Wednesday, 29 July 2015

75th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain



Welcome back to the Randomizer!

You know what I haven’t done in a while? Something about History, since my Christmas special just seven months ago. Oh dear I can only apologise. Let’s turn back 75 years ago to 1940, and the Battle of Britain.


June 1940. France along with Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg has fallen to Nazi Germany in only six weeks, and now Germany has conquered most of Western Europe. All the way from the Pyrenees to Warsaw, they created a makeshift empire that could have made the Italians jealous (and probably did), and changed the old saying to, ‘All roads lead to Berlin’. There was one tiny problem: A country that lay just opposite the English Channel, called ‘Great Britain’.

Only this one country was all what remained behind of the Allies fighting against the Nazi Blitzkreig, with Winston Churchill leading the helm in the fight against them. A voicebox who, after the  British Expeditionary Force and some French soldiers retreated to Dunkirk, and evacuated over a week back to Britain, said “What General Weygand has called The Battle of France is over…The Battle of Britain is about to begin”.

Despite Hitler at first believing that Britain would sue for peace, plans were drawn up to invade this little island code-named ‘Operation: Sealion’. It soon became a battle for supremacy of the air, the only campaign in the world to be fought in such a manner. The Luftwaffe with as much air power as they could muster flew over to bomb cities, airfields and shipping alike. But they were met with three letters: R, A and F, intent on defending Great Britain at all costs, despite being just like the Luftwaffe the only ones capable of defeating them.

For over three months, British Hurricanes and Spitfires fought the German Heinkels and Messerschmitts for control of the air, as the Germans switched tactics every now and then to different bombing targets, with the British airfields taking the brunt of it. On 15th September, the British surprised the Germans as they flew over to bomb London and neighbouring towns, and effectively sent the Luftwaffe scattering through different directions in and around the skies. ‘Battle of Britain Day’ was the effective end for Hitler to postpone his invasion plans, and first real defeat in the war.

The Battle of Britain stands out amongst the campaigns of World War II as our greatest tests of defence, and most likely seen around the world as our final hurrah in a war despite other victories to come. The romantic nature of the young pilots dogfighting against the imposing threat of the Nazi Blitzkrieg as they came to destroy our mountains green (apologies for the Jerusalem pun). So how did the RAF defeat the Luftwaffe?

Despite the romance on the front of it, The Battle of Britain was on closer inspection not so ‘plucky’ as we see it. In fact, that is what I’m going to talk about today. Looking into different aspects, I can try and paint a picture that has admittedly been talked about in historical circles over again. Speaking of painting pictures, I will be including different artworks and photos from the time to illustrate how people viewed the war, and how the airmen possibly viewed themselves.

'An Aerial Battle' by Francis Dodd

So be like that cat and stare into the impeding air-trails about how the Battle of Britain was won.

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…Or maybe change one word of that question: How the Battle of Britain was LOST.

After France was conquered, the German navy (Kriegsmarine) were the only ones whom had any sort of plan for an invasion of Britain. ‘Sort of’ because neither part of the German Army, Navy or Air force had any sort of planning ready for such an invasion. They really believed Britain would need to surrender to them in a bid of hopelessness. When we didn’t, Hitler finally took interest in the idea and the army had their own invasion plans, and became derisive of the navy’s plan. Both sides agreed that air superiority was vital to the invasion being a success, and dumped the problem onto Herman Goering, Commander of the Luftwaffe. Pessamistic of the chances of success in an invasion, he was convinced that the Luftwaffe by itself could knock Britain out of the war.

'Ja ja mein fuhrer, we'll be eating our Christmas dinner in London!'
Eventually a plan was formulated during the battle itself, after many arguments between army and navy: 9 divisions of 200,000 men would land in areas between Folkestone and Brighton, supported by two airborne divisions. Either side were not happy at the result. The army believed the fleet too small, and the navy thought the size too big to protect. Though both still relied on the Luftwaffe to knock out the RAF, which itself was not happy about the pressure of planning despite Goering’s optimism.

The Luftwaffe itself seemed wholly unprepared and untrained for a complete air battle. Adolf Galland, former Luftwaffe Squadron Pilot, believed that “the plan was not serious…and our preparations were about ridiculous”. In the past, ‘Bliztkrieg’ tactics had worked because of the close knit support everyone in the army, mechanical and air gave together on land in quick movements before encircling the enemy. Emphasis: ON LAND. NOT SEA. Unless Germany had some means of transporting across sea with magical means like they seem to do in every video game, no clue was given. Nor f***s for that matter.

In addition, the Luftwaffe was more or less based in France for most of the duration of the battle. Nothing wrong with that except a limit in fuel, because then they could only stay in a limited range of targets including London with a small load of bombs anyway, and the fighter escorts that went along could only really stay for 10 minutes to half an hour. The RAF could easily refuel and re-join the dogfights if necessary. Plus, the use of radar in the RAF helped defend Britain greatly because then they could move quickly into position and attack the Luftwaffe fast. Those factors presented big issues for Goering in general, as well as himself.

Goering’s change in tactics only worked properly in one respect. The Luftwaffe had originally attacked merchant conveys and the harbours in the south of England. Dover became a particular target, soon becoming called ‘Hellfire Corner’ as bombers attempted to destroy the ships close by, with not so much particular success except to impress BBC news reporters at the scene. Seriously, check out Charles Gardner on Youtube, there should be a clip.


On August 13th, Goering switched his targets to the airfields and radar stations to destroy RAF Fighter Command. Despite maintaining significant damage against the airfields and stations, inflicting over 100 casualties and wounded in the last week of August and first week of September, bringing down 6 key airfields and destroying 500 fighters quicker than they could be produced, and knocking Fighter Command almost to its knees, Goering believed the fighter planes were still hampering his forces. He changed tactics again, to attack London. It would be the end of preparation for Operation Sea-Lion.

It would also be his costly mistake for being a daft bugger. In doing so, partially influenced by the fact that Berlin was bombed by the RAF in the second-to-last week of August, Goering would give the RAF an opportunity to regain their strength in fighters and pilots as the Luftwaffe began ‘The Blitz’ on Londoners. In one week, London burned and Goering gathered that opposition had been wiped out, regardless of resistance still being maintained somewhat by pilots fighting the onslaught.

'Good moaning Brotoin. Would you luke your oggs fred or scombled?'


On the 15th September, the Luftwaffe launched a two wave attack of 250 bombers each to bomb London, expecting hardly any opposition. The RAF surprised them and the replacement Hurricanes and Spitfires broke the formations apart, shooting down 61 planes and forcing the bombers to drop their bombs far and wide, making their impact less harmful to London. Many Londoners watched the battle unfold in the skies, and were probably all too happy to tell the Germans to piss off while doing so.
 
Two days later, Hitler realised the unattainability of the situation and postponed Operation Sea-Lion, even having doubts beforehand of any realistic chance of invading Britain.  For Britain, it was now a case of defending London from the bombers in night-time, which the fighters couldn’t easily do. But the threat of invasion was over for the moment. Britain remained on high alert until 1941, Churchill hearing reports that landing craft had been dismantled in Holland and secretly decided that invasion was no longer impossible. Whatever the case, The Battle of Britain was won.

'Hmm I guess it's true. They really don't like it up them'
 


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Let’s talk about the RAF side of things now, and how Britain managed to fend off the Germans in all.

During the capitulation of France and the Low Countries (Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg), and even before that during the Spanish Civil War, Germany was using aerial bombing to devastating effect on military targets and civilians, creating a psychological effect to create panic among people as they fled from the planes. Such tactics had been used before during World War I, though with the addition of the ‘Trumpets of Jericho’ to the Stuka Bombers, it created a more damaging mindset.

That hadn’t gone unnoticed by Air Chief Marshall Sir Hugh Dowding, Head of Fighter Command, and he was busily creating an efficient radar system in an attempt to keep the Germans at bay, provided he had enough planes from the capitulation of France. Eventually an effective system was created. A chain of radio stations with observational posts moved information along to Fighter Command, who passed the important information onto group headquarters, who could then scramble pilots into the air to the relevant positions on the maps. That make sense? I hope it bloody did, because I can sort of understand it myself! Radar was the effective weapon the British had up their sleeves. Without it, their defensive methods would have been less efficient if it were standing to see any planes approaching, and more prone to attacks regardless of resources on the German side.

'I wonder if I turn that knob this way, I will get Glenn Miller...

As I’ve said in the last section, The British had home advantage. If in the midst of battle they were running out of fuel or damaged in anyway, they can simply land back at base and get themselves fixed up before quickly flying back into the fight once more. The airfields too were not easily knocked out, easily repairable themselves and up and running in no time, before the kettle would be boiled no doubt. Plus the production of planes, 100 every week, helped Dowding regather his forces together to fight back after fighting in France.

But the British lacked many big issues too. One was air-sea rescue. Their preparations for as such were woeful at best. Consisting of hopes that cross channel boats would see the pilot and rescue them from the cold water, or a lifeboat would do the same if none were available. Even in summer, the Channel is freezing cold and the RAF clothing did nothing to help protect the airmen from freezing outright. With life jackets as well, there was the risk of being injured or in shock. Because of the pilots lost at sea, rescue operations were switched to local naval authorities on 22nd August, with Fighter Command lending planes to help look for them. Overall, 200 pilots were lost as sea, with no proper air-sea rescue formed until a year later.

Another major issue was the tactics they used. They flew in tight vic (V) formations of three planes in four sections, with only the squadron leader able to see the Germans ahead while the others kept station. Because this left squadrons vulnerable to attack, Fight Command knew the weaknesses well, but didn’t change tactics because inexperienced pilots were not well trained, and it was felt they needed strong leadership to keep them in formation. Front line pilots used a compromise where they used looser formations, with the inexperienced pilots behind and above to increase observation and protection from behind. It wasn’t any better since the pilots were still shot down without the others knowing they were even under attack.

One tactic used to the best effect was by Group Commander Keith Park, who commanded the south east of England. He would dispatch individual groups to attack bombers continuously, and break the German formations apart. Once they did, those groups would take down the stragglers one by one, and engage the front of the bombers, which was not always achieved. In the midst of battle, Hurricanes and Spitfires would accidentally usually swap places in attacking bombers (Hurricanes’s job) and the fighter escorts (Spitfire’s job). As I mentioned, it didn’t stop the casualty list rising, especially during the last week in August and first week in September as the Germans attacked the airfields and stations maddeningly.

 

Retaliation soon ensued from Britain, not in the form of fighters, but bombers themselves. When a German bomber, possibly unintentionally, dropped its load over central London, Winston Churchill ordered a return strike on Berlin, duly delivered in 24 hours by over 70 to 80 craft…and hardly any damage was done. Avoiding the flak of anti-aircraft guns, they dropped their loads in different places, from fields to residential areas, with little casualties in tow. The planes themselves were not damaged either. It did embarrass Goering and Hitler who, when the raids continued, promised at one of his rallies to raze cities to the ground. Thus giving Britain a great advantage in refreshing itself as ‘The Blitz’ began, and led to the ‘Battle of Britain Day’ a week later, when 61 German planes were brought down. Whoops.

'They came, they saw, they scurried'

With that loss, the Luftwaffe could not command control of the air from that day onwards, and subsequently Hitler postponed Operation Sea-Lion, but continued to bomb London during the night-time for 76 days afterwards. Britain would sigh relief for now and laugh at their lucky escape for the most part, even in the face of the Nazis bombs dropping on them. The German army had their first loss, and Britain stood tall.

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To sum up, it is clearer now how the battle was won and lost.

Effectively, the Luftwaffe shot themselves in the foot when it came to the end. They were very close to pulling off a great feat against Britain, but Goering believed otherwise, that the RAF were still fighting back in great force and to destroy the industrial cities and break the morale of Britain. Despite as such, they simply could not break Britain down. It’s debated, among historians, if the invasion could have been pulled off in the first place. It’s possible that even if the Luftwaffe had continued the tactic of destroying the RAF stations and airfields though their resources were limited, the Kriegsmarine were more pessimistic about their own chances of defeating the Royal Navy, due to the loss of many of their ships during a preceding campaign in Norway.

'Hallo Luffy. Gut luck with the raids'

'Ja...Danke Marine' 

But the British were close to losing through their own means too, despite how they tried to counter their own useless tactics against the en-mass of bombers and fighters, and of course through the Germans attacking the airfields and radar stations. It was partly through pure luck that most likely saved Britain from being invaded thanks to the German bombing raids, and in September the British army had recovered some armed divisions along the coast in case of invasion. I don’t mean to take away from the victory at all. The British were prepared to fight in many ways, Radar being the major factors in helping see the threat come their way. But sometimes in war a good bit of Luck does go a long way, even where you wouldn’t probably want it to go.

Especially if you had a Spitfire.

Many historians believe that perhaps the planning really wasn’t that serious, that Hitler was simply planning on intimidating the British to surrender. On doing this blog, I’m not sure that really would be the case. If Hitler was really dancing around if to invade Britain, surely that would have come up in conversation somewhere between him and his generals. Of course he did grow wary of the idea of invading Britain as early as August 13th, and postponed the idea two days after ‘Battle of Britain Day’, eventually abandoning it later on when planning to invade Russia.

In the end, despite the inexperience, tactics and lucky escapes, The Battle of Britain showed that there WAS one country who could be the bastion of hope against the Nazi Blitzkrieg. Allied soldiers from France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Canada, Irish etc, all came together in this one place to show that they would never surrender to the Germans at any cost. This was a country that would have more likely have to have been destroyed entirely, rather than sue for peace. Many pilots gave their lives to defend their freedom, homeland or not, to make a stand against Hitler and would not be moved out willingly or by force, and succeeded at doing that. This was the true start of where the line was, in that blue sky above Britain. Hear me out, I’m sound patriotic! I am happy I have managed to do this article, because it makes my understanding of it a little clearer. This isn’t just about history, this is about WHO we can be, and WHO we owe our own freedoms too.

I will end with this simple quote from Winston Churchill: “Never was so much owed by so many to so few”



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That’s it for this month. Next month’s may come sooner or later, depending on various situations ahead.

Randomizer out!

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