Park

Marshal of the RAF, Lord Tedder, credited one man in particular for winning the Battle of Britain: Sir Keith Park.

Park was a New Zealander, drawn to Europe by the First World War. He served in Gallipoli and on the Western Front from 1915-1916. He saw warfare at its grimy, fearful worst as a lowly infantry man. He also forged the leadership skills that he would call on in the coming decade.

He recalled his Anzac Commander, Sir William Birdwood and tried to follow many of his precepts: attention to detail, regular tours of inspection, indifference to personal danger and the ability to relax without cheapening authority.

He transfered to the fledgling Royal Flying Corps and was a highly accomplished pilot, ending the war as an ace.

He spent the inter-war years as a diplomat and served as a flight commander on No. 25 Squadron from 1919 to 1920 before taking up duties as a squadron commander at the School of Technical Training.

As commander of 11 Group during the Battle of Britain, he was responsible for the air defence of London and South-East England. He combined his thorough understanding of aerial warfare with inspired tactical decisions.

Terry Smith, chairman of the Sir Keith Park Memorial Campaign, writes: “While Sir Hugh Dowding controlled the Battle from day to day, it was Keith Park who controlled it hour by hour”.

Air Vice-Marshal ‘Johnnie’ Johnson, one of the top Allied air aces of the war, said: “He was the only man who could have lost the war in a day or even an afternoon”.

Wave after wave of German bombing sorties met with stubborn resistance from the fighter squadrons under Park’s command and, by mid-September, it was clear that Britain’s defences had held and Hitler was forced to abandon the planned invasion of Britain. Prime Minister Winston Churchill said “never… was so much owed by so many to so few”. It was Keith Park who led “the Few”.

Preparing a defence

“If ever any one man won the Battle of Britain, he did. I don’t believe that it is realised how much that one man, with his leadership, his calm judgment and his skill, did to save not only this country but the world.”

Marshal of the Royal Air Force
Lord Tedder, GCB, KCB, CB
February 1947

Letter from Sergeant David Denchfield

A letter, written by Sergeant David Denchfield of 610 (County of Chester) Squadron, is the heart of Westhampnett at War.

Denchfield describes life at Weshampnett and his crash and capture on 5 February 1941. The letter is too long to quote fully, but a few excerpts offer the atmosphere:

“I was on readiness, when mid-morning the Commanding Officer popped his head into ‘B’ flight to say ‘released from 13:00 to 9:00 tomorrow morning’. As we all gave vent to various sounds of appreciation, he then smiled and said ‘that’s after we get back from St.Omer. Take off at 12:00’.

***

There followed a fairly basic briefing. We would follow 302 to Rye, climb up through the 10/10th cloud to about 15, 000 ft and join up with the 7 other fighter squadrons, where we would be top but one (having Tangermere’s 65 above us). The whole shooting match would then escort 12 Blenheims to St Omer, where they would cause great alarm and despondency with their 250lb bombs.

***

We broke into brilliant sunshine and climbed to our angels 15, by which time we were orbiting Rye and waiting for the off. The strange thing was, I could see no aircraft above us. Weirdly the cloud over England ended at the coast in an almost vertical cliff edge, leaving the skies over the Channel and France completely cloudless.  The Channel to the east looked ridiculously narrow and the skies over the snow clad French landscape were broodingly ominous. As usual, the sun glare out of the clear blue made looking to the southeast difficult. God only knows what nasties were moving into its hidey-hole and as we circled Rye for a good 5 minutes at least, we certainly gave them plenty of time to get ready for us. I guess, like me, that the others had their gun sights switched ‘on’, their gun firing buttons turned to ‘fire’ and their hoods slid back for better visibility…and I bet they were sweating cobs too.”

The story continues with an attack that riddles his Spitfire with bullets, mangling the port wingtip and draining the fuel tank. He drops to 6,000 feet, sees the Channel and watches the retreating Blenheims pass overhead, on their way home and “going like the Devil.” He realises that he won’t make it back to England and with the cockpit full of fuel, it’s impossible to put the plane down. He bales out, losing his boot in the process and ends up in a coverless field in France. Within moments, he is confronted by German officers:

“…as I stood up the one with the gun said ‘For you the war is over’ (and I thought they only said that in things like ‘Hotspur’ and ‘Magnet’. We live and learn.)

It was all very friendly and we walked as a small group down to the opening they’d come through…We got into the Ford V8 they’d arrived in and drove, perhaps 400 yard to where the remains of my poor ‘P’ were smoking.

…we drove to the airfield at St Omer [where] a load of about 12 Luftwaffe pilots came to attention in front of me and then saluted. Of course I had to reciprocate. At that time there was a fair degree of mutual respect between us, mirroring WWI.

Anyway, I was treated with extreme courtesy…I was introduced to the pilot who had shot me down, Major Oeseau, who became one of the top scoring pilots before losing his life in 1944. We spoke for a couple of minutes and then I signed his cigarette case for him to have engraved over.”

He then relates his transfer to a Polish POW camp for the remainder of the war and sadly recalls that of his immediate friends, none lasted past September 1941.

Denchfield himself survived. His family returns to France every year to visit the grave of his friend, Billy Raine, who was killed only 5 miles from where his own Spitfire went down.

The book includes a photo of Denchfield in 2009, neatly dressed in a cardigan, walking stick in hand, leaning on the wing of Goodwood’s Harvard. He looks quite tough and like a bit of a trouble maker- somebody’s slightly cantankerous grandfather.

After all that happened, not only does he willingly record it in a letter for publication but happily re-visits the airfield and gets back into a plane. I wonder what makes the difference between a war story that is re-told a thousand times and one that is never spoken.

Westhampnett at War

Westhampnett at War is researched and written by three current pilots who fly out of Goodwood.

It’s an attentively compiled book with good, original sources. I particularly appreciated the inclusion of several pilots’ letters, which I’ll quote in a separate entry.

The authors’ review of the airfield is mainly delivered through descriptions of key squadrons who were based there. This provides detailed information, but perhaps lacks the narrative drive of an account delivered by a professional writer. There were a few instances where I was desperate to grab a red pen and thrash a bit of life into the copy.

As a reference point though, it’s very useful for painting a picture of Goodwood’s transformation from a graceful country estate into a mucky airfield.

I was struck by the level of discomfort that they lived in (camping out in barns in the middle of winter and struggling through mud and snow to attend to their planes).

The list of references and websites give helpful leads for anyone wishing to delve further (particularly into the famous 610 Squadron).

This is an earnestly written book, which is surely driven by keen interest and a wish to ensure that “the contribution made by those who worked and flew from here should never be forgotten” (143).  I admire the effort of the authors and recommend the book- although if possible, read the book first and then visit Goodwood. With a bit of knowledge in hand, the remaining landmarks and existing airfield take on a whole new life.

Group boundaries

Chain Home radar cover, bases and group boundaries. Image from Wikipedia

Goodwood to Westhampnett

Having gathered an excellent oversight of the Battle of Britain from Bungay, I decided to unpick particular threads from the story and look at them from different angles, including:

• Biographies (of pilots, commanders-in chief etc)
• Locations and individual squadrons (particular airfields)
• Autobiographies

I settled on an investigation of 11 Group.

11 Group’s most famous period was during the Battle of Britain when, due to its position along the south coast, it  bore the brunt of the German aerial assault. Their sectors stretched from Debden (North East of London) to just beyond Portsmouth in the West.

During the ‘Phoney War’ (the months following Britain’s declaration of war on Germany  in September 1939 and preceding the Battle of France in May 1940) it was figured that 12 Group (whose territory covered England’s East coast) would face the most difficult fight. Once France had fallen and the Luftwaffe had established themselves in the North of the country, the route to London and many other important targets, instead took the battle directly to 11 Group. Pilots posted to these squadrons knew that they would be sent into certain action.

In contemplating this fragment of history, I started with a particular airfield.

Westhampnett in West Sussex began as an emergency landing field for the sector station at Tangmere. It became an important airfield in its own right and was a base for 41 permanent squadrons between 1940 and 1946.

Although not the most famous airfield, it has a very unique attribute, which couldn’t help but catch my attention: it still exists. So many former airfields are now boarded up, sold off or converted into museums- but Westhampnett is populated with a buzzing, active aerodrome. Part of the lovely Goodwood Estate, the sky is full of planes and pilots. New aviators gain their wings through the Flying School and hangarage and maintenance are provided for many aircraft.

Of course they are there under very different auspices from 1940, but it’s marvelous to contemplate the neatly kept grass runways , to listen to the rattle of props firing up, to watch a succession of planes departing out across the Channel. I’m trying to figure it out definitively, but by my reckoning, it is the only active Battle of Britain airfield that remains on the south coast.

A bit of imagination brings the past to life and that makes Goodwood such a fascinating stop on this journey.

Reading list

I started reading about the Battle of Britain over Christmas. A combination of heavy snow (trapping us in our cottage and leaving plenty of time for reading) and a series of documentaries led me to Stephen Bungay’s The Most Dangerous Enemy.

I listened to an interview with Bungay and thought him a curious and clever fellow.

The book is a terse and well-paced account, anchored with a deep bibliography and lively narrative style. You have to appreciate a book that titles its first chapter ‘The Reason Why’. I wasn’t thinking of reviewing it as I read it and I won’t crawl backwards now to give an account from memory. There’s plenty of comment on Amazon, which I think will give you the idea. Instead, I’ll just say that it is worth reading.

The Battle of Britain obviously doesn’t cover the precise period and geography that I’m looking at, but it’s such a dramatic place to begin. It introduces the characters (Park, Dowding, Douglas, Harris, Kesslring…) that I’ll need to learn so much more about.

It’s also an uplifting story to position against the darker tale of Bomber Command. The glory and the heroism of this brief battle have such a different character from the long, bleak raids over Germany with their burned out cities and horrifying losses.

I was talking to a pilot who has taken many veterans for flights in his historic aircraft. He has a collection of photos of bright eyed gents, well into their 80s, beaming away as they take their turn in the cockpit. He cheerfully explains that German pilots sometimes join them and they all have a pretty jolly reunion. But then he says:

“Although I took one guy, who had flown Dorniers, for a trip over Bath. As we approached, he started to cry and asked me to turn back. It’s just not on. Hated that. It wasn’t right…” His voice trails off and he looks away.

“Few events in history, and almost none in the history of warfare, are so uplifting and life enhancing as the story of the Battle of Britain. No battle has benefitted so many at the cost of so few. Few battles have ultimately proved to have such positive consequences for the defeated. Looking back over the century whose course it so decisively determined, hideous epoch though that century may have been, one can feel justified in saying that the Battle of Britain was one of humanity’s finest hours.”

-Stephen Bungay

Because they never spoke about it

This blog is the record of a journey to fill in the blanks.

I can already see from other blogs, posts, threads, forums (or is that fora?) that this is a routine trek. It starts with a box of papers, an executor opening a long lost file, an anxious grandchild suddenly fascinated with the questions that they never thought to ask.

My task begins with a conversation.

“My grandfather flew Wellingtons in North Africa. But that’s about all I know. He never spoke about it to me.”

“Did he kill anyone?”

“I guess that’s possible. I don’t know.”

“It’s pretty common. The ones who killed people don’t usually want to talk about it.”