With Wings Like Eagles (34 page)

Note: Entries in this index, carried over verbatim from the print edition of this title, are unlikely to correspond to the pagination of any given e-book reader. However, entries in this index, and other terms, may be easily located by using the search feature of your e-book reader.

Aéro-Club de France, 50

Air Council:

and aircraft design, 52, 84

and aircraft production, 131

and aircraft speed, 49–50

and air defense strategy, 117

and aviation fuel, 74–75

bombers vs. fighters debate, 48–49

Dowding’s opponents on, 33–34, 38, 39–40, 47, 159

and French demands for help, 102, 103

and German war preparation, 55

Air Defence of Great Britain (ADGB), 15

Air Ministry:

and air defense, 48, 117, 208–9, 210–12

and big wing controversy, 253

and bomber production, 26, 35, 49, 132, 133

on deterrence, 27

doubts of, 3, 125

and fighter plane production, 49, 53–56, 57–58, 68, 151

and night bombing, 238

and pilot training, 210–12

and political infighting, 138, 151, 178, 253, 257, 287, 290–92

and rearmament, 30, 34

Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), 133

Aitken, Max, 132

American Revolutionary War, 84

Auden, W. H., 232–33

Avro Lancaster, 25

Bader, Douglas, 179–82

and big wing formation, 182, 236, 252–53, 257, 262, 265, 276, 290

and Dowding, 192, 291

and Duxford Wing, 262, 265, 276

injury of, 180–81

and Leigh-Mallory, 181–82, 236, 265, 291

movie about, 180

personal traits of, 179, 180

as POW, 185–86

Baels, Lillian, 109n

Baldwin, Stanley:

and abdication crisis, 21–22, 31

on bombers vs. fighters, 3, 18, 20, 22, 27–29, 42

career of, 30, 31

and Churchill, 23–24, 26, 29, 31

political traits of, 21–23, 30

and radar, 16n

and rearmament, 23-24, 28-31, 41, 56, 168n

reputation of, 21, 48, 287

in the years between the wars, 3, 21–23, 26–31, 42

Barratt, A. S., 101, 102, 104, 115

Battle of Britain:

August 15, 187–203, 240

August 16-17, 205–12, 240

August 18, 212–36, 240

August 19-23, 239–41

August 24-27, 241–53, 256

August 30-31, 253–55

Blitz, 75, 166, 232, 240, 281, 283, 284

and British morale, 207–8, 232–35, 249, 262–64, 272, 274

British victory in, 281–82, 286

changing tide of, 256–58, 275

civilian deaths in, 199, 239–41, 243, 258, 270, 283

fighters vs. bombers in, 4, 125

first skirmishes in, 77–82, 125–28

name of, 1–2

official history of, 298

paintings of, 188–89

revisionary history on, 3, 145, 146, 286–87

in September, 255–66, 272–82

spectators of, 231–33

unsung heroes of, 75n

weather delays of, 164–66

Battle of Britain Day, 2, 282

Bayerische Flugzeugwerke, 67, 68

and Messerschmitt merger, 66;
see also
Messerschmitt

name of, 72n

Beaverbrook, William Aitken, Lord, 27, 130–34, 136, 147–48, 168, 209, 211, 231

Belgium:

air war over, 76

German invasion of, 13

German occupation of, 121

Luftwaffe
bases in, 77, 94, 129

pleas for help from, 105

surrender of, 106, 108

Bell, Gertrude, 110

Betjeman, John, 234

Biggles tradition, 35

Blake, Mindy, 194

Blavatsky, Madame, 298

Boelcke, Oswald, 186

Boitel-Gill, Derek, 194

Bomber Command:

aircraft of, 25, 26, 90

fighters vs. bombers debate, 4, 19, 26–29, 34, 40, 287

and French demands for help, 101–2

and strategic bombing, 101–2, 106–7, 108, 113, 166, 245–47, 256, 284

in the years between the wars, 4

Boulton Paul design, 79–80, 150–51

Bracken, Brendan, 130, 131, 238n

Brand, Sir Christopher, 228

Brauchitsch, Walter von, 8

Brickhill, Paul,
Reach for the Sky,
180

Bristol Blenheim bombers, 25, 101, 239

Britain:

abdication crisis in, 21–22, 23, 31

aircraft speed in, 49–52, 55

air defense of, 27, 31–32, 38–39, 40, 44–48, 94, 95, 102–4, 105, 114–19, 124–26, 128–30, 208–9, 210–12, 255

appeasement policy in, 4, 42, 287

class differences in, 59–62

conscription in, 19

economic impoverishment of, 285

fighters vs. bombers debate in, 3, 4, 18, 19–20, 22, 24, 26–29, 34, 39, 40, 42, 48–49, 106–7, 125, 287

French alliance with, 94, 95–96, 99–107

German plans for invasion of, 4, 5, 8–9, 122, 134–36, 231

grouse-shooting season in, 158

industrial production in, 124, 130, 131–34, 146, 151, 167–68, 211, 231, 287

materiel needed by, 109, 123–24, 285

Ordnance Survey maps of, 167

and peace at any price, 5–6, 78, 135, 136, 152, 198, 246

preparations for invasion of, 22, 122, 141–44, 264