‘Fifty years on’ is a good moment for reappraising, and where appropriate celebrating, any great event. Sufficient time has elapsed for it to be seen in historical perspective; nearly all the preserved documentation is usually available; and there are enough of the participants still alive to furnish detail and informed criticism.
There are two further reasons which apply especially in the case of the Battle of Britain. The first is that the passing years have only confirmed, what was hoped and thought at the time, that the Battle was one of the great turning-points in World War II – a defensive victory which saved the island base and so, once Russia and the United States became involved, made future offensive victories possible. The second reason is that within these fifty years fresh generations have been born to whom much of the story is unfamiliar. There are indeed already many excellent books concerned with the Battle which they might read with profit, but as many of these are personal memoirs, or relate to particular episodes, or are intended mainly for the scholar or aficionado, it seemed to us that there was still a place for a new narrative intended for the general reader.
There are two points of emphasis within the book which may need explanation. The British victory resulted primarily from the fact that when the German threat materialised, there were the means to deal with it. How the RAF managed to survive at all in the 1920s, how an efficient air defence system was created over the years, how modern fighters were developed and brought into service, and how the strength of Fighter Command was painfully built up and preserved amid many competing claims, are therefore a substantial part of our story.
Similarly there is a perhaps unusual concentration within the Battle itself on seven of the sixteen weeks for which it officially lasted. The official duration, decided by the Air Ministry after the war, was based on the operations as seen from the British side and was promulgated primarily to define the limits within which aircrew would qualify for the Battle of Britain clasp. Nothing else would explain the choice of a sheer calendar date, 31 October, as the termination. But it seems to us that in as much as invasion was the proposed next step if the Luftwaffe succeeded, the heart and soul of the Battle was very much the period between the ‘Eagle’ attacks in the second week of August and the closing days of September, by which time Hitler had postponed the invasion indefinitely and the British had sensed the relaxation of his preparations. We have accordingly treated these vital weeks in considerably greater detail than the fighting of July and October.
In the course of our narrative we have made many references to the strength of opposing forces, and to numbers of aircraft participating in an operation or shot down. The reader should not expect any complete exactitude in these figures. Strength is notoriously difficult. Take so apparently simple a matter as a British fighter squadron at some typical and favourable time. In theory, initial equipment sixteen aircraft, immediate reserve held by squadron five aircraft, number of pilots twenty-eight. But the squadron is not expected to put up more than twelve aircraft at a time; and within a few hours, after an operation, half the aircraft may be unserviceable. The immediate reserve may turn out in practice to be only two aircraft: and if at the same time there are only about twenty pilots and several of these are more or less untrained operationally, what then is the strength? All we can say is that we have taken what seem to be the most accurate of the various figures available, and tried to keep the basis of comparison consistent. Combat victories and losses are as determined in the light of post-war research: a note of this appears in Appendix I (Chronology of the Battle). Where claims are mentioned, they are stated as such.
The writing of this book would naturally have been impossible without the generous co-operation of a number of organisations and individuals, and we should like to acknowledge this and thank them warmly for their help. Among them were Dr John Tanner CBE, creator and lately Director of the Royal Air Force Museum, and his staff; Dr Alan Borg, Director of the Imperial War Museum, and his staff; Air Commodore Henry Probert MBE, Head of the Air Historical Branch of the Ministry of Defence, and his staff; Mr Denis Bateman, who assisted us with picture research; the Librarians of Adastral House Library; and the helpful staff of the Public Record Office, Kew.
We owe a very special debt to the Battle of Britain Fighter Association, to its Chairman Air Chief Marshal Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris GCB, DSO, OBE, RAF (Retd), and its Honorary Secretary and Treasurer, Wing Commander N. P. W. Hancock DFC, RAF (Retd). The members of this Association, from all over the world, were liberal in the time and trouble they expended in answering our questions and offering us reminiscences, both in writing and in the course of conversation. Among those who were particularly generous with their time were: Group Captain W. D. David CBE, DFC, AFC, RAF (Retd); Air Vice-Marshal A. D. Deere OBE, DSO, DFC, AFC, RAF (Retd); Sir Hugh Dundas Kt, CBE, DSO, DFC, RAF (Retd); Air Vice-Marshal A. V. Hogan CB, DFC, RAF (Retd); and Air Commodore J. A. Leathart CB, DSO, RAF (Retd).
We are also very grateful to numerous former ground crew and members of the auxiliary services and civil defence organisations who wrote to us about their experiences in response to a letter printed in the Daily Express and the Daily Mirror. Their names, together with those of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association who helped us, are listed in the latter part of this volume. Among those on the ground side who gave us particularly valuable help were Mr W. Eslick, Mr J. R. Hearne, Mrs E. Kup and Mr P. O’Connor.
Finally we should like to thank Mrs Barbara Richards for her help in dealing with these communications, and our editor-publisher, Mr John Curtis, together with the directors and staff of Messrs Hodder and Stoughton, for so harmonious and enjoyable a collaboration.
R.H. and D.R.
February 1989