The Battle of Britain (12 page)

26
PRO AIR 9/447, Air Ministry, Plans Division: draft directive to Air Officer Commanding in Ireland, 24 June 1940; ‘Minute from Director of Plans’, 2 June 1940.

27
W. Green,
Warplanes of the Third Reich
(London, 1970), p. 544.

28
The Rise and Fall of the German Air Force, 1933
–
1945
(London, 1983, reprinted from AHB narrative, 1948), pp. 75–6.

29
Pre-war planning in National Archives, microcopy T177, roll 31, ‘Nachschubzahlen für Luftfahrtgerät’, 1 April 1938 (which estimated output of 1,753 per month on mobilization). Plans 15 and 16 in ΒΑ-MA, RL3 159, Lieferprogramm Nr 15,1 September 1939, and Flugzeug-Beschaffungs-Programm Nr 16, 28 October 1939. The 1940 plan in ΒΑ-MA, RL3162, Lieferplan Nr 18,1 July 1940.

30
British figure from PRO AIR 22/293, ‘Statistics: Aircraft Production, Imports and Exports, Schedule B’ (production from 1 June to 30 September).

31
D. Irving,
The Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe: The Life of Erhard Milch
(London, 1973), p. 136.

32
PRO AIR 16/635, HQ 11 Group to HQ Fighter Command, 7 November 1940, ‘German Attacks on England 11 September–31 October 1940’, pp. 6–9.

33
Murray,
Luftwaffe,
pp. 54–5; Webster and Frankland,
Strategic Air Offensive,
vol. 4, p. 501.

34
PRO AIR 22/72, Air Ministry weekly intelligence summary, 8 August 1940, p. 3.

35
PRO AIR 22/72, weekly summary, 15 August 1940, p. 4.

36
AHB, ‘Battle of Britain’ narrative, Appendix 37, ‘German Views on the Battle of Britain’, p. 1 (based on interviews with Field Marshal Erhard Milch and General Adolf Galland).

37
H. Trevor-Roper (ed.),
Hitler’s War Directives 1939
–
1945
(London, 1966), pp. 74–9, Directive 16,16 July 1940; pp. 79–80, Directive 17, 1 August 1940. AHB, ‘The Course of the Air War against England’, translation of German AHB study, 7 July 1944, pp. 1–2.

38
PRO AIR 40/2444, O. Bechtle lecture, ‘German Air Force Operations against Great Britain, Tactics and Lessons Learned 1940–1941’, 2 February 1944, pp. 2–4.

39
E. Fröhlich (ed.),
Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels: Sämtliche Fragemente
(4 vols, Munich, 1987), vol. 3, pp. 264, 270, 271.

40
Goebbels,
Tagebücher,
p. 277.

1
PRO AIR 40/2444, Bechtle lecture, pp. 7–8.

2
AHB, Dowding ‘Despatch’, p. 5.

3
PRO AIR 22/478, RAF Wireless Intelligence Service, daily summary, 13 August 1940. See too AIR 22/72, Air Ministry weekly intelligence summary, 15 August 1940, p. 1 – activity was ‘much higher than had been normal’.

4
PRO AIR 16/432, report on enemy activity over Great Britain, 27/28 June 1940.

5
C. Goulter,
A Forgotten Offensive: Royal Air Force Coastal Command’s Anti-Shipping Campaign 1940
–
1943
(London, 1995), pp. 111–22.

6
PRO AIR 9/447, Air Ministry, Director of Plans, memorandum, ‘Employment of the Air Striking Force’, 8 July 1940.

7
Webster and Frankland,
Strategic Air Offensive,
vol. 4, pp. 118 – 24.

8
PRO AIR 22/296, ‘Casualties, Strength and Establishment of the RAF’. In mid-August the deficiency of bomber pilots reached a peak of 219; the highest deficiency of fighter pilots was 181 on 24 August.

9
PRO AIR 16/432, Home Security intelligence summary, 31 July/1 August.

10
PRO AIR 16/216, HQ 11 Group to all Group controllers, 19 August 1940.

11
AHB, ‘Course of the Air War…’, p. 2;
FCNA,
p. 128, OKW directive, 16 August 1940.

12
AHB, ‘Battle of Britain’ narrative, Appendix 8 III, ‘Table of Chief Attacks on Airfields and RDF Stations’, pp. 1–9.

13
AHB, ‘Battle of Britain’ narrative, Appendix 34 II, ‘Fighter Command Aircraft Destroyed or Damaged on the Ground’.

14
This paragraph and following account in PRO AIR 16/635, ‘Notes of Damage and Repairs at Certain Fighter Aerodromes’, 21 September 1940.

15
PRO AIR 16/216: HQ 11 Group to all Group controllers, 19 August 1940; telegram from 11 Group HQ to all airfields, 20 August 1940.

16
AHB, ‘Battle of Britain’ narrative, Appendix 8 III.

17
Jacobsen (ed.),
Kriegstagebuch,
vol. 2, p. 81, entry for 30 August 1940;
Rise and Fall,
p. 85.

18
PRO AIR 22/293, Schedule E, ‘Number of Aircraft in Storage Units’; PREM 3/29 (3), summarized order of battle, 6 September 1940; AIR 16/635, Fighter Command HQ, operational strength, 1 September 1940.

19
PRO AIR 22/262, ‘Daily Return of Casualties to RAF Aircraft’, 25 June–29 September 1940.

20
Rise and Fall,
pp. 82–3; see too O. Groehler,
Geschichte des Luftkriegs
(Berlin, 1981), p. 272, for figures on aggregate German losses.

21
AHB, Dowding ‘Despatch’, pp. 21–4.

22
J. Colville,
The Fringes of Power: 10 Downing Street Diaries 1939
–
1945
(London, 1985), p. 227, entry for 20 August 1940. Colville confessed in a footnote that he did not even notice the sentence when he sat listening to the speech. The invention of the remark can be found in J. Winant,
A Letter from Grosvenor Square: An Account of a Stewardship
(London, 1947), pp. 29–30.

23
Gilbert,
Churchill War Papers,
pp. 693–4, speech to the House of Commons, 20 August 1940.

24
Cowles,
Looking for Trouble,
pp. 424–6.

25
N. Nicolson (ed.),
Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters 1939
–
1945
(London, 1967), p. 111, entry for 7 September 1940.

26
PRO AIR 8/315, Chief of the Air Staff, ‘Analysis of the G. A. F. Personnel Losses, July–October 1940’; AIR 22/72, Air Ministry weekly intelligence summary, report for 12 September 1940, p. 3; A. Galland,
The First and the Last
(London, 1955), p. 34.

27
AHB, Dowding ‘Despatch’, p. 20.

28
AHB, Dowding ‘Despatch’, p. 24; PRO T265/19, Treasury Inter-Service Committee, meeting of 3 October 1940 for final decision; AIR 16/635, HQ 11 Group to HQ Fighter Command, 7 November 1940, ‘German Attacks on England 11 September-31 October’, p. 14.

29
PRO AIR 16/635, HQ 11 Group to HQ Fighter Command, 12 September 1940, pp. 6–7; Dowding to Air Ministry, 22 September 1940, ‘German Attacks on England 8 August–10 September’, pp. 1–2. See too AHB, Dowding ‘Despatch’, pp. 18–19.

30
IWM, EDS documents, AL 1492, OKW Aktennotiz, 20 August 1940.

31
PRO AIR 40/2444, Bechtle lecture, p. 4; K. Maier, ‘Die Luftschlacht um England’, in
Das deutsche Reich und der zweite
Weltkrieg,
vol. 2 (Stuttgart, 1979), p. 386. See too J. Ray,
The Night Blitz 1940
–
1941
(London, 1996), pp. 97–102.

32
Jacobsen (ed.),
Kriegstagebuch,
p. 100, entry for 14 September 1940.

33
Goebbels,
Tagebücher,
p. 313.

34
PRO AIR 9/447: COS meeting, ‘Bombardment Policy’, June 1940; Air Ministry, Director of Plans, memorandum, 8 July 1940.

35
PRO AIR 40/2444, Bechtle lecture, p. 5; AIR 22/72, Air Ministry weekly intelligence summaries, 8 August, 12 September 1940.

36
PRO AIR 16/635, HQ 11 Group to HQ Fighter Command, 12 September 1940, p. 5.

37
Goebbels,
Tagebücher,
p. 315, entry for 9 September 1940.

38
Shirer,
Berlin Diary,
pp. 381, 384.

39
Goebbels,
Tagebücher,
p. 296, entry for 27 August 1940; Shirer,
Berlin Diary,
p. 384.

40
Maier, ‘Luftschlacht’, p. 405.

41
PRO AIR 16/432, Home Security intelligence summaries, reports of operations, 24/25 August, 25/26 August, 28/29 August.

42
PRO AIR 16/635: HQ 11 Group to HQ Fighter Command, 7 November 1940, pp. 1–5; HQ 11 Group to HQ Fighter Command, 12 September 1940, pp. 4–6; AHB, Dowding ‘Despatch’, pp. 11–12.

43
PRO AIR 16/635, HQ 11 Group to HQ Fighter Command, 7 November 1940, pp. 3–4,12.

44
Bekker,
Luftwaffe Diaries,
p. 226; Collier,
Defence of the United Kingdom,
pp. 244 – 5.

45
FCNA,
pp. 133–5, ‘Conference with the Führer’, 6 September 1940; p. 136, Naval Staff memorandum, 10 September 1940. Maier, ‘Luftschlacht’, pp. 386–7.

46
Jacobsen (ed.),
Kriegstagebuch,
vol. 2, pp. 98–9, entry for 14 September 1940.

47
FCNA,
pp. 136–9: ‘Conference with the Führer’, 14 September 1940; OKW directive, 19 September 1940; OKW directive, 12 October 1940. Jacobsen (ed.),
Kriegstagebuch,
vol. 2, p. 99.

48
FCNA,
p. 137, memorandum from Admiral Raeder, 14 September 1940; Jacobsen (ed.),
Kriegstagebuch,
vol. 2, p. 100; Maier, ‘Luftschlacht’, pp. 390–91.

49
L. E. O. Charlton,
War over England
(London, 1936), pp. 158–81.

50
PRO INF 1/264, Home Intelligence daily reports, 27 June 1940.

51
PRO INF 1/264, reports for 28 June, 6 September 1940.

52
PRO INF 1/264, report for 23 August 1940.

53
J. Langdon-Davies,
Nerves versus Nazis
(London, 1940), pp. 7, 14, 17–18.

54
PRO INF 1/264, Home Intelligence daily reports, 6 September 1940.

55
PRO INF 1/264, reports for 9,10 September 1940.

56
G. Orwell, ‘War-time Diary: 1940’, entry for 25 October 1940, in
The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters
(4 vols, London, 1968), vol. 2, pp. 427–8.

57
PRO INF 1/292 Part I, Home Intelligence weekly reports, report for 30 September–9 October, p. 1.

58
Hinsley,
British Intelligence,
vol. 1, pp. 172–3,184–5.

59
PRO AIR 16/356: Air Ministry to Dowding, 1 August, 27 August 1940; cypher messages, Fighter Command, 7 September, 22 September, 24 September, 13 October, 25 October.

60
PRO INF 1/283, Ministry of Information newsletter, ‘Questions the Public Are Asking’, 23 September, 9 October; Cowles,
Looking for Trouble,
p. 446.

61
Orwell, ‘War-time Diary: 1940’, p. 394·

62
PRO INF 1/292 Part I, Home Intelligence weekly report, 4 November–11 November 1940, pp. 1–2; INF 1/849, Ministry of Information Policy Committee, meeting of 4 June 1940, p. 1.

63
AHB, Dowding ‘Despatch’, Appendix C.

64
AHB, ‘Course of the Air War’, p. 3.

65
PRO AIR 22/263, ‘Daily Returns of Casualties to RAF Aircraft’, 29 September 1940–31 January 1941; AIR 16/635, HQ 11 Group to HQ Fighter Command, 7 November 1940, ‘German Attacks on England 11 September–31 October 1940’, pp. 6–12; German figures in Groehler,
Geschichte des Luftkriegs,
p. 272.

66
Maier, ‘Luftschlacht’, p. 392; Groehler,
Geschichte des Luftkriegs,
p. 270.

67
Goebbels,
Tagebücher:
p. 429, entry for 12 December 1940; p. 410, entry for 24 November; p. 420, entry for 5 December 1940.

1
H. Nicolson,
Diaries and Letters,
p. 126, letter from Nicolson to Vita Sackville-West, 8 November 1940.

2
Colville,
Fringes of Power,
p. 266.

3
Nicolson,
Diaries and Letters,
p. 129, diary 22 November 1940.

4
PRO AIR 22/72, Air Ministry weekly intelligence summary, 19 September 1940, pp. 4–5.

5
Nicolson,
Diaries and Letters,
p. 140, diary 23 January 1941.

6
PRO PREM 3/88 (3): Churchill to Ismay, 26 December 1940; cypher message from Mr O’Malley, Budapest, 4 February 1941; Portal (CAS) to Churchill, 13 February 1940.

7
PRO AIR 8/463, Portal to Churchill, 18 February 1941,20 March 1941.

8
PRO AIR 9/136, Air Ministry memorandum, ‘Bomber and Fighter Efforts Available to Counter Attempted Invasion’, 5 March 1941;
FCNA,
p. 172, ‘Conference with the Führer’, 8/9 January 1941.

9
G. Blumentritt, ‘Operation “Sealion” ’, in D. Detweiler (ed.),
World War II German Military Studies
(24 vols, New York, 1979), vol. 7, pp. 10–11.

10
H. Greiner, ‘Operation Seelöwe and Intensified Air Warfare against England up to October 30 1940’, in Detweiler,
German Military Studies,
vol. 7, p. 10.

11
Goebbels,
Tagebücher,
p. 429, entry for 12 December 1940.

12
FCNA,
p. 172, ‘Conference with the Führer’, 8/9 January 1941.

13
Galland,
First and Last,
p. 45.

14
PRO AIR 16/635, Dowding to Air Ministry, 15 November 1940, p. 2.

15
PRO PREM 3/29 (3), summarized order of battle, 31 October 1940.

16
Murray,
Luftwaffe,
p. 54.

17
PRO AIR 22/72, Air Ministry weekly intelligence summary, 26 September 1940; AIR 8/315, CAS, ‘Analysis of GAF Personnel Losses’, July–October 1940.

18
PRO 8/315, War Cabinet to CAS, 29 August 1940.

19
Maier, ‘Luftschlacht’, p. 391; PRO AIR 16/365, Fighter Command operational strength, 19 September 1940.

20
Library of Congress, Washington DC, Arnold Papers, Box 246: Chief of Intelligence memorandum, ‘Estimate of German Air Strength’, 21 January 1941, enclosing G2 report, ‘Germany,
Domestic Production, Capacity and Sources of Aviation Equipment’, 16 January 1941, pp. 1–9. PRO AIR 8/463: CAS memorandum, ‘Strength of the GAF’, 8 July 1940; ‘Present and Future Strength of the German Air Force’, 1 December 1940, pp. 1–3.