Saturday, June 4, 2022

The Day of the Eagle, Prelude

Smoke rising from the London Docklands after the first mass air raid on the British capital, September 7, 1940.
(Source)
Assistant Section Leader Janice Worthington, the left side of her face still heavily bandaged, was looking over the shoulder of one of her operators. A raid was forming over France, a big one. She notified her superior who nodded and said, "Nice work ladies."

The word passed up the chain of command and out to the sector stations within minutes. There were a number of raids forming up out across the Channel. One of the station commanders turned to his flying counterpart and said, "If they hit our airfields again, I don't think we'll make it through. It's been a hard pounding."

Wing Commander Johnnie Fairfax nodded grimly, "Remember what the Duke said - 'Hard pounding this, gentlemen; let's see who will pound longest.' My chaps are still game, but they are getting damned exhausted."

"No chance of being pulled back for rest and refit?"

"None, the Huns have been pressing us damned hard. If we could get those fellows in 12 Group to cover our bases while we're up, it would make things a damned sight easier. But Leigh-Mallory keeps prattling on about his bloody 'Big Wing.' By the time they get their squadrons up and formed, the bloody Huns are back in France having bloody lunch."

Group Captain Tommie Johnson nodded, "Well, we'd best get cracking, good luck to your chaps today."


Oberleutnant Johannes Boden was now a Staffelkapitän, losses were increasing, he was beginning to wonder if Göring planned to keep throwing his bombers against the English in this slapdash manner. Bombing airfields one day, harbors the next, then factories. Boden had nearly lost his mind the week before when his target was given to him. A bomber factory ...

He wondered if anyone in Berlin had any idea what was going on out here. Göring had ordered the fighter squadrons to stay with the bombers. Boden could look around outside his cockpit and see Bf-109s weaving above them, like race horses chained to a herd of cows.

Some of his colleagues thought this was a splendid idea, "Keeps the lads' morale up to see the fighters nearby!" one lieutenant had argued. It was a waste of breath to point out that with the fighters tied so closely to their bombers, it took away their initiative, now they couldn't act aggressively, they could only react to the moves of their opponents.

His men also knew that the higher ups were lying to them about British fighter losses, just last week he had heard a quip from a man in another bomber unit, "Oh look, here come the last fifty Spitfires in Britain!"

In reality, the numbers of fighters the British could put up stayed about the same, What was more worrisome is that the number of Spitfires was increasing, some were even armed with cannon now.


"What are they doing, Janice?" Peggy Waltham was watching her scope. She could recognize from her display, primitive as it was, the rough size of a raid and, knowing the locations and aircraft compositions of the German bases, the types of aircraft could be assumed. She also knew that in one direction, were fighter bases, along another vector were bomber bases. It looked as if the fighters weren't coming ahead of the bombers, but were going to be flying with the bombers.

"It looks as if the fighters are babysitting the bombers. I'd say that was a mistake." Janice lifted the phone to report theirs suspicion. The man on the other end didn't think much of the idea, in fact, he said, "I doubt that old Göring is that stupid."

But he was.


Flying Officer Reginald Morley was in the sky, patrolling along the coast near Hastings. Three Vics of Hurricanes were all that his squadron could put up. They had plenty of aircraft and, on paper, plenty of pilots. But Morley had made the decision to leave the new pilots on the ground.

"There's no point in getting them killed Skipper." He had put his hands on Squadron Leader Hartley's desk and leaned in.

"Watch yourself Reg ..."

Standing up again, and struggling to control his voice, Morley spoke in a calmer tone of voice. "Look Skipper, the Huns will make mincemeat of these new lads. The most experienced of them has precisely fifty minutes in the Hurricane. Fifty minutes!"

Hartley sat back and rubbed his jaw, turning his chair he looked out at the dispersal area, then he spoke, "You take the experienced lads up for the next scramble, I'll take the new lads into the interior to see how they handle their aircraft, give them some more training."

"Thanks Skipper, but ..."

"Enough Reg, we need the numbers. I hate to say it but if they die, they die. But they have to fly missions, and soon. The WingCo has been on my arse about it, for now, I'll take care of it."

So here they were, the best remaining nine pilots. According to ground control his nine lads were up against a formation estimated to be at least a hundred strong.

Nine against a hundred.


Feldwebel Leo Habicht looked up from his maps, "We should sight the coast any minute, Herr Oberleutnant ..."

Bombardier Leutnant Philip Scholl came over the intercom, "Aircraft ahead, look like Tommies."

Boden sat straighter and tightened his harness, "All right lads, look alive. No doubt the coast is under those Tommies. Leo, nice navigating."

"Danke Herr Oberleutnant¹, but truth be told, I'd rather be in Düsseldorf right now, sipping an Altbier." Habicht stowed his maps and began to ready his gun.

"Ich auch, Junge, ich auch."


As the Luftwaffe approached the coast of England, and the Royal Air Force prepared to meet them, the men of the German high command held their breath. This was the toss of the dice, could the airmen subdue the RAF? This was the grand attack which had been postponed multiple times due to weather.

It was now or never for the German Air Force. Adlertag, Eagle Day had arrived.

The players are on the stage, ready to play their parts.

The curtain is rising.




¹ Thank you, Lieutenant. (German)
² Me too kid, me too. (German)

44 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. I had to come back, and add a HISSSSS!

      Delete
    2. StB #1 - The reason I'm not a big Douglas Bader fan.

      Delete
    3. StB #2 - Well, Leigh-Mallory was a snake in the grass.

      Delete
    4. The way he lost his legs, by flathatting showing off, cost any respect I would ever have had for him.

      Delete
  2. The Big Day.......now I'm trying to remember when the finger-four was adopted by the RAF. Take it easy on the eye Sarge.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Some squadrons went ahead and adopted that during the Battle. Not until 1941, after the Battle, did it become widespread. It wasn't until 1942 that the RAF officially adopted it and added it to the training manuals.

      Bureaucrats, sigh ...

      Delete
  3. Yes, do make certain to heal and recover; we'll be here.
    So...Morely is up in O'Donnell's new "kite"? Those daunting 9:100 odds are made better by the shift in Luftwaffe tactics; still, there's only so much ammo...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The eye is healing nicely, Doc gave me a thumbs up as to progress on Friday.

      Yes, O'Donnell has a new kite, he lets Morley fly it. 😁

      Delete
    2. BG - Don't you just "love" the way Google changed things? 🤬

      Delete
    3. I don't "love" the way gulag does anything
      BG

      Delete
  4. When your ranks are questioning the information they are getting from the higher ups about losses (or anything else really, in the civilian world) it is not a good sign.

    I have probably zero sense of Hermann Goring as a commander - was he that inept?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Göring was a terrible leader, more interested in his own comforts than his Air Force. He was, in my book, a completely useless individual. So yeah, completely inept.

      Delete
    2. Goring was heavily addicted to Morphine at this time.

      Delete
    3. True, which didn't help his naturally lazy, indolent way of doing things.

      Delete
    4. Thank you. Morphine did show up in the Wikipedia article.

      Delete
    5. He got hooked on it after being wounded in the Beer Hall Putsch.

      Delete
  5. Replies
    1. Hard to believe but yes. They had hours of training in trainer aircraft but often only a single familiarization ride in the type they would fly in combat. When they joined their operation squadrons they could take-off, fly in formation, and land. That was the extent of their training. It wasn't just losses of pilots via wounding and death, many of the pilots were exhausted beyond belief, flying multiple combat missions per day. So they had to skimp on training to get more pilots to the squadrons.

      Delete
    2. Wow, that's like eating your seed corn... tough times. Ever see any numbers on how the 'less than an hour in type' pilots did?

      Delete
    3. Haven't seen the numbers for this specific battle, but in general, even with well-trained pilots, if you survive your first five missions, then you should be okay.

      Many were lost in those first five though, far too many.

      Delete
    4. That's why Polish pilots were so effective, not only Poland had excellent training before war, they had combat experience of two campaigns by now, and burning desire for revenge. Hope to see 303th Sqn in action too

      Delete
    5. Not sure if we'll get to 303 Squadron. But yes, the Poles were well-trained, experienced, and very motivated.

      Delete
  6. 50 minutes? Is that artistic license or did you find that somewhere? (I suspect the latter). Holy Cow! I remember my first flight in the Eagle. I was so far behind the aircraft it wasn't funny. And I had close to 2000 hours of flying time by then. Plus Simulator time in the Eagle. Not only would the Germans have them for lunch, getting off the ground would probably do a couple in. A slightly battle damaged fighter with one of them would probably be lost also. I knew things were bad, but...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did read that somewhere. Things were bad for both sides, it really was a case of which side could outlast the other.

      Delete
    2. We were apparently paying attention. A USN nugget would have had 600 flight hours, including 200 in type of front line plane he would be flying, before being assigned to a squadron.
      Of course, it helps to enter the war two years later, and be 90° from the war to get your training in.

      Delete
    3. Time is always a factor. Sometimes there just isn't enough.

      Delete
  7. I will add one thing about keeping fighters close or letting them roam the best solution was Both. But it was only Allies late war that had enough planes for that

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Within visual distance, flying as high cover with the bombers in sight, sure. But side by side, nope, removes all possibility of the escorts acting decisively. Gotta hit the bad guys before they get in shooting range. So ranging ahead is good, relatively close is also good, too close and you surrender the initiative.

      Delete
  8. "Where are the reserves?"
    "Sir, there are no reserves."
    Every 13 August I watch The Battle Of Britain and thank God for both The Few and Churchill.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Seem to remember that the P51's of the Checkertails would stay with the bombers right through the flak on the bomb run. Their proud boast was that they never lost a bomber they were escorting from an enemy fighter...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why follow them into the flak? German fighters avoided the flak as well. Not a valid story in my estimation. Too dangerous for the fighters as well.

      Delete
  10. My mother and grandfather were seated on 7 September 1940 in the West Stand of the Boleyn Ground watching West Ham United. My mother recalled seeing a mass of 'flying ants' in the far distance and then clouds of smoke far of in the distance. The Air Raid Warning was being sounded so they left the football ground and returned home. The smoke in the East was the result of the Luftwaffe bombing of the oil refineries in the Thames Estuary about 40 miles away.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, witnesses to history. Must have been scary though.

      Delete
    2. My grandparents and mother's homes suffered from bomb damage on two occasions during the Blitz, and subsequently by a V1 and then a V2. My father served in the Merchant Navy and two of his ships were sunk by German U-Boats.

      Delete
    3. The sailors of the Merchant Navy were unsung heroes of the war. Especially on the Murmansk Run!

      Delete

Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

NOTE: Comments on posts over 5 days old go into moderation, automatically.