John Terraine - The Right of the Line: The Role of the RAF in World War Two

The Right of the Line

By the same author

MONS: THE RETREAT TO VICTORY (1960)

DOUGLAS HAIG: tHE EDUCATED SOLDIER (1963)

THE WESTERN FRONT (1964)

GENERAL JACKS DIARY (1964)

THE GREAT WAR: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY (1965)

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LORD MOUNTBATTEN (1968, reissued 1980)

IMPACTS OF WAR 1914 AND 1918 (1970)

THE MIGHTY CONTINENT (1974)

TRAFALGAR (1976)

THE ROAD TO PASSCHENDAELE (1977)

TO WIN A WAR (1978)

THE SMOKE AND THE FIRE (1980)

WHITE HEAT: THE NEW WARFARE 191418 (1982)

The Right of the
Line

The Role of the RAF in World War Two

John Terraine

It was entitled to hold, and did hold, the right of the
line in the great struggle for human freedom.

J.M. Spaight: Air Historical Branch Monograph, The
Expansion of the RAF, 19341939)

Pen & Sword
MILITARY

First published in 1985 by Hodder and Stoughton Ltd
Reprinted in this format in 2010 by
Pen & Sword Military
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire S70 2AS

Copyright John Terraine, 1985, 2010

ISBN 978 1 84884 192 5

The right of John Terraine 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

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including
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Contents

Between pages 124 and 125

Sir Edward Ellington, GCB, CMG, CBE

Sir Cyril Newall, GCB, OM, GCMG, CBE, AM

Gloster Gladiator

Avro Anson

Short Sunderland

Supermarine Spitfire

Lockheed Hudson

Bristol Blenheim

Sir Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt, GCB, GBE, CMG, DSO, MC

Armstrong Whitworth Whitley

Between pages 220 and 221

Sir Arthur Barratt, KCB, CB, CMG, MC

Westland Lysander

Sir Hugh Dowding, GCB, GCVO, CMG

Filter Command temporary filter room

Station Operations Room

Sir Douglas Bader, CBE, DSO, DFC, with Canadian pilots

Sir Keith Park, GCB, KBE, MC, DFC

Sir Trafford L. Leigh-Mallory, KCB, CB, DSO

Between pages 316 and 317

Sir Frederick Bowhill, GBE, KCB, CB, CMG, DSO

Sir Philip Joubert de la Fert, KCB, CB, CMG, DSO

U-boat attacked

Photo-Reconnaissance

Consolidated Liberator

Sir John Slessor, GCB, DSO, MC

Between pages 412 and 413

Sir Richard Peirse, KCB, CB, DSO, AFC, with HM Queen Elizabeth

Sir Arthur Harris, GCB, OBE, AFC

Vickers Wellington

De Havilland Mosquito

Avro Lancaster

Wing Commander Guy Gibson, VC, DSO, DFC

RAF aircrew member interrogated

Between pages 508 and 509

Sir Arthur Longmore, GCB, DSO

Middle East dust-storm

Sir Arthur Tedder, GCB, Sir Charles Portal, KG, GCB, OM, DSO, MC, Sir Harry Broadhurst, GCB, KBE, DSO, DFC, AFC and Sir Arthur Coningham, KCB, KBE, CB, DSO, MC, DFC, AFC

Sir Arthur Tedder in Tripolitania

Hawker Hurricane IIDs

Bristol Beaufighter

Lieut-Gen Sir Bernard Montgomery with Sir Arthur Coningham

Luftwaffe graveyard

Between pages 604 and 605

Final briefing

Stand Down night

Airfield bombing

Hawker Typhoon

North American Mustang

Normandy landing-strip

Handley Page Halifax destroyed

Dresden 1945

Acknowledgments

By courtesy of the Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon

Reproduced with the permission of the Controller of Her Majestys Stationery Office

By courtesy of the Imperial War Museum

By courtesy of the BBC Hulton Picture Library

By courtesy of Harleyford Publications

By courtesy of Air Commodore Voyce

By courtesy of Mr David Irving

At the Battle of Crcy, on August 26, 1346, the English Army under King Edward III faced apparently hopeless odds. A hard fight, with every possibility of disaster, was at hand. When the king drew up his army, it was to his eldest son, the 16-year-old Black Prince, that Edward gave the place of honour and greatest danger, commanding the vanguard on the right of the line. The battle was hard indeed, with the Black Princes division bearing the brunt of it throughout. The English won, and the boy prince won his spurs, the supreme accolade of chivalry. It is from those distant times that the right of the line has come to mean, in battle, the place of greatest danger the vanguard and in ceremony the place of honour. Thus, when the Army is on parade, it is the Cavalry (whose traditions go back to the age of chivalry) which forms on the right unless the Royal Horse Artillery is present, in which case the horse Gunners claim the post of honour. When the three Services parade together, the Royal Navy, as the senior Service, takes the right, and the Royal Air Force, as the junior, takes the left. But in this book it is argued that in the war in Europe between 1939 and 1945 the RAF was, in effect, the vanguard, holding for much of the time the place of honour on the right of the line, as the Black Prince and his men did at Crcy.

This argument will no doubt be considered odd by a number of people, because even now, in the 1980s, so much modern military history continues to be written two-dimensionally, that is to say, from the point of view of the land and sea forces only. And indeed, in World War I, when air warfare made its dbut, it was the armies and navies which continued to play the overwhelmingly larger part. In World War II the terms of reference were quite different; the Air rle was always significant, often dominant. In the first half of 1940 the German Air Force ruled the skies of Europe; it is possible that its ten Panzer divisions would have enabled the Army to win the Battle of France without the aid of the Luftwaffe