Battle of Britain

Don't forget the role German ineptitude played in this. Switching back to saturation bombing over cities being a key mistake when they could have erased fighter command.

We must honour them:

thanks for posting ! pilots from the Empire were a crucial part of the Air War.

Why didn't the Germans just rush in full force? Instead of attacking neutral USSR, knock out Britain first and then got after Russia.

I fully agree.
And all those from non-Empire countries who played their part too. How many know that there were around five-ten thousand Germans I think it was, who served in the UK forces rather than side with the Fuhrer?

One such I knew, a German Jew, who recently passed on - great gentleman, RIP - and had served with distinction as a Major in The Green Howards - I knew he had been in the British Army, but with typical understatement of his generation never told me of his rank.

He became a pillar of the local community in East Kent where he settled and was also Chairman of The Anglo- European Chamber of Commerce with an office in Frankfurt.
I got to know him through my associations with the world famous Romney Hythe and Dymchurch minature railway in Kent when he was one of the directors.

While on the continent I stopped off for a charity concert given by The Grenadier Guards Band in Bruges Belgium- at that time a good friend of mine was a senior nco musician ( tuba and cello) with them- and he met up with us, having had dealings organising their programme. The GG by the way, have connections with Bruges going back to Charles the First. And their Bruges visit was in connection with an anniversary of that.

And how many are aware that on July 3rd 1940, just as the B of B was getting underway Churchill made " The most hateful decision, the most unnatural and painful in which I have been concerned " to destroy the French Navy in port at Mers-el-kebir in French Algeria, rather than let it fall into German hands?

At that time the French fleet was the second largest in Europe: the French had already signed an armistice with Germany that had them in charge of Northern France, with Vichy France in charge of the South and the French Colonial Empire.

It was called Operation Catapult and resulted in the deaths of almost thirteen hundred French sailors and over three hundred injured, some dying later.
The British offered the French favourable terms beforehand in the circumstances, but they by all accounts refused although it appears there were some misunderstandings between both sides on this. An irony is the top commanders of both fleets were good friends- this was also the case between two opposing British and German naval commanders, although off hand I can't remember which ships, so much so they used to visit each other and their families before the war.

Controversial as it was, and it still rankles in France today all these years on, the action at Mers-el-kebir convinced a sceptical America and others that the UK meant business in standing up to Hitler no matter what the cost- the lease lend started shortly afterwards.

Destruction of the USSR was much more important for Hitler, because of both ideological reasons and their ideas of building the future empire, with lots of space for German race's expansion. Besides, Hitler and Goering were taking so much drugs daily, it's surprising they didn't consider war with their own pillows a number 1 priority.

i do not think there are any feature films about the sinking of the French fleet

pilots on both sides of the conflict used a little help to get them through the battle:

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/05/pilots-salt-the-third-reich-kept-its-soldiers-alert-with-meth/276429/

https://masterbombercraig.wordpress.com/avro-lancaster-bomber/lancaster-crews/wakey-wakey-pills/

The Hurricane was somewhat dated even at that time, being a development of the Hawker Fury biplane but its strengths outweighed its weaknesses- it could withstand tremendous punishment and could more often than not be patched up and repaired for another day when a Spitfire with different air frame construction would have to be written off. And as I said previously, could be rearmed in less than half the time of the Spitfire.

By the way, how many know that a later version of the Rolls Royce.engine (The Nene) was sold to the Soviet Union after the war " for civil purposes only" only to.be used against us by the communists in their MIG 15 fighter during the Korean War ?
It would be interesting if any German readers of the SR amongst us have any say on the subject.

Indeed. And Polish pilots remarked that Hurricane was a revelation for them.
PZL fighters were considered one of the best fighters in the world in the early 30ies, but they were not properly updated because of the lack of funding and the death of their constructor. By 1939 they were totally obsolete and while pilots did score some imressive achievents, they remarked it was a hard work to do anything against Bf 109 in PZL and in the end the German would get you anyway.
Hurricanes were like a dream super-fighters for them.



That's a quite well known story that is often ridiculed.

the single seater fighter Messerschmidt Bf109 originally used Rolls Royce Kestrel engines

Thanks for that. I read or heard about it before, but had forgotten.

Interesting that Reginald Joseph Mitchell, designer of the Spitfire, started off as an engineering apprentice at the Kerr Stuart railway locomotive works with most of his academic attainment being done at night school.
Kerr Stuart also produced other notables such as L.T. C. Rolt, prolific author, pioneer railway and canal preservationist, (I've read some of his books) also T.C.Coleman, Sir William Stanier's Engineering Chief's right hand man on the former London Midland and Scottish Railway.

The famous ellipical wings used were designed by Canadian aerodynamicist Beverley Shenstone, the monocoque fuselage construction- still used today- first being developed in the USA.
Like most brilliant designers, Mitchell wasn't blind to recognising good ideas in others- on the same theme, Sir Nigel Gresley, designer of the Flying Scotsman and Mallard steam locomotives, had no hesitation in both using - with due recognition - the best of others such as streamlined steam passaging flow dynamics developed by another legendary designer in his field, Andre Chapelon of the SNCF ( French railways), and the Lemaitre exhaust system developed by Belgium locomotive engineer Maurice Lemaitre.

Sadly both Mitchell and Gresley, who were ahead of their time, died early and at the peak of their careers.

i guess that Rolls Royce spares were hard for the Luftwaffe to source after 1939

Destruction of the USSR was much more important for Hitler, because of both ideological reasons and their ideas of building the future empire, with lots of space for German race's expansion. Besides, Hitler and Goering were taking so much drugs daily, it's surprising they didn't consider war with their own pillows a number 1 priority.

Looks like drugs won the war.

An interesting aside. Goering (having his whopping DHC addiction) was aggressively weened off it by the Americans when they caught him. It had the unfortunate side effect in significantly improving his mental acuity. Making his defence at Nuremberg extremely impressive.

As to your point there though, drugs have always played an exceptionally central role in warfare (as they do today) think of the german use of 'stukka tablets' and 'tank chocolate' to keep the war running. Say what you will on 'winning' anything but they certainly extended it a bit by amping up the troops fighting abilities.

Looks like drugs won the war.

Was it not Rudyard Kipling, whose imperialism put even Churchill's in the shade, say that " Words, are of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind" ?
His views were tempered somewhat following the loss of his son in WW1 after using his influemce to get him a commission in The Irish Guards " Tell them they died, because their Fathers lied".