Reach For the Sky...

[Hauksbee 103]

Doing a little surfing through YouTube today, I found the Douglas Bader biopic "Reach For the Sky" (1956) in its entirety. Starring Kenneth More in the title role, and a gorgeous Muriel Pavlow as his wife. A very, very watchable film. Not least for the vintage aircraft. At the beginning, there's Avro 504K's; several of them sitting about the field. (and later, a few Gloster Gamecocks) I wondered if these were WWI antiques, or, did the plane stay in production as a trainer? The middle third of the film (the part where he struggles with the legs) dragged a bit, but, what could they do? Then comes WWII and there's scads of Hurricanes and Spitfires (with the factory paint still on!) They even snuck in a Sea Fire for close-ups of Bader in the cockpit. The bubble canopy was the give-away. I found myself wondering where all those lovely planes had got to? Seeing as there's only one flying Lancaster these days and approximately a half dozen Spits.

.

 

Edited March 28, 2016 by Hauksbee

[JimAttrill 24]

By the way, did you know that DB was always a complete sh1t to his ground crew?   He thought that the sun shone out of his @ss and was always rude to those who he outranked.   This carried on even after he left the RAF although he used to use their facilities.  Never met him myself but I know many who did. 

 

Johny Johnston was not much better - I think the adulation of the populace went to their heads.  JEJ used RAF Argosies to transport earth from Kenya to Aden for his garden when he was CinC there.   After complaints the practice was stopped.   In his autobiography Johnston says how well he got on with his ground crew.   That seems to be a figment of his imagination. 

 

I did serve under Al Deere for a while before he retired and he was a real gentleman to all personnel. 

[Hauksbee 103]

By the way, did you know that DB was always a complete sh1t to his ground crew?  

I did not know that. Interesting. I was amused to see (near the end) that Bader's 'big wings' were given credit for winning the war. Not a word said about poor 11 Group down in Kent getting the snot beat out of them. Not a word said about how long it took to assemble those 'big wings'. Poor Jerry only had about 20 minutes over the target before heading home. 'Couldn't wait around forever. I would have liked to see more on the chemistry between Bader and Trafford Leigh-Mallory (great name, that) Between the two of them they gave Keith Park nightmares. Ah well, it's was Bader's film. I guess they had to shine the best light on him.

 

Johny Johnstone had Kenyan dirt flown to Aden? (!)

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

He was a complete shit to lots of people 

[Olham 164]

...Jerry only had about 20 minutes over the target before heading home.

 

Not only that, Hauksbee.

The even worse disadvantage for the German fighters was the strategy, to bind them to the bombers strictly.

Fighters can only "work" successfully against enemy fighters, when they can operate freely.

 

The German "highest command" (Hitler and Göring) were a disaster for the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe,

and I wonder how the much better educated field marshals and generals could sleep at night, with such

"big head/big mouth/short know-how" leaders.

Göring fought this battle as a "war of attrition"; as if he calculated it like this:

"3000 British vs 4500 Germans will end with British: Nill - Germans: 1500 pilots."

That is not only an extremely misanthropic attitude, it is also a strategic catastrophy.

They simply lost too many good pilots, and they couldn't replace them so easily.

Edited March 31, 2016 by Olham

[Hauksbee 103]

Quite so, Olham. And Göring was a fighter pilot himself. It's one of the great mysteries how he allowed the bomber crews to talk him into it.

[Hauksbee 103]

http://www.netflix.com/watch/80036418?trackId=13752289&tctx=0%2C0%2C5b162e7896ac2277a5bd23015c4ea6e1bfd9a0e0%3A92cae6c5e4c6d63c9596f00c9ce2e9ba4df71e4a

 

I hope I'm not repeating myself here but while we're on the subject, I've got another Netflix Instant for you. (at least, I don't remember reccommending it before).

 

Simply called "Battle of Britain", (edit: "Battle of Britain: The Real Story) the theme is that, while Britain was certainly in a bit of a corner, things were not as dire as has been commonly reported.

 

As few examples: (1) Squadron-for-squadron, the RAF and the Luftwaffe were seen as roughly equal. But Britain fielded 20 planes per squadron, while the Luftwaffe, only 12. After the first few weeks, German pilots wondered where all these British planes were coming from.

 

(2) Moreover, Churchill put Lord Beaverbrook in charge aircraft production. Beaverbrook limited aircraft production to three bomber types and two fighters: Spitfire and Hurricane. Everything else was cancelled. Consequently, even at the lowest ebb, British squadrons never lacked for replacement airplanes.

 

(3) Keith Park, commander of 11 Group in Kent (which bore the brunt) rotated his squadrons. A beat-up squadron in Kent would get pulled back to the interior to train new pilots. Those squadrons would get assigned to Scotland where things were quieter while they got operational experience and formed a reserve force to replace losses in Kent. The Germans had no such program. Units stayed in the line while their most experienced pilots were lost by attrition and new pilots got thrown in to the battle raw.

 

(4) Every downed German pilot was initially housed in a rather nice country house just outside of London. Accommodations were civilized and the food better than what they expected. What they didn't know was that every corner of the house was bugged and every conversation recorded. That way, the British got a constant update on how the Germans saw the state of the war.

 

If you can get Netflix, check it out.

Edited April 3, 2016 by Hauksbee

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Quite so, Olham. And Göring was a fighter pilot himself. It's one of the great mysteries how he allowed the bomber crews to talk him into it.

 

 

The Drugs I suspect?

[Olham 164]

I guess it is one thing to be a good fighter pilot and maybe the leader of one wing -

and totally another being the General field Marshal to command thousands of men,

and to think in much larger categories.

 

Hugh Dowding may have never been the dashing, reckless fighter pilot with a bunch of victories

under his belt - but this man surely felt REALLY responsible for his pilots, and he managed tohandle

the tricky balance between the care for his subordinates, and the rescue of England.

I wonder how many sleepless night that attitude must have cost him.

Salute to a good man!

[33LIMA 972]

If you want an alternative view of the Battle of Britian, I would recommend 'Who Won the Battle of Britain?' by Wing Commander HR 'Dizzy' Allen. He was a fighter pilot flying Spits during the Battle, and an airman who knew his trade, in terms of the strategic side. He is not impressed with Dowding's tactics, for various reasons. Allen concludes that whoever won the Battle, the Luftwaffe did not lose it, and if any force was defeated, it was No. 11 Group. He also concludes that the Luftwaffe did in fact achieve air superiority over South-East England in late August and early September 1940, and that the reason that Sealion was nevertheless not launched was because, as the German Navy at least realised, it was not a feasible operation of war, since air superiority over the Channel would not have prevented the Royal Navy from winning the day.

 

More recent students of the Battle like Stephen Bungay in 'The Most Dangerous Enemy' seem generally to agree, taking the view that the British would have to have done something extraordinarily daft, to lose. And that contrary to the usual stereotypes, it was the British who had prepared methodically for the 'Air Defence of Great Britain' and the Germans who tried to 'muddle through'. Which is just to add a bit of historical perspective, and in no way lessens the remarkable fight put up by RAF Fighter Command.

 

In these more egalitarian days, we like our heroes to be 'men of the people' but they could just as easly have some rather unpleasant traits, Monty and Patton come to mind.

[Hauksbee 103]

 And that contrary to the usual stereotypes, it was the British who had prepared methodically for the 'Air Defence of Great Britain' and the Germans who tried to 'muddle through'.

True. The British prepared in great detail. The Germans pinned all their hopes on the swift, pre-emptive attack which would catch the opposing forces on the ground. It had worked everywhere before, thus no reason to assume it wouldn't work again in England. That's why Göring dismissed the task with a wave of his hand and said that all he needed was four days of good weather.

[JimAttrill 24]

It is true that the Luftwaffe never 'rested' any of their aircrew all through the war.  The 'experten' just kept on going until they got shot down.  Possibly this is because they had the idea that all actions would be Blitz actions and over before resting would be necessary. 

[Typhoon 5]

 Seeing as there's only one flying Lancaster these days and approximately a half dozen Spits.

.

 

 

Sorry Hauksbee but there are 2 flying Lancasters. One in the RAF Memorial Flight, and one here in Hamilton's Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. Last summer it flew to England and spent the summer flying formation with the RAF Lanc at airshows in England before flying back to Canada. As a matter of fact this morning I stood looking up into the bomb bay of the Lanc that we are rebuilding at our museum in Windsor.

 

[Hauksbee 103]

That's a 100% increase! Glad to hear it!

[JimAttrill 24]

Hauksbee wrote: "Squadron-for-squadron, the RAF and the Luftwaffe were seen as roughly equal. But Britain fielded 20 planes per squadron, while the Luftwaffe, only 12. After the first few weeks, German pilots wondered where all these British planes were coming from."

 

Not true.  RAF squadrons have always been made up of about 12 aircraft.  In the early days there were 3 flights of 4 aircraft.   In the 30s a flying squadron was made up of four 'vics' of three.   Later on this became three 'finger fours' of four aircraft. If you look at squadron pictures from the BofB period there are always 12 pilots, sometimes less.  In the 60s the 'flight' system was not used so much as the aircraft now normally operated in pairs and not in fours.  This still applies today.   The RAF squadron I was a part of for 2½ years had only two flights - now each commanded by a Squadron Leader with a Wing Commander as CO (this is inflation for you!).  I will admit that at times we had 14 aircraft but it was hard to get 12 of them serviceable at any one time and one was a two-seater anyway.  The two squadron photos I have show 12 and 13 pilots.   I don't think the concept of a 'flight' meant much then in the 70s.   The aircraft had tail letters A, B etc but no flight colours.   Another anomaly then was that each aircraft had a pilot's name on it but he didn't necessarily get to fly his 'own' aircraft.  The pilots had their own flying schedule and flew what was available. 

 

From what I have read, a Luftwaffe staffel normally consisted of 12 or so aircraft, so the staffel and the squadron were directly comparable. 

 

The reason the German pilots wondered where all these British planes were coming from was that both sides exaggerated claims, but the Germans tended to believe theirs which showed that the RAF fighter force had ceased to exist. 

[Hauksbee 103]

'Makes one wonder how the Netflix film makers got it so wrong?

[33LIMA 972]

There's some discussion of RAF Fighter Command squadron strengths 1941-42 here: http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?9472-RAF-Fighter-Squadron-structure

 

...and here: http://www.classicwarbirds.co.uk/articles/typical-royal-air-force-squadron-and-tactics-during-the-battle-of-britain.php

 

I once had a photocopy, now lost, of an RAF manual describing the 'Fighter Area Attacks' - 'Johnny' Johnston also covers them in 'Full Circle' - and they are exactly as described in the second link - three-plane 'vics' lining up astern of 3-plane vics of bombers and shooting until ammo was gone, targets or attackers shot down then the next vic going in, rinse and repeat. There was also stuff based on 'Lanchester's Law', concentrating attackers against defenders.

 

Twelve aircraft was probably the ideal flying strength but more stringent post-war conditions notwithstanding, I doubt an RAF WW2 fighter squadron would have had just 12 aircraft on its books, if at full strength - the figure given above of 16 seems about right. No way could they routinely have put 12 planes in the air in wartime, with no reserve.

 

Anyway, I understand the German operational unit was the gruppe not the staffel, and that German staffel size tended to be below an RAF squadron (certainly a USAAF one, I recall from Richard E Turner's 'Mustang Pilot' that the USAAF squadrons of 1944 had what I recall read like a huge number of pilots and aircraft, rotating the former for any given mission). 

 

Comparing 'squadron for squadron' is probably one of the less useful ways of looking at the BoB. The common practice of Park's 11 Group of sending squadrons into action singly, compared to Leigh Mallory's advocacy (supported by Bader) of 'big wing' tactics, was more of an issue.

 

The famous (ironic) jagdflieger September 1940 comment 'Here come the last fifty Spitfires!' when running into serious oposition on one of the big London daylight raids stems not from comparative squadron strengths but from several factors, mainly (i) that the British aircraft industry was in 1940 seriously out-producing the Germans, as far as single seat fighters was concerned (ii) serious Luftwaffe underestimation of that and overestimation of Fighter Command losses (blame Beppo Schmidt?) and (iii) as 'the narrow margin' wasn't really that narrow, Fighter Command had plenty of fighter squadrons based further north which were able not only to relieve hard-pressed 11 Group units, but to pitch in to defend London, just about the time the 109 pilots were waiting for their red fuel warning lights to come on.

 

Back to reaching for the sky, I was interested to read a few years back in an issue of 'After the Battle' that it's now suspected that Bader wasn't brought down by a colliding 109 as in the movie, nor indeed shot down by one, but from astern without warning by a fellow Spitfire pilot, in error obviously. It's said Bader worked out as much while in Colditz, but kept quiet as he saw no point in raising hackles or blushes.