Adrian Phillips - Rearming the RAF for the Second World War: Poor Strategy and Miscalculation

REARMING THE RAF FOR THE SECOND WORLD WAR

A detailed and highly readable account of how the RAF became obsessed with the bomber in the decades before the Second World War, yet even after six years of continual expansion, Bomber Command was unable to mount a credible offensive against Germany in 1940. Adrian Phillips skilfully uses archival sources to show how the clash of personalities inside Whitehall combined with false orthodoxies within the Air Ministry to leave Britain with no counter to Hitlers Luftwaffe except, almost by accident, the Spitfires and Hurricanes of Fighter Command.

Brett Holman, author of The Next War in the Air:

Britains Fear of the Bomber, 19081941

A compelling, sometimes shocking and always thought-provoking description of what happens when blind prejudice, bureaucratic infighting and ill-formed theories are allowed to determine defence policy, equipment procurement and the security of the nation.

Robert Lyman, author of A War of Empires:

Japan, India, Burma & Britain, 194145

POOR STRATEGY AND MISCALCULATION

ADRIAN PHILLIPS

First published in Great Britain in 2022 by

PEN AND SWORD HISTORY

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Adrian Phillips, 2022

ISBN 978 1 39900 624 8

eISBN 978 1 39900 625 5

Mobi ISBN 978 1 39900 625 5

The right of Adrian Phillips 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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For Jessica, William and George

The term type is used to refer to a distinct model of aircraft, such as Hawker Hurricane. The term class refers to all aircraft designed to meet a specific requirement, such as fighter. At the start of the 1930s the RAF used the term heavy bomber almost as a synonym for night bomber. Otherwise, there was no distinction between the missions of the different classes of bombers: they were all intended to attack the enemys cities; the distinction between strategic and tactical bombing only became current after the period covered by this book. When the designation heavy bomber re-emerged to apply to the Short Stirling, this referred to its size and bombload; it was to do the same job as the medium bombers that were being designed at the same time the Halifax and the Manchester and the older medium bombers, the Battle, Blenheim, Hampden, Whitley and Wellington. Only in retrospect did the Battle and the Blenheim become labelled as light bombers, in the case of the Battle after the type had been withdrawn from combat service.

The term Air Staff had no precise definition but embraces the RAF officers based at the Air Ministry in London, especially the most senior who were the service members of the Air Council, the RAFs governing body. The most senior was the Chief of the Air Staff (Air Chief Marshal Sir Cyril Newall) who had an unusually wide remit that included direct charge of the Plans, Operations, Intelligence and Signals departments. In 1939 his colleagues were the Air Member for Personnel (AVM Portal), the Air Member for Supply and Organization (AVM Welsh) and the Air Member for Development and Production (Air Marshal Sir Wilfrid Freeman) and the Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (AVM Peirse). The Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (AVM Sholto Douglas) was not a member of the Air Council. The air ministers also sat on the council as did the Ministrys head civil servant, but he had little influence on policy.

This section aims to provide sufficient information to situate individuals within the narrative of the book.