DOCSLIB.ORG

The Royal Air Force and the Raid on Dieppe, 19 August 1942

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Royal Air Force and the Raid on Dieppe, 19 August 1942 Canadian Military History Volume 21 Issue 4 Article 3 2015 “The support afforded by the air force was faultless” The Royal Air Force and the Raid on Dieppe, 19 August 1942 Ross Mahoney Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh Part of the Military History Commons Recommended Citation Ross Mahoney "“The support afforded by the air force was faultless” The Royal Air Force and the Raid on Dieppe, 19 August 1942." Canadian Military History 21, 4 (2015) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military History by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. : “The support afforded by the air force was faultless” The Royal Air Force and the Raid on Dieppe, 19 August 1942 “The support afforded by the air force was faultless” The Royal Air Force and the Raid on Dieppe, 19 August 1942 Ross Mahoney peration Jubilee, the raid the offensive use of RAF Fighter on Dieppe, 19 August 1942, Abstract: The failure of Operation Command in the period 1940-1942. O Jubilee, the raid on Dieppe, has partially maintains a specific place in Canada’s In understanding the twin pillars of been attributed to the failure of the cultural memory of the Second World RAF to provide the bomber support doctrine and operations, this article War. Charles Stacey, the Canadian needed to support the landings. challenges the revisionist argument army official historian, stated in This fallacious argument, based on that the failure of the RAF to supply 1948 that, “The raid on Dieppe was hindsight and a lack of understanding bombers doomed Jubilee. It argues of the RAF’s capabilities at this perhaps the most hotly-discussed that in actually seeking to battle the point in the war, requires revision. 1 operation of the war.” The debate This article examines the doctrinal Luftwaffe in the manner that it did over Dieppe is best represented by and operational context of the RAF during Jubilee it provided the most the duologue between Brian Loring forces involved in Jubilee. Prewar appropriate protection that it could Villa and Peter Henshaw over the combined operations doctrine stated for the assault forces. that the key role for air power was role of Vice-Admiral Lord Louis the maintenance of air superiority. Mountbatten and the Chiefs of Staff The absence of heavy bombers at A Doctrinal Problem Committee in the authorisation of Dieppe did not doom the operation. Jubilee, which came to fruition in The RAF contributed significantly to n early June 1940, the Prime Minister the pages of The Canadian Historical the operation by seeking to battle Winston Churchill called for the the Luftwaffe in the manner that I Review in 1998.2 “Joint Chiefs of Staff to propose me it did during Jubilee, and as such, The debates over Jubilee can it provided the most appropriate measures for a vigorous, enterprising be transplanted onto the role of the protection that it could for the assault and ceaseless offensive” against Royal Air Force (RAF) in the raid. forces. German held territory.5 Churchill Villa has argued that, “There was a believed that these operations would degree of callousness in [Air Chief The only work that examines the have strategic effect and the increasing Marshal Sir Charles] Portal’s [chief RAF’s experience remains Norman size of the raids up to Jubilee of the air staff] allowing a largely Franks’ narrative account, which fails illustrates their growing importance Canadian force to go in without to analyse key factors of the RAF’s in British strategy. This led to the the bomber support they needed.”3 performance.4 appointment of Lieutenant-General This fallacious argument, based on This article examines the doctrinal Alan Bourne (Royal Marines) as hindsight and a lack of understanding and operational context of the RAF’s “Commander of Raiding Operations of the RAF’s capability at this point involvement in Jubilee and deals with on coasts in enemy occupation and in the war, requires revision. The the key question of lessons learnt. Advisor to the Chiefs of Staff on historiography on Jubilee has failed It contends that prewar combined Combined Operations” on 14 June to contextualise the RAF’s role in operations doctrine argued that the 1940.6 Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger the raid. Accounts polarise between key role for air power was to maintain Keyes replaced Bourne on 17 July as triumphalism or criticism of the RAF’s air superiority in order to protect director of Combined Operations, claims. Most fail to grasp the context assaulting forces. It then considers as Churchill believed Bourne would in which the RAF launched the raid. this alongside the development of not question Admiralty orders that Published© Canadian by Scholars Military Commons History @, Laurier,Volume 2015 21, Number 4, Autumn 2012, pp.17-32. 17 1 Canadian Military History, Vol. 21 [2015], Iss. 4, Art. 3 RAF gun camera footage showing an attack on a German twin-engined aircraft, likely a Dornier DO 17, over Dieppe, 19 August 1942. The footage a sequence, starting at the top, of the fighter approaching and then opening fire on the aircraft. In the final frame the German bomber has been hit in the starboard engine which begins to smoke. The fate of this aircraft is not known. https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol21/iss4/316 2 : “The support afforded by the air force was faultless” The Royal Air Force and the Raid on Dieppe, 19 August 1942 Map drawn by Mike Bechthold ©2012 Mike by Map drawn undermined his position. Keyes they could be successful in the face of air opposition to obscure the value of founded Combined Operations opposing air power. In 1923, the RAF the exercise.”8 Headquarters (COHQ) and led it produced Air Staff Memorandum In 1919, Major-General Warren until 27 October 1941 when the young No.10, which noted that a combined Hastings Anderson, commandant and ambitious Captain Mountbatten operation against an enemy who at the Army Staff College, noted in replaced him. Keyes was replaced had air superiority was “doomed the first combined operations staff because of ongoing disputes with to failure.”7 This did not mean that exercise following the First World Churchill over the latter’s desire to re- they considered combined operations War that in the future this form of title his role as advisor to the Chiefs of impossible, quite the opposite. operation had to take account of all Staff on Combined Operations. Throughout this period, the RAF three services. Anderson stressed The focus on strategic aspects of considered its primary objective that any new Manual of Combined Jubilee has led historians to ignore its in combined operations as being Operations should take note of the doctrinal context. A consideration of the attainment of air superiority. “views and requirements” of the RAF the doctrine that informed operational For example, during the 16th Staff who “must of course be included in decisions is useful in highlighting Course at the RAF Staff College in it.”9 The importance of air superiority the context of the RAF’s decision to 1938, Group Captain Ronald Graham was enunciated as early as 1922, utilise a supporting force that was noted in his lecture, “Introduction to when Air Vice-Marshal John Higgins, predicated on the use of fighters to Combined Operations,” that while director of training and staff duties, fight for air superiority. the addition of air power to the and the RAF representative on the During the interwar period, the pantheon of war had complicated Altham Committee, noted in a paper key question that vexed experts on the character of combined operations, entitled “Some Aspects of Combined combined operations was whether “we should not allow the question of Operations in so far as they affect the Published18 by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2015 3 Canadian Military History, Vol. 21 [2015], Iss. 4, Art. 3 Royal Air Force,” that the primary of interpretations about how to the changing technological landscape role for the RAF was air superiority attain this state during the interwar shows there had been an increasing and aerial interdiction. The Altham period. The historiography of the realisation that fighters could take Committee was formed as a joint RAF’s development has stressed its on offensive roles. In a lecture to the service committee under the chair of focus on bombing as the means of Army Staff College in 1938, Graham Captain Edward Altham, Royal Navy achieving air superiority.13 This was noted the increasing use of fighters in order to revise the 1913 edition of not an infallible conclusion in an era but also stressed the problem of the Manual of Combined Operations. of rapidly changing technological achieving air superiority without It evolved out of discussions at the fortunes. In a lecture on “Air denuding the operation of surprise, Army Staff College and the formation Warfare” in 1925, the commandant which was considered vital.16 This of the Dawney Committee in 1920, of the RAF Staff College, Air Vice- issue would take on importance which met to revise the relevant Marshal Robert Brooke-Popham, during the planning of Jubilee. chapter on combined operations in noted that three key methods existed, By the outbreak of the Second the Army’s Field Service Regulations. fighting in the air, bombardment, and World War, it was widely accepted The Altham Committee supervised destruction of means of production.14 that air superiority was a necessary the production of the Provisional The 1925 Manual of Combined pre-requisite for success in combined 1922 Manual of Combined Naval, Operations noted that air superiority operations.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Army Co-Operation Command and Tactical Air Power Development in Britain, 1940-1943: the Role of Army Co-Operation Command in Army Air Support
    ARMY CO-OPERATION COMMAND AND TACTICAL AIR POWER DEVELOPMENT IN BRITAIN, 1940-1943: THE ROLE OF ARMY CO-OPERATION COMMAND IN ARMY AIR SUPPORT By MATTHEW LEE POWELL A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of History and Cultures College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham September 2013 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This thesis examines the impact of the developments made during the First World War and the inter-war period in tactical air support. Further to this, it will analyse how these developments led to the creation of Army Co-operation Command and affected the role it played developing army air support in Britain. Army Co-operation Command has been neglected in the literature on the Royal Air Force during the Second World War and this thesis addresses this neglect by adding to the extant knowledge on the development of tactical air support and fills a larger gap that exists in the literature on Royal Air Force Commands. Army Co-operation Command was created at the behest of the army in the wake of the Battle of France.
    [Show full text]
  • British Domestic Security Policy and Communist Subversion: 1945-1964
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Apollo British Domestic Security Policy and Communist Subversion: 1945-1964 William Styles Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge September 2016 This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy William Styles British Domestic Security Policy and Communist Subversion: 1945-1964 This thesis is concerned with an analysis of British governmental attitudes and responses to communism in the United Kingdom during the early years of the Cold War, from the election of the Attlee government in July 1945 up until the election of the Wilson government in October 1964. Until recently the topic has been difficult to assess accurately, due to the scarcity of available original source material. However, as a result of multiple declassifications of both Cabinet Office and Security Service files over the past five years it is now possible to analyse the subject in greater depth and detail than had been previously feasible. The work is predominantly concerned with four key areas: firstly, why domestic communism continued to be viewed as a significant threat by successive governments – even despite both the ideology’s relatively limited popular support amongst the general public and Whitehall’s realisation that the Communist Party of Great Britain presented little by way of a direct challenge to British political stability. Secondly, how Whitehall’s understanding of the nature and severity of the threat posed by British communism developed between the late 1940s and early ‘60s, from a problem considered mainly of importance only to civil service security practices to one which directly impacted upon the conduct of educational policy and labour relations.
    [Show full text]
  • Canadian Infantry Combat Training During the Second World War
    SHARPENING THE SABRE: CANADIAN INFANTRY COMBAT TRAINING DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR By R. DANIEL PELLERIN BBA (Honours), Wilfrid Laurier University, 2007 BA (Honours), Wilfrid Laurier University, 2008 MA, University of Waterloo, 2009 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in History University of Ottawa Ottawa, Ontario, Canada © Raymond Daniel Ryan Pellerin, Ottawa, Canada, 2016 ii ABSTRACT “Sharpening the Sabre: Canadian Infantry Combat Training during the Second World War” Author: R. Daniel Pellerin Supervisor: Serge Marc Durflinger 2016 During the Second World War, training was the Canadian Army’s longest sustained activity. Aside from isolated engagements at Hong Kong and Dieppe, the Canadians did not fight in a protracted campaign until the invasion of Sicily in July 1943. The years that Canadian infantry units spent training in the United Kingdom were formative in the history of the Canadian Army. Despite what much of the historical literature has suggested, training succeeded in making the Canadian infantry capable of succeeding in battle against German forces. Canadian infantry training showed a definite progression towards professionalism and away from a pervasive prewar mentality that the infantry was a largely unskilled arm and that training infantrymen did not require special expertise. From 1939 to 1941, Canadian infantry training suffered from problems ranging from equipment shortages to poor senior leadership. In late 1941, the Canadians were introduced to a new method of training called “battle drill,” which broke tactical manoeuvres into simple movements, encouraged initiative among junior leaders, and greatly boosted the men’s morale.
    [Show full text]
  • Michigan's Copper Country" Lets You Experience the Require the Efforts of Many People with Different Excitement of the Discovery and Development of the Backgrounds
    Michigan’s Copper Country Ellis W. Courter Contribution to Michigan Geology 92 01 Table of Contents Preface .................................................................................................................. 2 The Keweenaw Peninsula ........................................................................................... 3 The Primitive Miners ................................................................................................. 6 Europeans Come to the Copper Country ....................................................................... 12 The Legend of the Ontonagon Copper Boulder ............................................................... 18 The Copper Rush .................................................................................................... 22 The Pioneer Mining Companies................................................................................... 33 The Portage Lake District ......................................................................................... 44 Civil War Times ...................................................................................................... 51 The Beginning of the Calumet and Hecla ...................................................................... 59 Along the Way to Maturity......................................................................................... 68 Down the South Range ............................................................................................. 80 West of the Ontonagon............................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Scottish Record Society. [Publications]
    00 HANDBOUND AT THE L'.VU'ERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS (SCOTTISH RECORD SOCIETY, ^5^ THE Commissariot IRecorb of EMnbutGb. REGISTER OF TESTAMENTS. PART III. VOLUMES 81 TO iji—iyoi-iSoo. EDITED BY FRANCIS J. GRANT, W.S., ROTHESAY HERALD AND LYON CLEKK. EDINBURGH : PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY BY JAMES SKINNER & COMPANY. 1899. EDINBURGH '. PRINTED BY JAMES SKINNER AND COMPANY. PREFATORY NOTE. This volume completes the Index to this Commissariot, so far as it is proposed by the Society to print the same. It includes all Testaments recorded before 31st December 1800. The remainder of the Record down to 31st December 1829 is in the General Register House, but from that date to the present day it will be found at the Commissary Office. The Register for the Eighteenth Century shows a considerable falling away in the number of Testaments recorded, due to some extent to the Local Registers being more taken advantage of On the other hand, a number of Testaments of Scotsmen dying in England, the Colonies, and abroad are to be found. The Register for the years following on the Union of the Parliaments is one of melancholy interest, containing as it does, to a certain extent, the death-roll of the ill-fated Darien Expedition. The ships of the Scottish Indian and African Company mentioned in " " " " the Record are the Caledonia," Rising Sun," Unicorn," Speedy " " " Return," Olive Branch," Duke of Hamilton (Walter Duncan, Skipper), " " " " Dolphin," St. Andrew," Hope," and Endeavour." ®Ij^ C0mmtssari0t ^ttoxi oi ®5tnburglj. REGISTER OF TESTAMENTS. THIRD SECTION—1701-180O. ••' Abdy, Sir Anthony Thomas, of Albyns, in Essex, Bart.
    [Show full text]
  • The Territorial Air Force 1925-1957 – Officer Recruitment and Class
    The Territorial Air Force 1925-1957 – Officer Recruitment and Class Appendix 1 FRANCES LOUISE WILKINSON A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2017 This work or any part thereof has not previously been presented in any form to the University or to any other body whether for the purposes of assessment, publication or for any other purpose (unless otherwise indicated). Save for any express acknowledgments, references and/or bibliographies cited in the work, I confirm that the intellectual content of the work is the result of my own efforts and of no other person. The right of Frances Louise Wilkinson to be identified as author of this work is asserted in accordance with ss.77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. At this date copyright is owned by the author. Signature……………………………………….. Date…………………………………………….. 1 Appendix Contents Pages Appendix 1 Auxiliary Air Force Officers of the United Kingdom 3-69 Appendix 2 Officers of the Special Reserve Squadrons 70-80 Appendix 3 United Kingdom Officers of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 81-140 2 Appendix 1 United Kingdom Auxiliary Air Force Officers The following appendix lists the officers of the Auxiliary Air Force by squadron. The date of commission has been obtained by using www.gazette-online.co.uk and searching the archive for each squadron. Date of commission data is found in the Supplements to the London Gazette for the date given. Where material has been found from other press records, interviews, books or the internet, this has been indicated in entries with a larger typeface.
    [Show full text]
  • Airpower and Ground Armies : Essays on the Evolution of Anglo-American Air Doctrine
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Airpower and ground armies : essays on the evolution of Anglo-American air doctrine. 1940- 1943/ editor, Daniel R Mortensen. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. Air power-Great Britain-History. 2. Air power-United States-History. 3. World War, 1939-1945- Aerial operations, British, 4. World War, 1939-1945-Aerial operations, American. 5. World War, 1939-1945-Campaigns-Africa, North. 6. Operation Torch. I. Mortensen, Daniel R. UG635.G7A89 1998 358.4’03-dc21 97-46744 CIP Digitize December 2002 from 1998 Printing NOTE: Pagination changed Disclaimer Opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied within are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Air University, the United States Air Force, the Department of Defense, or any other US government agency. Cleared for public release: distribution unlimited. Table of Contents Page DISCLAIMER ..................................................................................................................... i FORWARD........................................................................................................................ iii ABOUT THE EDITOR .......................................................................................................v INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. vi GETTING TOGETHER ......................................................................................................1
    [Show full text]
  • La Guerre Aerienne Isolement Prolonge Sur Le Theatre D'operations
    230 2 ° Partie : La guerre aerienne isolement prolonge sur le theatre d'operations de la Mediterranee, !'application et la poursuite de la politique de canadianisation prirent un ton particulier pour le 417e. Les remplacements, en particulier, sous la forme de pilotes experimentes pour servir de commandants et de seconds d'escadrilles, furent parfois difficiles a obtenir. Paradoxalement, a d'autres periodes, le probleme etait inverse, alors que les officiers d'etat-major devaient traiter le cas de Canadiens surqualifies pour lesquels il n 'existait aucune possibilite de promotion sur les theatres d'ope­ rations, a mains de les affecter a des escadrons OU des formations de la RAF. Un commandant d'escadrille experimente du 401e, par exemple, pouvait assez facilement etre promu au commandement d 'un autre escadron de chasse de I' ARC au Royaume-Uni, mais son alter ego du 417e n'avait qu 'une seule possibilite s'il voulait rester dans une unite de l 'ARC : ii devait attendre que son propre comman­ dant d'escadron soit affecte ailleurs ou soit abattu. Le 417e etait encore en Angleterre et s'exen;ait pour atteindre Jes normes operationnelles quand, a la mi-fevrier 1942, la Luftwaffe se joignit a la Kriegsmarine (marine allemande) pour realiser la« percee de la Manche »des croiseurs Scharnhorst et Gneisenau et du cuirassier lourd Prinz Eugen, a partir du port de Brest, de l 'Atlantique vers la Mer du Nord. L'echec de la RAF areagir rapidement et de maniere adequate, en depit de !'existence d'un plan de crise detaille pour !'operation Fuller, signifiait une occasion perdue pour Bentley Priory, qui doit accepter une part importante du blame.
    [Show full text]
  • Trenchard's Doctrine: Organisational Culture, the 'Air Force Spirit' and The
    TRENCHARD’S DOCTRINE Trenchard’s Doctrine: Organisational Culture, the ‘Air Force spirit’ and the Foundation of the Royal Air Force in the Interwar Years ROSS MAHONEY Independent Scholar Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT While the Royal Air Force was born in war, it was created in peace. In his 1919 memorandum on the Permanent Organization of the Royal Air Force, Air Marshal Sir Hugh Trenchard outlined his vision for the development of the Service. In this strategy, Trenchard developed the idea of generating an ‘Air Force spirit’ that provided the basis of the RAF’s development in the years after the First World War. The basis for this process was the creation of specific institutions and structures that helped generate a culture that allowed the RAF to establish itself as it dealt with challenges from its sister services. This article explores the character of that culture and ethos and in analysing the early years of the RAF through a cultural lens, suggests that Trenchard’s so-called ‘doctrine’ was focussed more on organisational developments rather than air power thinking as has often been suggested. In 1917, during the First World War and in direct response to the challenge of the aerial bombing of Great Britain, the British government decided to create an independent air service to manage the requirements of aerial warfare. With the formation of the Royal Air Force (RAF) on 1 April 1918, the Service’s senior leaders had to deal with the challenge of developing a new culture for the organisation that was consistent with the aims of the Air Force and delivered a sense of identity to its personnel.
    [Show full text]
  • War Against Allies
    Bard College Bard Digital Commons Senior Projects Spring 2016 Bard Undergraduate Senior Projects Spring 2016 War Against Allies Witawin Siripoonsap Bard College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2016 Part of the Military History Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Siripoonsap, Witawin, "War Against Allies" (2016). Senior Projects Spring 2016. 369. https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2016/369 This Open Access work is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been provided to you by Bard College's Stevenson Library with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this work in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights- holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. For more information, please contact [email protected]. War against Allies Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies Of Bard College By Witawin Siripoonsap Annandale-on-Hudson, New York May 2016 Acknowledgement I would like to give thanks to Professor Gregory Moynahan who was both my first history professor at Bard College and my advisor who introduced me to the subject. The knowledge he bestowed upon me provided me with the basic understanding of western cultures and their histories. I would also like to thank my senior project advisor Professor Sean McMeekin who helped me complete my senior project in every step of the way towards completion despite being busy finishing a project of his own.
    [Show full text]
  • First Families Is a Collection of Genealogical Information Taken from Various Sources That Were Periodically Submitted to the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick
    NOTE: First Families is a collection of genealogical information taken from various sources that were periodically submitted to the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick. The information has not been verified against any official records. Since the information in First Families is contributed, it is the responsibility of those who use the information to verify its accuracy. RADLEY: John Radley b. in Ireland: came from County Cork to NB in 1831: first settled in Saint John then in Saint George Parish, Charlotte County: he m. 1835 in Saint John, Ellen Carney who had come from Ireland in 1834: Children: 1) John Radley b. 1836 in Saint John, d. unm. in 1914: settled in Saint George Parish: 2) Thomas Radley b. 1839 in Saint John, d. unm. 8 Nov 1901: settled in Saint George Parish: 3) Robert Radley born 1841 in Saint John, m. 26 Feb 1884 Annie Daley from Pennfield, Charlotte County: settled in Saint George Parish: 4) Edward Radley b. 1848 at St. George, NB, d. 1 May 1868: 5) Mary Ann Radley b. 9 May 1850 in St. George, NB, died 6 Nov 1920, m. 23 May 1873 in St. George, James Thomas Faloon of Waweig, Saint Croix Parish, Charlotte County, NB: had seven sons. Source: MC80/2811 Calvin Lee Craig’s Early families of “The Mackadavy”: Radley family, pages 376-377. RAFFORD: John Rafford born 1797 at Nashwaak, York County, died 1887, s/o Lewis Rafford from Ireland: m. 31 Jan 1820 in Northumberland County, Olive Beckwith b. c1808, d. before 1860, d/o Thomas Worden Beckwith and Olive Crocker: first settled in Miramichi, NB until 1831 and then they moved to Fort Fairfield, ME: Children born in NB: 1) Mary Ann Rafford b.
    [Show full text]
  • Supreme Air Command: the Development of Royal Air Force Practice in the Second World
    SUPREME AIR COMMAND THE DEVELOPMENT OF ROYAL AIR FORCE COMMAND PRACTICE IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR By DAVID WALKER A Thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham For the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of History and Cultures College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham January 2017 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This thesis examines the development of RAF high command of the Metropolitan Air Force (MAF) during the Second World War. It sheds new light on the re-organisations of the Air Ministry in 1934, the RAF Command structure in 1936, and the tri-service debate in 1937 concerning the RAF proposal to establish a Supreme Air Commander (SAC). It reveals that while frontline expansion created an impetus for re-organisation, it was operational readiness that was the dominant factor in the re-structuring of the RAF. It examines the transition in RAF frontline organization from the mono-functional command system of 1936 to the multi- functional organisation that emerged after 1943 by looking at command structure and practice, personalities, and operational thinking.
    [Show full text]