The Battle Re-Thought A Symposium on the Battle of Britain Sponsored jointly by the Royal Air Force Historical Society and the Royal Air Force Staff College, Bracknell 25 June 1990 Joint Editors Air Commodore Henry Probert Mr Sebastian Cox ii THE BATTLE RE-THOUGHT Copyright ©1991 by the Royal Air Force Historical Society First Published in the UK in 1991 by Airlife Publishing Ltd British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data available ISBN 1 85310 292 X All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the permission from the Publisher in writing. Printed by Livesey Ltd, Shrewsbury Airlife Publishing Ltd 101 Longden Road, Shrewsbury, SY3 9EB, England THE BATTLE RE-THOUGHT iii Contents Preface 1. Opening Remarks: Air Vice-Marshal A F C Hunter 2. Chairman’s Introduction: Air Chief Marshal Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris 3. The Dowding System: Mr Derek Wood 4. The Battle of France: Mr John Terraine 5. The Luftwaffe and the Battle of Britain: Dr Horst Boog 6. The British Commanders: Dr Vincent Orange 7. The Intelligence Aspect: Mr Edward Thomas 8. August and September 1940: Group Captain Tom Gleave 9. Digest of the Group Discussions A. The System B. The Tactics C. Intelligence D. The Commanders E. The Strategy F. Writing the History 10. Lessons for Today: Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Knight 11. Chairman’s Closing Remarks Biographical Notes on the Main Speakers The Royal Air Force Historical Society iv THE BATTLE RE-THOUGHT Preface To mark the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain, the RAF Historical Society and the RAF Staff College convened a joint seminar at Bracknell on 25 June 1990. Some 300 people attended, including the Bracknell Directing Staff and students, a visiting party from the West German Führungsakademie in Hamburg, and 150 members of the RAF Historical Society. Air Chief Marshal Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris, the Chairman of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association, presided over the day’s proceedings, and the contributors included the following members of the Association: Air Chief Marshal Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris, Air Marshal Sir Denis Crowley-Milling, Air Vice-Marshal H A C Bird- Wilson, Group Captain T P. Gleave, Group Captain C B F Kingcome, Wing Commander N P W Hancock, Wing Commander A G Page, Wing Commander P L Parrott, Wing Commander J A Thomson, Wing Commander J R C Young, Flight Lieutenant M E Croskell. In addition, a number of historians took part, among them: Dr Horst Boog, Mr Sebastian Cox, Professor Michael Foot, Group Captain E B Haslam, Mr Cecil James, Group Captain I Madelin, Air Vice-Marshal R A Mason, Dr Vincent Orange, Air Commodore H A Probert, Mr Denis Richards, Mr John Terraine, Mr Edward Thomas, Mr Derek Wood. The morning was devoted to a series of six talks on various aspects of the battle, and in the afternoon the symposium divided into ten discussion groups in which the issues raised were considered in more detail. These provided an opportunity for Battle of Britain veterans and others to offer their recollections and for historians to comment further on some of the questions and controversies. The day’s events were rounded off with an address by Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Knight. THE BATTLE RE-THOUGHT v This volume contains the edited texts of the main talks and a digest of what was said in the discussion groups. Under ordinary circumstances, this record would be published privately by the RAF Historical Society and thus circulated only to members. On this unique occasion, however, it is felt that these proceedings will be of interest to a much wider audience, and the Historical Society is most grateful to Mr Jeremy Gambrill, and Mr Alastair Simpson for agreeing to publish them commercially. vi THE BATTLE RE-THOUGHT THE BATTLE RE-THOUGHT 1 1. Opening Remarks The Commandant Air Vice-Marshal A F C Hunter It is my very pleasant duty to welcome all of you to the Royal Air Force Staff College, and to this symposium which we are delighted to be hosting along with the Royal Air Force Historical Society. Perhaps I may be allowed to say one or two specific words of welcome. First, there are the historians who have come here to keep us on the right rails; it is a pleasure to see so many of such high calibre gathered here today. Secondly, we have many who participated in the Battle of Britain, including members of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association – and, if I may mention one name, it is the sole representative of the Luftwaffe, Herr Schlichting, who today may find the arithmetic slightly different from the way it was fifty years ago. I would also like to welcome our sister staff college, the Führungsakademie from Hamburg, which has a good representation here today. I am delighted that we can continue our exchange and dialogue with them in this symposium. It would be wrong of me not to say how delighted I am also to see all the members of the Historical Society. Members of my staff and of the present course know the stress that I place on the study of history, and I hope that, after today, many of them will wish to become members, as I am, of this splendid society. May I now hand over to Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris, who will chair the day’s proceedings? 2 THE BATTLE RE-THOUGHT 2. Chairman’s Introduction Air Chief Marshal Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris I was approached nearly a year ago to be asked if I would participate in this particular exercise. It would be linked, they said, to an old exercise, called See Adler, which had been brought up to date. As the original author, I will tell you one thing about the exercise which I hope will give you food for thought. I was detached as a member of the Directing Staff to write the big appreciation exercise on the Battle of Britain, and after a week I sought an interview with the Assistant Commandant. I said, ‘I am awfully sorry, but I have applied all the usual considerations to the exercise – such as factors affecting the attainment of the aim, and the balance of forces – and the Germans must win. What do I do?’ He said, ‘Go and fudge it!’ So I did, and it has been fudged ever since. This brings me to the only other thing that I am going to say in the short time that I have been allotted. We really do want to know not only why we won, but whether we did win. So please do not toe the party line when you are studying and reporting on this exercise. If you are merely going to repeat what everybody else has said – and there are twenty-eight new books this year on the subject – it really is rather a waste of time. But if you can think of anything original that might possibly have affected the battle, for heaven’s sake bring it up. I know that I reflect the views of the Commandant and the DS in saying this. Without further ado, I am going to ask the first speaker to address you. He is the very well-known (and thoroughly justifiably well- known)-author Mr Derek Wood, who was the co-author of one of the classic books about the Battle of Britain, The Narrow Margin. THE BATTLE RE-THOUGHT 3 3. The Dowding System Mr Derek Wood What I would like to do first is to paint a little of the picture behind the system. In the 1930s it was widely accepted that the bomber would always get through, and that’s what frightened everybody to death. So the RAF and the British Government decided, on the basis of what they knew, that they had better do the other thing: in other words, create an air defence force capable of stopping daylight raids (not night raids – that came later) or of making them too costly to continue. It was a very, very radical approach. From 1936 the task of creating these defences was entrusted to Fighter Command and its Commander-in-Chief, Air Chief Marshal Dowding. A lesser man would have been overwhelmed by the task. In 1936 – in 1940, for that matter – there were no digital or analogue computers (they hadn’t been invented), no microchips, no sophisticated communications or detection equipment, no colour television, in fact none of the things that the defence takes for granted in 1990. In those days science-based defence systems were unknown; science was just something that was around the corner, and you found it in universities. It was against this background that Dowding had to build and perfect the world’s first operational defence system. Fortunately, he understood the problems, he knew the solutions and he created the system. He did have certain assets, however. A great deal of research and experimentation had gone on in the late 1920s and early 1930s: pioneering work on reporting and interception, based originally on the London air defence area layout perfected in 1918 by Major-General E B Ashmore. He is very often forgotten, but he was the first pioneer. He had gridded maps, he had common counters, he had a method of reporting, and he had sequences and timings. But he also did one other thing: he founded what is now the Royal Observer Corps, so he had two attributes so far as the defence of this country was concerned.