T o D e f e at t h e F e w GGNNMM--LLAAYYOOUUTT..TToo DDeeffeeaatt tthhee FFeeww..vv2200..iinndddd 11 2200//0011//22002200 1100::2266 Douglas C. Dildy and Paul F. Crickmore DEDICATION To D This book is dedicated to the life and the memory of e f e at Annette M. ‘Annie’ Dildy – September 14, 1956 to June 21, 2018 The Light, Love, and Inspiration of My Life – DCD the Few The Luftwaffe’s campaign to destroy RAF Fighter Command, August–September 1940 GGNNMM--LLAAYYOOUUTT..TToo DDeeffeeaatt tthhee FFeeww..vv2200..iinndddd 22 2200//0011//22002200 1100::2266 Douglas C. Dildy and Paul F. Crickmore DEDICATION To D This book is dedicated to the life and the memory of e f e at Annette M. ‘Annie’ Dildy – September 14, 1956 to June 21, 2018 The Light, Love, and Inspiration of My Life – DCD the Few The Luftwaffe’s campaign to destroy RAF Fighter Command, August–September 1940 GGNNMM--LLAAYYOOUUTT..TToo DDeeffeeaatt tthhee FFeeww..vv2200..iinndddd 33 2200//0011//22002200 1100::2266 OSPREY PUBLISHING Bloomsbury Publishing Plc PO Box 883, Oxford, OX1 9PL, UK 1385 Broadway, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10018, USA E-mail: [email protected] www.ospreypublishing.com OSPREY is a trademark of Osprey Publishing Ltd First published in Great Britain in 2020 This electronic edition published in 2020 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc © Douglas C. Dildy & Paul F. Crickmore, 2020 Douglas Dildy and Paul Crickmore have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Authors of this work. For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on pages 7 and 8 constitute an extension of this copyright page. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB 9781472839183; PB 9781472839190; eBook 9781472839176; ePDF 9781472839152; XML 9781472839169 Maps by bounford.com Diagrams by Adam Tooby Index by Angela Hall Front cover: Dornier Do 17Zs from II./KG 3. (Author Collection) Title page: Four-ship formation from 6./JG 27. (Andy Saunders, colourized by Richard Molloy) All images marked ‘Author Collection’ are from the collection of Douglas C. Dildy, with the exception of the image on p.138 (top), which is from the collection of Paul F. Crickmore. Osprey Publishing supports the Woodland Trust, the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity. To find out more about our authors and books visit www.ospreypublishing.com. Here you will find extracts, author interviews, details of forthcoming events and the option to sign up for our newsletter. GGNNMM--LLAAYYOOUUTT..TToo DDeeffeeaatt tthhee FFeeww..vv2200..iinndddd 44 2200//0011//22002200 1100::2266 C O N T E N T S Acknowledgements 7 Foreword by Paul E. Eden 9 Prologue 11 CHAPTER I Westfeldzug: Why the Battle of Britain occurred • 17 CHAPTER II Fall Gelb: Prologue to the Battle of Britain • 39 CHAPTER III Dunkirk: Triumph without victory • 59 CHAPTER IV ‘Was nun?’: Hitler’s strategic options, July 1940 • 85 CHAPTER V The Luftwaffe’s Capabilities: Germany’s only real means to defeat Great Britain • 101 CHAPTER VI The Luftwaffe’s Opponent: RAF Fighter Command • 121 CHAPTER VII Kanalkampf (Channel Battle): The Luftwaffe’s maritime air campaign • 151 GGNNMM--LLAAYYOOUUTT..TToo DDeeffeeaatt tthhee FFeeww..vv2200..iinndddd 55 2200//0011//22002200 1100::2266 6 CHAPTER VIII Seelöwe (Sealion): Hitler’s plan to invade Britain • 175 CHAPTER IX Adlerangriff Stage 1: 12–16 August 1940 • 201 CHAPTER X Adlerangriff Stage 2: 17–19 August 1940 • 233 CHAPTER XI Adlerangriff Stage 3: 24 August to 6 September 1940 • 253 CHAPTER XII Adlerangriff Stage 4: 7–17 September 1940 • 287 CHAPTER XIII Defeat Dies Slowly: 17 September through 31 October 1940 • 325 CHAPTER XIV Analysis: Assessing the Battle of Britain from the Luftwaffe’s perspective • 347 Appendices 356 Glossary 365 Bibliography 367 Endnotes 370 Index 379 GGNNMM--LLAAYYOOUUTT..TToo DDeeffeeaatt tthhee FFeeww..vv2200..iinndddd 66 2200//0011//22002200 1100::2266 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Eighty years on from that fateful summer of 1940, none but a handful of those brave young pilots remain with us; their memories and nightmares of the life-or- death battles they faced are now diminished with the passage of time. For our research, the authors of this book were therefore reliant on a variety of other sources. The plethora of books written on the subject was certainly one useful stream – as a review of endnotes and bibliography will testify. The quality and reliability of this source varied however, the work of some authors being particularly noteworthy. We’d therefore like to acknowledge the deep and detailed research conducted by Walter Ansel, Christer Bergström, Donald Caldwell, Peter Cornwell, Eddie Creek, Brian Cull, Chris Goss, F.H. Hinsley, E.R. Hooten, T.C.G. James, Eric Mombeek, Andy Saunders, Richard Smith, Douglas Stankey, Telford Taylor, John Vasco, and Henry de Zeng. Of particular note is the benchmark research that underpins books written by the late Dr Alfred Price and Kenneth Wakefield – both of them are true inspirations to anyone interested in reading about or researching the Battle of Britain. Primary sources were vital and always preferable and for this we were dependent upon the thousands of official records and documents that were written at the time, or shortly thereafter. The majority of these now reside in archives both sides of the Atlantic. As these were essential in identifying and accessing material relevant to our study, we were hugely dependent on the help of some truly gifted and patient archivists. We’d therefore like to thank Sebastian Cox and Stuart Hadaway at the RAF Air Historical Branch, Nina Hadaway at the RAF Museum, Hendon, and Tammy Horton and Sylvester Jackson of the US Air Force Historical Research Agency, for their generous and diligent assistance in ‘getting to the bottom’ of numerous undiscovered/unreported aspects of – or previously erroneously reported ‘facts’ about – the Battle of Britain. Illustrating events leading up to and including the tactical element of the battle required powerful, evocative photographs that would engage the reader and which, ideally, had been rarely seen before. In this endeavour we had the good fortune to work with the best photographic archivists specializing in the subject. We’re therefore forever deeply indebted to Lee Barton at the RAF Air Historical Branch (AHB), Brett Stolle at the National Museum of the United States Air Force GGNNMM--LLAAYYOOUUTT..TToo DDeeffeeaatt tthhee FFeeww..vv2200..iinndddd 77 2200//0011//22002200 1100::2266 8 TO DEFEAT THE FEW (NMUSAF), and Gina McNeely, professional photographic researcher who obtained many relevant images from the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Gratefully, we were also provided access to the abundant private image collections of Daniel Brackx, Chris Goss, Thomas Laemlein, Ryan Noppen, Jean-Louis Roba, Andy Saunders and Clive Ellis. Controversially – particularly in the case of ‘photographic purists’ – we decided to supplement several original coloured photographs with digitally colourized images; working with some of the best in the business; we’d therefore like to salute the work of Richard Molloy, Adam Tooby and Gherman Mihaly. Others who have generously given us their time and support are Phil Dawe and Ray Ballard, who provided us with fascinating and detailed tours of RAF Northolt’s Sector Operations Room and No. 11 Group’s Operations Room at RAF Uxbridge. Through these tours and subsequent discussions, we learned how the oft-described ‘Dowding System’ really worked. Darren Priday and John Warburton gave us a wonderful insight into their important work at the Michael Beetham Conservation Centre, RAF Cosford; while Jason Banner painstakingly searched through the memoirs of Air Marshal Tommy Elmhirst at the Winston Churchill Archive, Cambridge, and John Stubbington guided us through the intricacies of the RAF’s wartime Intelligence Directorates. Over the many hundreds of hours it has taken to research and write this book, we’ve both been encouraged and supported by friends and family. In this regard we’d like to thank Neil and Pauline, Nic, Adam, Karen, Phil and Claire, and Janet Capobianco. Our publishers – Osprey – have as usual, been perfect partners in our endeavour, but we’d particularly like to thank Marcus Cowper for his encouragement, patience, and support of this project – from its very inception – Laura Callaghan for all her diligent working during the editorial phase, and Paul E. Eden for his knowledgeable editorial expertise and, to all three for going that extra mile that makes this work the book that it has become. But most important of all, we wish to thank our wives – Ali and Annie, for their love, unrelenting encouragement and ceaseless patience – thank you! If we’ve forgotten anyone, please accept our apologies. Any oversight was entirely unintentional and an unfortunate consequence of the overwhelming volume of materials, time and effort that it took to create this entirely different account of the Battle of Britain. GGNNMM--LLAAYYOOUUTT..TToo DDeeffeeaatt tthhee FFeeww..vv2200..iinndddd 88 2200//0011//22002200 1100::2266