employing standing patrols in order to counter the high altitude fighter sweeps. These standing patrols were problymatical in that they increased flying hours of both pilots and aircraft and it was a certanty thet eventually tired pilots would make a fatal mistake.
Only later would historian determin that today marked the end of the arial campaign that was known as the ‘Battle of Britain’ for those at the sharp end in Fighter Command whilst the daylight incursions tailed of eventually to the level of nuisance raids, what was known as the ‘Blitz’ at night continued to intensify and gather momentum. At night the much vaunted pre-war adage of ‘The Bomber will always get through’ still had a ring of truth but there was also this rider ‘but not always bomb the intended target’ that should have been added .
With the War Cabinet accepting at last that the immiadette threat of invasion was past and that there could in reality be no serious renewl of that threat till the early summer of 1941, now was the time for the British Goverment to decide their priotities on how Britains War aims were to be achieved.
As he prepared to leave Fighter Command and Bentley Priory Sir Hugh refelected that having been AOC Fighter Command since July 1936 he had had the privalllage of shaping the command far beyond the normally expected tenure of three years. After over four years at Bently Priory and over a year since the start of the war, Sir Hugh could not but help feeling some sadness at the end of what had been a long but absorbing struggle to shape and build a command, that at the time of it’s inception was an unwanted orphan in the eyes of the devout Trenchardians then commanding the RAF. As Sir Hugh payed his farewells to the staff at Bentley Prioty he took pains to ensure that each and everyone of them was aware that however small it might seem to them, they had played their part in enuring the safety of the nation in its hour of peril.
One of Sir Hugh Dowdings first tasks as CAS was to confirm the appointment of Sir Keith Park as AOC. Fighter Command. Though there were those in the AM and RAF who thought that they should have got the job there really was only one candidate. Not only had Sir Kieth just fought a brilliant defensive campaign as AOC Eleven Group but he had also served two years as SASO at HQ Fighter Command prior to taking command of Eleven Group. The promotion of Sir Keith after only eight months at Number Eleven Group had raised some eyebrows within certian circles of the RAF but having served as the Cheif staff officer at Bentley Priory Sir Keith understood better than most the intricate workings of the system, it’s strengths as well as it’s weaknesses and was in the eyes of Sit Hugh more than qualified to buildsa on the success achieved so far.
It was the very nature of the battle just fought that in some circle made people whisper that just like his predecessor at Bentley Priory Sir Keith was not Offensive minded enough to take the war to the enemy. Sir Phillip considered these murmurings as complete dross having observed closely Sir Kieths conduct in the Batlle just fought he was keenly aware that not only was Sir keith and adaptable and adroit leader he was also a master tactitian who fostered a unique ‘Espirit Due Corps’ in any force he commanded. Sir Phillip and Sir Hugh had had a few descrete discustions in the previous weeks as to a reshuffle of the RAF command pack. There were a few officers who were just not up to the task they were now expected to do, others were a ‘shoe in’ for promotion in certain fields, whilst other officers were so valuable where they were that moving them would be detrimental. Balalancing all these factors and resolving the in service politics invoved was not something tha Sir Hugh was skilled at, in fact he Adhored ‘service politics’ and therefore was much relieved when Sir Phillip had suggested that they very much work together on as Sir Phillip put it ‘ rearranging the peices on the chess board’ some major appointments would need at least the tacit approval of the prime minister and the war cabinet.
Sir Hugh was confident that the Command would be in safe hands when Sir Keith Park took over in a couple of days. Sir Hugh had already dicussed with Sir Keith that as CAS Sir Hugh would have to pinch some of the current Fighter Command Group Commanders for other appointments and that Sir Keith should consult with him as quickly as possible about his choices for filling the voids left.
(1) Daily summary quoted verbatim from the The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster
That is it! after over a years writing and more than 100,000 words the Bob is finally done. My apologies to all for taking so long and going into such excruciating detail as a daily diary of the battle. When I started particular Chapter it seemed like a good idea! I will be moving onto the next phase of the Pam and intend to do it in Chunks covering about six months at a time. Though having not even planned to do the BoB when I started this story I have nothing planned out and have yet to decide how far I will go. Having Sir Peter and Sir Hugh at the Helm of the AM and RAF in November 1940 is in itseldf a justification for the PAM and a Huge butterfly in its own right. Ideas and suggestions for the way forward from here are always vey welcome as are your comments and commentary, those are what keep me writing on the forum, so thank you all.