FOUR A VICTORY OF SORTS
1 H. Nicolson, Diaries and Letters, p. 126, letter from Nicolson to Vita Sackville-West, 8 November 1940.
2 Colville, Fringes of Power, p. 266.
3 Nicolson, Diaries and Letters, p. 129, diary 22 November 1940.
4 PRO AIR 22/72, Air Ministry weekly intelligence summary, 19 September 1940, pp. 4–5.
5 Nicolson, Diaries and Letters, p. 140, diary 23 January 1941.
6 PRO PREM 3/88 (3): Churchill to Ismay, 26 December 1940; cypher message from Mr O’Malley, Budapest, 4 February 1941; Portal (CAS) to Churchill, 13 February 1940.
7 PRO AIR 8/463, Portal to Churchill, 18 February 1941,20 March 1941.
8 PRO AIR 9/136, Air Ministry memorandum, ‘Bomber and Fighter Efforts Available to Counter Attempted Invasion’, 5 March 1941; FCNA, p. 172, ‘Conference with the Führer’, 8/9 January 1941.
9 G. Blumentritt, ‘Operation “Sealion” ’, in D. Detweiler (ed.), World War II German Military Studies (24 vols, New York, 1979), vol. 7, pp. 10–11.
10 H. Greiner, ‘Operation Seelöwe and Intensified Air Warfare against England up to October 30 1940’, in Detweiler, German Military Studies, vol. 7, p. 10.
11 Goebbels, Tagebücher, p. 429, entry for 12 December 1940.
12 FCNA, p. 172, ‘Conference with the Führer’, 8/9 January 1941.
13 Galland, First and Last, p. 45.
14 PRO AIR 16/635, Dowding to Air Ministry, 15 November 1940, p. 2.
15 PRO PREM 3/29 (3), summarized order of battle, 31 October 1940.
16 Murray, Luftwaffe, p. 54.
17 PRO AIR 22/72, Air Ministry weekly intelligence summary, 26 September 1940; AIR 8/315, CAS, ‘Analysis of GAF Personnel Losses’, July–October 1940.
18 PRO 8/315, War Cabinet to CAS, 29 August 1940.
19 Maier, ‘Luftschlacht’, p. 391; PRO AIR 16/365, Fighter Command operational strength, 19 September 1940.
20 Library of Congress, Washington DC, Arnold Papers, Box 246: Chief of Intelligence memorandum, ‘Estimate of German Air Strength’, 21 January 1941, enclosing G2 report, ‘Germany, Domestic Production, Capacity and Sources of Aviation Equipment’, 16 January 1941, pp. 1–9. PRO AIR 8/463: CAS memorandum, ‘Strength of the GAF’, 8 July 1940; ‘Present and Future Strength of the German Air Force’, 1 December 1940, pp. 1–3.
21 Orwell, ‘War-time Diary: 1941’, p. 443, entry for 8 April 1941.
22 R. Churchill (ed.), Into Battle: Speeches by the Right Hon. Winston S. Churchill (London, 1941), p. 234, speech broadcast 18 June 1940; Nicolson, Diaries and Letters, p. 132, diary 31 December 1940; PRO AIR 16/635, HQ 11 Group to HQ Fighter Command, November 1940, p. 4.
23 See S. Ritchie, ‘A Political Intrigue against the Chief of the Air Staff: The Downfall of Air Chief Marshal Sir Cyril Newall’, War & Society, 16 (1998), pp. 83–104.
24 PRO AIR 19/258, letter from Air Ministry to Sinclair, 5 April 1941, for details on the pamphlet; on the Despatch see AIR 2/7771, circulation list for Dowding’s Despatch, 14 September 1941, CAB 120/311: Churchill to Sinclair, 15 June 1941; Churchill to Portal, 23 August 1942; Portal to Churchill, 27 August 1942.
25 PRO CAB 120/294, Churchill to Sinclair, 21 August 1940. See N. J. Cull, Selling War: The British Propaganda Campaign against American ‘Neutrality’ in World War II (Oxford, 1995), ch. 3.
26 PRO INF 1/849, Ministry of Information Policy Committee, meeting of 21 June 1940, p. 1.
27 PRO INF 1/292, Home Intelligence weekly report, 18–24 December 1940, p. 1.
28 PRO AIR 22/100, ‘Fighter Command Daily Casualties’. According to the daily statistics reported to the Air Ministry, from 1 July until 1 November 1940 Fighter Command lost 284 pilots killed on operations and 159 killed in non-operational situations. The discrepancy between the two figures is difficult to explain. Post-war calculations of total pilot casualties give a slightly higher figure of 458, most of whom died in combat. The number of genuinely accidental deaths has been calculated at somewhere between 30 and 50. The Air Ministry figures suggest that combat was defined more narrowly at the time, which may explain the difference between wartime and post-war statistics. In addition to the pilot deaths, more than 200 suffered serious injury.
29 W. J. West, Orwell: The War Commentaries (London, 1985), pp. 168–9, broadcast 24 October 1942.
TABLES AND MAPS
THE HURRICANE AND THE SPITFIRE:
PRODUCTION, OPERATIONAL STRENGTH AND LOSSES
Table 1: Production per week, June–November 1940
Date
Hurricanes
Spitfires
1–7 June
87
22
8–14 June
79
22
15–21 June
67
25
22–28 June
75
21
29 June–5 July
68
26
6–12 July
65
32
13–19 July
57
30
20–26 July
67
41
27 July–2 August
65
37
3–9 August
58
41
10–16 August
54
37
17–23 August
43
31
24–30 August
64
44
31 August–6 September
54
37
7–13 September
54
36
14–20 September
56
38
21–27 September
57
40
28 September–4 October
58
34
5–11 October
60
32
12–18 October
55
31
19–25 October
55
25
26 October–1 November
69
42
Total
1,367
724
Table 2: Operational strength: number of squadrons, July–October 1940
Date
Hurricane squadrons
14 July 1940
10 Group
2
2
11 Group
12
7
12 Group
6
5
13 Group
5
5
Total
25
19
1 September 1940
10 Group
4
4
11 Group
14
6
12 Group
6
6
13 Group
9
2
Total
33
18
30 September 1940
10 Group
6
3
11 Group
13
7
12 Group
6
6
13 Group
9*
3
Total
34
19
28 October 1940
10 Group
6
3
11 Group
13
8
12 Group
7
6
13 Group
7**
3
Total
33
20
Table 3: Operational losses per week, July–November 1940 (aircraft totally destroyed)
Date
Hurricanes
Spitfires
10 May–29 July
173
110
3
0 July–5 August
2
9
6–12 August
47
25
13–19 August
84
38
20–26 August
39
33
27 August–2 September
96
48
3–9 September
86
53
10–16 September
50
24
17–23 September
21
19
24–30 September
60
29
1–7 October
17
19
8–14 October
21
19
15–21 October
18
14
22–28 October
22
16
29 October–4 November
17
11
Total
753
467
(as percentage)
61.7
38.3
Sources:
Table 1: PRO AIR 22/293, ‘Weekly Output of Fighters’.
Table 2: PRO AIR 16/365, ‘Fighter Command, Operational Strength of Squadrons and Order of Battle’.
Table 3: PRO AIR 22/262, ‘Daily Returns of Casualties to RAF Aircraft’, 25 June–29 September 1940.
SINGLE-ENGINED FIGHTER PILOT STRENGTH,
RAF AND GERMAN AIR FORCE
Table 1: Fighter Command pilot strength
Week ending
Establishment
Operational strength
30 June 1940
1,482
1,200
27 July 1940
1,456
1,377
17 August 1940
1,558
1,379
31 August 1940
1,558
1,422
14 September 1940
1,662
1,492
28 September 1940
1,662
1,581
19 October 1940
1,714
1,752
2 November 1940
1,727
1,796
Table 2: German Air Force, single-engined fighter pilot strength
Date
Fully operational pilots
1 June 1940
906
1 August 1940
869
1 September 1940
735
1 November 1940
673
Sources:
Table 1: PRO AIR 22/296, ‘Personnel: Casualties, Strength and Establishment of the RAF’.
Table 2: C. Webster and N. Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive against Germany (4 vols, London, 1961), vol. 4, p. 501; W. Murray, Luftwaffe: Strategy for Defeat 1933–1945 (London, 1985), p. 54. For September, Webster and Frankland give a figure of 688 operational pilots.
Index
Adlertagy 57–8
Advanced Air Striking Force, 6–7
air fleets see German air fleets
air intelligence
American, 115
British, 38, 105
German, 70, 72–3, 96, 113–14
Air Ministry (British), 3, 14, 31–2, 38, 46, 61, 64, 70, 76, 110, 118–19
air raids see bombing; Blitz
aircraft
British: Avro Lancaster, 54;
Boulton-Paul Defiant, 35;
Bristol Beaufighter 35, 95;
Bristol Blenheim, 7, 35, 44, 95; Hawker Hurricane, 7–8, 34–7, 52, 71, 73, 85–6, 145–7; Vickers Supermarine Spitfire, 8, 35–7, 52, 71, 73, 85–6, 97, 145–7
German: Dornier 17, 54; Heinkel He 111, 53–4; Heinkel He 113 (118), 53; Junkers Ju 87B, 53, 72; Junkers Ju 88A–1, 54; Messerschmitt Me 109 (Bf 109), 47, 50, 52, 97, 109, 111; Messerschmitt Me 110 (Bf 110), 53
Soviet: I 16 fighter, 35
aircraft production, 33–4, 50–51, 114–16, 145
Alexander, Harold, General, 117
Anti-Aircraft Command, 42–3
antisemitism, 92
Atlantic Ocean, 14, 87
Attlee, Clement, 105
Australia, 15
Bader, Douglas, Wing-Commander, 85
Balbo, Italo, 85
Baltic states, 22
Battle of the Atlantic, 107–8
Battle of Britain Day, 86
Battle of Britain Despatch, 119
Battle of Britain pamphlet, 118–19
Beaverbrook, Lord 118
Beaverbrook, Lord, 33–5
Bechtle, Otto, 61
Belgium, 48
Bentley Priory (Fighter Command HQ), 39–40
Berlin, 18, 21, 56–7, 78–83, 109
Bern, 18
Bessarabia, 22
‘Big Wings’, 85–6
Biggin Hill, 69
Birmingham, 79
Blitz, 66, 89–98, 106, 119, 121
blockade, 17, 23, 56, 63, 107–8
Blumentritt, Günther von, General, 108–9
Bomber Command, 4–7, 44–5, 63–6, 74–5, 78–81
bombing, 4, 55, 63–6, 79–82, 86–96, 104–5
Brand, Quintin, Air Vice Marshall, 39
Bristol, 79
Britain, 6–7, 14–23, 32, 34, 38, 50–51, 62, 78, 88–90, 98, 103–9, 120–22
British Army, 108
Brittany, 47
Brooke, Sir Alan, General, 44
Budapest, 105–6
Butler, R. Α., 11
Buxton, Charles Roden, 11
Cadogan, Sir Alexander, 12
Cambridge, 105
Canada, 15, 34, 113
Carinhall, 56–7
Chain Home radar stations, 40–41, 71–2
Chamberlain, Neville, 3–6, 9–10
Charlton, L. E. O., 89
Cheadle, 42
Chigwell, 83
China, 120
Churchill, Winston, xiii, 9–12, 16, 18, 29, 31, 38–9, 46, 74–6, 98, 103–6, 117–20
Ciano, Galeazzo, Count, 19–20
Clark, Kenneth, 14, 120–21
Coastal Command, 63, 65
Command of the Air, 97–8
Condor Legion, 48
Conservative Party, 10
Cooper, Duff, 43–4
Cornwall, 66
Coronation Chair, 10
Cowles, Virginia 15, 75
Crayford, 83
Cripps, Sir Stafford, 18, 35
CROMWELL, 93
Croydon, 83, 90
Czech crisis, 3
Daily Express, 94
Danzig, xii
Dean, Sir Maurice, 29
Devon, 66
Douglas, Sholto, Air Marshall, 118
Douhet, Giulio, General, 97–8
Dover, 72
Dowding, Sir Hugh, Air Chief Marshall, 8, 30–31, 37, 49, 61–2, 65, 76–7, 81, 86, 110–12, 118–19
Dublin, 18
Dulwich, 83
Dunkirk (Kent), 72
Dunkirk evacuation, 8–9, 15
Duxford, 86
Economic Warfare Ministry, 116
Egypt, xi, 104
Eire see Ireland
El Alamein, Battle of, xi
‘England-Committee’, 98
English Channel, 16, 27, 42, 55, 62–4, 67, 86
‘Enigma’, 42, 93, 115
Farnborough, 62
Fighter Command, 8, 30–48, 54–7, 64–5, 71–9, 83–6, 93–7, 106–18
operational strength, 32, 72–3, 112, 114, 116, 146
10 Group, 32, 71, 84
11 Group, 31, 67, 71, 74–7, 84
12 Group, 32, 71, 74, 84–6
13 Group, 32, 74
First World War, 29–30, 51, 113
France, 6–9, 12, 15–18, 21, 47–8, 55, 69, 77, 104, 117
Franco, Francisco, General, 87, 107
Galland, Adolf, 109–10
gas masks, 4
German air
fleets, 48
German Air Force, 4, 27–8, 33, 42–55, 64–8, 75–9, 83, 86, 88, 98, 103–4, 114–17
operational strength, 32–3, 72–3, 116
German Army, 17, 22, 49, 108
German Foreign Office, 17, 98
German Navy, 16–17, 63, 88, 108
German-Soviet Pact (1939), 11
Germany, 14–17, 22, 33, 45, 47, 51–4, 64, 87–8, 95, 103, 120
Glasgow, 43
Goebbels, Joseph, 16, 19, 56–7, 80–82, 98–9
Goering, Hermann, Reich Marshal, 19–20, 28–9, 50–51, 56–7, 68, 73, 79, 84, 89, 114
Groups see Fighter Command
Halder, Franz, General, 16
Halifax, Lord, 9–12, 20–21
Harrogate Programme, 33
Hart, Basil Liddell, 11
Harwich, 62
Hawker Aircraft Company, 37
Hawkinge, 69
Heinkel, Ernst, 53
Hendon, 83
Hendon Air Show, 89
Hitler, Adolf, 9–22, 27, 50, 56–7, 78, 87–9, 99, 107–10, 122
Home Intelligence (British), 10–13, 90–95
Hook of Holland, 63
Ilford, 83
India, 15, 30
Information Ministry, 14, 94–5, 106, 120–21
invasion, 16–19, 68, 87–8, 92–4, 106–9
Ireland, 13, 46–7
Irish Republican Army (IRA), 14, 46
Isle of Wight, 19, 72
Italian Navy, 104
Italy, 34, 74, 87, 94–5, 103, 107
Japan, 104, 120, 122
Jeschonnek, Hans, General, 89
Jodl, Alfred, General, 109
Joint Intelligence Committee (British), 13, 92
Kent, 47, 68–9
Kesselring, Albert, Field Marshall, 48–9, 57, 111
King’s Lynn, 57
Kosovo, 89
Kroll Opera House, 19