With Wings Like Eagles (42 page)
Read With Wings Like Eagles Online
Authors: Michael Korda
Tags: #History, #Europe, #England, #Military, #Aviation, #World War II
*I am indebted to Alfred Price’s
The Battle of Britain: The Hardest Day
for his detailed, minute-by-minute account of the battle of August 18, both in the air and on the ground.
The Battle of Britain: The Hardest Day
for his detailed, minute-by-minute account of the battle of August 18, both in the air and on the ground.
†The
Luftwaffe
mostly used standard German bombers, as well as the Bf 110 twin-engine fighter, for photo reconnaissance, but there is some evidence that they had also been using, over England, the futuristic, high-altitude, diesel-powered Ju 86 P, which flew at over 38,000 feet, well above the reach of British fighters, and carried two cameras, each weighing nearly 200 pounds, and a crew of two in a pressurized cabin.
Luftwaffe
mostly used standard German bombers, as well as the Bf 110 twin-engine fighter, for photo reconnaissance, but there is some evidence that they had also been using, over England, the futuristic, high-altitude, diesel-powered Ju 86 P, which flew at over 38,000 feet, well above the reach of British fighters, and carried two cameras, each weighing nearly 200 pounds, and a crew of two in a pressurized cabin.
*The possibility that the Sector operations room at Kenley might be destroyed had led to the preparation of an “alternative site” in a vacant butcher shop in nearby Caterham, on Caterham High Street, less than a mile from Kenley. It had been chosen because it was directly over the GPO’s main underground telephone cable for the entire area.
†Others included the “sticky bomb” to be thrown or launched at enemy tanks (not a success), and the “proximity fuse,” which exploded an antiaircraft shell when it passed near an enemy aircraft, and which would turn out to be one of the Allies’ most significant “wonder weapons” of the war.
*As late as 1943 RAF Bomber Command, despite the help of radar and “Pathfinder” Mosquitos laying a flare path to the target, was still capable not merely of missing a specific target but of hitting the wrong city (see
Bomber
, by Len Deighton). The same was true of the USAAF bomber force, which in broad daylight managed to bomb Schaffhausen, in neutral Switzerland, twice, in 1944 and 1945.
Bomber
, by Len Deighton). The same was true of the USAAF bomber force, which in broad daylight managed to bomb Schaffhausen, in neutral Switzerland, twice, in 1944 and 1945.
*“There’ll always be an England/And England shall be free/If England means as much to you/As England means to me.”
*The legend that eating raw carrots improves night vision came about in part as a propaganda cover story invented to conceal the existence of AI—a small radar set mounted in an aircraft. Raw carrots were placed conspicuously on the table at every meal for night fighter pilots, and the story about their effect on eyesight was skillfully spread by the Ministry of Information—so skillfully that parents today are still urging children to eat carrots. The famous night fighter ace Squadron Leader John “Cat’s Eyes” Cunningham was said to eat them in large quantities, but whether he did or not, the truth was that even Cunningham never managed to achieve a single kill at night until he began flying a twin-engine Beau-fighter, with a radar operator and a working AI set.
*It was for this reason that the planners of Overlord (formerly Round-Up), the Allied invasion of Europe in 1944, chose mid-May as the date. Eisenhower postponed the invasion to mid-June because of the shortage in landing craft, and would have been prepared, but reluctant, to postpone until mid-July; but he regarded the weather and the decreasing daylight hours as making even the first week of September undesirable. As it was, even in mid-June the weather was bad enough to make the Normandy invasion one of the riskiest operations in military history.
*A more sensible use for Bomber Command might have seemed attacking the
Luftwaffe
airfields in the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, but the bombers had no way to find them by night, and no way of defending themselves effectively over enemy-held territory by day.
Luftwaffe
airfields in the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, but the bombers had no way to find them by night, and no way of defending themselves effectively over enemy-held territory by day.
*“Something else” would prove to be Rommel’s attempt to take Egypt and the Suez Canal, and the German invasion of the Soviet Union, intended to remove from the playing board Britain’s last potential European ally (although it was not initially an ally the British particularly sought out or valued).
*An intriguing event was the capture of a German soldier dressed in civilian clothes and carrying a loaded pistol, a wireless set, a Swedish passport, and a forged British identity card; he had been dropped by parachute to report on the extent of damage to British airfields.
*It would be dwarfed in 1942 when Air Chief Marshal Harris launched Millennium, the first 1,000-bomber raid, on the cathedral city of Cologne.
*The volunteer firemen were often men who were medically unfit for the armed services. In the West End, as Evelyn Waugh pointed out, they included, among many others, a unit of book publishers, and famous poets, sculptors, novelists, and painters. Post-debutante volunteer drivers in the Motor Transport Corps helped remove the dead and wounded from the East End; these volunteers included Kay Summersby, who would later become General Eisenhower’s driver and confidante, and the author’s stepmother, Leila Hyde.
*Although both Heinkel and Junkers had produced a successful prototype four-engine bomber by 1937 (known as the
Uralbomber,
since it had to be capable of bombing beyond the Ural Mountains), the project fell victim to internal squabbles in the
Luftwaffe
high command, and to Göring’s insistence on aircraft that could be produced in large quantity at once. With stronger engines, either of these prototypes would have given the
Luftwaffe
the equivalent of the American B-17 or the British Lancaster.
Uralbomber,
since it had to be capable of bombing beyond the Ural Mountains), the project fell victim to internal squabbles in the
Luftwaffe
high command, and to Göring’s insistence on aircraft that could be produced in large quantity at once. With stronger engines, either of these prototypes would have given the
Luftwaffe
the equivalent of the American B-17 or the British Lancaster.
*The RAF had prudently set up special burns units in anticipation of such casualties. The presiding genius of burn rehabilitation was the plastic surgeon Archibald Mclndoe, of Queen Victoria Hospital, in East Grinstead.
*The
Luftwaffe
was not alone. British bombers in 1940 were inadequate, the Defiant was a disaster, and the RAF would have no specially built night fighter until later in 1941.
Luftwaffe
was not alone. British bombers in 1940 were inadequate, the Defiant was a disaster, and the RAF would have no specially built night fighter until later in 1941.
*George VI—like his father, George V (and unlike his older brother, Edward VIII)—took a personal, proprietary interest in the opinions and careers of his senior officers. Because he had been educated as a naval officer (and had fought at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 as a midshipman), this was an area in which the king was never a rubber stamp for his prime minister, and had strong opinions and preferences of his own.
*The tradition was eventually altered in 1945 because the newly elected Labour government was unwilling to raise Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, the outspoken commanding officer of Bomber Command, to the peerage. A peerage might have implied their approval of the bombing of Dresden, among other things. The goverment raised him to the rank of Marshal of the Royal Air Force instead.
†Leading Churchill to minute Sinclair, “This is not a good story…. The jealousies and cliquism which have led to the committing of this offence are a discredit to the Air Ministry”(Gilbert,
Finest Hour
, page 1061).
Finest Hour
, page 1061).
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