Wragg - Fighter Operations in Europe and North Africa: 1939-1945

First published in Great Britain in 2012 by
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Copyright David Wragg, 2012

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Contents

List of Plates

Acknowledgements

In researching and compiling any such book as this, an author is heavily dependent on the help and assistance of many others. In particular, I am grateful to the Sound Archive and Photographic Archive teams at the Imperial War Museum.

This book looks at just one aspect of the Second World War in the air so cannot cover every inch of ground, and for those whose appetite is whetted by this book, I would draw their attention to the bibliography at the back. There are accounts of the war in the air from every perspective, including the all-important personal accounts, as well as volumes of sheer factual matter.

David Wragg
Edinburgh
June 2011

Glossary

AA Anti-aircraft fire

AA Co-operation Exercising with AA units, providing target tugs, simulated attacks etc.

AAEE Aircraft and Armaments Experimental Establishment

AASF Advanced Air Striking Force

ACM Air Chief Marshal

ADGB Air Defence of Great Britain (a name used until the command structure was introduced in 1936, but adopted by RAF Fighter Command later in the war)

AEAF Allied Expeditionary Air Force

AI Airborne Interception (radar)

Air Cdre Air Commodore

Angels Altitude, with Angels 20 meaning 20,000 feet

AOC Air Officer Commanding

AOP Air Observation Post artillery spotting for the Army

ABC Airborne Cigar radio-jamming device

AM Air Marshal

ASR Air-Sea Rescue, now known as SAR, search and rescue

ASV Air-to-Surface Vessel radar

Army Co-operation AOP duties, tactical reconnaissance and close support

AuxAF Auxiliary Air Force (not Royal until 1947)

AVM Air Vice-Marshal

BEF British Expeditionary Force

Boozer Anti-fighter radar warning device used on bombers

CAS Chief of the Air Staff

Circus Fighter escort for daylight bombers

Clarion US plan to disrupt German communications

Corona False orders broadcast to German fighters by aircraft of the RAFs 100 Group

Crossbow V-weapon countermeasures

DAF Desert Air Force

DR Dead Reckoning navigation

Erk Airman below the rank of corporal

ETA Estimated Time of Arrival

FAA Fleet Air Arm

1st TAF Allied First Tactical Air Force

Fishpond Bomber anti-fighter radar warning device

Flak AA fire ( Fliegerabwehrkanonen )

Flt Lt Flight Lieutenant

Flt Sgt Flight Sergeant

F/O Flying Officer

Gardening Aerial mine-laying operations in coastal waters and in German ports, rivers and canals

Gee British radar navigating device

G-H British blind bombing device using signals transmitted from ground stations

Glycol Aircraft engine coolant

Grand Slam 22,000-lb earthquake bomb

Grp Capt Group Captain

HCU Heavy Conversion Unit

H2S RAF radar navigation and blind-bombing aid

Husky Allied invasion of Sicily

IFF Identification Friend or Foe transmission to British radar screens

Mandrel Swamping of German radar by 100 Group

Monica Fighter warning device fitted to RAF bombers

Newhaven Pathfinder codename for H2S combined with visual support

Nickel Name for RAF propaganda leaflet-dropping operations over Germany

Oboe British blind-bombing device fitted to Pathfinders

OTU Operational Training Unit

Overlord Normandy landings

Paramatta Pathfinder codename for target fixing using Oboe

P/O Pilot Officer

Pointblank June 1943 directive from the Allied Combined Chiefs of Staff for a Combined Bomber Offensive

PRU Photographic Reconnaissance Unit

RAAF Royal Australian Air Force

Ramrod Strafing fighter patrol

Razzles Incendiary bomb for igniting forests and crops

RCAF Royal Canadian Air Force

Rhubarb Fighter-bomber mission

RNZAF Royal New Zealand Air Force

R/T Radio/Telephone, i.e. voice rather than Morse

SAAF South African Air Force

SASO Senior Air Staff Officer

SBA Standard Blind Approach

SCU RAF Servicing Commando Unit

2nd TAF Allied Second Tactical Air Force

SHAEF Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force

Sqn Ldr Squadron Leader

Tallboy 12,000lb earthquake bomb

Thunderclap Allied plan to deliver overwhelming assault on major German cities

Tinsel Jamming of German fighter communications by radio operators on RAF bombers

Torch Allied invasion of Vichy French North Africa

USAAF United States Army Air Force

VCAS Vice-Chief of the Air Staff

Wg Cdr Wing Commander

Window Tinfoil strips used by British bombers to confuse German radar

Wingco Wing Commander (slang)

W-Mines Air-dropped mines for use against locks and canal traffic

W/T Wireless Transmission using Morse rather than voice

Introduction

There was no such thing as a phoney war for airmen, with early reconnaissance, mining and bomber missions by both sides in the months that preceded the German invasion of first Denmark and Norway and then the Low Countries and France. Nevertheless, there were distinct phases to the war in the air, as elsewhere. The early aerial combats as fighter pilots struggled to contain the German raids on the Home Fleet at Roysth and over France were as nothing compared to the Battle of Britain, when the Luftwaffe set out to destroy the Royal Air Force.

The phoney war was a British concept, something the Germans more aptly described as the Sitzkrieg or sitting war. For the Luftwaffe, of course, the war had started a couple of days earlier with the invasion of Poland, and for them it was a burst of activity in the east followed by a relative lull in the west until the invasion of first Denmark and Norway, and then a month later of the Low Countries and then France.

That first winter of war was also far from peaceful. It marked the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland as the Russians sought to regain a country that had achieved independence during the Russian Civil War. Soviet might faced Finnish resistance, and while some territorial concessions were made by Finland to ensure peace, there could be no doubt that the Soviet military had failed in its objectives. Stalins purges of senior officers in the armed services during the late 1930s were to haunt him and impair the ability of the Soviet armed forces in the severe challenges that lay ahead as the Second World War developed.