The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

numerical superiority. Even so, only two Fliegerkorps had been given the
task of establishing air superiority over the Channel. General von
Richthofen’s VIII Fliegerkorps was now mostly based in Normandy
between Cherbourg and Le Havre, while General Loerzer’s II Fliegerkorps
was slowly but surely arriving in the Pas de Calais. Plenty had yet to arrive,
however. The entire Jagdgeschwader 26 was now part of II Fliegerkorps,
but neither Dolfo Galland’s new command, III/JG 26, nor the other two
Gruppen had yet left Germany. A sense of urgency there certainly was not.
This meant that during the Channel attacks, the Luftwaffe did not have
the kind of overwhelming superiority in numbers that it had on paper.
However, it had the huge advantage of being able to choose when and
where it would attack. Dowding rightly insisted on keeping his forces well
spread, but that meant that Park in 11 Group and Brand, now in command
of the newly formed 10 Group in the south-west, could only respond to
attacks. The Luftwaffe could thus attack in strength at one or two points,
rather as German field commanders had done at the start of the western
campaign.
These main two points were the Channel and coastal ports of central
and south-east England. In the latter, 32 Squadron was one of 11 Group’s
squadrons also now spending much of its time patrolling over convoys,
taking off at dawn from Biggin Hill and heading to Hawkinge near Dover,
or to Manston near Ramsgate. It had also been sent on patrols over to the
French coast. Pete Brothers had flown to Le Havre on 4 July and to Calais-
Boulogne two days later.
It was also being scrambled to intercept incoming raids. On the other
side of the Channel, the principal bomber formation in II Fliegerkorps was
KG 2, equipped with Dornier 17s, which was being sent over both during
the day and at night. On the afternoon of 3 July, 32 Squadron had been
vectored to attack a raid of twenty-one Do 17s along with 610 Squadron; on
this occasion, the enemy had promptly turned back to France. Soon after,
and while still in the air, they were vectored towards another raid, this time
of thirty-four Dorniers that were bombing Kenley, just a short distance
away from Biggin. Seeing the explosions and puffs of AA fire, they dived
on the bombers, managing to shoot three down.
Now that German aircraft were flying over south-east England, Pete
began to feel worried about his wife. He was unusually young amongst
fighter pilots to be married. He had met Annette when the squadron had