October 5th.
Day, Targets in Kent and Southampton attacked.
Night, London and East Anglian airdromes raided.
Weather, Local showers in most districts, Bright periods. Winds light and variable.
The morning started with a lot of activity on the RDF screens with some thirty individual aircraft being tracked at hights between ten and fifteen thousand feet being plotted before nine am. By ten am another raid was being observed building over Calais. By ten thirty, the GCI stations at both Wiliesborough and Watling, as well as the observer corps. were tracking two raids of fifteen and twenty aircraft heading towards the airfields at Detling and West Malling. As these raids were still being tracked inland by eleven o’clock another raid was crossing Kent where multiple formations, varying in size from a dozen up to forty aircraft, had crossed the coast on mass before splitting up to attack targets across southern England. An additional assault by two waves comprising an advanced sweep by thirty ME 109’s was followed closely by a further one hundred aircraft of which a third were carrying bombs. From this raid some fifty aircraft managed to penetrate as far as central London. Whilst the attention of Twelve Group was concentrating on the threat to London yet another attack was approaching the south coast. This, the fourth raid of the day comprising two formations of thirty and fifty aircraft, departed the French coast at Cherbourg and headed for the Solent and Southampton.
Without the need to attack large bomber formations, the Hurricane and Defiant squadrons were now able to take on the ME109’s and 110’s in more even combat. Upon being intercepted those Luftwaffe fighters carrying bombs tended to dump their loads and turn on their attackers whilst the Spitfire squadrons having gained more altitude attempted to keep the escorting German fighters engaged and not able to intervene in the dog fights below. So the clear late autumn skies were now being painted with swirling white contrails as the high altitude conflict twisted and turned in the skies above the southern English countryside. Far below on the ground two official war artists were going about their business and both were struck by the surreal beauty of the deadly conflict taking place high above them.
On an airfield in northern Kent where he had gone to sketch pilots and ground crew, Paul Nash had been sketching activity around the dispersal bays. As the last of the station’s aircraft took off, Paul Nash followed them with is eyes. Later as he stood outside the dispersal hut, he saw high above him the contrails of fighters as they turned, dived and climbed in combat, sometimes the white streaks were joined by descending stains of black smoke that marked the final decent of a dying aircraft. On the ground Paul Nash could not tell who was friend or foe as he sketched the scene high above him but he knew that in his final depiction of the scene he would create an allegory for the whole Battle of Britain. To do that he would need a way to portray the evil power and threat of the Luftwaffe’s assault and the valiant pilots of the RAF defending their green and pleasant land. As he sat and observed, the germ of the format for his final painting was forming. He would have the viewers perspective, as that of an RAF Pilot following his colleagues towards the distant air battle. Their fighters, small and vulnerable, would be visible in the foreground. Also, in the fore ground would be some barrage balloons to balance the composition and to show the involvement of the ground defences. The lower middle ground would depict the tranquillity of southern England with the distant menace of a darker continent under gathering storm clouds behind. The upper half of the painting would be dominated by the air battle itself with the swirl of contrails and the smoke of falling aircraft. To emphasise the menace of Teutonic military might, the artist would place a large, ordered and ominous formation of enemy bombers proceeding implacably towards England to rain down their deadly loads of destruction. Unbeknown to the artist at the time, when the painting was first displayed to the public in 1941, it would not only become an iconic portrayal of the Battle of Britain, being reproduced in countless books and articles, it would also draw criticism from some circles as being little more than overt propaganda masquerading as art.
Further to the north in the London suburbs, another war artist was also looking skywards at the swirling white stripes in the sky and being inspired to capture the surreal nature of the conflict taking place above, virtually unheard and unseen by the populous below. When finished, Francis Dodd’s picture would be a far more subtle comment on the nature of the air battle taking place. At first perusal, Dodd’s painting could be a landscape painting from any time in the late 19th or early 20th century and from any European country, it’s air of domestic normality is evidenced by the neat trellised fence and the sitting black cat. The middle ground was a scene of arboviral perfection and tranquillity. It is only when one studies the surreal swirls of cloud, that give an abstract aspect to the picture, that the artist gives the viewer cues that this is not a picture of pure tranquillity. For with careful observation the viewer will discern the ominous shapes of distant barrage balloons floating above the trees hinting at the maelstrom of fighting taking place above. Later critics would compare this subtly of treatment of warfare with that of Nash’s portrayal and debate which was the more valid depiction of the reality of the Battle of Britain.
Sir Philip as AM was in communication with the War Artists Advisor committee and sometimes was asked to either intervene in order to gain access for an artist or to adjudicate upon a decision by the RAF regarding subject matter. When possible, Sir Phillip liked to attend private viewings of the artist’s work as well as receive reports on how that work was received by the general public. The War Artists work like that of the official photographers covered both historical recording and public information. Pure propaganda was something that Sir Phillip was not interested in whereas how the RAF was portrayed in the historical record was.
Painting by Paul Nash, Imperial War museum collection.
Painting by Francis Dobbs, Imperial War museum collection.
(1)Daily summary quoted verbatim from the The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster