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

been proved already. The raiders had been and gone before Leigh-Mallory
could get his formations together over Park’s airfields.
As the Germans had discovered during the campaign in the west,
personality spats between commanders were not helpful, and the emergence
of Park and Leigh-Mallory’s tactical disagreement at a time when Fighter
Command was more under the cosh than at any other time was unfortunate
to say the least.
On 28 August, 32 Squadron bid farewell to Biggin Hill. It had been
based there for nearly eight years. Already, the place looked a wreck, with
craters all over the place. Pete Brothers’ ‘B’ Flight office had had its roof
smashed in and all of the pilots were in need of a rest; they had been in the
thick of the action since the middle of May. Pete had been at Biggin since
first joining the squadron. ‘Bye, bye, Biggin, after 4 years,’ he scribbled in
his logbook. They were sent north, to Acklington in Northumberland, well
out of the fray now that Luftflotte 5 had all but withdrawn from the day
battle. Pete was greatly relieved. ‘I thought, this is nice,’ says Pete. ‘I am
going to enjoy this.’
But 32 Squadron had escaped from Biggin before the worst of the raids
reached it. The Luftwaffe was still hitting Coastal Command stations, but
more 11 Group airfields were coming under increasing attack. Biggin was
smashed twice on 30 August, when massive damage was done to buildings
and equipment. The workshops, transport yard, stores, barrack stores,
armoury, met office and station office were all rendered useless. Gas and
water supplies were severed as were a number of telephone lines. On top of
that thirty-nine people were killed and a further twenty-six injured. The
next day, the Germans were back, causing further and extensive damage to
hangars and buildings, including the operations block, Officers’ Mess and
Officers’ Married Quarters. The same day, Croydon and Hornchurch were
also heavily attacked. In the fighting, it was Fighter Command’s worst day,
with forty-one aircraft destroyed and nine pilots killed. The Luftwaffe lost
thirty-nine aircraft; for once, more British planes were downed than
German. In one week, Fighter Command had lost sixty-four pilots dead and
a further eighty-one wounded. Six of those had come from 616 Squadron;
Cocky Dundas had been well out of it on 26 August, when two of the pilots
had been killed and four more badly wounded.
It was perhaps not surprising, therefore, if Park was feeling a little
tetchy at times. The sudden increased attacks on fighter airfields since 24