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

Salmond’s report, he ticked three of the eighteen points, put question marks
by five, and crosses by the other nine. It was precisely the dismissive
reaction Beaverbrook had expected, but now gave him the leverage needed
to ease Dowding from office. Dowding had thought that after Churchill’s
open backing in the summer his position was pretty much impregnable.
This was a big miscalculation, because it was not. Dowding might have
been able to defy Trenchard, Salmond, Douglas et al., but not Beaverbrook.
In the short term, however, Dowding and Park agreed to try and bring
the big wing into play more often. It did not work, largely because of its
fundamental flaw – it simply took too long to assemble. Repeatedly,
Bader’s forces arrived too late. Investigations by the Air Ministry
confirmed the ill-feeling between Park and Leigh-Mallory, which everyone
knew about already. At the end of October, Douglas told Dowding to sort
out the problem once and for all and to make better use of the big wing.
Dowding replied, rebutting the criticism and suggesting that Bader suffered
from ‘an over-development of the critical faculties’, and should be posted
where he could be kept under better control. Bader was not posted, work
continued with Dowding’s night-fighter plan, and Park continued
intercepting the ever-decreasing daytime raids as he saw fit. Thus the
situation was left largely unresolved – for the time being at any rate.
The night bombing continued, but there was no break in British morale.
Olivia Cockett was no longer so apprehensive about the air war – it was not
proving as bad as she had feared. No-one she knew had been killed,
although she knew of a couple of homes that had been destroyed. If
anything, the Blitz – as it was being called – had given her a new feeling of
self-confidence. She realized that if she had the guts to put out an
incendiary, then she could stand up to most things. ‘This has resulted in a
general boldness of thought and action,’ she scribbled, ‘a kind of sparkle on
my usual cheek, which I have been quite surprised (and pleased) about.’
Most people had adjusted amazingly well to finding themselves a nation
under siege. There was no prospect of the war ending, but the terrible peril
of the summer had passed. ‘Life around here proceeds in its quiet way,’
wrote Daidie Penna. ‘Air-raids and the proximity of bombs are still being
taken for granted and even the whacking of a house or two seems to have
done nothing to disturb the Tadworth phlegm.’ Daidie could have been
speaking for much of Britain that Tuesday in October 1940.