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

Britain’s coastal lifeline. Despite the debris now being washed up on
Britain’s mine-strewn southern shores, only 24,000 tons of the 190,000 tons
of merchant shipping lost around British waters between July and 8 August
had been as a result of air attack. Sixty-seven ships had been lost in all,
most of them to enemy mines. And 103 coasters and merchantmen had been
successfully convoyed through. British waters were still an extremely
dangerous place to be, but the coasters were now in for a comparative
respite – from the screaming dive-bombers at any rate, which was no small
mercy for the nerves of crews. Göring was now going to send his air forces
inland.
All three of his air fleets, Luftflotte 3 in Normandy, Luftflotte 2 in northern
France and the Low Countries, and Luftflotte 5 in Norway, were ready for
the great air battle against Britain by 5 August. Certainly, his units were all
in place by then. On 1 August, Ulrich Steinhilper had flown to Coquelles,
which was to be I/JG 52’s new base, taking over from the third Gruppe.
Ulrich had flown over Dunkirk on his way and below him could still see
row upon row of abandoned vehicles. ‘I wondered how any army could lose
so much and still be an army,’ he noted. ‘Was there really anyone left in
Britain to fight?’ On the morning of the 5th, the last fighter units also
reached the coast. Julius Neumann and II/JG 27 had moved to Crépon in
Normandy to join Jafü 3 in Luftflotte 3, while Hans-Ekkehard Bob and
III/JG 54 moved to Guines just to the south of Calais, to complete the buildup
of Jafü 2.
Two things were lacking, however. The first, incredibly, was an agreed
plan of action. Such had been the expectation that Britain would come
grovelling that no tactical plan had been put together. Once hopes had
begun to fade, Göring then decided to wait until Hitler had issued his
directive and he had learned what the Führer’s requirements and also
restrictions were. So it was not until 1 August that the Reichsmarschall
asked his air fleet and corps commanders to submit their plans. These, when
they came in, were all quite different, and so needed to be ironed out into a
cohesive and co-ordinated plan.
Göring was now firmly ensconced back at Carinhall, and just as Hitler
expected his commanders to make the trip to the Berghof, so the
Reichsmarschall required his to trek back and forth between their front-line
headquarters and his country pile north of Berlin. Several conferences had