Case Studies in the Achievement of Air Superiority - Air Force ...

BATTLE OF BRITAIN
15. On gun development see H. F. King, Armuments qfBritiskAircr.c/,fi. 1909-1939 (London,
1971). and G. F. Wallace’s The Guns of the Rovul Air Force (London. 1972). among
others. On the inability to shoot, see H. R. Allen, Who Won the Buttle qfBrituin:) (London,
1974). pp 63-70.
16. Park, in his report of Nov 7, 1940. (AIR 2/5246.66581) noted the weaknesses of radar
and the Royal Observer Corps. He instituted high-flying standing patrols, and these aircraft
were caught up in a German hoax: Park notes that some of them were shot down by a rare
He-1 13 fighter. In fact, no such airplane existed in the Luftwaffe although photographs of a
machine in German markings had been circulated to create the impression that it did. See
William Green, Airplanes of the ThirdReich (New York. 1970). p 336. Dowding’s comments
of Nov 15 are in the same AIR 2/5246.66581 file.
17. AIR 215246.66 81.
18. Laddie Lucas’s Flying Colours (London, 1983). p 31. is a defense of Bader by one of
his pilots.
19. General Lord Ismay, The Memoirs of General Lord 1smu.v (London, 1960). p 182.
20. Vincent Orange, Sir Keith Park (London. 1984).
21. Townsend, Duel ofEagles, p 384.
22. AIR 41/14.79062, pp 56ff.
23. Mason, The Battle OverBritain, pp 595 and 598, and is taken from AIR 221293.64819.
Part 11.
24. Williamson Murray, Luftwuffe (Baltimore. 1985). p 53, which is based on Mason’s
tables.
25. AIR 41/14.79062, p 70n.
26. Maurice Dean, The Royal Air Force and Two World Wurs (London. 1979). p 145.
27. Robin Higham, The Military Inrellecrnuls in Brituin (New Brunswick. NJ. 1966). p
181, quoting from C. L. Dunn. Emergency Medicul Services, vol 11, (London. 1953). pp 210-
19.
28. Orange, Park, p 109.
29. Ibid.; Churchill, Their Finest Hour, pp 332-37.
30. AIR 2/5246.66 81.
31. Mason, The Battle Over Britain, p 355.
32. Martin Gilbert, Winston Churchill. vol IV (London. 1983), p 1060.
33. Letter from Miss M. H. C. Parks of the Air Historical Branch. MOD, to author, July
26, 1984. This chapter was accepted in 1985. A statue was erected in 1988.
34. See J. R. hi. Butler, Grand Strategy, vol I1 (1957). pp 165-73. 251-58.267-94.
35. AIR 41/14.790 2, p 69.
36. AIR 4118.7923, pp 114ff.
37. AIR 16/609.63182, Apr 22, 1952.
38. See Owen Thetford, Aircraft of the Royal Air Force Since /9/8 (London. 1979): and
Mason, The Battle Over Britain, pp 198. 344.
39. AIR 20/1966.64819. See also Robin Higham. unpublished history of BOAC (London:
British Airways).
40. AIR 20/2037.64227.
41. AIR 41/8.79231, p 119. Oct 21, 1938. AIR 41/8.79031. p 133, notes that only on Aug
1, 1939, was the officer corps divided into GD (flying) (general duties types) and Technical
Officers (Engineering. Armament and Signals) because it was finally realized a modern air
force could not manage satisfactorily with these functions handled on a part-time basis.
42. Robert Wright. The Man Who Won the Battle of Britain (New York. 1969): Robin
Higham, The British Rigid Airship (London, 1961): Robin Higham, Armed Forces in Peucetime:
Britain 1918-1939 (London, 1962): Great Britain, Air Ministry, The Secret History of
the RAF (typescript, 1945): Sir Frederick Pile, Ack-Ack (London. 1956). p 96.
43. M. M. Postan, Denis Hay. J. D. Scott. The Design und Development of Weupons
(London, 1964); Denis Richards and Hilary St. George Saunders. TheRoyulAir Force, 1939-
1945. vol 1 (London, 1953-54). p 154.
44. The figures used hereafter are derived first from Mason’s The Btrttle Over Brituin and
then from After the Battle magazine’s The Battle of Britain. 2nd edition (London. 1982).
These two works contain corrections not found in the official histories such as Basil Collier’s
The Defence of the United Kingdom (1957). Behind these published sources are the raw RAF
173