How A Map Won The Battle of Britain - Air Operations 1940

this episode of military aviation history was sponsored by the royal air force in collaboration with the Battle of Britain burger and Bentley Priory Museum when we think of the Battle of Britain we think of this don't we Spitfires her against Messerschmitts and huncles and we think about how across the channel a large battle-hardened Air Force was a powder to send up on Britain we think of DAA Gunners think about the daily victory score radar and that cataclysmic battle in the skies we also think about the pilots the few who were made famous in that speech by Winston Churchill but we don't talk about is what made that lick tree possible this is why I've come to Bentley Priory to show you how the Battle of Britain was truly won [Music] hello everybody and welcome back to military aviation history I'm your host Bismarck worth coming at you with a very special episode Bentley Priory was Fighter Command HQ from 1946 onwards and is from here that the RAF directed its defensive effort during the Battle of Britain and it was here that Britain devised a weapon there was so much more potent than even a Spitfire or hurricane I am of course talking about a operations downing system and the personnel that operated it the fewer on the frontlines defending the skies of Britain it but behind him where the many the intelligence officers the radar and radio operators the wolf and the plotters and so many more here at Bentley Priory in the filter room between 1937 and 1941 developed the first air operations system of its kind and it was an elaborate and intricate platform that allowed Britain but just to manage the Battle of Britain but to win it based on the early experiments gained in air defense during the Great War and after the experimentation in the filter room it was time to step up the game for this a new Kabongo was constructed here Bentley Priory in early 1940 and for this 58,000 tons of Earth was moved and 17,000 tons of concrete put in his place moving air operations into a protective shell away from enemy bombs this bunker was then later on upgraded during the Cold War but that's another story now Bentley Priory became the hub of Fighter Command and it was here that you could get an overview of the daily situation group by group sector by sector however because Fighter Command was staggered into three tiers that his command he had Bentley Priory and then groupid sector it wasn't the only a operation soon indeed the air operations rooms in the groups and the sectors were actually far more involved in the day-to-day running so that's where we're going right now welcome to the Battle of Britain bunker here in Oxford London it is here where number 11 group orchestrated their defense during the bath of Britain come with me over there I've got a hurricane there Supermarine Spitfire of course both powered by the powerful most wars Merlin engine and they were piloted by some really brave men Brits Scots Frenchmen Czechs poles and the like and of course while they hung themselves against the Luftwaffe they had to be told from people here on the ground as to where to go and it is here that the historical significance of a operation comes into play it's also known as the doubting system after Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding it was developed after the RAF realized that a centralized system was required but only to pool and share information relevant to Britain's offense but also to develop a unified command structure everything that was relevant to the responding to an incoming attack came together here in order to coordinate and execute an effective response included where amongst others the different groups and fighter squadrons to the a a which even though it was normally under the command of the home front was acting here with the air ops from the RAF the observer Co of course on the coastline and chain harem wrote a radar system and even the with logical service and as you might expect all this information had to be taken in evaluated filtered as they say and then sent off to the appropriate stations and all of this created a real intricate system based on some really simple procedures and you know what I'll show you guys just how it works come with me [Music] [Music] [Music] integrated air defense became the heart of any area action here in the operations room the men and women of the IAF ensured that the fighters appeared at the right place at the right time at the right altitude everything in this room has a purpose and is designed to be read at a moment's notice for example imagine an enemy formation was spotted by Britain's chain home RDF system this information would be sent directly to Bentley Priory the place we've just visited before and there it would be evaluated and then sent to operations rooms just like this one that usually would not take longer than five minutes this information would also be sent to the observer core as it was their job to track the intruders once they were over land the observers trained in volunteers and aircraft flew to mission where decisive element in a orbs they would provide critical information specifically some course changes and the compositions on strength of the incoming raid rough estimates of 20 plus 50 plus and 100 plus sufficed back to the operations room chain home was rather limited in that regard and unable to do this if all this information the relevant squadrons could then be scrambled and sent to the appropriate locations sounds simple well it's a little bit more complicated than that first of all it was very rare that the Luftwaffe would only send up a one group usually they were multiple coming in at different headings and all of this information obviously had to be evaluated some of these attacks were nothing but roses and when the evaluation process was taking place you didn't also want to accidentally mix something up before sending out the information to the squadrons so the RAF had to make a calculated judgment call every time information came in in figuring what the Germans were up to at any given point in time again to give you an example one of the things to look for liked to do was to make dummy attacks just prior to a major raid this was usually done by bf 109s coming in at slow speeds over the channel to fool the radar operator into thinking that bombers were inbound squadrons were scrambled before the observers could pitch in and suddenly the fight was expecting slowed and one row behind calls find themselves bounced by angry Messerschmitts as the pilots returned to rearm and refuel the door was left wide open for the actual second way for fluff level planes the Bombers roof time the RF learned and adapted and the ground staff got so good at filtering all this information and waiting for the right moment that by the end of the battle of written they were well able to differentiate the fake rates from the real ones and a Luftwaffe was getting really annoyed that even by mid 1940s the filtering system continued to have occasional hiccups although the situation did improve greatly from June onwards when specially-trained offers was employed as filter Asst they were also later backed up by members of the woth now let's get practical and show you what would happen in case of a Luftwaffe air raid first off the tote board at the back of the room essentially an electronic switchboard you've got all the information you need and you also have the time this is actually very interesting clock we'll get back to that a little later for these squadrons you have the different sectors and of course the squadron numbers you've got information panels lighting up showing what stage the squadrons are in if they've been ordered to readiness or on standby or in position or indeed on the way home in one quick glance everyone in this room could just look up and see what a general state was what squadrons were engaged and so on below that we've got these little markers showing the cloud cover in each sector barrage balloons and of course visibility as well then over there were the people of receiving Webber reports you had to die as housing the group controller these are officers and the like air vice-marshal Keith Park was the commanding officer of 11 roof but he only visited the bunker a few times however it is recreated today in the way it was on the 15th of September when Winston Churchill visited lastly the grand jewel general situation map or TSM just like it was the tote board behind me this map gives you all the information you need at a moment's notice and it was generally staffed by members of the waffle as plotters and they wheeled the two of the deadliest small arms of the whole battle a radio set and this a croupier staff this is actually an original through the radio they were constantly updated on the disposition of Luftwaffe and RAF squadrons and with their staff they could update the map within seconds and to do that they were given a specific track and used this a marker it is extremely simple to read a marker the rectangle on top shows the squadron number the blue number shows how many thousands of feet in altitude the aircraft's wear and the red number shows how many aircraft were in the flight each of the Luftwaffe workers would have a code identifying the formation as well as the strength of the formation set below doubt oh yes about that clock you see the different color markings here those aren't some kind of artistic design to give this place of color but they're actually fully functional and the map markers on the gsm actually tied to these colors right here so if a plotter got a new reports a hostile 40 plus hi 12,000 feet they'd look at a traffic light at the edge of the map see one of those three colors also on the clock say blue and they would just use the same color of any new marker or tracker they do this for as long as the minute arm remains in the blue segment and then they switch over to the next color say red in this instance and then yellow after that however once a new color segment was reached the subsequent color and all the markers with that color would be removed from the map this means that at no time the map was older than 10 minutes reducing clutter and confusion all of this might sound simple and yes on paper it is but don't get the wrong impression what the area was doing here was unchartered territory no one had a system of integrated air defense quite like this one in 1940 and the impact of this system and the a operation personnel that worked here cannot be understated indeed the Luftwaffe throughout the Battle of Britain never really understood what sort of system they were up against they fully expected the RAF to suffer from a complete and utter organizational collapse when the opposite was the case with everyday RAF Arabs and the men and women working here got better at their job and they were specialists without whom nothing like an organized defense of Britain could have been achieved just imagine the dire consequences or confusion if one of the plotters managing this GSM might have made a mistake of the map just giving a false impression of the RAF and the Luftwaffe strength in one area or if someone with the switchboard here confused the readiness state of one of the squadrons with that of another one or what happens if one of the observers got to strengthen the altitude of the incoming Raiders wrong or indeed if the chaps over at the chain home radar forgot to send that one crucial piece of information and standing here I am baffled by the simplicity of the system in front of me is essentially nothing more than the power of chess board behind me is nothing but a basic electronic panel over here are plotters chatting on the radio if somebody operating and not always as accurate as it could be a radar system and in the coastline you have a few men with binoculars and all of this comes together here in air operations and it knocks out the Luftwaffe it's genius all the ascendancy of the hurricanes and Spitfires would have been fruitless but for this system which had been devised and built before the war had been shaped and refined in constant action and all was now fused together into the most elaborate instrument of war the like of which exists at nowhere in the world that's Winston Churchill on Arabs for you if you are interested in learning how modern operation works check out the annotated video thank you very much for taking this tool with us and I want to thank the Royal Air Force Bentley Priory and the Battle of Britain bunker for making this video possible as always shared far and wide and have a great day good hunting and seen the sky

Channel: Military Aviation History

Views: 68,427

Rating: 4.9625878 out of 5

Keywords: WW2, RAF, Battle of Britain, Luftwaffe, Dowding, Map, Military Aviation History, GSM, Air Operations, Spitfire, Messerschmitt, Royal Air Force, Germany, Radar, Chain Home, Education, History

Id: 1yXxc4ApxmQ

Length: 12min 36sec (756 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 04 2019

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