Hugh Dowding, Chief of the Air Staff

Sir Hugh has been in charge of Fighter Command for Less than a year. He is very aware of the scope of work required to make RDF and Fighter Command a viable defence force, so as CAS he will in all likelihood be very hands on with whom he selects as the new chief of Fighter Command and his ability to work with them will be a crucial factor in that choice.
Sir Hugh despite everything is still an advocate of the necessity for a strong bomber force as espoused in the 'Trenchard Doctrine' so you will not see huge changes in the priorities or make up of the RAF. What I hope you might see with Sir Hugh as CAS is a huge kick up the backside of Bomber Command, with the COSSAO being given a real chance to influence the operational modus operandi of the force.
In fact Sir Hugh’s choice of CinC Bomber Command would probably be far more important than his choice of CinC Fighter Command for the reasons given earlier.
I think you have a very interesting Pod, Though whilst Trenchard and Salmon are still alive and have any influence at all it isn’t going to happen.
 
COSSAO? Never heard of them. Also, might we see a greater emphasis on close-air-support? With Leigh Mallory as the head? This would, to my mind be a brilliant move, not only would you likely get a better level of cooperation between the RAF and Army, but you'd also likely see a better performance in the BoB.
 
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CSSAO; Committee for the Scientific Survey of Air Offence, formed in 1937 as a Bomber Command equivalent of the CSSAD:- Committee for the Scientific Survey of Air Defense. Personally I think Leigh Mallory as head of Fighter Command in 1937 would be serous over promotion and if he was CinC Fighter Command during the BoB and had insisted that all Groups adopt his big wing tactics then IMHO the outcome of the battle could have seen much more damage and heavy losses to the RAF. In 1941 as CiC 11 group the ‘lean into Europe’ campaign did little but lose experienced pilots for little gain. Sholto Douglas might have been a candidate for Fighter Command but with hind sight my choice would be Parks but as with Leigh Mallory in 1937 that would have been hard to justify.
 
I wasn't positing Leigh-Mallory as head of Fighter Command, but of Army Cooperation Command. It's a post that to mind mind well suits his experience.
 
An intriguing thought. I think the difference with Dowding was his emphasis on 'base security' - and this could apply to overseas bases as well as the home one.
Hard to guess how different Bomber Command would be with him at the helm. The big thing IMO was that he would have had little time for 'yes men' so anyone pointing out deficiencies would not be side lined or looked upon as 'defeatist.
Army Co-operation Command could have been expanded - with Leigh-Mallory as AOC.
 
Sir John Cotesworth Slessor, who wrote Air Power and Armies would have been a good choice for Army Cooperation Command in 1937. I actualy think Leigh Mallory might have been quite good at Coastal Command. As to the comments about Sir Hugh Dowding, one thing is sure the complacent attitude of Bomber command that "the Bomber always gets throught" which was still prevailent in 1937 would have been put to the test by more realistic training and critical observation of actual achievemnt.
 
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