PROLOGUE: FIRSTWAY
1. The National Archive [TNA] AIR 41/9.
2. Vincent Orange, Tedder: Quietly in Command, Frank Cass, 2004, p. 242.
3. Ibid., p. 152.
4. TNA AIR 41/9.
5. Susan Ottaway, Dambuster: A Life of Guy Gibson VC, Pen and Sword, 2003, p. 136.
6. Sir Charles Webster and Noble Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, 1939–1945, HMSO, 1961, vol. IV, p. 456.
8. Roger A. Freeman, The Mighty Eighth: A History of the Units, Men and Machines of the US 8th Air Force, Cassell, 2000, p. 2.
9. Picture Post, Saturday 8 October 1938.
10. Men of the RAF, Oxford University Press, 1942, p. 78.
11. John Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, Book Club Associates, 1982, p. 9.
12. Picture Post, 7 October 1939.
13. Ibid., 28 October 1939.
14. Diary of John Thornley, Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex, Diarist No. 5212.
15. Bernard Fergusson, preface to Sir John Kennedy, The Business of War, Hutchinson, 1957, p. xix.
16. Picture Post, 28 October 1939.
1: THE BIG ONE
1. Fred Whitfield, We Sat Alone, Diary of Rear Gunner, unpublished manuscript, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
2. TNA AIR 14/3135.
3. Whitfield, op. cit.
4. Ibid.
5. Imperial War Museum [IWM] Sound Archive 2207.
6. Patrick Otter, Lincolnshire Airfields in the Second World War, Countryside Books, 2002, p. 29.
7. IWM Sound Archive 2207.
8. Wikipedia: ‘Consolidated B-24 Liberator’.
9. IWM Sound Archive 2207.
10. Alan Cooper, Beyond the Dams to the Tirpitz, Goodall Publications, 1991, p. 158.
11. Martin Filler, Hanging Out With Hitler, New York Review of Books, 17 December 2015–13 January 2016.
12. Despina Stratigakos, Hitler At Home, Yale University Press, 2015, p. 81.
13. Willi Frischauer, Goering, Odhams Press, 1951, p. 261.
14. IWM Sound Archive 2207.
15. 9 Squadron Operations Record Book [ORB], 9 Squadron Archive, RAF Marham.
16. IWM Sound Archive 2207.
17. 9 Squadron ORB.
18. Whitfield, op. cit.
19. Emmy Goering, My Life with Goering, David Bruce and Watson, 1972, p. 124.
20. Irmgard Hunt, On Hitler’s Mountain: Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood, William Morrow, 2005, pp. 220–3.
21. Whitfield, op. cit.
2: A COTTAGE OR A CASTLE?
1. Recollections of Group Captain Arnold Wall, RAF Museum, Hendon.
2. Sir John Slessor, The Central Blue: Recollections and Reflections, Cassell, 1956, p. 31.
3. Maurice Dean, The Royal Air Force and Two World Wars, Cassell, 1979, p. 20.
4. Malcolm Smith, British Air Strategy Between the Wars, Oxford, 1984, p. 18.
5. TNA AIR 1/29/15/1/141/3 (3625).
6. TNA T 161/282 (3657).
7. Slessor, op. cit., p. 45.
8. Viscount Portal Archive, Christ Church College, Oxford.
9. Henry Probert, High Commanders of the Royal Air Force, HMSO, 1991, p. 4.
10. Ibid., p. xxi.
11. Smith, op. cit., pp. 23, 43.
12. Ibid., p. 42.
13. Wall, op. cit.
14. By Leo Amery, Under Secretary for the Colonial Office [Wikipedia: Somaliland Campaign 1920].
15. H. Montgomery Hyde, British Air Policy Between the Wars, Heinemann, 1976, p. 230.
16. Sir Philip Joubert de la Ferté, The Third Service, The Story behind the Royal Air Force, Thames & Hudson, 1955, p. 70.
17. Journal of the Royal Air Force College, vol. XV, Spring 1935, no 1.
18. All the following statistics are based on an analysis of data contained in the List of Graduates, The Royal Air Force College Cranwell, February 5 1920–December 18 1962, published by the Old Cranwellian Association.
19. Brian Kingcome, A Willingness to Die, Tempus, 1999, p. 19.
20. Tony Mansell, Flying Start: educational and social factors in the recruitment of pilots of the Royal Air Force in the interwar years, History of Education, 1997, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 71–90.
21. Analysis of List of Graduates.
22. Peter Townsend, Time and Chance, Book Club Associates, 1978, p. 57.
23. Kingcome, op. cit., pp. 34–5.
24. Tim Vigors, Life’s Too Short to Cry, Grub Street, 2006, p. 61.
25. Kingcome, op. cit., p. 24.
26. Journal of the RAF College, vol. XV, Spring 1935, no 1.
27. Townsend, op. cit., p. 110.
28. Kingcome, op. cit., p. 36.
29. Townsend, op. cit., p. 74.
30. Analysis of List of Graduates.
31. John James, The Paladins, a social history of the RAF up to the outbreak of World War II, Macdonald, 1990, p. 106.
32. ‘The RAF of the Future’ by Major C. C. Turner, Journal of the Royal Air Force College, vol. XIV, Spring 1934.
33. John Terraine, The Right of the Line, The Royal Air Force in the European War, 1939–1945, Hodder & Stoughton, 1985, p. 4.
34. James, op. cit., p. 113.
35. Hubert Rawlinson, Chronicles of a Trenchard’s Brat by 565663, unpublished manuscript, RAF Museum, Hendon, B683.
36. James, op. cit., p. 108.
37. Analysis of List of Graduates.
38. Ibid.
39. James, op. cit., p. 113.
40. TNA AIR 32/15. Air Historical Branch Monograph: History of Flying Training, Part II: Organisation.
41. Probert, op. cit., p. 24.
42. Townsend, op. cit., p. 120.
3: SMOKE AND MIRRORS
1. Sir John Slessor, The Central Blue, Cassell, 1956, p. 163.
2. Malcolm Smith, British Air Strategy Between the Wars, Oxford, 1984, p. 336.
3. For a full analysis see Smith, op. cit., pp. 44–75.
4. Ibid., p. 6.
5. The full transcript can be read on www.emersonkent.com
6. Slessor, op. cit., p. 167.
7. Ibid., p. 204.
8. Though information from the air raids on Barcelona in March 1938 was used by the Home Office to try and determine casualty rates in an all-out German air assault. David Edgerton, Britain’s War Machine, Penguin, 2012, p. 36.
9. Chief of Staff, the Diaries of Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Pownall, edited by Brian Bond, Leo Cooper, vol. I, 1933–1940, p. 38.
10. Ibid., p. 49.
11. Ibid., p. 135.
12. The War Narrative of Major General Sir John Kennedy, William Morrow, New York, 1958, p. 7.
13. Ibid.
14. Pownall, op. cit., p. 203.
15. Kennedy, op. cit., p. 36.
16. Ibid., p. 37.
17. Ironside claimed that Hore-Belisha’s limited grasp had led to a crucial misunderstanding when discussing with General Gamelin the time it took to build a ‘pillbox’ strongpoint. The minister thought he said three days when the Frenchman had said three weeks. The resulting controversy ended in Hore-Belisha’s departure from the War Office.
18. See ‘Double Lives – a history of sex and secrecy at Westminster’, Michael Bloch, Guardian, 16 May 2015.
19. TNA AIR 6/39.
20. H. Montgomery Hyde, British Air Policy Between the Wars, Heinemann, 1976, Appendices VII and VIII.
21. Philip Joubert de la Ferté, The Third Service, Thames & Hudson, 1955, p. 126.
22. Montgomery Hyde, op. cit., p. 462.
23. Slessor, op. cit., p. 159.
24. The Times, 19 October 1937.
25. David Irving, The Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe: The Life of Erhard Milch, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973, p. 58.
26. The Times, 20 October 1937.
27. Richard G. Smith, Hornchurch Scramble, Grub Street, 2000, p. 32.
28. Flight, 23 October 1937.
29. Montgomery Hyde, op. cit., p. 395.
30. Slessor, op. cit., p. 158.
31. Montgomery Hyde, op. cit., p. 407.
32. Ibid., p. 418.
33. John Terraine, The Right of the Line, Hodder & Stoughton, 1985, p. 76.
34. Denis Richards and Hilary St George Saunders, The Royal Air Force 1939–1945, vol. I, p. 63.
35. Montgomery Hyde, op. cit., p. 361.
36. TNA AIR 8/226.
37. Ibid.
38. Andrew Boyle, Trenchard, Collins, 1962, p. 710.
4: BRYLCREEM BOYS
1. Eric Partridge, A Concise Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, Routledge, 1989.
2. After the war he had a distinguished career as a psychologist.
3. Richard Passmore, Blenheim Boy, Thomas Harmsworth, 1981, p. 14.
4. TNA AIR 20/8992. The precise figure is 1,201,106.
5. TNA AIR 32/15.
6. Ibid.
7. I am indebted to Dr Tony Mansell for the insights in his paper ‘Flying Start: educational and social factors in the recruitment of the Royal Air Force in the interwar years’, in History of Education, 1997, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 71–90.
8. TNA AIR 32/15.
9. Sir John Slessor, The Central Blue, Cassell, 1956, p. 160.
10. Vincent Orange, Tedder: Quietly in Command, Frank Cass, 2004, p. 36.
11. Ibid.
12. John Terraine, The Right of the Line, Hodder & Stoughton, 1985, p. 43.
13. Peter Townsend, Time and Chance, Book Club Associates, 1978, p. 95.
14. TNA AIR 32/15.
15. Mansell, op. cit., p. 87.
16. TNA AIR 32/15.
17. John Llewellyn Rhys, England Is My Village, Faber & Faber, 1942, pp. 76–7.
18. Ibid., pp. 23–4.
19. Analysis of data from Ken Wynn, Men of the Battle of Britain, Gliddon Books, 1989.
20. TNA AIR 41/9.
21. Colin Cruddas, Those Fabulous Flying Years, Joy Riding and Flying Circuses Between the Wars, Air Britain, 203, p. 52.
22. Ibid., p. 58.
23. Charles Fenwick, Dear Mother, unpublished memoir, p. 4.
24. IWM Images, PST 14624.
25. Len Hayden, unpublished memoirs, RAF Museum, Hendon.
26. IWM Documents 4207.
27. TNA AIR 6/56.
28. TNA AIR 6/41.
29. IWM Sound Archive 008901/16.
30. TNA AIR 6/27.
31. IWM Sound Archive 12217.
32. IWM Sound Archive 10961.
33. Christopher Foxley-Norris, A Lighter Shade of Blue, Ian Allen, 1978, p. 8.
34. Interview with the author.
35. AVM Smyth, Abrupt Sierras, Wilton, 2001, p. 49.
36. Interview with the author.
37. IWM Sound Archive 8901/16.
38. A. W. T. Tedder, With Prejudice: The War Memoirs of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Tedder, Cassell, 1966, p. 5.
39. Bob Doe, Fighter Pilot, Spellmount, 1991, p. 7.
40. Edward Hearn, The Chronicle of a Passer By, unpublished memoir.
41. TNA AIR 6/27.
42. Ibid.
5: ‘THERE’S SOMETHING IN THE AIR’
1. Roger Broad, Conscription in Britain: The Militarisation of a Generation, Routledge, 2006, p. 144. The RAF would remain the most popular choice until late 1942 when it was overtaken by the Navy (see Table VI in H. M. D. Parker, below, for figures).
2. H. M. D. Parker, Manpower: A study of War Time Policy and Administration, HMSO, 1957, Table VI.
3. TNA AIR 20/8992.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Broad, op. cit., p. 146.
7. House of Commons Library, Social and General Statistics SN/SG/4252.
8. F. S. Reed, ‘One Scruffy Erk’, unpublished memoir, RAF Museum, Hendon, X001–2307.
9. ‘Lawson Memorandum’, RAF Air Historical Branch, Northolt, Middlesex.
10. Denis Richards, The Royal Air Force 1939–45, vol. I, The Fight at Odds, HMSO, 1953, p. 229.
11. John Sommerfield, letter to Tom Harrisson, 27 November 1940, Mass Observation Archive [MOA], University of Sussex.
12. TNA AIR 20/8992.
13. IWM Sound Archive 32219.
14. TNA AIR 20/8992.
15. Diary of John Thornley, MOA, Diarist No. 5212.
16. Norman Lee [with Geoffrey French], Lower Crust War, unpublished memoir, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
17. Sam Pritchard, unpublished memoir, RAF Museum, Hendon.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Edward Mace, unpublished memoirs of RAF service, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
21. Lee, op. cit.
22. Letter from John Sommerfield to Tom Harrisson, MOA.
23. John Sommerfield, The Survivors, John Lehmann, 1947, p. 141.
24. MOA, Sussex.
25. Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of RAF Slang, Michael Joseph, 1945, p. 8.
26. 9 Squadron Line Book, RAF Marham.
27. Picture Post, 28 October 1939.
28. James Hampton, Selected for Aircrew, Air Research Publications, 1993, p. 116. He added that, had he done so, he would probably ‘not be here today’.
29. Letters of Edwin Thomas, IWM 67/281/1.
30. Sunday Express, 31 December 1939.
31. S. P. Mackenzie, British War Films, 1939–45, The Cinema and the Services, Hambledon, 2001, pp. 33–4.
32. IWM 67/281/1.
33. TNA AIR 20/8992.
34. John Frayn Turner, The WAAF at War, Pen and Sword, 2011, p. 129.
35. Sylvia Drake-Brockman, Memories of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force 1940–1946, unpublished memoir, RAF Museum, Hendon.
36. Marjorie Hazell, All The Same Buttons, unpublished memoir, RAF Museum, Hendon.
37. Initial WAAF policy was that women would be posted to a base near their homes.
6: ‘TRAGIC, CRIMINALLY TRAGIC’
1. Sir John Slessor, The Central Blue, Cassell, 1956, p. 234.
2. Guy Gibson, Enemy Coast Ahead, Crecy, 2003, p. 30.
3. Peter Johnson, The Withered Garland, Reflections and Doubts of a Bomber, New European Publications, 1995, pp. 132–3.
4. Peter Townsend, Time and Chance, Book Club Associates, 1978, p. 102.
5. Tim Vigors, Life’s Too Short to Cry, Grub Street, 2006, p. 78.
6. John Terraine, The Right of the Line, Hodder & Stoughton, 1985, p. xi.
7. Slessor, op. cit., p. 234.
8. Stephen Bungay, The Most Dangerous Enemy, Aurum Press, 2001, p. 93.
9. TNA AIR 41/4 [RAF Air Historical Branch, Flying Training 1934–42].
10. Mark Barber, RAF Fighter Command Pilot, The Western Front 1939–42, Osprey, 2012, p. 14.
11. TNA AIR 41/4.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Sir Charles Webster and Noble Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, HMSO, 1961, vol. I, p. 112.
16. Ibid., I, p. 205.
17. Ibid., I, pp. 179–80.
18. Jonathan Falconer, Bomber Command Handbook, Sutton Publishing, 1998, p. 41.
19. Hubert R. Allen, British Bombing Policy During the Second World War, Fonthill, 2016, p. 75.
20. TNA AIR 6/39.
21. Webster and Frankland, op. cit., I, p. 116.
22. Terraine, op. cit., p. 88.
23. TNA AIR 6/39.
24. Webster and Frankland, op. cit., IV, pp. 99–102.
25. Slessor, op. cit., pp. 205–6.
26. Denis Richards, Royal Air Force, 1939–45, HMSO, 1953, vol. I, p. 38.
27. Webster and Frankland, op. cit., I, pp. 116–17.
28. Richards, op. cit., p. 38.
29. Eric Banks, The Laughing Boys, unpublished memoir, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
30. Norman Lee, Lower Crust War, unpublished memoir, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
31. Falconer, op. cit., p. 77.
32. Allen, op. cit., p. 77.
33. Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt, The Bomber Command War Diaries, An Operational Reference Book, 1939–1945, Penguin, 1990, p. 12.
34. Daily Telegraph, 9 September 1939.
35. Webster and Frankland, op. cit., I, p. 203.
36. Lord Portal Archive, Christ Church College, Oxford.
37. Lord Portal Archive, Christ Church College, Oxford. AVM William Yool interview with Denis Richards 6/10/72. The anecdote recalls the opening scene in Powell and Pressburger’s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.
38. Lord Portal Archive, Christ Church College, Oxford. AVM Hugh Walmsley interview with Denis Richards.
39. Lord Portal Archive, Christ Church College, Oxford.
40. RAF College Cadet Magazine, vol. 1, April 1921, No. 2.
41. AVM Smyth, Abrupt Sierras, Wilton, 1965, p. 84.
42. IWM Sound Archive 11772.
43. Richards, op. cit., p. 109.
44. Webster and Frankland, op. cit., I, pp. 118–19.
45. Richards, op. cit., p. 110.
46. Ibid., p. 116.
47. Papers of Len Clarke, RAF Museum, Hendon.
48. Richards, op. cit., p. 142.
49. Christopher Foxley-Norris, A Lighter Shade of Blue, Ian Allen, 1978, p. 16.
50. Recollections of Group Captain Arnold Wall, RAF Museum, Hendon.
51. TNA AIR 20/4325.
52. Slessor, op. cit., p. 367.
53. Foxley-Norris, op. cit., p. 16.
7: THE BATTLE
1. Diary of James Barclay, RAF Museum, Hendon.
2. The full despatch is available on www.spitfiresite.com
3. TNA AIR 6/41.
4. TNA AIR 6/70.
5. Barclay, op. cit.
6. Private Papers of Pilot Officer D. H. Wissler, IWM Documents 786.
7. Barclay, op. cit.
8. Ibid.
9. Letters of Denys Mileham, Mileham family archive.
10. War Diary of No. 73 Squadron RAF July 1940–January 1941. IWM Documents 9422.
11. IWM Sound Archive 12217.
12. Letter included in 73 Squadron War Diary, op. cit.
13. George Barclay [edited by Humphrey Wynn], Angels 22: A Self-Portrait of a Fighter Pilot, Arrow, 1977, p. 89.
14. Group Captain R. Deacon Elliot, Unofficial History of 72 Squadron, RAF Museum, Hendon.
15. AIR 16/1032.
16. Cecil Beaton, Winged Squadron, Hutchinson, 1942, p. 6.
17. Paul Richey, Fighter Pilot, Guild, 1990, p. 143.
18. Deacon Elliot, op. cit.
19. Kenneth G. Wynn, Men of the Battle of Britain, Gliddon, 1989.
20. Deacon Elliot, op. cit.
21. Barclay, Angels 22, p. 101.
22. Leng, op. cit.
23. Barclay, Angels 22, p. 103.
24. Beaton, op. cit., p. 6.
25. Mackenzie, op. cit., p. 45.
26. Ibid., p. 38.
8: FIGHTING THE NIGHT
1. Private Papers of Squadron Leader H. E. Bodien DFC, IWM Documents 17660.
2. Denis Richards, Royal Air Force 1939–45, HMSO, 1953, vol. I, p. 201.
3. Ibid., p. 206.
4. AVM Desmond Hughes, Unfinished Memoirs: A personal history, unpublished MS in possession of author.
5. Hughes, op. cit.
6. Richards, op. cit., p. 204.
7. Hughes, op. cit.
8. Bodien, op. cit.
9. John Golley, John ‘Cat’s Eyes’ Cunningham, The Aviation Legend, Airlife, 1999, pp. 34–5.
10. IWM Sound Archive recording 12155.
11. Golley, op. cit., p. 38.
12. Richards, op. cit., p. 215.
13. Golley, op. cit., p. 53.
14. Home Intelligence weekly report 4 October, 1940. Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex.
15. Home Intelligence Report, 11–18 December, 1940. MOA.
16. Civilian Attitudes to the Navy compared with the Army and RAF. MOA.
17. Home Intelligence Report, 11–18 December, 1940. MOA.
18. Brian Kingcome, A Willingness to Die, Tempus, 1999, pp. 14–15.
19. S. P. Mackenzie, British War Films, 1939–45, Hambledon, 2001, p. 39.
20. Winged Words: Our Airmen Speak for Themselves, PRO, 1941, pp. 99–100.
21. Picture Post, 14 September 1940.
22. Home Intelligence Report, 12–19 March, 1941. MOA.
23. Home Intelligence Report, 26 March–2 April, 1941. MOA.
24. Sir Charles Webster and Noble Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, 1939–1945, HMSO, 1961, vol. I, p. 153.
25. Ibid., p. 154.
26. Ibid., p. 157.
27. Dictionary of National Biography, ‘Newall, Cyril Lewis Norton’ by Vincent Orange.
28. Private Papers of E. F. Fry DFM, IWM Documents 15155.
29. Michael Paris, ‘The RAF on Screen’, History Today, vol. 40, issue 8, August 1990.
30. Richards, op. cit., p. 383.
31. Sholto Douglas, Years of Command, Collins, 1966, p. 114.
32. Richards, op. cit., p. 384.
33. Ibid., pp. 384–5.
34. Ibid., p. 385.
35. Donald Caldwell, The JG 26 War Diary, vol. I, 1929–1942, Grub Street, 1996, p. 199.
36. Cuthbert Orde, Pilots of Fighter Command, Harrap, 1942, p. 32.
37. Figures from Maurice Byrne in his review of Anthony Cooper, Paddy Finucane and the Legend of the Kenley Wing, Foothill, 2016, p. 175.
38. Anthony Cooper, Paddy Finucane and the Legend of the Kenley Wing, op. cit., pp. 175–7.
9: TEN MILLION MILES OF SEA
2. John Terraine, The Right of the Line, The Royal Air Force in the European War 1939–1945, Hodder & Stoughton, 1985, p. 226.
3. Andrew Hendrie, The Cinderella Service, RAF Coastal Command 1939–1945, Pen and Sword, 2010, p. 27.
4. Sir Philip Joubert de la Ferté, The Third Service, Thames & Hudson, 1955, p. 132.
5. Tony Spooner, In Full Flight, Wingham Press, 1991, p. 116.
6. Group Captain Guy Bolland, unpublished memoir, RAF Museum, Hendon.
7. See Roy Conyers Nesbit, An Expendable Squadron, The Story of 217 Squadron, Coastal Command, 1939–1945, Pen and Sword, 2014, for a full account.
8. Bolland, op. cit.
9. The Gazette, 13 March 1942.
10. Air Ministry, Coastal Command, HMSO, 1942, pp. 28–9.
11. TNA AIR 2/5995.
12. Spooner, op. cit., p. 156.
13. Coastal Command, HMSO, pp. 28–9.
14. Spooner, op. cit., p. 158.
15. Hendrie, op. cit., p. 208.
16. Denis Richards, Royal Air Force, 1939–45, HMSO, 1953, I, p. 227.
17. Spooner, op. cit., p. 159.
18. Coastal Command, HMSO, p. 66.
19. Terraine, op. cit., p. 230.
20. Coastal Command, HMSO, p. 101.
21. Ibid., p. 101.
22. Joubert, op. cit., p. 155.
23. Webster and Frankland, op. cit., I, p. 327.
24. Ibid., p. 325.
25. Terraine, op. cit., p. 452.
26. Webster and Frankland, op. cit., 1, p. 340.
27. Ibid., pp. 341–3.
28. Stafford Cripps set out the arguments in a general form in a debate in the House of Commons.
29. Terraine, op. cit., p. 402.
30. Ibid., p. 403.
31. Tony Spooner, op. cit., p. 238.
32. Wikipedia, ‘Leigh Light’.
33. Spooner, op. cit., p. 245.
34. Hendry, op. cit., p. 230.
35. Sir John Slessor, The Central Blue, Cassell, 1956, p. 468.
CHAPTER TEN: THE BLUE
1. Sam Pritchard, By the Centre, unpublished memoir, RAF Museum, Hendon.
2. ‘Bobby Gibbes Writes on Fear’ [From ‘You Live But Once’ by Wing Commander Robert H. Gibbes, www.3squadron.org.au].
3. Denis Richards, Royal Air Force, 1939–45, HMSO, 1953, p. 242.
4. John Terraine, The Right of the Line, Hodder & Stoughton, 1985, p. 304.
5. Vincent Orange, ‘Sir Arthur Coningham,’ Dictionary of National Biography.
6. Philip Guedalla, Middle East 1940–1942, A Study in Air Power, Hodder & Stoughton, 1944, p. 83.
7. Terraine, op. cit., p. 313.
8. Guedalla, op. cit., p. 157.
9. Terraine, op. cit., p. 309.
10. Denis Richards and Hilary St George Saunders, Royal Air Force 1939–1945, HMSO, 1954, vol. II, p. 163.
11. Ibid., II, p. 166.
12. A. W. T. Tedder, With Prejudice, The War Memoirs of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Tedder, Cassell, 1966, p. 82.
13. Ibid., p. 95.
14. Ibid., p. 107.
15. Ibid., p. 70.
16. Ibid., p. 93.
17. Ibid., p. 101.
18. Ibid., p. 95.
19. Ibid., p. 105.
20. Ibid., p. 107.
21. Papers of J. Pickering, 1939–45 RAF, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
22. Ibid.
23. Pritchard, op. cit.
24. Pritchard, op. cit.
25. Pritchard, op. cit.
26. Brian Kingcome, A Willingness to Die, Tempus, 1999, p. 145.
27. Papers of Kathleen Bishop.
28. Pritchard, op. cit.
29. Tedder, op. cit., p. 165.
30. Family anecdote.
31. Pritchard, op. cit.
32. See Tedder, op. cit., pp. 176–90 for his account of this episode.
33. Ibid., p. 198.
34. The War Diaries of Neville Duke, 1941–1944, edited by Norman Franks, Grub Street, 1995, p. 32.
35. Pritchard, op. cit.
36. Wing Commander Norman Poole, unpublished memoirs, RAF Museum, Hendon.
37. Diary of W. J. Corbin, 1939–45 RAF, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
38. Pritchard, op. cit.
39. John Frayn Turner, The WAAF at War, Pen and Sword, 2011, pp. 169–70.
40. Corbin, op. cit.
41. Duke, op. cit., p. 45.
42. Tedder, op. cit., p. 200.
43. Pritchard, op. cit.
11: ‘EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY …’
1. TNA AIR 2/5995. Maudling would go on to become a Conservative politician, serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1962–4. He volunteered for the RAF at the start of the war but was rejected for flying duties because of poor eyesight and served in intelligence before going to work for Sinclair.
2. TNA AIR 2/5995. Sir Harold Whittingham, Director General of Medical Services RAF to Sir Bertine Sutton, 27 December 1943 (3759).
3. All references to correspondence on the controversy are from AIR 2/5995 ‘Control of Venereal Diseases in the RAF – Proposed Defence Regulations’ unless end note number indicates otherwise.
4. Mark K. Wells, Courage in Air Warfare, Cass, 1995, p. 127.
5. Ibid.
6. TNA AIR 20/2860.
7. David Edgerton, Britain’s War Machine, Penguin, 2012, pp. 202–3.
8. Ibid., p. 364.
9. Ibid., p. 199.
10. Sir Arthur Harris, Bomber Offensive, Pen and Sword, 2005, p. 98.
11. Denis Richards, Royal Air Force 1939–1945, HMSO, 1953, p. 229.
12. Sir Charles Webster and Noble Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, HMSO, 1961, vol. IV, Appendix 44.
13. Edgerton, op. cit., p. 285.
14. Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt, The Bomber Command War Diaries, An Operational Reference Book, 1939–1945, Penguin, 1985, p. 272.
15. YouTube, ‘On The Chin’, 1942.
16. Patrick Bishop, Bomber Boys: Fighting Back 1940–45, Harper Press, 2007, p. 100.
17. YouTube, British Movietone News, ‘Gigantic 1,000 Bomber Raid’, 1942.
18. Philip M. Taylor, Munitions of the Mind, A History of Propaganda from the Ancient World to the Present Day, Manchester University Press, 1990, p. 233.
19. Bishop, op. cit., p. 72.
20. Eric Banks, The Laughing Boys, unpublished memoir, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
21. Wells, op. cit., p. 126.
22. TNA AIR 2/5995.
23. Norman Lee and Geoffrey French, The Lower Crust War, unpublished memoir, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
24. Harris, op. cit., p. 267.
25. Diary of Flight Lieutenant Les Bartlett, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
26. Middlebrook and Everitt, op. cit., p. 448.
27. TNA AIR 8/730 5777.
28. Bartlett, op. cit.
29. See my Bomber Boys, pp. 247–55 for a full discussion of the subject.
30. TNA AIR 18/15 et al.
12: ‘BRITAIN’S BEST ADVERTISEMENT’
1. TNA AIR 41/9 RAF Air Historical Branch, ‘Propaganda and Publicity’.
2. See Malcolm Smith’s verdict in History, vol. 82, no. 267 (July 1997), pp. 540–41.
3. Edward Mace, unpublished memoirs, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
4. Susan Ottaway, Dambuster: A Life of Guy Gibson VC, Pen and Sword, 2003, p. 95.
5. Ibid., p. 130.
6. Dahl’s story The Gremlins based on the RAF name for mythical creatures blamed for mechanical glitches on aircraft was bought and developed by Disney though no film appeared.
7. Richard Morris, with Colin Dobinson, Guy Gibson, Viking, 1994, pp. 207–8.
8. Ibid., p. 210.
9. Ibid., pp. 284–5.
10. Smith, op. cit.
11. Hugh Verity, We Landed by Moonlight, Air Data Publications, 1995, p. 13.
12. Adrian Orchard, Group Captain Percy Charles ‘Pick’ Pickard www.oldframlinghamian.com
13. Verity, op. cit., p. 13.
14. IWM Sound Archive 8901.
15. Orchard, op. cit.
16. Patterson, op. cit.
17. The Times, 19 February 1945.
18. Pathé News, ‘The Jailbreakers’, www.youtube.com
19. Roger Broad, Conscription in Britain 1939–1963: The Militarisation of a Generation, Routledge, 2006, p. 50.
20. Hilary St George Saunders, Royal Air Force, 1939–45, HMSO, 1954, vol. III, p. 370.
21. Andrew Hendrie, The Cinderella Service, Pen and Sword, 2010, p. 129.
22. Ottaway, op. cit., p. 95.
23. Norman Lee and Geoffrey French, The Lower Crust War, unpublished memoir, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
24. Patterson, op. cit.
25. Wing Commander Norman Poole, unpublished memoir, RAF Museum, Hendon.
26. Roderic Papineau report to Tom Harrisson, 18 June 1941, Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex.
27. Hayden, op. cit.
28. TNA AIR 20/6211.
29. Sir Charles Webster and Noble Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, 1939–1945, HMSO, 1961, vol. IV, Appendix 41.
30. Roderic Papineau, MOA, University of Sussex.
31. John Sommerfield, The Survivors, John Lehmann, 1947, p. 76.
32. G. M. Partlett, Memories of the WAAF 1942–1946, unpublished memoir, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
33. RAF Manual of Cooking and Dietary, April 1942, in Partlett file, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
34. Morfydd Brooks, Letter to Dr Peter Liddle, 30.05.1997, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
35. Diaries of Betty Bullard, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
36. Sylvia Drake-Brockman, Memories of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, 1940–1946, unpublished memoir, RAF Museum, Hendon.
37. TNA AIR 20/4583.
38. Brian Kingcome, A Willingness to Die, Tempus, 1999, p. 149.
39. Mrs Sylvia Watts, letters and memorabilia, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
40. Morfydd Rose, op. cit.
41. RAF Museum online exhibition, ‘Pilots of the Caribbean’, www.rafmuseum.org.uk
42. www.caribbeanaircrew-ww2.com
43. RAF Museum online exhibition.
44. Kurt Burling, ‘Flyers of the Caribbean,’ 13 November 2014, BBC London Online.
45. RAF Museum online exhibition.
46. Ibid.
13: OUT OF SIGHT
1. Diaries of Wing Commander L. B. Ercolani, IWM Documents 15352.
2. Obituary, ‘Wing Commander Lucian Ercolani’, Daily Telegraph, 7 April 2010.
3. Brian Bond and Kyoichi Tachikawa, British and Japanese Leadership in the Far Eastern War, Frank Cass, 2004, pp. 124–6.
4. www.aircrewremembered.com. Woodbridge was later honoured with the award of the George Cross. Two of his executioners were tried for war crimes and hanged in Rangoon in 1947.
5. F. Dane, unpublished memoir, IWM Documents 18824.
6. A. B. Sammons, ‘Experiences as a Jap Prisoner of War’, IWM Documents 2525.
7. Dane, op. cit.
8. His comeback would be hampered somewhat by his affair with Lady [Jessie] Auchinleck, wife of Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck, the Army commander in India.
9. Hilary St George Saunders, Royal Air Force, 1939–45, HMSO, 1954, vol. III, p. 310.
10. Ibid.
11. Ercolani, op. cit.
12. Battle of Imphal, Wikipedia.
13. Dane, op. cit.
14. Sammons, op. cit.
14: BLACK AND WHITE
1. Letters of Flight Lieutenant John Rolfe, RAF Museum, Hendon.
2. John Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, Book Club Associates, 1982, pp. 14–15.
3. Diary of Flight Lieutenant Stanley Bruce de Vere, IWM Documents 17213.
4. Ken ‘Paddy’ French, My Early Life, unpublished memoir, RAF Museum, Hendon.
5. Carlo D’Este, Decision in Normandy, Collins, 1983, Appendix A.
6. Vincent Orange, Tedder: Quietly in Command, Frank Cass, 2004, p. 218.
7. Hilary St George Saunders, Royal Air Force, 1939–45, HMSO, 1954, vol. III, p. 89.
8. French, op. cit.
9. Geoffrey Page, Shot Down in Flames, Grub Street, 1999, p. 134.
10. St George Saunders, op. cit., p. 95.
11. Vincent Orange, op. cit., p. 233.
12. St George Saunders, op. cit., p. 115.
13. Private Papers of H. E. Clift, IWM Documents 12270.
14. Page, op. cit., p. 116.
15. Pierre Clostermann, The Big Show, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004, p. 171.
16. D’Este, op. cit., Appendix B.
17. YouTube, British Movietone News ‘The RAF’s Airborne Artillery’.
18. St George Saunders, op. cit., p. 123.
19. D’Este, op. cit., pp. 225–8.
20. The Bombing of Normandy, Wikipedia.
21. St George Saunders, op. cit., p. 136.
22. De Vere, op. cit.
23. St George Saunders, op. cit., p. 136.
24. Clift, op. cit.
25. Page, op. cit., p. 149.
26. Ibid., p. 150.
27. De Vere, op. cit.
15: THE HYACINTHS OF SPRING
1. Ken ‘Paddy’ French, My Early Life, unpublished memoir, RAF Museum, Hendon.
2. Letters of Flight Lieutenant John Rolfe, RAF Museum, Hendon.
3. Diary of Flight Lieutenant Stanley Bruce de Vere, Diaries, IWM Documents 17213.
4. Ibid.
5. Sebastian Ritchie, Arnhem, Myth and Reality: Airborne Warfare, Air Power and the Failure of Operation Market Garden, Robert Hale, 2011, p. 90.
6. Operation Market Garden, Wikipedia.
7. Ritchie, op. cit., p. 12.
8. Sergeant Arthur Rigby, War Time Log, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
9. Ritchie, op. cit., p. 16.
10. Ibid., p. 257.
11. De Vere, op. cit.
12. Hilary St George Saunders, Royal Air Force 1939–45, HMSO, 1954, vol. III, p. 208.
13. Kelso Robinson, unpublished memoir, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
14. Middlebrook and Everitt, op. cit., p. 685.
15. Rolfe, op. cit.
16. Private Papers of H. E. Clift, IWM Documents 12270.
17. Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex.
18. The Forces Vote: A Mass Observation Report, 19 July, 1944. MOA, University of Sussex.
19. John Sommerfield, The Survivors, John Lehmann, 1947, pp. 27–30.
20. G. M. Partlett, Memories of the WAAF 1942–1946, unpublished memoir, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
21. Clift, op. cit.
EPILOGUE: BROTHERS AND SISTERS
1. Hilary St George Saunders, Royal Air Force 1939–45, HMSO, 1954, vol. III, p. 371.
2. Eric Banks, The Laughing Boys, unpublished memoir, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
3. TNA AIR 23/1986.
4. Eyewitness recollections of the airmen’s strike at Mauripur, Karachi, in 1946 by ex LAC T. J. Adams, RAF Museum, Hendon.
5. An AC2, N. H. Cymbalist was imprisoned for ten years for promoting a strike at Base Headquarters, Singapore, but, after a few months, the sentence was quashed.
6. TNA AIR 57/2.
7. Ibid.
8. Sir Charles Webster and Noble Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, 1939–1945, HMSO, 1961, vol. III, p. 310.
9. Kelso Robinson, unpublished memoir, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
10. Denis Richards, Portal of Hungerford, Heinemann, 1977, p. 204.
11. Harris was said to have been passed over for a peerage at the end of the war but maintained he had never wanted one. Churchill offered to ennoble him in 1951 but he declined, accepting instead a baronetcy.
12. Diaries of Betty Bullard, Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
13. Sylvia Drake-Brockman, Memories of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, 1940–1946, unpublished memoir, RAF Museum, Hendon.
14. F. Dane, unpublished memoir, IWM Documents, 18824.
15. Robinson, op. cit.
16. TNA AIR 20/6211. The figures are as of 31 May 1947. Another 117 from all categories are listed as missing.