Discovery Wings - Clash of Wings #2/13 The Plunge Into Reality

in the first eight months of the war the Allied air forces sustained only a few losses between Hitler's invasion of Poland and his invasion of Scandinavia there is a period of inactivity the British called the phoney war in Britain the inactivity of the phoney war period was used to build Air Force strengths new fighters Spitfires and hurricanes replaced the aging biplanes since January 1940 there had been a British air presence in France Orca Hurricanes were the only aircraft in the British force adequate to meet the Germans but even they had several handicaps their propellers were made of wood their pitch was fixed they were very little different from those used on World War one fighters they limited the Hurricanes speed rate of climb and ceiling the RAF had more than 160 of the handsome fairy battles in France but they were too slow and poorly armed to match the German Messerschmitts the bristol blenheim bombers were faster than the battle but still not fast enough to match the Messerschmitts raf bomber commands contribution to France was the armstrong whitworth whitley in spite of its ugliness it would become the RAF s-- workhorse in the first months of the war but by May 1940 experience had already shown that it would not survive in daylight combat with the Messerschmitts the whitley was confined to night attacks on the German site the losses suffered in Poland and Norway had not yet been made up in July in 1940 the Luftwaffe had only 841 operational bombers a drop of more than 150 since much the war against France was to be fought over limited distances against an enemy that was already demoralized it was a situation perfectly suited to the German military on May 10th 1940 the Nazi blitzkrieg was unleashed on Luxembourg Belgium the Netherlands and France the attack was carried out according to Hitler's own ideas particularly its use of air power it was launched in what the world would come to know as Hitler weather perfect for air warfare the Luftwaffe focused on the new assault with intensity it mustered 4050 aircraft on the ground the German tank forces were uneven quality but in the air the Luftwaffe was the largest and finest air force ever assembled for a single campaign at first light on May 10th German armored columns cut through three neutral countries Belgium Holland and Luxembourg air attacks at key fortresses and airfields the Luftwaffe struck at more than 70 air bases and rail and other communication mates Messerschmitt Bf 110 s followed up in strafing attacks concentrating on fuel supplies and aircraft in the open the great French defense system the Maginot Line extended only from Switzerland to Belgium the vast defence gap from Belgium to the English Channel was to be protected by Allied forces Hitler planned to trap the ill-trained poorly equipped French and English divisions in this gap between Belgium and the English Channel most of Hitler's commanders believed the airborne attack in Holland to be extraordinary risky it had to be undertaken before air superiority had been obtained Heinkel and Junkers bombas prepared the way they destroyed half the Royal Netherlands Air Force on the ground an hour later the airborne assault began paratroopers cease bridges and attempted to take over government facilities the airborne operations were successful everywhere accepted to Hague we're tough Dutch soldiers overcame the Germans in a bloody firefight the Dutch Army Air Service launched its little [ __ ] d21 fighters against the lumbering German Ju 52s whenever the [ __ ] could break through the escorting Messerschmitts the Ju 52s were at their mercy but their successors became fewer and their losses increased British RAF Bristol Blenheim bombers joined the fighters they concentrated on attacking the Ju 52 transports the British claimed 13 Ju 52s destroyed but to achieve that they lost 10 plenums as the German blitzkrieg raced forward toward the Allied troops the Luftwaffe and the ground forces struggled to improve their teamwork radio communication was often the hopeless muddle supply problems increased the Luftwaffe ground staff struggled to get bombs and fuel to the advanced airfields yet by May 12th as the German 19th Spencer core coils to spring across the Meuse river the Air Ground effort came together there were high-level bombing attacks followed by an eight-hour Stuka bombardment a decisive element was the use of ultra high frequency radios by Luftwaffe operators in the German tanks they communicated directly with the stalkers the French were bewildered by both the location and the speed of the German attack they try to regroup to engage the Germans with artillery fire each time they were subjected to level bombing from dawnia's and Henckels then came mind-numbing dive bomb attacks by the Stukas the Stukas combination of noise and accuracy unnerved the French defenders soldiers unable to withstand the shock waves in their shelters staggered into the open impervious to the 250 kilogram bombs bazookas carried the Stukas flew many sorties a day pressing air and ground crews to the limit and creating a level of havoc that surprised even the Germans within hours this slow fighting retreat of the French turned into a rout the German bridgehead was expanded and by May 14th German tanks were across the mers the German forces were set to pry France open like a knife slipped into the shell of an oyster the Allies were slow to respond to the original German threat on May the 10th the true cost of britain saving money on aircraft procurement became clear the Allies through their inadequate aircraft at the surging German columns any battles or Glennon's that made it through the German flak were pounced on by roving Messerschmitts the best French aircraft was slaughtered in the same brutal way as the British as each day passed the Germans moved from air superiority to air supremacy on May 14th the confusion in orders led to the German terror bombing of the Dutch city of Rotterdam the world seized on this attack as the realization of fears about the horror of aerial bombardment there was talk of 30,000 citizens having been massacred later investigation showed that about 980 had died the Germans had attempted to halt the attack but failed because of poor communications the shock of the bombing was the Dutch to surrender the next day the French had no strategic reserve they begged the new British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to send more fighter squadrons to stop the tanks Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding head of the British Fighter Command wrote a letter this letter would ensure victory in the coming battle of britain Dowding said that no more fighters should be sent to france he said that 52 fighter squadrons were essential to the defence of the British Isles he only had 36 he said if the home force is drained away in desperate attempts to remedy the situation in France defeat in France will involve the final complete defeat of this country by May the 20th allied air resistance in France was crumbling the British Expeditionary Force found it necessary to make a fighting withdrawal to the French city of Dunkirk Hitler decided that German armored columns would not try to cut the British off from the sea there was concern that tanks may bog down Herman Goering promised Hitler that his lost buffer would hold the evacuation he claimed that German aircraft would finish off the British Expeditionary Force and the French first Army and they would do it with far greater severity than the German ground forces would have done but the Luftwaffe was weakened by the relentless pace of the advance through France it would not be allowed to pause and catch its breath before attempting its new task at Dunkirk on May the 26th 1940 the British Admiralty began to evacuate English and French troops from Dunkirk in the next eight days 850 ships of all types from small yachts to destroyers evacuated 338 thousand men for the first time since the war began the Royal Air Force found itself concentrating on a single place at a single battle Fighter Command flew 287 sorties on the first day sixteen squadrons operated at full strength over the beaches there were long gaps in the coverage but the men crouching in the sands below bitterly resented for the luftwaffe roles were reversed it still had numerical superiority 300 bombers and 550 fighters but for the first time it had no advantage in quality and there had been no time to prepare forward air strips the Chairman Messerschmitts were operating from distant airfields and had even less time over target than the RAF fighters operating from England Nazi bombers were still based in Germany the long flying times reduced their effectiveness German intelligence had reported that the messerschmitt bf-109 was far superior to the Spitfire in fact the two planes were very close in performance the Spitfire had the edge in maneuverability and top speed the Messerschmitt was better in climb and dive the 109 s had one clear advantage there daimler-benz engines were fuel-injected they could be pushed over into a dive without the engine cutting out this saved precious seconds in a dogfight the rolls-royce Merlin engines fitted to the Spitfires and hurricanes had carburetors when they were pushed into a dive the engines promptly died the Luftwaffe had two successful days in the dunker campaign on May 27th it punished the RAF in the air it caused tremendous casualties on the ground destroying troops and ships but gradually the advantage shifted to the defenders in the nine days of the battle the RAF flew three thousand five hundred and sixty-one sorties it lost a total of a hundred and seventy seven aircraft the Luftwaffe lost 240 the RAF had done more than gained the greater number of air victories it had permitted the successful evacuation of Dunkirk this evacuation would be a major factor in the eventual outcome of the war the ground war unfolded relentlessly as the Germans drove into France the air war continued with undiminished fury both sides extending themselves to their very limits the French demanded that more and more British fighter squadrons be sent to France it was almost impossible for Churchill to ignore the request England could not expect the French to continue the battle if it refused to send fighters the beaches of Dunkirk were empty the ports of England were clocked with disheartened survivors only one important leader in Germany saw the opportunity of the century general Erhard Milch recommended to Goering that England should be invaded immediately with whatever the Luftwaffe and the Navy could throw together he was certain that the British were so disorganized that even a few divisions would be enough to invade successfully but Hitler chose instead to crush France completely he ordered his troops to turn and attack the French positions along the Somme River the French army Delayer had almost cease to exist and by June 1940 the RAF and France is down to 18 serviceable aircraft France surrendered to Germany on June the 20th 1940 informed of the surrender Air Chief Marshal Dowding said simply thank God we're now alone no more hurricane squadrons would be sent off to France to die Hitler was now master of Europe from Norway to Spain from Belgium to Russia Nazi Germany was in control Hitler had received word from England that there was an active fascist movement there ready to make peace he was certain that England would accept his reasonable peace terms he was wrong so far in the war the Royal Air Force had lost almost a thousand aircraft the pilot shortage was critical 435 British pilots had been killed were missing or were prisoners of war Dowding ransacked the Fleet Air Arm Bomber Command and Coastal Command for pilots to replace those lost in France the Luftwaffe was also trying to recover from a 28 percent loss in strength since the fighting began the greatest losses had been among the Yonkers Ju 52 transports many of their pilots had been taken from training bases and the loss cost not only the aircraft but the most experienced flying instructors there was a high loss rate among the fighters to but Luftwaffe activity did not let up new air crews were brought forward new planes flowed from the factories the entire air force prepared to move forward to new airfields from there they would undertake the Battle of Britain the odds against britain survival seemed very long Hitler's armed forces had achieved their triumph through carefully planned operations executed with precision and panache his staff of generals was formidable his intelligence forces were considered to be everywhere they were sinister and effective standing above all this was Hitler's own cunning expertise so far it had not failed him in peace or in war in contrast England was now led by Winston Churchill chechu was 66 years old but most of his life had been scorned by his country he was seen as a reckless romantic adventurer England still possessed the greatest Navy in the world but it's army was in shambles most of its equipment was now in the hands of its new owners the Germans in spite of all this Britain refused to surrender Hitler could not understand why he continued to have a love-hate relationship with his anglo-saxon enemy with genuine reluctance Hitler ordered his commanders to start planning two operations the first was an air campaign to bring England to its knees the second to be used in case of failure of the first was Operation Sea Lion the naval invasion of England Hitler knew that air superiority had to be established before he could invade on August 1st 1940 he issued a directive that put destruction of the Royal Air Force as its first priority after air superiority was established harbours and food supplies were to be attacked the third priority was to be attacks on merchant ships and warships the Germans named the operation Adlon glyph attack of the Eagles the opening day of the attack was to be called art latoque eagle day are ironically the German plan happened to be exactly the emergency the British had spent years preparing for the British had a handful of clever far-seeing people in a number of key areas aircraft design armament radar ground observer Corps and training they were more than ready to reap the benefit of a German plan custom-made to be beaten by the British preparations and the project bit of all at the bottom found what no one on the German side perceived was that the air war was going to be won by fighters and not by bombers Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding 'he's nickname was stuffing he was not greatly loved by his superiors when the war broke out he was close to retirement Dowding divided the country into four defensive zones the principal barrier to German attack was number 11 group directly across the channel from the Luftwaffe fields in France it was commanded by air vice-marshal Keith Park in a larger area to the north parks archrival have ice marshal traffic Li Mallory commanded number 12 group the primary task of Lee Mallory's 14 squadrons was to defend the Midlands area the secondary task was to provide reinforcement to 11 group when required well north of Manchester was number 13 group the last group to be created was number 10 commanded by air vice-marshal Sir Christopher brand its eight squadrons were located southwest of number 11 Dowding x' headquarters were located at Bentley Priory the Luftwaffe would have no equivalent to this RAF central nervous system for years signals were passed from radar stations in the observer core to the filter room and the operations room doubting himself often presided making the crucial decisions on how many aircraft were to be launched against enemy attacks number 11 group was so close to the enemy that its squadrons did not have time to climb to altitude and assemble in large formations group 12 was 150 miles further away this added distance gave it the necessary time to reach combat height leigh-mallory of 12 group insisted that the correct tactic was to assemble a large number of aircraft to attack the enemy formations even if this meant the German bombers had time to deliver their lethal bomb loads before they were challenged Dowding and park objected they wanted to prevent the Bombers reaching their targets whenever possible this argument about tactics really masked a disagreement among strong personalities and the desire for the glory of combat more than four thousand planes had been mustered for the Battle of France only two and a half thousand could be deployed against England more than a thousand were Messerschmitt fighters in the second week of August 1940 the RAF could master 704 operational fighters 620 warrick uns and Spitfires in Germany there was no major effort to increase aircraft production but in Britain production gains were being made every month so far the mix of German aircraft had been perfect short-range fighters had been able to operate from air strips close to the front they've been backed up by medium bombers in the morale shattering stupas but the English Channel 30 to 120 miles wide made this mix inadequate the Luftwaffe now had to spread its efforts over a number of targets the response of its enemy the RAF was very focused the instrument which enabled the RAF to respond in his way was radar for many weeks the Germans failed to guess that the British were using radar to detect Luftwaffe formations and engages them with great accuracy by using radar the fighter command system could assign exactly the number of fighters seen as suitable to meet each incoming raid not much a change in the lineup of RAF aircraft but most of the hurricanes and Spitfires have been fitted with de Havilland constant-speed propellers their performance was vastly improved the fighter squadrons were operating from their home bases fighting for their native soil if an RAF pilot was forced to bail out he could use the efficient British railway system to be back at his home base in time for the next mission the Luftwaffe SMO stimpack craft the BF 109e had a maximum range of 410 miles under combat conditions with fuel expended in weaving coverage over the Bombers the 109e could reach just inside the English shoreline in raw terms this meant 30 minutes over 20 minutes in combat and 30 minutes back on its return flight the 109 pilot had to cross the chil English Channel with his red low fuel warning light flickering German pilots joked about canal con kite channel sickness the twin-engine bf110 proved to be a total failure as a long-range fighter not only could they notice caught bombers and survived but they themselves had to be escorted by 109s the terror of the European skies the Yonkers Ju 87 had a brief period of success in attacks on convoys in the channel in the month beginning July 10th the Germans sank 40,000 tons of British shipping but soon the Snuka proved unable to survive over England it's slow speed made it difficult to his court and it was impossible to protect its dive the RAF found it difficult to protect shipping Dowding husband and his forces by keeping patrols small radar warning times were often insufficient the initial fighting was a learning process the Germans probed in the RAF responded losses were moderate on both sides but both sides exaggerated claims of victory the Luftwaffe lost 192 aircraft and the RAF 70 at the end of the first phase of the battle about the end of the first week in August both sides had reason to be satisfied with her effort the RAF had learned a great deal had grown in strength with five new squadrons in July Hitler had created the exalted rank of Vice Marshal for Hermann Goering on August 8th Goering sent the following message to the Luftwaffe operation ATLA within a short period you will wipe the British Air Force from the sky Heil Hitler phase two of the battle was about to begin on August 10th whether delayed schedule a blurt a eagle's day August 12th was dedicated to what could have been the most important Luftwaffe attack of the war raids on British airfields and radar stations but the Germans failed to realize the importance of these defences a special German fighter bomber test unit Robin Scorpio 210 was given the job of attacking the radar stations at pro 210 at two squadrons of bf 110s and one of bf 109s this is of course the farmer and the most deadly method is dive-bombing that is pointing the airplane at the objective and diving the aircraft were used to make diving attacks at angles of 45 degrees at air speeds from 3 to 400 miles an hour they were very elusive targets on August 12th they attacked four of the British chain home radar stations at Dover Dunkirk Pavin see and drive three of the four were badly damaged a raid on Portsmouth by hundred Yonkers Ju 88 smashed the Ventnor Raider station on the Isle of Wight at this moment the British radar system was vulnerable the British struggled to conceal the damage from the Germans they work to get the station's back on air they supplemented them with mobile units and reports from the observer Corps on August 13th athletic began as scheduled in spite of bad weather the Luftwaffe managed almost 1500 sorties the Germans lost 39 aircraft many of them Stukas the RAF lost 15 Luftwaffe military intelligence reports were optimistic they overestimated Luftwaffe successes Goering and his commanders assumed they had whittled the RAF down to less than 500 hurricanes and Spitfires but they were actually more than 750 available and their numbers were building daily both sides gathered strength for August the 15th the weather improved on August 15th the Luftwaffe planned to saturate British defenses with raids from all quarters the plan was to attack airfields this would force British fighters into the air weather would be destroyed just before 1100 hours British radar detected telltale signs of incoming aircraft the first waves were Stukas escorted by fighters they struck at forward airfields at hawk engine limp knee then just before noon attention switched to the north the Germans assumed that defences there had been weakened to strengthen the south they were wrong the German bombers and fighters flying in from Norway were attacked by Spitfires and hurricanes the British fighters shot down eight German bombers and seven fighters with no losses of their own a hundred miles to the south a force of fifty Ju 88's ran into the Spitfires of 6-1-6 squadron they lost six aircraft but pressed on to bomb the airfield at driffold in Yorkshire it was now clear to the Germans that bombers could not operate in daylight over England without fighter escort and bf 109s did not have the range to operate from Norway or Denmark Luftwaffe raids continued through the day the British claimed to have shot down 180 German aircraft the actual number was 75 still enough to shake Luftwaffe morale but the British losses were heavy to 34 aircraft had been downed and 17 pilots killed with its superior numbers the Luftwaffe was in a position to wear the RAF down by attrition but Curren ego demanded that the RAF be torn from the skies in a few days with only a few German losses in his anger he attributed the Luftwaffe scheduel T's not to the British fighters or Raider but to a lack of fighting spirit in his pilots in fact Goering should have been proud of his men in one day they had flown 1786 sorties and they had pressed their attacks resolutely but it was not the last time Goering would accuse them of lack of will to win Gehring made two other blunders the first was his assumption that the attacks on the radar sites had not been productive he removed them from the target list had the attacks been repeated day after day the radar sites would have been destroyed Fighter Command would have had to commit to battle under far less advantageous circumstances the second blunder was to insist that messerschmitt bf-109 s fly very close escort to the Bombers this would deprive them of their advantages of altitude and speed the second phase of the Battle of Britain turned into a weary struggle day after day the RAF rose to meet the German invaders Germany's intelligence assumed that if German losses were high British losses would be higher the RAF was indeed hurt by the end of the second phase of the battle it had lost 175 aircraft pilot reserves were due ending new pilots did not become effective until after four or five missions but the luftwaffe Schloss us as phase three of the battle began were more than twice those of the RAF it had lost four hundred and three aircraft about half were the old important fighters Goering had once predicted that it would take four days to destroy the RAF but the Germans began to realize that they were running out of time to undertake an invasion before the winter weather struck growling now made his best decision so far to accelerate the process of destroying the British fighter command he ordered heavy attacks on the airfields in the south and the southeast of England his intention was to either force the RAF into the air to be shot down or to destroy it on the ground messerschmitt bf-109 s were transferred to the pas-de-calais area of france this would give them their shortest distance to fly to get into combat their main task was still to provide very close escort to bomber forces that could number between 60 and 400 aircraft it was hard brutal work it was more like street fighting in an embattled city than the clean combat in the blue that writers like two Romans about the third phase lasted only two weeks during this time the RAF lost 291 planes destroyed and another 171 damaged in the same period only 269 new and repaired Spitfires and hurricanes found their way into the British squadrons the RAF was losing pilots at the rate of 120 a week all squadrons were tired in the third phase the Luftwaffe lost 361 aircraft by September the six there were signs that it was shifting its emphasis Dowding warned that heavier attacks should be expected on the factories that built Britain's fighter aircraft the RAF was worn thin but never reached a point at which it had no aircraft for pilots in reserve still the RAF was trending towards defeat on always the 31st it had his greatest daily loss 39 fighters were lost in combat 14 of the pilots were killed if the Germans had continued at the same intensity for three more weeks they would have established air superiority but the Germans were hurt badly as well garen's biting criticism of his pilots undermine morale unknown to anyone the course of the battle was decided inadvertently on the night of August 24th German bombers sent to strike Rochester got lost instead they dropped their bombs on London Winston Churchill had Bomber Command on 12-hour notice to retaliate if bombs hit London when they did the RAF dispatched 81 bombers to Berlin Hitler was so angered by Britain's effrontery in attacking Berlin that he ordered his own reprisal raids on London this shifted the focus of Luftwaffe efforts away from destroying Fighter Command on September 7th almost 1,000 aircraft approached London their bombs killed 300 people that night another 300 Luftwaffe aircraft came back to attack the burning city again aircraft losses on both sides were heavy German losses force the Luftwaffe to shift to night attacks it was the beginning of what Londoners came to call the Blitz optimistic German intelligence reports still promoted the idea that the RAF was only four or five days from total collapse Hitler persisted in talking about Operation Sea Lion the invasion of Britain September 15th became the day the Germans thought the RAF would finally be broken the Germans pinned their hopes on the effect of sorties by only 277 bombers in three separate waves the RAF reacted in strength they shot down 35 bombers and 20 fighters the results were so disappointing that Hitler was phoned Operation Sea Lion indefinitely the Luftwaffe began to concentrate on nitrates on London as London continued to suffer Chacho doubting and the other British leaders began to realize that the Battle of Britain had been won the invasion could not come until next year if at all in the fifth and final phase of the Battle of Britain the nature of German tactics changed the Luftwaffe kept British radars busy with false attacks fighter sweeps and sudden raids by fighter bombers the technique was difficult for the RAF to combat warning times were limited but the danger was not nearly so great as the full-scale bomber raids the Germans turned to the darkness for safety they developed good equipment for navigation and bombing at night but crews had to learn on the job the RAF had no suitable night fighter and London would take terrible punishment in the dark hours but England's strength grew from day to day the island that Hitler had once seen is right for plucking could no longer be invaded in the course of the battle Germany lost seventeen hundred and thirty-three aircraft and almost three thousand aircrew as a result Hitler did not dare risk his fleet or armies across the channel England was saved from invasion Hitler would now turn his attention to the East Russian front there his aircraft losses would reach tens of thousands his casualties would number Millions Great Britain won the admiration of the world pilots from 14 Nations had flown in the RAF against the Luftwaffe the Hardy undeviating doubting was sacked less than two weeks after the Battle of Britain six months later who has made Lord doubting of Bentley Priory but that was scarcely enough recognition for the brilliant leader of the air force that Winston Churchill referred to as the fuel you

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Keywords: Discovery, Wings, Clash, of, #2/13, The, Plunge, Into, Reality, The Clash (Musical Group), military, war, Color, communism, warfare, BF109, BF110, HE111, JU53, DO17, #1/13, Bluff, is, Called, Messerschmidt, WWII, World, War, II, WW, Blitzkrieg, 51, Mustang, Merlin, Rolls, Royce, Allied, Axis, Evil, Flying, Ww2, Channel, Germany

Id: 2iN5uW3Ys_8

Length: 49min 2sec (2942 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 26 2012