Battle of Britain, 1940: The Finest Hour's Human Cost

313 Pages·2020·28.622 MB·English

by  Dilip Sarkar MBE

BATTLE
OF
BRITAIN
1940
To all who lost their lives during the ‘Finest Hour’
BATTLE OF BRITAIN 1940
THE FINEST HOUR’S HUMAN COST
Dilip Sarkar MBE FRHistS
BATTLE OF BRITAIN 1940
The Finest Hour’s Human Cost
First published in Great Britain in 2020 by
Air World
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
Yorkshire – Philadelphia
Copyright © Dilip Sarkar, 2020
ISBN 978 1 52677 593 1
eISBN 978 1 52677 594 8
Mobi ISBN 978 1 52677 595 5
The right of Dilip Sarkar to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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Contents
Foreword
Prologue
Author’s Note & Glossary
Chapter One Sergeant P.S. Hayes
Chapter Two Pilot Officer J.R. Hamar DFC
Chapter Three Pilot Officer C.A. Bird
Chapter Four Subedar
Chapter Five Flying Officer R.S. Demetriadi and Flight Lieutenant W.H. Rhodes-Moorhouse DFC
Chapter Six Pilot Officer M.A. King
Chapter Seven Flying Officer F. Gruszka (Polish)
Chapter Eight Sergeant G.R. Collett
Chapter Nine AW1 E.L. Button & AC1 J.J. Jackson
Chapter Ten Flight Lieutenant P.S. Weaver DFC
Chapter Eleven Wing Commander J.S. Dewar DSO DFC
Chapter Twelve Douglas Cruikshank & Margaret Moon
Chapter Thirteen Pilot Officer R.F.G. Miller
Chapter Fourteen Pilot Officer P.M. Cardell
Chapter Fifteen Oberleutnant L.S. Stronk
Chapter Sixteen Pilot Officer H.I. Goodall & Sergeant R.B.M. Young (NZ)
Chapter Seventeen Sergeant P.R.C. McIntosh
Chapter Eighteen Pilot Officer H.W. Reilley (Canadian)
Epilogue
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Other books by Dilip Sarkar
Foreword
As a small boy, I was fascinated by stories of the Battle of Britain, with models of Spitfires and Hurricanes hanging from my bedroom ceiling, daily
engaged once more in defending our nation from invasion. How could I have ever imagined that many years later I would have the immense
privilege of counting members of Churchill’s ‘Few’ as friends. As an RAF Chaplain I had long been involved with Battle of Britain events, but nothing
could surpass being with ‘The Few’ at Memorial Day at Caple Le Fern, or Battle of Britain Sunday at Westminster Abbey.
Now those models on my ceiling had become real men, real heroes, claiming to be ordinary men and yet having done extraordinary things. It is all
too easy to think of the ‘great names’ whose stories are recounted, but as Dilip Sarkar so skilfully reminds us in this book the Battle was fought and
won by more than just those featured in the headlines.
In my growing relationship with ‘The Few’, (as Chaplain to the Battle of Britain Fighter Association) I learned so much from these ‘ordinary’ men who
counted themselves not as heroes but as having simply done their duty. However, I also learned of the ‘Human Cost’ amongst those we call ‘The
Few’ – hence why I am delighted that this book deals with this difficult and challenging theme.
To those of the Few who survived, the heroes of the Battle were those whose names are inscribed in The Battle of Britain Roll of Honour - which
until recently those august survivors escorted in to the Abbey on Battle of Britain Sunday. Now, their successors, todays fighter pilots, represent
them as they parade the Roll of Honour - a book of names, which is an aid to remembrance, but behind every name is an ever-increasing circle of
those who are part of the Human Cost of such a Battle. Parents, wives, children, friends, colleagues all pay the cost when someone they love dies
in conflict, and they do not forget. Neither should we.
This book helps us to do exactly that, by going behind the names, giving these men back their story. Dilip Sarkar’s meticulous research puts both
the ordinariness and extra-ordinariness of these men centre stage. He captures something of their personalities, their skill, and sense of duty and
this helps us remember ‘The Few’ as they were. History is not just about events. It is also about people - and people are my business - and this is a
book about people.
For anyone who is interested in the Battle of Britain, it is a ‘must read’ for it goes beyond the strategy and those wonderful aircraft to reveal the
‘Human Cost’.
It is a book that is long overdue, and I am grateful for the opportunity in writing this foreword to once again say ‘Thank you’ to those we call the
‘Few’ and ‘ who by their valour and sacrifice did nobly save their day and generation’.
The Venerable Ray J Pentland CB
Honorary Chaplain to The Battle of Britain Fighter Association
Group Captain Patrick Tootal OBE DL RAF (Ret’d)
Honorary Secretary
Battle of Britain Fighter Association
Battle of Britain Memorial Trust
The Venerable Ray Pentland and the author at Wing Commander JFD ‘Tim’ Elkington’s Memorial Service, 11 May 2019.
Group Captain Patrick Tootal with the author and Martin Mace of Frontline Books/Pen & Sword, at the opening of Nicolson House in Southampton,
commemorating Flight Lieutenant James Brindley Nicolson VC, on 19 October 2018.
Group Captain Patrick Tootal OBE DL, a former Hercules pilot now Honorary Secretary of the BoBFA and BoBMT - whose father was sadly a
wartime pilot killed on operations with Bomber Command (Patrick Tootal).
Prologue
The time will come when thou shalt lift thine eyes
To watch a long-drawn battle in the skies;
While aged peasants, too amazed for words,
Stare at the flying fleets of wondrous birds.
England, so long the mistress of the sea,
Where wind and waves confess her sovereignty;
Her ancient triumphs yet on high shall bear
And reign, the sovereign of the conquered air.
The remarkable thing about that verse is that the English poet Thomas Gray wrote it in 1737 ( Luna Habitabillas ), 166 years before the Wright
brothers made the world’s first powered flight.
Eleven years after Orville and Wilbur first flew, a German airship dropped the first bomb on England – from which point on, warfare would never be
the same again. To aircraft over-flying conventional ground and sea-borne forces, the actual front line was not a restriction; the reach of air power
was limited only by an aircraft’s range. Consequently, civilians on the Home Front found themselves very much in the line of fire, and no longer
could Britain rely upon being an island for defence. Gray’s, then, was quite some prophecy, one which became a traumatic reality for the British
people in 1940.
On 1 September 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, subsequently ignoring an ultimatum issued by Britain and France to withdraw. Two days
later, Britain and France declared war on Hitler’s Germany. Geographically, however, the western powers were not positioned to provide practical
military support, and, inevitably, Poland was both first to fight and fall. There then followed a lull in which little happened. The Soviets finally
overwhelmed the Finns, U-Boats continued attacking Britain’s North Atlantic shipping, but elsewhere the ‘Phoney War’ persisted. With the
exception of the Czechs and Poles, by early 1940 few people had so far unduly suffered from the conflict.
Britain’s wartime leader, Winston Churchill, who mobilised the English language and, amongst others, coined the phrase ‘Finest Hour’ in his speech
of 18 June 1940.
In early April, Hitler attacked Denmark and Norway, drawing Anglo-French forces into a hopeless campaign in inhospitable terrain. A month later
came the long-expected attack on Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and France, Germany taking the Allies completely by surprise with Blitzkrieg
tactics. Indeed, this remains one of the most unanticipated and shocking victories in history. On that fateful day, 10 May 1940, Winston Churchill
succeeded Neville Chamberlain as Britain’s Prime Minister – and lost no time pointing out to the House of Commons that all he could offer at that
perilous and uncertain time was ‘blood, tears, toil and sweat’.
On the continent, highly mobile Panzer divisions negotiated the supposedly impassable Ardennes, outflanking the Maginot Line, paralysing the
Allied command system and cutting off the British Expeditionary Force in a pocket around Dunkirk. The Luftwaffe enjoyed complete aerial
superiority over the battlefield, making this lightning advance to the Channel ports possible. While the subsequent evacuation of over 330,000
Allied troops from the flat beaches around that French port was propagandised as a glorious victory, in reality the Fall of France was catastrophic.
On 10 June, Italy’s Mussolini declared war on the Allies, extending the conflict to the Mediterranean and North Africa. When France asked for an
armistice shortly afterwards, Hitler hoped that Britain would do likewise. On 4 June, however, Winston Churchill had made Britain’s stance clear:-
‘Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous states have fallen, or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious
apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall
fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in
the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender.’
Although it has been convincingly argued that Britain stood on the shoulders of its Empire and Commonwealth, in military terms Britain really was
alone – and only its shores, not those of Commonwealth or Empire nations, were within range of German bombers and threatened by invasion.
America, still smarting from casualties suffered during the still recent First World War, although largely sympathetic, steadfastly pursued its policy
of Isolationism from events in Europe. Given Hitler’s breathtaking military success to date, there was little beyond Churchill’s stirring rhetoric to
suggest that David would beat Goliath in the battle ahead.
An iconic image of the ‘Finest Hour’: St Paul’s during the Blitz .
After the Fall of France, described by Churchill as ‘a colossal defeat’, there was a further lull, while Hitler made plans and regrouped. The Führer
now considered an unanticipated opportunity: a seaborne invasion of southern England. Hitler’s infamous Directive Number 16 stated his aims: -
‘As England, despite her hopeless military situation, still shows no sign of willingness to come to terms, I have decided to prepare, and if necessary
to carry out, a landing operation against her. The aim of this operation is to eliminate the English motherland as a base from which war against
Germany can be continued and, if necessary, to occupy completely.’
After his unprecedented victory on the continent, Hitler was presented with the unexpected opportunity to invade Britain – and issued orders for
this on 16 July 1940. Deputy Führer and Luftwaffe chief Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, tasked with achieving aerial superiority, was sublimely
confident, expecting Britain to last only ‘two or three weeks’.
Thirteen divisions of the German army, each some 19,000 strong, moved to the Channel coast as the vanguard of a landing force comprising
thirty-nine divisions. Plans were made to disembark 125,000 men in Kent and Sussex during the first three days of the proposed invasion,
codenamed Operation Seelöwe (Sealion). To transport this force across the Kanal , the German navy assembled a makeshift invasion fleet of 170
large transport vessels, 1,500 barges, and several hundred tugs, trawlers, motor boats and fishing smacks. As the Kriegsmarine was hopelessly
inferior to the Royal Navy in warships of every category, the German service chiefs agreed that the operation could only succeed if the Luftwaffe
controlled the skies before the invasion fleet set sail. Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring was supremely confident: ‘My Luftwaffe is invincible… And
so now we turn to England. How long will this one last – two or three weeks?’