IRumb, 37719 4543

SUPPLEMENT TO The London Gazette Of Tuesday, the loth of September, 1946 by Registered as a newspaper

WEDNESDAY, n SEPTEMBER, 1946 The Air Ministry, September, 1946. THE . The following despatch was submitted to the Experiences in Holland and Belgium had Secretary of State for Air on August 20th, shown what they could do with armoured 1941, by Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh C. T. forces operating in conjunction with an Air Dowding, G.C.B., G.C.V.O., C.M.G., Arm which had substantially achieved the- com- A.D.Cs, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chiej, mand of the Air. Fighter Command, Royal . 5. This air supremacy was doubly necessary to them in attacking England ibecause the bulk PREAMBLE. of their troops and war material must neces- 1. I have been instructed by the sarily 'be conveyed by sea, and, in order to to write a Despatch on the Air Fighting of achieve success, they must be capable of giving last Autumn, which has become known as the' air protection to the passage and the landing " Battle of Britain." JThe conditions are a of troops and material. little unusual -because, firstly, the Battle ended 6. The destruction or paralysis of the Fighter many months ago, secondly, a popular account Command was therefore an essential pre- of the fighting has already been written and requisite to the invasion of these Islands. published, and, thirdly, recommendations for Mention in Despatches have already been 7. Their immediate objectives might be Con- submitted. voys, Radio-Location Stations, Fighter Aero- dromes, Seaports, Aircraft Factories, or London 2. I have endeavoured, therefore, to write a itself. Always the underlying object was to report which will, I hope, be of Historical bring the Fighter Command continuously to interest, and which will, in any case, contain battle, and to weaken its material resources and the results of more than four years' experience Intelligence facilities. of the Fighter Command in peace and war. 8. Long after the policy of " crashing August 20, 1941. through " with heavy bomber formations had been abandoned owing to the shattering losses incurred, the battle went on. Large fighter formations were sent over, a proportion of the THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN. fighters being adapted to carry bombs,, in order PART I.—PRELIMINARY. that the attacks might not be ignorable. 3. In giving an account of the Ba'ttle of 9. This last phase was perhaps the most diffi- Britain it is .perhaps advisable to begin jby a cult to deal with tactically. It will be discussed definition of my conception of the meaning of in greater detail later on. the phrase. The Battle may be said to have 10. Night attacks by Heavy Bombers were started when the Germans had disposed of the continuous throughout the operations, and, French resistance in the Summer of 1940, and although they persisted and increased in in- turned their attention to this country. tensity as Day Bombing became more and more 4. The essence of their Strategy was so to expensive, they had an essentially different pur- weaken our Fighter Defences that their Air pose, and the " Battle of Britain " may be said Arm should be able to give -adequate support to have ended when the Fighter and Fighter- to an attempted invasion of the British Isles. Bomber raids died down.