The summer of 1940 brought a terrible clash of forces between the British and German fighter planes in the British skies. Referring to the military pilots of the Royal Air Force, the words of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill went down in history: “Never have so many owed so much to so few.”
When Nazi warplanes appeared in British skies on 10 July 1940, the balance between the two fighter jets in terms of the number of aircraft available tilted in favor of the Germans.
The Luftwaffe fielded 929 fighters, mostly single-engined Messerschmitt 109s and 227 twin-engined Messerschmitt 110s.
On the other hand, the Royal Air Force had 650 Hurricane and Spitfire fighters, plus around 100 older aircraft of other types. But British industry was able to produce more and more fighter planes to replace the losses.
British problem
The great problem of the commander of the British fighter aviation, Hugh Dowding, was the low number of pilots available.
“The comparative situation regarding fighter pilots was more complex and, in the early stages of the battle, unfavorable to the British. Although trained according to higher standards, the numerical factor played an important role.
The slow process of expanding the RAF’s flight training schools substantially influenced the course of the battle. Losses had to be kept to a minimum, even at the risk of allowing enemy raids to take place. Men, not planes, were Dowding’s main concern,” wrote military historian Liddell Hart.
„In September, the pilot crisis worsened”
At the beginning of August, Hugh Dowding relied on 1,434 pilots, and another 68 came under his command as seconded from the Navy.
Intense fighting led to their number dropping to 840 only a month later. Losses averaged around 120 pilots per week. The pace at which Royal Air Force pilots were being trained was extremely slow. In August 1940, only 260 new fighter pilots could be thrown into combat.
“By September, the pilot crisis had worsened, the number of highly qualified flight personnel was dwindling and the new, hastily trained contingent was proving vulnerable through lack of experience. New squadrons brought in to replace exhausted ones often lost more men than the ones they replaced. Fatigue was often accompanied by low morale and heightened “nervousness”, noted Liddell Hart.
„Luftwaffe leadership viewed fighter aircraft as a purely ‘defensive’ weapon”
As for the Germans, they did not initially face a shortage of pilots, despite losses in France in May and June. German flying schools were training more pilots than the squadrons at the front could absorb. The problem with the German pilots was caused by morale and how they were used.
“Göring and other officers in the leadership of the Luftwaffe viewed fighter planes as a purely ‘defensive’ weapon and of secondary importance. In addition, the best fighter pilots were transferred to cover the losses suffered by the bombers, while Göring continued to criticize the fighter air force for its lack of aggression and to blame it for the Luftwaffe’s failures – due in large part to its lack of caution and tactical mistakes.
On the contrary, the morale of the pilots on the British fighter planes was raised due to the fact that they were appreciated during those critical months as Churchill’s ‘aces’, the flower of the entire Royal Air Force, heroes of the nation”, mentions Liddell Hart.
As time passed and fatigue and casualties piled up, tension grew among the German fighter air force. planes and the pilots were used only for escort duties, having two or three missions a day, sometimes even five. Because the German military leadership did not allow days of rest or the rotation of units on the battle front, added to extreme fatigue among German pilots.
Morale, the determining factor
“At the beginning of September, morale had dropped a lot. The situation was accentuated by the feeling that the invasion would not take place, caused by the amateurishness of the preparations the pilots were witnessing. As a result, they had begun to wonder if they were being sacrificed to maintain the illusion of an operation that had, in fact, been abandoned. (…)
In conclusion, although both sides proved to be about equal in skill and courage in the early stages of the battle, as time went on the morale of the English increased, carrying them to victory, due to the belief that the enemy was suffering more casualties. heavier than them, although theirs were also significante“, said Liddel Hart.
By the end of September, both Hitler and Göring understood that the aerial defeat of Great Britain was not possible, to this the British and Allied pilots who enlisted in the Royal Air Force contributed in full. Their heroism and devotion gave hope to the whole world that the Nazi war machine could be defeated.
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Source: www.descopera.ro
