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Re: Eagle Days: Life and Death for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain
Chapter 9 read
Reaching the early part of mid-August. Letter of a junior doctor with KG 2. Uffz. of a Luftwaffe armoured train unit is quoted! Soldier based at Tessenow wrote about a night bombing raid. Quote from Jodl from a report about the landing operation must not fail. Differences of opinion among the top brass of the Third Reich. Poor Luftwaffe intelligence on the RAF. ‘Additional weaknesses within Luftwaffe intelligence included its delayed grasp of British radar’. What delay was this? On the first day against land targets, 12th August, Erprobungsgruppe 210 went after four RDF stations.
Page 151: Kurt Gerhard Raynor voluntarily reported to the training depot in Bitterfeld near Leipzig and applied for the Luftwaffe. What has that got to do with the Battle of Britain? Then, on the back of Werner Mölders flying a Hurricane and Spitfire at Rechlin pre-Battle of Britain, together with references to Galland, she discusses the relative merits of the two fighters from a German point of view.
Quotes Helmut Mahkle, a Ju 87 pilot, on combat on 9th August. Quote from Fink re KG 2 raid of 13th August. More quotes from the Baruther Anzieger. The chapter closes with her commenting that Fink managed to ‘survive the calamitous attack without fighter escort’. Had she referenced my book, ‘Bombsights over England’ re 13th August, she would have found out that Erprobungsgruppe 210 were tasked with attacking Hornchurch together with KG 2 in the early morning. As is well-known, Bf 110 units received the recall order. Hence ZG 26 and the Bf 110s of Erpr. Gr. 210 did not take part in the attack. However, Staffelkapitän Otto Hintze of the Bf 109 E-equipped 3./Erpr. Gr. 210 recorded a mission lasting 1 hour 35 minutes that matched exactly with Fink’s KG 2 attack on Eastchurch, and Sgt Skinner of the intercepting 74 Squadron mentioned that there WAS a Bf 109 escort. May I say that a lack of research of sufficient depth has contributed to a likely error. I do not say here that she SHOULD have read and referenced my book, but I believe it is a major reference work in any detailed and comprehensive study of the Battle.
PS. You won't believe the shit I've just read in a footnote upon starting to read Chapter 10...
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