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

BATTLE OF BRITAIN
Guide to the Sources of British Military History (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1971) or in Ofjcial Histories (Manhattan, Kans.: Kansas State University
Library, 1970). Engine development is the special subject of Robert Schlaifer and W.
D. Heron, The Development of Aircraft Engines and Fuels (Boston: Harvard Business
School, 1950) and of Herschel Smith’s more recent Aircraft Piston Engines
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981), while the Merlin itself is the subject of one volume
of Ian Lloyd’s Rolls-Royce: The Merlin at War (London: Macmillan, 1978). The first
third of M. M. Postan, D. Hay, and J. D. Scott, The Design and Development of
Weapons (London: HMSO, 1964) is devoted to aeronautical affairs as seen by three
official historians.
A number of official volumes need to be consulted in a study of the Battle of
Britain. Basic, of course, is Basil Collier’s The Defence of the United Kingdom
(London: HMSO, 1957) and J. R. M. Butler, Grund Strategy, vol I1 (London:
HMSO, 1957), both of which set the battle in the wider scene. L. F. Ellis, The War
in France and Flanders, 1939-1940 (London: HMSO, 1953), deals with the air components
sent to France as part of a tri-service campaign history. The general history
of the Air Force during the war has been told by Denis Richards and Hilary St.
George Saunders; only the first volume of The Royal Air Force, 1939-1945: The
Fight at Odds (London: HMSO, 1953) is pertinent here. The Air Ministry’s own
original paperback, The Battle of Britain, first published in the United States by
Doubleday in 1941 is now a piece of history in itself. Of the other official works, the
first volume of Sir Charles Webster’s and Noble Frankland’s The Strategic Air
Offensive against Germany, 1939-1945: Preparation (London: HMSO, 1961) is most
revealing. As a result of the ULTRA revelations, F. H. Hinsley, et al., have begun
publishing British Intelligence in the Second World War (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1979- ), of which the first volume covers the Battle of Britain
period. The last piece of official history is the more recent volume by F. J. Hatch,
which indicates how the Battle of Britain affected Canada: Aerodrome of Democracy:
Canada and the British Air Commonwealth Air Training Plan, 1939-1945 (Ottawa:
Directorate of History, Department of National Defense, 1983).
The next nearest thing to an official history are Sir Winston Churchill’s memoirs,
many sections of which are based upon official narratives or papers. The second
volume of The Second World War, Their Finest Hour (Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1949) is the appropriate one here. The mammoth biography and papers by Martin
Gilbert handles this period in volume VI (London: Heinemann, 1983). Another autobiography
having a direct bearing on the air war is by the Deputy Chief of the Air
Staff, Sholto Douglas (Lord Douglas of Kirtleside): Combat and Command (New
York: Simon and Schuster, 1966); it was largely written by Robert Wright. Also
important is General Sir Frederick Pile’s Ack-Ack (London: Panther, 1956). Sir
Maurice Dean has been mentioned above. Also playing a role was Harold Balfour
(later Lord Inchrye), whose memoirs are entitled An Airman Marches (London:
Hutchinson, 1933) and Wings Over Westminster (London: Hutchinson, 1973).
Apart from a few single-volume studies currently in print, the two most useful
words on the Battle of Britain for details are Francis K. Mason’s Battle over Britain
(New York: Doubleday, 1969) and After the Battle Magazine’s The Battle of Britain
Then and Now. Mark IZ (London, 1982). A history by a participant is Peter Townsend’s
Duel of Eagles (New York: Pocket Books, 1972); Laddie Lucas’s Flying Colours
(London: Granada, 1983) is the story of Douglas Bader by one of his pilots; J.
R. D. Braham in Night Fighter (New York: Bantam, 1984) tells what it was like in
that specialty; and H. R. “Dizzy” Allen, another squadron leader in 1940, has both
analyzed the battle in a straightforward way in his three memoirs and attacked its
tactical conduct in Who Won the Battle of Britain? (London: Casse I I , 1972).
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