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

41
Tactics and Technicalities
WHILE THE LARGER bombers continued to fly nightly over Germany and
even Italy, the Blenheims continued with their daily missions to hit German
airfields and shipping all along the French and Dutch coasts. On 23 August,
for example, nineteen Blenheims went over, the usual number employed.
They all went off individually, unescorted, doing their own thing. Only one
was shot down that day, by flak gunners at Guines near Calais, as it tried to
bomb JG 52’s airfield.
As the Blenheim crews were discovering to their great cost, it was hard
to get the balance right. With the benefit of daylight it was obviously far
easier to find and hit a target, but it was also suicidally dangerous. The
losses in the Blenheim squadrons were appalling; it was why Arthur
Hughes was occasionally struck by moments of deep despair. Debate about
tactics raged endlessly, however. At the beginning of August, some
Blenheims of 101 Squadron carried out some high-level raids at 20,000 feet
which had reportedly been quite successful. They had also been
experimenting with two aircraft. They would take off at the same time, one
would climb to 20,000 while the other cruised at fifty feet, so it arrived at
the target twenty to thirty minutes earlier. Approaching low, the aircraft
would then climb to 700 feet, release its bombs and make off until the
excitement had calmed down, then return to assess the damage. In the
meantime, the second, high-level Blenheim would come over and ‘lay his
eggs’. ‘It sounds all right in theory,’ jotted Arthur, ‘but against the sort of
flak defence the Jerries have, and their almost instantaneous response, I
doubt whether an aircraft climbing from 50 to 700 feet at relatively low
speed would stand an earthly.’
Soon after this debate, a rumour reached 18 Squadron that it would soon
be switched to night bombing. This was surely more sensible. ‘Night ops,’
pointed out Arthur, ‘in good weather are seemingly less dangerous than
daylight hit-and-run and perhaps more effective. At least it will keep the
blighters awake.’ By the third week of August, they had made this switch
over to night operations, and on their first trip bombed Cap Gris Nez and