The Aces

Edward 'Cobber' Kain DFC

The term 'Ace' in it's aerial context first came into usage during the earliest days of air combat, during the First World War when the French pilot Adolphe Pegaud was given the term 'l'as' (French for Ace) by the French press after he had shot down five German aircraft. Since then, the term has remained in use for any pilot who has achieved five or more victories. During the Great War, every side had it's Aces - Baron von Richthofen being the highest scoring with eighty victories, and arguably becoming the most well known fighter Ace of all time in the process before he was shot down and killed in 1918. On the Allied side, aces such as Frenchman Rene Fonck, the Canadian Billy Bishop and the British Ace Mick Mannock all became household names.

By the time of the Second World War, attitudes in the RAF towards Aces had changed somewhat. Whilst the Luftwaffe deliberately set out to create warrior-heroes in accordance with the knightly ethos encouraged by Dr Goebbels and his Nazi cronies, the RAF despite it's class consciousness then prevalent throughout the British armed forces, refused to officially recognise aces. Eventually, during the Battle of Britain, the RAF was reluctantly forced to co-operate with the media interest generated by the new generation of Aces amongst 'The Few.'

In this short piece, we shall concentrate on the RAF aces if for no other reason than one of space and even here we can only scratch the surface. The first RAF pilot in the Second World War to achieve five 'kills' was actually a New Zealander, Edward James Kain, known as 'Cobber' who scored his first victory as early as the 8th November 1939 over France and by March 1940 had acheived his fifth victory. During the Battle for France in May 1940, Kain achieved a further five victories and by 5th June 1940, he was the RAF's highest scoring fighter pilot with sixteen confirmed kills. The next day, he was informed that his squadron would be returning to England and on the 7th June, he left the airfield at Echemines to fly to Le Mans to collect personal belongings prior to flying across the Channel. As Kain took off, he undertook some low-level aerobatics to bid farewell to his squadron colleagues, misjudged a flick roll and ploughed his Hurricane into the ground. So it was that the RAF's first Ace met his end, not at the hands of the enemy but due to a flying accident.

Josef Frantisek DFM*

The Battle of Britain produced a glut of Aces, all of whom were seized upon by the British press. Some like Tuck, Malan (studied here in October 2010 http://blitzwalkers.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/different-adolph.html), Bader and Lacey quickly became household names and are still remembered to this day. Once again though, the first RAF pilot to achieve Ace status during the Battle of Britain was not British but on this occasion was a Czech flying as part of the Polish contingent of the RAF, Josef Frantisek. Frantisek had escaped to Poland during the German invasion of his homeland in 1938. When Poland was in turn attacked, Frantisek's squadron had been ordered to Romania and internment and extracating himself from the camp in which he was being held, Frantisek managed to reach France via North Africa in October 1939. Once in France, he elected to remain with the Poles and consumed by a fierce and understandable hatred for the Nazis, began what was in effect a private war against the Third Reich. 

Upon the fall of France, Frantisek reached England and became part of 303 (Polish) Squadron flying Hurricanes based at RAF Northolt. It has to be said that Frantisek was an extremely ill-disciplined pilot and the British squadron commander of 303 began to make arrangements to transfer him to a Czech squadron. Frantisek preferred to stay with his Polish colleagues and because of the desperate shortage of pilots, it was agreed to accommodate him as a 'guest' pilot flying a spare Hurricane. Once 303 Squadron took off, Frantisek would break formation and act alone pouncing on any unsuspecting Luftwaffe aircraft. Using these tactics, by early October 1940 Frantisek had accounted for seventeen German aircraft, in addition to those he shot down whilst attached to the French Armee de l'Air, which he claimed as a further eleven. However, like Kain, Frantisek's demise would come not at the hands of the Luftwaffe but as a result of a flying accident. On 8th October 1940, Frantisek's Hurricane crashed in Ewell, Surrey whilst on approach to land in circumstances that have never been fully explained. Some accounts state that he misjudged an aerobatic maneouvre whilst trying to impress his girlfriend, whilst others state that he simply made a critical error as a result of fatigue following what for him, had already been a long war.

Another New Zealand Ace was Brian Carbury and in common with one other pilot, the Pole Anton Glowacki, he became an Ace in one day, shooting down five German aircraft on 31st August 1940 on his way to a final score of fifteen and a half kills by the end of the year. Carbury was to survive the war but was to be dismissed from the RAF in disgrace in October 1941, having been found guilty at a Court-Marshal of having passed a large number of false cheques, at that time an offence punishable by prison sentence. So ended the career of another ace, albeit in bizarre circumstances.

Bob Stanford-Tuck DSO DFC**

Just to prove that some of the RAF's Aces were British, let us take a look at two of Fighter Command's home-grown talents. Robert Stanford-Tuck was born in 1916 of Jewish parents in Catford, southeast London and after a brief career as an Officer Cadet in the Merchant Navy, joined the RAF in 1935. After completing his flying training, in which he was graded 'above average', Tuck was posted to 65 Squadron at Tangmere, at first flying Gloster Gladiator biplanes but a squadron which was lucky enough to be one of the first to convert to Spitfires in December 1938. Tuck was chosen from his squadron to go to RAF Duxford and receive one-on-one tuition from Jeffrey Quill, senior Test Pilot of Vickers (Supermarine) in order that he could acquaint his squadron colleagues with the then revolutionary new fighter. As one of the RAF's first fighter pilots to fly the Spitfire, he was posted in May 1940 to 92 Squadron at Croydon, later moving to Hornchurch, again flying Spitifires and flying his first combat patrol on 23rd May over Dunkirk, Tuck shot down three Bf109s and the following day became an Ace, when he downed two German bombers. In the ensuing combat during the Battle for France, his score rapidly mounted and he was awarded the DFC on 11th June. During the Battle of Britain, Tuck like all of his colleagues in Fighter Command, was in the thick of the action and it was during this period that "Tuck's Luck" - he had survived an early 'prang' whilst training - came to the fore once again. He was forced to bail out of his Spitfire on 18th August over Tunbridge Wells but survived this safely and a few days later, on the 25th had to nurse his crippled Spitfire back to Hornchurch following return fire from a Dornier Do17 bomber. On another occasion, he personally had been hit and upon removing the bullet in his thigh, the Squadron MO told tuck "A few inches higher and they'd have had to transfer you to the WAAFs!" Tuck's luck would never really desert him. 

In September 1940, Tuck was promoted to command 257 Sqaudron, then flying Hurricanes based at Martlesham Heath. At this time, 257 was a 'hard luck' squadron, formed only a short time previously and suffering from an influx of inexperienced pilots and frankly, not having been previously well led. Tuck turned this squadron around, weeded out one or two individuals who were not up to the task and by September 15th 1940, 257 formed part of the fighter force that routed the German daylight raiders and on that day incidentally, Tuck's two victories brought his own personal score to sixteen. In July 1941, Tuck was further promoted and given command of the Duxford Wing. By this time, Fighter Command was taking part in large fighter sweeps across occupied France known as "Rhubarbs" as part of the new policy instigated by the new head of the Command, Sholto Douglas known as "Leaning towards the Enemy." 

During this period, many fine men were killed or captured including fellow Aces 'Paddy' Finucane, Eric Lock and Douglas Bader and on 28th February 1942, Tuck's luck was to briefly desert him when he was shot down over Boulogne. Even then his luck did not abandon him completely; his Spitfire having been hit and gliding towards a forced landing, Tuck fired a final cannon burst at the anti-aircraft gun that had hit his Spitfire, killing all of the gun's crew. He feared a lynching, but as he was surrounded by angry Germans, their anger turned to laughter when they spotted that one of his final shots had split the barrel of the German gun like a banana being peeled! Tuck's time in captivity was an incredible odyssey in itself and would take too long to describe in detail here. Suffice to say that after several escape attempts, he managed to do so successfully on 1st February 1945 and having reached Russian lines, was denied access to the British authorities until he again escaped, this time from his 'liberators' and reached the British Embassy in Moscow, who arranged his repatriation in March 1945. Tuck's final tally of victories was twenty nine kills, two shared kills and six "probables."

'Johnnie' Johnson CB CBE DSO** DFC*

Even this impressive tally was not the highest achieved by a Fighter Command pilot. James Edgar "Johnnie" Johnson was born in Loughborough in 1915 and joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve in September 1939. An old rugby injury which had broken his collar bone and which had not been re-set correctly precluded his active participation in the Battle of Britain. However, following a successful operation to correct this, Johnson returned to operational flying with 616 Squadron at Tangmere flying under Wing Commander Douglas Bader. Johnson learned much of his early trade under Bader and on 26th June 1941, he was to score his first victory when he shot down a Bf109 over Gravelines. Johnson took part in the sweep on 9th August 1941 when Bader was shot down and captured and despite the loss of his Wing Leader, Johnson added to his personal score. Later promoted to command 610 Squadron at RAF Coltishall, Norfolk which continued on sweeps over occupied France, Johnson continued to add to his score, despite still flying the Spitfire Mk V, which was being outclassed by the new German Fw190s then coming into service. Promoted again in early 1943, this time to Wing Commander, Johnson was given command of 144 (Canadian) Wing at Kenley, which was equipped with the new Spitfire Mk IX, which was able to once again re-establish British mastery over the Luftwaffe's fighters. Johnson's score soon mounted and by August 1943, he claimed his twenty first victory. By this time, apart from fighter sweeps, the Wing was regularly escorting USAAF bombers on their daylight missions to targets in occupied France. In September 1943, Johnson was rested from Ops but was restored to flying duties in March 1944 in time for the run-up to Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy. Back with the Canadians of 144 Wing, Johnson again scored regularly and by 23rd August 1944, Johnson equalled and then overtook 'Sailor' Malan's tally of thirty two victories. As Johnson modestly pointed out himself "Malan had fought with great distinction when the odds were against him. He had matched his handful of Spitfires against greatly superior numbers of Luftwaffe fighters and bombers." As Johnson also pointed out, his combat was mostly fought on the offensive, with either a squadron, a wing, or sometimes two wings behind him. Johnson's last victory of the war came on 27th September 1944 over Nijmegen, when his squadron bounced a formation of Bf109s. Johnson survived the war to finish with thirty four individual victories as well as seven shared victories, which was the highest achieved by any of the Western Allies. Postwar, he served in the Korean War flying F-86 Sabre jet fighters on exchange with the USAF and remained in the RAF until 1966, retiring with the rank of Air Vice Marshal.

There are many more aces to discuss and hopefully we shall return to the subject again in a future edition but whether one of the Aces, or one of the vast majority of non-scoring pilots, whatever nationality, the fighter pilot was, and remains a breed apart.

Published Sources:

Fly For Your Life: The Story of Bob Stanford-Tuck - Larry Forester, Cerberus 2002

The Most Dangerous Enemy - Stephen Bungay, Aurum Press 2000

The Narrow Margin - Derek Wood with Derek Dempster, Tri-Service Press 1990

Wing Leader - 'Johnnie' Johnson - Chatto & Windus Limited 1956

 

The first day of The Blitz

The East End ablaze Sept 7th 1940 (National Archives)

Much has been written about Saturday, September 7th 1940, including more than one post on this blog but in these, we have tended to concentrate on individuals rather than the action as a whole. 

Over the years, some writers and historians have suggested that the Luftwaffe's change of tactics from attacking the RAF's airfields to bombing British cities saved the RAF's bacon and thus saved this country from defeat. The truth is somewhat different; the RAF was far from defeated at the time of Hitler's change of tactics, and whilst the respite from the bombing of Fighter Command's airfields was no doubt very welcome, there is no reason to suggest that the RAF could not have carried on for some time, if not indefinitely. Having said that, the change in the focus of the German attacks was very much to the advantage of the British; it did give the RAF the chance to operate without fear of being attacked on the ground. However, it is doubtful if the citizens of the East End of London would have appreciated the German change of tactics. 

The reason that the RAF were not in as much trouble as we have sometimes been led to believe stems from faulty tactics. Under Goering's leadership, if a particular target was attacked and seriously damaged on one day, it was a wasted effort to return the next day and compound the damage and potentially destroy it. Instead, a different set of targets was selected and attacked the following day; in other words, the Luftwaffe never pressed home their attacks on the RAF's airfields and other important targets such as the Chain Home Radar stations located along the South Coast. The only airfield put out of action for any length of time was RAF Manston, which was of questionable value in any case due to it's proximity to the French Coast and which was temporarily abandonded as much for tactical reasons as due to the inability of the ground crews to repair the damage. Likewise, the Chain Home Station at Ventnor was put off the air for seven days but was repaired before the enemy could press home further attacks on the other stations. Plenty of RAF stations were attacked and seriously damaged, notably Kenley, Biggin Hill, Middle Wallop and many others but were never put out of action for more than a few hours and once the craters were filled in, were back in action again.

So, to September 7th; to understand why London was attacked, we need to wind the clock back a few days to August 24th, the same day that RAF Manston was evacuated. The pattern of the day's raids was similar to what had passed previously, with many of the RAF's airfields being attacked as well as Manston. There was also a serious daylight raid on Portsmouth but it was during the night that the event occurred which was to have such a profound effect on the future course of the Battle of Britain. On this night, a small force of HE111s from KG1 had been seeking to attack the oil refineries at Thameshaven, located in the Thames Estuary. Given Hitler's strict orders that London was 'off limits', this was a very risky target indeed being, in 1940 terms at least, located within a stone's throw of the capital. Although the weather was fine, the bombers missed their target and instead of jettisoning their bombs over open countryside in Hertfordshire, as the crews thought, they instead fell upon the City of London, the first falling on Fore Street, near Moorgate shortly after midnight on the 25th. 

Churchill at once ordered reprisals on Berlin, even though Bomber Command was ill equipped at that time to reach this distant target. So it was that the following night, a force of some 81 Hampdens and Wellingtons attempted to attack Tempelhof Airfield and the Siemens Works close by. Berlin was covered in cloud and the bombers could not locate their targets. They dropped their bombs anyway, causing minimal damage and injuries. Six of the bombers failed to return but the following night Bomber Command went out again, raiding other German cities as well as Turin and Milan. On the night of 28th/29th August, Berlin was once again the target and this time they struck civilian targets around Gorlitzer Railway Station, killing eight people. Hitler was furious and ordered the immediate targetting of London by the Luftwaffe. On the 4th September, Hitler made his now famous "He's coming, he's coming" speech at the Sportpalast in Berlin, in which he pledged to wipe British cities from the map.

Douglas Bader on the wing of his Hurricane (RAF Museum)

Goering decided to personally command the attack on London and he travelled to Cape Gris Nez on the French Coast in order to observe for himself his air armada as it crossed the coast en route for London. The day had begun for the RAF as previously, with airfields appearing to be the main target but by 4pm, it became clear that the target had shifted towards London and the radar plots picked up a huge formation moving towards the capital. Some 348 bombers, escorted by over 600 fighters moved inexorably along the Thames Estuary and by 4.30pm, the defending RAF fighters were making contact. 602 and 43 Squadrons were the first to engage the enemy but in the face of such overwhelming numbers, it was difficult for just two squadrons to break up the formation. More RAF squadrons joined the fray, including the famed Duxford 'Big Wing' under Douglas Bader. Soon the air fighting would involve over one thousand aircraft. 

The German bombers dropped their loads on the Royal Docks, West Ham, Poplar, Silvertown, Barking, Millwall, Limehouse, the Woolwich Arsenal, the Surrey Docks, Beckton Gasworks and many other places on the eastern side of London and soon huge fires were burning out of control as the bomber force turned for home, battered by the RAF fighters but on this occasion, by no means defeated. The huge fires started would act as a beacon to the night bombers, for this time the Germans would indeed press home their attack.

At 8pm, the sirens sounded again as a  further 247 bombers returned to stoke the fires and this time the raid lasted until about 5am the following morning. When the all clear finally sounded, some 330 tons of high explosives had been dropped as well as 440 incendiary cannisters, leaving some 400 Londoners dead. The Lufwaffe had not had everything their own way and had lost forty one aircraft to the RAF's twenty three but these had all been during the daylight portion of the raid; at this time, the Luftwaffe could bomb at night with relative impunity, for the RAF's night fighting capability was still in it's infancy and the anti-aircraft guns could only blaze away in hope with radar guidance.

The bombers returned the following night, leaving behind them another 437 Londoners killed. The Blitz on London had begun and would continue with little respite until the following May.

London would survive; London and Londoners could take it and the civilian morale, far from being destroyed as Hitler and Goering had forecast, actually hardened and the overwhelming urge from the British public was for the RAF to return the compliment on German cities. This they would do starting in 1942 although, like the British public, the German public also proved to be remarkably resilient under fire.

By the end of the war, some 30,000 Londoners had perished as a result of enemy air attacks, this representing about half of the total number incurred across the whole of the United Kingdom. In Germany, in excess of 305,000 civilians died as a result of Allied air attacks.

 

Lest we forget.

Published Sources:

The Most Dangerous Enemy - Stephen Bungay, Aurum Press 2000

The Myth of the Blitz - Angus Calder, Pimlico 1991

The Narrow Margin - Derek Wood with Derek Dempster, Tri Service Press 1990

...and consequently this country is at war with Germany

Neville Chamberlain (Bundesarchiv)

With these words, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain broadcast to the nation at 11.15 am on Sunday September 3rd 1939 that Great Britain and France had gone to war with Germany due to the latter nation's refusal to withdraw it's troops from Poland. This part of the broadcast is by now well known but the full broadcast, in which millions of listeners heard the tired and disillusioned voice of the British Prime Minister is perhaps not so well known, so the full transcript is repeated below:

"I am speaking to you from the Cabinet Room of Number 10 Downing Street.

This morning, the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 am that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us.

I have to tell you that no such undertaking has been received and that consequently, this country is at war with Germany.

You can imagine what a bitter blow it is to me that all my long struggle to win peace has failed. Yet I cannot believe that there is anything more or anything different I could have done and that would have been more successful.

Up to the very last it would have been quite possible to have arranged a peaceful and honourable settlement between Germany and Poland but Hitler would not have it.

He had evidently made up his mind to attack Poland whatever happened; and although he now says he has put forward reasonable proposals which were rejected by the Poles, that is not a true statement.

The proposals were never shown to the Poles nor to us; and although they were announced in a German broadcast on Thursday night, Hitler did not wait to make comment on them, but ordered his troops to cross the Polish frontier.

His actions show convincingly that there is no chance of expecting that this man will ever give up his practice of using force to gain his will. He can only be stopped by force.

We and France are today, in fulfilment of our obligations,, going to the aid of Poland, who is so bravely resisting this wicked and unprovoked attack on her people. We have a clear conscience. We have done all that any country could do to establish peace. The situation in which no word given to Germany's ruler could be trusted and no people or country could feel themselves safe has become intolerable.

And now that we have resolved to finish it, I know that you will play your part with calmness and courage.

At such a moment as this the assurances of support that we have received from the Empire are a source of profound encouragement to us.

When I have finished speaking, certain detailed announcements will be made on behalf of the Government. Give these your closest attention.

The Government have made plans under which it will be possible to carry on the work of the nation in the days of stress and strain that may be ahead. But these plans need your help.

You may be taking part in the Fighting Services or as a volunteer in one of the branches of Civil Defence. If so, you will report for duty in accordance with the instructions you have received.

You may be engaged in work essential to the prosecution of war for the maintenance of the life of the people - in factories, in transport, in public utility concerns or in the supply of other necessaries of life. If so, it is of vital importance that you carry on with your jobs.

Now may God bless you all. May He defend the right. It is the evil things that we shall be fighting against - brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression and persecution - and against them I am certain that the right will prevail."

And so the broadcast finished, the British people went somewhat resignedly about their business only for the air raid sirens to sound at 11.27 am, just moments after the Prime Minister had finished talking. The reaction everywhere was almost the same; people tended to stand around staring upwards at the skies, perhaps expecting to see the vast fleets of German bombers approaching that according to ex Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin "would always get through", perhaps expecting it to be a practice or simply not knowing what to do, despite all of the Air Raid Precautions that had been forced upon people since the Munich Crisis of a year previously. In the event, the alert was caused by none of these things; supposedly an electrical fault was to blame but that evening the siren went again and once again at 3 am the following morning. All sorts of wild rumours began to circulate - residents of Chelsea heard that there had been an appalling raid upon the East End, which had been left in ruins with thousands killed. Fortunately, these rumours proved to be just that. Just over a year later, the East End would indeed be bombed and in ruins but the apocalyptic death tolls forecast by the Home Office would mercifully never come to pass.

Preparations for war had already begun before Chamberlain's declaration of war; British and French forces had been mobilised on September 1st, with the reservists from the Navy, Army and Air Force receiving their call up telegrams. In the Royal Navy, ships from the Reserve Fleet, many of them veterans of an earlier conflict, were reactivated and brought back into service, quite often being manned by human veterans of the same conflict against the same foe which had ended almost twenty one years previously. The general call-up to create a 'Citizen Army (and Navy and Air Force) would also get into it's stride.

Schoolchildren, expectant mothers and other vulnerable people began to be evacuated from the big cities on September 1st and this operation was largely complete by the time war was declared. When the big air raids failed to materialise, many of these children were to return to the cities, ironically just in time for the Blitz, sometimes with tragic consequences. Many others though, were to remain in safety 'for the duration' which was a phrase that the British people were to get accustomed to over the next six years or so. 

War had looked inevitable for some time and preparations had been put in place to send a British Expeditionary Force, or BEF, across to France as early as Spring 1939. It was fully expected that this new conflict would in many ways be a repetition of the First World War, with fighting taking place along a largely static Western Front and so it was decided to send across a large British force to fight alongside the French as had happened in 1914-18. In the early hours of September 3rd, some ten hours before the formal declaration of war, the passenger ship Isle of Thanet sailed from Southampton with the first advance party of the BEF. Further small movements followed over the next few days, with the main force starting to travel across to France from September 9th.

For the civilian population of Great Britain at least, the declaration of war was followed, apart from the inconvenience of the false air raid alerts, by a period of some nine months or so that became known as 'The Phoney War.' This phrase was something of a misnomer, because at sea at least, the declaration of war was swiftly followed by the harsh realities of death and destruction.

ss Athenia sinking

The Donaldson Liner Athenia had sailed from Liverpool on Saturday 2nd September for Montreal, having also picked up passengers at Glasgow and Belfast and by the time she finally sailed had on board some 1,103 passengers, including over 300 American citizens anxious to escape the coming war. She was also carrying a crew of 315. The Athenia wasn't one of the more glamorous vessels on the North Atlantic run but such was the urgency to escape the coming hostilities, any vessel would do. By the time war was declared, Athenia was well on her way and by the time darkness fell, she was some 250 miles northwest of Inistrahull, Ireland and having earlier received the coded signal 'Total Germany' from the Admiralty, indicating that Britain was at war, was darkened and steering a zig-zag course. She was not alone, for she was being shadowed by the German U-Boat U-30, commanded by Kapitanleutnant Fritz Julius Lemp, who had detected this darkened vessel steering an erratic course at 16:30. By 19:40, Lemp was convinced that the vessel he could see was an Armed Merchant Cruiser, although he made no effort to check his facts. When the two vessels were between Rockall and Tory Island, he fired two torpedoes at the liner, both of which struck with devastating consequences. Once satisfied that his prey was sinking, Lemp departed the scene, making no attempt to rescue survivors or to check exactly what sort of vessel he had sunk.

Fortunately, Athenia though severely damaged, took some fourteen hours to sink which allowed rescue vessels, including the destroyers HMSs Electra and Escort, the Swedish yacht Southern Cross, the Norwegian tanker Knute and the American liner City of Flint to pick up survivors. Sadly, some 98 passengers and 19 crew members perished in the sinking. Amongst those killed was a 10 year old Canadian girl, Margaret Hayworth - the first Canadian killed in the war as well as the first Americans - 28 of them in fact, which raised fears in Germany that America would be dragged into the war almost before it had started. 

Fritz-Julius Lemp with Admiral Donitz (Bundesarchiv)

In Germany, it was quickly realised that a bad mistake had been made. Lemp was sworn to secrecy and the U-boat's log was filleted in order to try and conceal the fact that it had been indeed responsible. Much misinformation was circulated by Dr Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry, even to the absurd lengths that the British had mined the ship themselves, or that Winston Churchill had had a concealed bomb exploded aboard the Athenia, all in order to bring the United States into the war. Whilst most people saw through these lies for what they were, it was not until the Nuremburg War Crimes Trials in 1946 that Admiral Erich Raeder, the then head of the Kriegsmarine admitted the truth that Lemp and the U-30 was indeed responsible. By this time, Lemp was no longer alive to answer for his actions, having been killed when his next command, U-110 was captured in the North Atlantic by HMS Bulldog in the same action that saw the Allies capture their first complete Enigma Machine complete with spare rotor wheels and code books.

There was no Phoney War at sea and whilst this first sinking was as a result of an offensive act by a foe which was to become only too familiar in the coming years, the vigorous prosecution of the war at sea was to be overseen by the man who was to become Nemesis to the Nazis - Winston Churchill.

Published Sources:

The Battle of The Atlantic - John Costello and Terry Hughes, Collins 1977

BEF Ships, before, at and after Dunkirk - John de S Winser, World Ship Society 1999

Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunters 1939-42 - Clay Blair, Cassell

London at War 1939-1945 - Philip Ziegler, Pimlico 2002

The Kiwi Connection

HMNZS Achilles

The country of New Zealand has been and remains to this day a good friend to this country, a friendship truly forged during two World Wars when the Kiwis stood shoulder to shoulder with their British cousins. Personally speaking, I count myself lucky to have made many friends from this wonderful country, largely due to my cricketing connections as well as my former involvement in the British shipping industry. I have yet to meet a New Zealander that I didn't like and trust.

During the First World War, New Zealand fought staunchly alongside Great Britain and this tradition was to continue during the following conflict. Indeed, when war was declared on 3rd September 1939, New Zealand's declaration followed immediately, with Prime Minister Michael Savage proclaiming "It is with gratitude that we range ourselves without fear beside Britain. Where she goes, we go; where she stands, we stand." 

As always, in a blog of this nature, it is impossible to detail every last piece of New Zealand involvement in the Second World War, but instead we shall concentrate on some of the more outstanding individuals whose contributions were perhaps more noteworthy than most.

On the outbreak of war in 1939, the Royal New Zealand Navy did not exist in name; at that time it was merely the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy and did not become a stand-alone force until 1st October 1941, when it was finally recognised that the Navy was sufficiently large enough and self sufficient to warrant becoming a navy in it's own right. Despite this, the New Zealanders were involved at an early stage of the war at sea, when the cruiser HMNZS Achilles formed part of Commodore (later Rear Admiral) Henry Harwood's South Atlantic Squadron which harried and pursued the German Pocket Battleship Graf Spee during the Battle of the River Plate and which resulted in the German raider scuttling herself in the Plate Estuary in December 1939. It was the first British victory of the War, setting the tone for the remainder of the war at sea and giving a victory which in Churchill's words "in a cold winter, warmed the very cockles of the British heart." The New Zealand Navy steadily grew in size during the Second World War, fighting in many theatres from the South Atlantic, to the Mediterranean and against the Japanese in the Pacific with great distinction. By the end of the War, the Royal New Zealand Navy had some sixty vessels in commission.

As far as land forces were concerned, the New Zealand Expeditionary Force was formed on the outbreak of war under the command of Major General Bernard Freyberg VC, British born but who had emigrated to New Zealand at the age of two when his family left for those shores. Freyberg had won his Victoria Cross during the First World War at The Somme whilst serving with Hood Battalion of the Royal Naval Division as battalion commander. During the capture of Beaucourt Village on 13 November 1916, after Freyberg's battalion had carried the initial attack through the enemy's front system of trenches, he rallied and re-formed his own much disorganised men and some others, and led them on a successful assault of the second objective, during which he suffered two wounds, but remained in command and held his ground throughout the rest of the day and following night. When re-inforced the next morning he attacked and captured a strongly fortified village, taking 500 prisoners. Though wounded twice more, the second time severely, Freyberg refused to leave the line until such time as he had issued final instructions for his men. 

Freyberg's bravery was not in doubt and he was an inspired choice to lead the Expeditionary Force during the Second World War. The New Zealanders fought with distinction during the North African campaign, as well as in the defeats in Greece and Crete but saw deserved success at long last at the Second Battle of El Alamein, when they were at the forefront of Montgomery's advance. They fought across North Africa before the final victory in May 1943, when they were withdrawn to refit before re-entering the fray for the Italian campaign, where they again fought with great courage and tenacity at Monte Cassino, finally reaching Trieste on 2nd May 1945. It was during the North African campaign that the name of another remarkable New Zealand came to the attention of the public - Captain Charles Hazlett Upham - the only man during the Second World War to win the Victoria Cross twice and only the third person ever to achieve this remarkable honour.

Captain Charles Upham VC

Charles Upham was born in Christchurch in 1908 and despite serving in the New Zealand Territorial Army as a Sergeant, insisted on joining the New Zealand Expeditionary Force as a private soldier. It was not until July 1940, by which time his unit was already in Egypt that he was cajoled into joining an Officer Cadet Training Unit. His first VC came during the Crete campaign, when he performed an extraordinary series of exploits during the eight days from 22nd-30th May 1941. It would take too long to explain the whole series of actions here but suffice to say, his performances involved fighting almost single handedly against nigh impossible odds, mounting attack after attack on enemy machine gun nests, routing these positions, rescuing cut-off Companies and guiding them to British lines, before returning to action despite his own wounds and repeating these actions time and again. His reaction on being awarded the VC was to state modestly "It's meant for the men." The Crete campaign, although ending in an Allied defeat, wreaked such heavy casualties amongst the German paratroops assaulting the island, that is became known as a Pyhrric Victory to the Germans, so much so that Hitler never again committed his Parachute Army in an airborne assault. Upham's second VC came a little over a year later at Ruweisat Ridge, on 14th-15th July 1942 during what proved to be the last advance of the Afrika Korps before the tide turned in the Allies favour later that year. During the German attack, Upham led his Company straight for the two nearest enemy strongpoints, destroying a tank in the process but himself receiving serious wounds from machine gun fire that broke his arm. Despite this, he continued to lead his men. He temporarily allowed himself to be taken to the Regimental Aid Post to have his wounds treated. However, he soon returned to lead his men but was again wounded and this time was unable to move. By the time his position was overrun, Upham's Company had been reduced to just six men. After being captured and having recovered from his wounds, he was to spend the rest of the war in the notorious Colditz Castle, having attempted to escape several times whilst being transported through Italy en route to Germany. His second VC was awarded at the end of the war upon his liberation and return to Britain. When the citation for this second award came before King George VI, such was the unusual nature of this potential award that the King queried it to Major General Howard Kippenberger, himself another illustrious New Zealander who had been seriously wounded in battle. Kippenberger immediately responded that in his opinion Upham had deserved his second Victoria Cross "several times over." The King needed no further persuasion and the award was made without further demur. Upham returned to New Zealand after the war and died in 1994. His funeral at Christchurch Cathedral was conducted with full military honours and over 5,000 people lined the streets in order to pay their respects to this remarkable man.

During the Battle of Britain, New Zealanders formed the largest single Commonwealth contingent, providing some 127 pilots during this struggle for Britain's very survival. Indeed, this was the second largest 'foreign' contribution, with only the Free Poles providing more pilots. The Kiwi Connection started almost at the very top, with Air Vice Marshall Keith (later Air Chief Marshall Sir Keith) Park leading 11 Group, RAF Fighter Command. Park fought such a successful battle that he was dubbed 'Defender of London' by no less than his enemies in the Luftwaffe. We have studied Keith Park in a previous post in this blog, so will not re-visit his story here, suffice to say that after the war, no less a luminary than Marshal of the Royal Air Force Baron Tedder stated of Park that "If any one man won the Battle of Britain, he did." Praise indeed from one illustrious airman to another. 

Alan Deere in 1941 by Cuthbert Orde

One of the 'few' during the Battle of Britain and one of the 127 New Zealanders to serve during the Battle was Alan 'Al' Deere. Al was born in Auckland in 1917 and had been one of the very first New Zealanders to join the RAF in 1937. He had passed out as a Flying Officer in early 1938 and was accepted on a short-service commission with the service. On the outbreak of war, he was serving with 54 Squadron, at that time still flying Gloster Gladiator biplanes. Having converted to Spitfires at the beginning of 1940, like most pilots he immediately fell in love with the pretty but lethal fighter and described it as "the most beautiful and easy aircraft to fly." In common with many Battle of Britain pilots, Deere first encountered the enemy over Dunkirk and during the French campaign. By 26th May 1940, Al had already shot down six German aircraft over France but two days later he was shot down for the first time during the war and after being knocked out whilst making a forced landing on a Belgian beach, was rescued by a British soldier and evacuated through Dunkirk (in common with some 338,000 others) and eventually returned to his base at Hornchurch some 19 hours after taking off. He was awarded the DFC in June 1940 for his actions during the French campaign. During the Battle of Britain, Deere was heavily engaged in the fighting, first in dogfights over the Channel defending Merchant Convoys and on 9th July, shortly after shooting down a Bf109, Al's Spitfire collided head-on with another Bf109 but he was able to nurse his fighter back to the Kent coast where he crashed. He was shot down three more times during the Battle of Britain, surviving each time and convincing himself that he had Nine Lives, which indeed became the eventual title of his autobiography. On one of these occasions he was shot down, he was taken to Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, the base of another celebrated New Zealander, the famous burns surgeon Sir Archibald McIndoe. Although Deere was not seriously injured, McIndoe recognised that he was terribly tired and in need of rest and tried in vain to persuade Deere to stay in hospital for a few valuable days recuperation. Deere would have none of it and discharged himself the following morning. However, such had been the strain not only on Deere but on the whole of 54 Squadron, that on 3rd September 1940, they were withdrawn from 11 Group and sent to 13 Group based at Catterick in Yorkshire to recover from their exertions. Three days later, Al Deere was awarded a second DFC for his efforts in destroying eleven German aircraft and sharing in the destruction of two further aircraft. Whilst in Yorkshire training new pilots, Deere suffered a further collision and used up another of his nine lives and as a result of this was rested from active flying, first as a ground controller and then being sent on a lecture tour of America to teach American fighter pilots the tactics used in winning the Battle of Britain. Later in the War, Deere engineered a return to active flying as Biggin Hill's Wing Leader and later as leader of the Free French Fighter Wing on operations over the beaches on D-Day. After the war, Deere remained in the RAF, not retiring until 1967 as an Air Commodore, before which he had led the surviving Battle of Britain pilots' flypast at the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill in January 1965. Al Deere passed away aged 77 on 21st September 1995 and following his funeral service, his ashes were scattered over the River Thames from a Spitfire of the RAF's Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

Les Munro (left) speaking to King George VI

There are many other New Zealanders that space does not permit more than a passing mention - Sir Howard Kippenberger, mentioned above - grievously wounded at Monte Cassino by a land mine, he recovered from losing both feet to mastermind the repatriation of the many New Zealanders liberated from German POW Camps. Les Munro, born in Gisborne in 1919, Les is still with us and is the last of the surviving Dambusters - the raid recounted here a few months ago which has entered British wartime folklore. Last but by no means least, the aforementioned Sir Archibald McIndoe, a civilian who became one of the pioneers of modern plastic surgery. McIndoe's burns unit at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead treated the terribly burned victims of the RAF during the Battle of Britain. He thought the World of "his boys" as he called his patients, and they in turn revered him, referring to him as "The Boss" or "The Maestro." 

To paraphrase Michael Savage, we have every reason to be grateful that New Zealand stood where we stood in the fight against tyranny.

Published Sources:

The Battle of The River Plate - Dudley Pope, Secker & Warburg 1987

Dambusters - Max Arthur, Virgin Books 2008

The Most Dangerous Enemy - Stephen Bungay, Aurum Press 2000

The Narrow Margin - Derek Wood with Derek Dempster, Tri-Service Press 1990

VCs of the Second World War - John Frayn Turner, Pen & Sword 2004

An Island under Siege: Malta, Pedestal and the 'Ohio'

The George Cross

Whilst we are currently basking in the success of Team GB in what is turning into a superbly organised Olympic Games, the name of the game for the Allied powers in August 1942 was survival. Nowhere was this more vital than on the beseiged island of Malta.

The island was not an easy place to defend. In fact, prior to the outbreak of war, the RAF had taken the view that the island was indefensible due to it's proximity to the Italian airfields in Sicily. This view was opposed by the Royal Navy, who felt that as Malta sat astride the supply route of a potentially hostile Italy to North Africa, it should be defended and reinforced as a naval base in order to project British sea power and to disrupt any potential enemy's supply lines. The RAF's view had prevailed in peacetime, probably due to the expedience that this view also saved money from the defence budget. Fortunately, when Winston Churchill came into office in May 1940, he took the opposite view and the defences were hastily reinforced with whatever resources could be spared.

In these early days, the fighter defence consisted of a flight of ancient Gloster Gladiator biplanes based at RAF Hal Far. Something of a myth has built up over the years that there were only three of these aircraft operational, which were named Faith, Hope and Charity. In fact, there were usually more than three aircraft operational at any one time time and these names were not applied until after the battle was safely won and were the names given to the three surviving aircraft. Despite their obsolete appearance, the Gladiators were able to match the Italian aircraft initially deployed but the weight of numbers would soon tell and the biplane fighters began to suffer in the war of attrition. Later in the battle, more modern Hurricane fighters were deployed to the island and by the time of the Pedestal convoy in August 1942, the fighter defences had been further reinforced by the arrival of modern Spitfire Mk Vc fighters under the overall command of Sir Keith Park, one of the victors of the Battle of Britain, during which he had been christened by the Germans "Defender of London".

However, we are going ahead too far and should explain the background further. Malta had been identified by the Italians as a potential invasion target in 1938 but their high command had decided that the losses would be too great. Once war commenced, Mussolini revived his hopes of invading the island; he also hope that Spain would enter the war, occupy Gibraltar and having sealed off the Mediterranean, could occupy Malta after it had 'withered on the vine.' 

Fortunately, this was not to be and by June 1940, Mussolini knew that he would face a fight to occupy the island. Aerial bombardment was his chosen method to soften up the defences and the civilian population. At first the air defences consisted of the ancient Gladiator biplanes mentioned earlier, quickly reinforced by the Hurricanes flown in from the aircraft carrier HMS Argus. Despite the terrible damage caused to Valletta, the RAF were able to tackle the attacking Italian aircraft with relative ease and soon submarines based on the naval base were beginning to become a thorn in the side of the convoys supplying the Axis forces in North Africa. This was compounded by the destruction of the Italian fleet at Taranto by carrier based aircraft from HMS Illustrious on 11th/12th November 1940. It was obvious that the Italians couldn't take Malta unassisted - enter the Luftwaffe.

The Afrika Korps had arrived in North Africa in February 1941 with the ultimate aim of expelling the British from North Africa, taking the Suez Canal and thus going on to capturing the Arabian oil fields. The Luftwaffe, charged with supporting the Afrika Korps and also destroying the British base on Malta, moved into the same Sicilian airfields vacated by the Regia Aeronautica. Once again, Malta was under siege and this time it looked as if the Germans might succeed where their Italian allies had failed. The war of attrition took a heavy toll; although the island began the siege with a healthy supply of food and essential materials, the supplies began to whittle away and with their more modern aircraft, the Luftwaffe began to achieve air superiority. The Hurricane fighters were no match on their own against the attacking German aircraft and outclassed by the latest Bf109F fighters especially. Conversely, the Royal Navy were using Malta as a base to launch submarine attacks on Axis supply convoys and wreaked a heavy toll of their prey. Malta was still a thorn in the side of the Axis but the civilian population especially were suffering from the incessant air raids and the vital supplies of food and fuel were beginning to run low.

By March 1942, the Luftwaffe's air superiority was beginning to be challenged; Spitfire fighters at last began to arrive on the island, ferried in by HMS Eagle and USS Wasp in repeated runs from March to May 1942. The arrival of the Spitfires coincided with the arrival of Keith Park and pitched against his old adversary from the Battle of Britain, Albert Kesselring, he once again gave him a beating by using the same tactics that he served so well in the dark days of 1940; meeting the attackers as far forward as possible and breaking up the attacks early.

HMS Eagle sinking after being torpedoed by U-73 (IWM)

Despite this turning of the tide, the supply situation on Malta was becoming desperate; the Axis were successfully targetting convoys and out of range of the defending Spitfires, the exacted a heavy toll of both the merchant ships carrying the supplies and the Royal Navy escorts. By the summer of 1942, it was decided to send a 'make or break' convoy to lift the siege. Codenamed 'Pedestal', the convoy consisted of fourteen merchant ships, heavily escorted by two battleships, three aircraft carriers, seven cruisers plus some twenty destroyers, many of which were diverted from the all important Western Approaches convoys. Amongst the vessels in the convoy was the tanker Ohio, American built but British managed and crewed under the command of Captain Dudley Mason, who at the age of 39, was the youngest Master in the Eagle Oil Company's fleet. Loaded with kerosine and fuel oil, she was the most important vessel in the convoy, containing the very life blood for the defending fighters and defending warships.

S.S. Ohio limps into Grand Harbour, Valletta (IWM)

The convoy sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar on 9th August and entered Gibraltar the next day under cover of thick fog. Sailing later on the 10th August, any hopes that the convoy may have been undetected were dashed when one of the escorting carriers, HMS Eagle, was torpedoed and sunk by U-73 with heavy loss of life. Whilst Eagle was being attacked, another carrier, HMS Furious successfully flew off another thirty seven Spitfires for Malta and her mission completed, returned safely to Gibraltar. On the way back, one of her escorting destroyers rammed and sank an Italian submarine, so at this early stage the honours were even. Later on 11th August, there were four heavy air attacks on the convoy and another of the escorting carriers, HMS Indomitable was temporarily put out of action. As the days wore on, so did the losses amongst the merchant ships and the escorts. The Ohio was a special target, for the Germans knew the importance of her cargo. Somehow, she managed to survive the attacks despite being torpedoed and bombed multiple times. Ship after ship of the convoy was sunk however and by the time the battered remnants of the convoy reached Grand Harbour on 15th August, just five of the original fourteen merchant ships were still afloat; amongst them and against all the odds was the Ohio, which limped into harbour lashed between two destroyers, her back broken but with her vital cargo still intact. As she discharged her cargo into two waiting empty tankers, she finally sank in two halves just as the last drops of fuel were discharged. The Ohio and the cargoes carried on the other four vessels gave Malta another ten week's worth of supplies and ensured that she could stay in the war. 

The shield of protecting Spitfires was able to keep the attacking Luftwaffe at bay and perhaps more importantly, from the naval base, the Royal Navy was able to wreak havoc amongst the Afrika Korps supply convoys and by September, entire Axis convoys were being destroyed, leaving Rommel desperately short of supplies with which to withstand the expected attack from the newly arrived British Eighth Army commander, one Lieutenant General Montgomery.

Operation Pedestal was a strategic victory for the Allies, although one achieved at an extremely heavy cost; it kept Malta in the war and provided a springboard for the British victory at El Alamein in November 1942 and ultimate Allied victory in North Africa. The people of Malta earned their George Cross, awarded for the highest acts of civilian bravery.

Published Sources:

A Sailor's Odyssey - Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, Hutchinson 1951

Engage the Enemy More Closely - Correlli Barnett - Hodder & Staughton 1991

Park - Vincent Orange - Grub Street 2001

Pedestal: The Malta Convoy of August 1942 - Peter C Smith, William Kimber 1987

Strike Hard, Strike Sure; The Bomber Command Memorial

Strike Hard, Strike Sure (all images author's photos)

On the 28th June last, Her Majesty The Queen unveiled the new Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park, near Hyde Park Corner. The memorial attracted much attention from some quarters, ranging from the location in one of London’s Royal Parks, to the design and size of the memorial and even after seventy years, as to whether Bomber Command should be commemorated at all, given the controversial nature in some people’s eyes of the tactics used by the Command in the area bombing of German cities, even though these were the same tactics as used by the Luftwaffe only on a much larger scale and which the Nazis would surely have replicated had they been in possession of the necessary equipment. 

RAF Bomber Command seemed to attract controversy almost throughout the War; at the beginning the Command was equipped with mainly obsolescent twin engine designs which were totally unsuited for the tasks given to them of bombing German industrial and military targets. One early attack on German warships at Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbuttel was particularly disastrous with almost a quarter of the twenty nine aircraft despatched being shot down and with the bombs nearly all missing their targets. Ironically, the only bombs to do serious damage fell on the Danish city of Esbjerg, some 110 miles off course, where the two innocent people killed paid testament to the lack of training and preparedness of the crews.

The training of the men was to improve and the quality of the aircrew assigned to Bomber Command was never in doubt. The road to getting better and more suitable bomber aircraft was a long and tough one however. To begin with, like the Luftwaffe, the British bombers were mainly twin-engine and obsolescent designs but unlike the Luftwaffe who were operating from captured airfields in their newly occupied territories in France and the Low Countries, Bomber Command had to travel over almost exclusively hostile territory in order to reach their targets. The Hampdens, Blenheims and Whitleys were completely unsuited to the task and the Wellington, whilst being an ingeniously designed aeroplane from the genius of Barnes Wallis, could not on its own deliver a worthwhile bomb load over these distances. To begin with though, these aircraft were all that there were and the men had to make do with what they had. 

The centrepiece of the memorial

In the early days of the ‘Phoney War’ and after the early fiascos described above, the Command had nothing more lethal to drop than leaflets but following the Blitz on British cities and the change of politcal leadership in Britain, a re-appraisal of the Command’s role took place. It was quickly realised that the original plan for daylight precision bombing was not viable given the equipment available and the level of the defences. It was quickly decided to switch to area bombing by night, where the bombers would be safer from the German defences. This was the same lesson that had been learned the hard way by the Luftwaffe. As the war went on, Bomber Command was to continue to learn and to develop and would quickly leave its German counterpart trailing far behind.

One of the first developments were the night navigation aids called ‘Gee’ and ‘Oboe’, which were both radio beam aids which greatly improved accuracy. The obsolete aircraft types were steadily phased out with new four-engine ‘heavies’ coming into service, first the Stirling which was frankly not a success, followed by the Halifax and the supremely successful Lancaster, which was to become synonymous with Bomber Command. The manpower was greatly expanded, with large numbers of Commonwealth aircrew coming into play, along with many other Allied airmen – Poles, Free French, Czech and many others.

Aircrew looking skywards

The greatest change in the Command’s fortunes came with the appointment of Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris as C in C of Bomber Command in early 1942. His appointment coincided with the Area Bombing Directive of 14th February 1942, which ordered Bomber Command to target German industrial cities and the morale of the civilian population. The Command began to go on the offensive; the first German city to feel Harris’s wrath was Lubeck, which was firebombed by a modestly sized bomber force in March 1942. This was followed by Operation Millennium, when the city of Cologne was overwhelmed by a massive one thousand bomber force, in which attack Harris gambled the entire force of Bomber Command on the night of 30th/31st May 1942. The effect was shattering; the German civilian population was never allowed to feel secure and city after city began to tremble under the weight of Harris’s bomber force.

One of the many personal messages

There were many setbacks of course; for one, the Battle of Berlin as Harris dubbed it, did not result in the end of the war as he predicted but in a horrific sort of stalemate in which huge swathes of the city were destroyed at a cost of the lives of thousands of British and Commonwealth airmen. Hamburg, Dresden and Kassel amongst other cities were laid waste. Marshal of the Royal Air Force, Sir Charles Portal, who as Chief of the Air Staff had been a leading advocate of area bombing, wrote post-war how he had visited Potsdam, a near suburb of Berlin and described how “Bert Harris removed the town of Potsdam in half an hour one night in April 1945.” So complete was the destruction that even Portal, a hardened airman well used to the horrors of bombing, was taken aback.

This victory of total bombing was not without cost; 55,573 British, Commonwealth and Allied members of Bomber Command died in carrying out their missions, as well as some 600,000 German victims of Allied bombing and 60,000 British victims of German air attacks. The controversy never left Bomber Command either; even at the time, there were those who questioned the morality of stooping to the same level as one’s enemy. After the destruction of Dresden, even Churchill began to distance himself from the policy of “bombing for terror’s sake alone” as he described it, although he was not responsible for the refusal of the incoming Labour government in 1945 to award a campaign medal for the “Old Lags” of Bomber Command as Harris had christened his ever-loyal aircrew. When he returned to power in 1951, Churchill made good his promise to honour Harris, who would accept nothing more than a Baronetcy and who would insist on wearing the Defence Medal, the same decoration as his men.

Lest we forget

Whatever the rights and wrongs and undoubted horrors of the Allied area bombing campaign, it was surely an outrage to continue to ignore the sacrifices made by the men of Bomber Command. Seventy years on, it looks as if no campaign medal will ever be forthcoming but at least the men now have a fitting memorial. Designed by Liam O’Connor, the striking memorial is built from Portland Stone and features as the centre piece a 2.7 metre high bronze statue, designed by Philip Jackson of seven bomber aircrew who have just returned from a mission and who are looking skyward, perhaps for their returning colleagues. The roof of the memorial is built from aluminium salvaged from a crashed Canadian Halifax bomber, discovered in Belgium (with the bodies of three aircrew still strapped in their seats) in 1997. The roof has been formed to evoke the Geodesic design of the famous Wellington bomber, a mainstay of the Command in the early years.

The memorial cost £5.6 million, which was raised by public donations as well as from substantial gifts from Lord Ashcroft, the businessman John Caudwell and from the late Robin Gibb, whose own father had served in Bomber Command. The result is a worthy memorial to the men of Bomber Command, as well as to the victims of all bombing during the Second World War.

When the memorial was officially unveiled by The Queen, some 6,000 surviving veterans and their families were present and no doubt many memories were rekindled during the course of the ceremony.

A glimpse of the roof formed from aluminium from a crashed Halifax bomber

When I visited the memorial a few days ago, I was extremely impressed by the design and execution of the monument, especially of the statue of the aircrew. I was also very moved by the many personal messages which had been placed at the feet of the aircrew and which made poignant reading, as well as reminding one that real people were involved here and that many memories still remain.

This is a fitting memorial, not only to the 55,573 brave men of Bomber Command but to all of the victims of bombing during the Second World War.

Lest we forget.

Published Sources:

Bomber Boys - Patrick Bishop, Harper Press - 2007

Bomber Command 1939-45 - Richard Overy, Harper Collins 1997

VCs of the Second World War - John Frayn Turner, Pen & Sword Military 2004

July during the Second World War

As we 'enjoy' our current wet summer, perhaps now is a good time to look back in history to see what was happening during the corresponding weeks during the Second World War. The month of July has always been one when the British civilian population at least, even in wartime, looked forward to some warmer weather and perhaps even a few precious days off. For those in the fighting services, wartime whether in July or December presented the same fears, trials and tribulations.

July 1940

Field Marshal Alanbrooke (courtesy IWM)

The first July of the War saw Britain at bay; her army, defeated in France had withdrawn across the Channel, culminating in the evacuation from Dunkirk which completed in early June and with further withdrawals from the Channel and Atlantic ports up until the middle of that month when France capitulated on the 18th June. The British Army, licking it's wounds was beginning the process of rebuilding and re-equipping following defeat in France. At this time, a then little known Lieutenant General by the name of Alan Brooke was the recently appointed Commander in Chief of Southern Command, the area likely to bear the brunt of the expected German invasion. Brooke was somewhat daunted by what he found; his diary entry for 2nd July, following a visit to the 50th Division in the West Country read "The more I see the nakedness of our defences, the more appalled I am! Untrained men, no arms, no transport and no equipment........The ghastly part of it is that I feel certain that we only have a few more weeks before the Boche attacks!"

Brooke, supported by his subordinate commanders including a certain Major General Bernard Montgomery was a superb trainer of men and as the weeks and months passed, he was to prove instrumental in rebuilding the Army and can indeed be justly described as one of the founders of the recovery of the British Army which was to return to Europe in triumph a little under four years later.

At sea, the Royal Navy continued with it's routine tasks around the globe. North Atlantic convoys to be marshalled and escorted across the 'pond', the Mediterranean to police and an as yet peaceful Far East to patrol. Often employed on unglamorous duties, the Royal Navy was solid and dependable.

In the air, this week saw the opening of what we now describe as The Battle of Britain, a conflict that was to last until the end of October 1940 and which saw the beginning of the Blitz against London and other British towns and cities but which was to ultimately represent the first meaningful of the Third Reich in battle and which was to ultimately avert any threat of invasion to this country due to the inability of the Luftwaffe to wrest command of the skies from the RAF. Without such air supremacy, any invasion fleet would have been blown out of the water by the Royal Navy. 

July 10th 1940 saw the opening skirmishes in the Battle; Channel convoys were attacked and seventy German bombers attacked Swansea and Falmouth, killing thirty people and causing damage to shipping, railways and a power station. A train was also strafed near Newhaven in Sussex, killing the driver and severely injuring the Guard. The losses on each side reflected what was to become the pattern of the Battle; thirteen German bombers were lost for the loss of six British fighters. We shall return to this epic battle in the weeks ahead.

July 1941

One year later saw Britain in a much stronger position, although still standing alone. Brooke was still GOC Southern Command. Although the threat of invasion had largely passed, Brooke was still determined to get the Army trained to the peak of it's abilities. He was also beginning to have his first encounters with Winston Churchill, something which was to become all too familiar for him in the coming years following his promotion to Chief of the Imperial General Staff or CIGS - the professional head of the British Army. In North Africa, the Army had enjoyed it's only true successes against the Axis but had already fallen back following the dilution of it's forces into the Greek and Crete campaigns and had fallen back to Sollum leaving Tobruk beseiged and beginning the British association with those place names from the North African desert which were to become so familiar with both public and military alike over the next couple of years - Sollum, Tobruk, Sidi Barani, Bardia and of course, El Alamein amongst others. 

HMS Hood

The Royal Navy had fought another major action in May of 1941 when the German battleship Bismarck had made it's brief foray into the North Atlantic, sinking the pride of the Navy, HMS Hood but herself being overwhelmed by the Home Fleet a few days later. In the North Atlantic, the convoy battles continued unabated, although July 1941 saw the British enjoying the fruits of the 'Ultra' decrypts of the German 'Enigma' code traffic and at this time were able to successfully re-route convoys around Donitz's Wolf Packs and keep merchant ship losses to a minimum.

The RAF, with the Battle of Britain safely won and with the commanders of that battle, Dowding and Park scandalously dismissed, were embarking on the disastrous policy of 'leaning towards the enemy' with huge fighter sweeps over occupied France, resulting in heavy losses and proving that the new commanders Sholto-Douglas and Leigh-Mallory had learned nothing from the experiences of the Luftwaffe only a year previously. Fighters flying over enemy territory which were lost meant almost certainly losing the highly trained aircrew as well as the aircraft. Aircraft could easily be replaced but replacing the men was a different matter. RAF Bomber Command was not yet really able to truly go onto the offensive; in July 1941, it's main operations were still mining German ports and attacking German shipping, usually with unimpressive results. It's day was still to come.

July 1942

Britain was no longer fighting alone and the Second World War had become a truly global conflict. Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbour on 7th December 1941 had brought the USA into the war. The subsequent loss of Singapore and Hong Kong as well as Britain's other possessions in the Far East had brought Great Britain into conflict with a new and even more unpleasant enemy than Nazi Germany. Somewhat bizarrely, Hitler declared war on the United States, thus ensuring ultimate Allied victory in the longer term. As with the beginning of the German war, this conflict also began disastrously for the Allies. When Singapore fell on 15th February 1942, the British and Commonwealth Armies lost 130,000 men as prisoners to the Japanese - the biggest disaster in British military history. The Americans had also suffered similar humiliating reverses in the Philippines, losing some 75,000 prisoners to Japanese captivity and with all the privations and brutality that went with it. 

The ruins of Cologne in 1945 (US Dept of Defense)

Russia had also been attacked by the Germans. Operation Barbarossa had commenced on 22nd June 1941 with the intention of invading Russia and taking them out of the war. Had this succeeded, the brief respite enjoyed by the British would have quickly ended, with the entire might and fury of the Nazis once again turned towards the west. It was therefore vital to keep the Soviet Union in the war and this meant keeping the Russians supplied. The Russian Convoys became a millstone around the necks of the Royal Navy as well as the merchant navies of the Free World. Convoy PQ17 was to become an infamous bloodbath, when the British Admiralty under the nit-picking direction of Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, ordered the convoy to scatter on 4th July 1942 due to faulty intelligence that German heavy units were at sea. This information was nonsense and the scattering of this convoy merely served up the vast majority of the convoy into the arms of the Luftwaffe and waiting U-Boats. Of the thirty six merchant ships that sailed from Reykjavik, Iceland on 27th June 1942, twenty three were sunk by U-Boat and air attack. Two more returned to Iceland, which meant that a mere eleven made it through to Russia. It was difficult enough to operate convoys through this part of the World when the daylight was permanent as it was at this time of the year but Pound's interference and faulty dispositions made this a shameful event in Allied naval history. As a result of this fiasco, the Russian convoys were to be suspended until the onset of darkness and it was not until September 1942 that the next Artic convoy was to set out. Future convoys were to be much more heavily escorted and the advent of the Escort Aircraft Carrier was also to help tip the scales in favour of the Allies.

By July 1942, RAF Bomber Command had a new chief. Sir Arthur Travers Harris, known to his aircrew as 'Butch' (short for Butcher) and to the public as 'Bomber' had assumed command in February 1942. He immediately changed the mindset of the Command by going onto the offensive and targetting German cities with the express aim of undermining the morale of the German civilian population. Lubeck had been the first German city to feel the Harris touch, when on 28th March 1942, the historic city centre perished in a firestorm. By 30th/31st May 1942, Harris had upped the stakes by unleashing the first 1,000 bomber raid on the city of Cologne. Germany was indeed beginning to reap the whirlwind and much worse was to follow for the German public in the months and years to come.

July 1943

By now, the Allies were firmly on the front foot in Europe at least. By the summer of 1943, the Axis forces had been cleared from North Africa and were looking forward to the invasion of Sicily. To try and throw the Germans off their guard, an ingenious if somewhat macabre scheme was hatched, which was called Operation Mincemeat, or perhaps better known as immortalised in the film 'The Man Who Never Was' in which the corpse of a fictitious 'Major Martin' was floated ashore in Spain from a British submarine. The body was loaded with fake documents which all pointed towards an Allied invasion of Sardinia, rather than the obvious choice of Sicily. It was a huge gamble but knowing that the Spanish regime was basically friendly towards the Nazis, it was a gamble worth taking. The Germans swallowed 'Mincemeat' and diverted vital Army units to face a non-existent invasion of Sardinia and whilst the invasion of Sicily was no picnic, many Allied lives were saved and the Allies had their foothold on mainland Europe.

The RAF's bombing offensive continued. The famous Dambusters raid had occurred in May 1943 but for the rest of Bomber Command, German cities remained the main target. In July 1943, 115,021 tons of bombs were dropped by the RAF alone on German cities. The USAAF added to the weight of bombs by daylight.

On the Eastern Front, the Battle of Kursk started on 5th July 1943 and was to ebb and flow until 23rd August by which stage both sides had fought themselves to a standstill. Kursk was to see the largest tank battle in history, with each side employing in the region of 3,000 tanks.

July 1944

The Normandy landings had taken place on 6th June 1944. Operation Overlord, the largest amphibious invasion in history. By July 1944, the Allied armies were still building up their strength and were in danger in becoming bogged down in the bocage country around Caen. Whilst ultimate Allied victory was probably never in doubt, the fear of the warfare becoming a static affair was always at the back of Allied minds. The ground commander, General Montgomery was coming under pressure for his perceived over-cautious approach. This pressure was not only forthcoming from some of his American colleagues but also from those on the British side who should have known better, some of whom like the airmen Tedder and Coningham were driven by an intense personal dislike of Montgomery. The British General was never an easy person to understand or to get along with and was by this stage of his career a hugely conceited character, although undoubtedly 'a winner'. It is to the immense credit of the Supreme Commander, General Eisenhower that he allowed Monty to continue in command, although his relationship with the British General was never an easy one. 

On the Home Front, the first V-1 Flying Bomb had fallen on the Capital on 13th June 1944. By July, despite improved countermeasures, they were still falling regularly on London. On 18th June, the Guards Chapel had fallen victim with the loss of 121 lives in the worst single incident involving these weapons. On 30th June another of these weapons had fallen in the Aldwych between Adastral House, home of the Air Ministry and Bush House with the loss of some 46 lives. It was clear that whilst the conventional Blitz was long over, London was being subjected to a new terror of 'robots' as these bombs became known. The capture of the Pas de Calais launch sites put paid to this threat in September 1944 but it had been extremely unpleasant while it lasted, with some 6,000 becoming victims to these weapons. Worse was to follow later in the year when the first of the V-2 rockets was to fall on London and this particular weapon was to blight London almost until the end of the war in Europe. On the Eastern Front, the Russian advance continued relentlessly, with the German Army Groups Centre and South being destroyed in the Lvov and Belorussian offensives.

At sea, the focus of the war in Europe remained the convoys across the Atlantic and to Russia and the U-Boats, although on the back foot, were far from defeated. The fleet facing the Japanese started to build and on 17th July, the submarine HMS Telemachus destroyed the Japanese submarine I-166 in the Malacca Straits. The submarine war in this theatre was the prelude to much wider ranging operations both in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific.

July 1945

The European War was over; Germany had unconditionally surrendered in May 1945 and the Allies were now faced with administering a ruined country and with the first murmurings of distrust within the great alliance with the Russians which was to culminate in the distrust and the eventual start of the Cold War.

On July 5th 1945, the first General Election was held in Great Britain for almost ten years. Winston Churchill, who had led the country to victory in the wartime coalition government was widely expected to be returned to power. The counting of the votes was an unusually protracted affair since the hundreds of thousands of servicemen's votes had to be returned to the UK for counting. However, when the count was complete and the result was announced on 26th July, Churchill had been voted out and the Labour Party under Clement Attlee had been voted into power in a landslide victory. The British people wanted change and no return to the social injustices of the 1930's and they saw Attlee rather than Churchill as the man most likely to introduce these changes and to bring Britain into the modern age.

Churchill had been attending the Potsdam Conference, the final meeting of the so called "Big Three" and had returned home for the result, no doubt expecting to return to the conference shortly afterwards. It was not to be and Mr Attlee was to take his place as Prime Minister alongside Harry Truman, himself newly installed as American President following the passing of Franklin Roosevelt and Soviet leader Josef Stalin. This Conference was to shape postwar Europe and the administration of Germany for the next 45 years.

In the Far East, the war against the Japanese continued and was expected to continue for possibly another two years, culminating in a conventional land invasion of mainland Japan, which had it occurred, would have cost the lives of many hundreds of thousands of Allied servicemen. The Atomic Bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were to dramatically shorten the war by avoiding the need for an invasion. The 240,000 civilian casualties as a direct result of the bombs as well as the many thousands of subsequent deaths from radiation burns and other related illnesses are the subject of another debate.

Rangoon had fallen to the British Fourteenth Army in May and the remainder of Burma was liberated by the end of July. The final campaign in the Tenasserim Province cost the Japanese ten thousand troops at minimal cost for the British. The next stage of the campaign was to have been an amphibious assault to re-take Malaya but once again, the Atomic Bombs forestalled this, although the operation, codenamed 'Zipper' was still undertaken post-war as the quickest method of occupying Malaya.

At sea, the East Indies and British Pacific Fleets were in the thick of the action and although the latter fleet tended to be overshadowed by the vast American effort in this theatre, it was nevertheless the largest fleet ever put together by the Royal Navy and acquitted itself was great distinction. On 17th July, the British Pacific Fleet, aka Task Force 37 was operating as part of the US Third Fleet, attacking airfields and shipping north of Tokyo and would be at the forefront of the action right up until the Japanese surrender on August 15th and beyond.

So, as we can see the month of July throughout the Second World War was often the backdrop for momentous events in history. Obviously a blog such as this can merely scratch the surface in describing the events mentioned above. To study them in more detail, the following source reading is recommended.

Printed Sources:

The Black Bull: From Normandy to The Baltic with 11th Armoured Division - Patrick Delaforce, Alan Sutton Publishing, 1993
Bomber Command 1939-45 - Richard Overy, Harper Collins, 1997
Decision in Normandy - Carlo D'Este, Penguin,  2001
The Forgotten Fleet - John Winton, Douglas-Boyd, 1989
Hitler's U-Boat War - Clay Blair, Cassell, 2000
The Narrow Margin - Derek Wood with Derek Dempster, Tri-Service Press, 1990
War Diaries 1939-45 Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke - Alex Danchev & Daniel Todman (ed.), Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001
The War at Sea - John Winton (ed.) - Hutchinson, 1967