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

unnecessary and avoidable, and at the same time that they were not
achieving very much. And, like Günther, they also believed it was their
tactics that were at fault. Both John and David thought it was pointless
chasing out to sea after the enemy when they were so outnumbered. David
also realized that in an effort to try and hit the Stukas, they were never
giving themselves enough height. Getting above the enemy, David now
concluded, was the secret to successful air fighting.
Life was still quiet enough in the north of the country but in the south, and
south-east especially, the air fighting had become quite intense. ‘The
excitement grew slowly and progressively,’ says Pete Brothers, ‘but by the
end of July it was definitely getting interesting.’ For every pilot in Fighter
Command, each day was a long one. Most were up before dawn and ready
to fly by first light. In the case of the 32 Squadron pilots, they would then
fly to their advance airfield. Pete would regularly fly four sorties a day. On
25 July, during the massacre of the CW8 convoy, he flew six times. Four
days later, he managed to shoot down another Me 109. On the last two days
of the month he flew five times and then a further four, including six
combat patrols. It was a lot of flying under any circumstances, but
particularly when pilots were expected to operate from primitive airfields
with minimal facilities, where food and beds and other comforts were in
short supply.
Dowding was certainly worried. In addition to the combat losses,
accidents were also mounting. In fact, they accounted for around a third of
all losses that month. He now ordered that pilots should have at least eight
hours’ rest a day and twenty-four hours’ leave a week.
There were no such concessions to the Luftwaffe pilots, who at least
had the benefit of being able to choose when and where they flew. At the
end of the month, their fighter tactics briefly changed. The fighter aircraft
had been subordinated to new formations called Jagdfliegerführer – or Jafü
as the Germans abbreviated them – which were effectively a fighter corps
within each Luftflotte. Jafü 2, in Luftflotte 2, had been pressing hard to be
allowed to carry out ‘free hunts’ rather than to be shackled to bomber
escorts and, in the absence of any more convoys going through the Straits
of Dover, had finally been given authority to do so. Dolfo Galland certainly
thought this was the right way to use fighters, the idea being to lure British
fighters into combat. So too did Günther Rall. And it seemed to work,