[John Vasco]

Chapter 10 read

Nothing about the second attack on Manston on 14 August.

One paragraph about the action on 15 August, talking about the losses on both sides.

In the footnote on page 164 reference is made to the combat against Luftflotte 5 in the early afternoon of 15 August, and states ‘at no cost to the defenders’. She has obviously not done sufficient research into the Luftflotte 5 incursion, because the following was recorded by Fighter Command:
605 Squadron. Hurricane P2717. P/O K Schadtler-Law – wounded. Hit by return fire. Force-landed near Hart railway station and admitted to Hartlepool hospital with suspected crushed vertebrae, laceration of scalp and concussion. P/O Schadtler-Law did not fly again operationally.

605 Squadron. Hurricane P3827. F/O C Passy – safe. Hit by return fire off Newcastle. Force-landed and wrecked one mile from Usworth.

605 Squadron. Hurricane P3308. F/Lt A McKellar – safe. Damaged by return fire off Newcastle.

79 Squadron Hurricane. P/O Millington – safe. Damaged in combat.

She also states in the footnote ‘the Germans losing between fifteen and twenty Luftwaffe aircraft over north-east England’. It may be nit-picking on my part, but the actual total was 21 aircraft lost, between KG 26, KG 30, and I./ZG 76. This information has been available in ‘Battle of Britain Combat Archive’, volume 4, by Simon Parry, since 2017.

Nice account of the Stuka attack on 18 August from Kurt Scheffel, one who got back wounded from the mauling the Stukas received on that day.

Quoted Bechtle, Rieckhoff, and Deichmann, although she states that Deichmann ‘brought up the same myth’ re the Bf 110 fighter needing 109 escort in the BoB. She mentions the Bf 110 losses up to the end of August, but no mention of the Bf 109, which, on a pro-rata basis with regard to the number deployed, got equally malleted over the Channel and England. Some pages on radar (sic), and statistical information about losses, and inflated claims.

Page 176 footnote: ‘Geschwaderkommodore was often translated as ‘Wing Commander’, but this is not quite accurate – it was more of a position than a rank that technically translates to a ‘Wing Commodore’. Now I don’t know where she got this information from, but my understanding of a ‘Wing’ in the BoB was that of 3 squadrons, with a fourth sometimes tagged on as well. A Geschwaderkommodore had oversight of three Gruppen [9 Staffeln] (ZG 26, ZG 76), or two Gruppen [6 Staffeln] (ZG 2).

Galland’s ‘Squadron of Spitfires’ is mentioned. Yawn.

Mentions an order of 22 August from the Air District Command Western France re the need of Commanders to ‘commit themselves to impeccable driving discipline within their area of command’. So that accidents and deaths on the road did not occur. What? This is in a book on the Battle of Britain?

Finally a mention of the introduction of the Ju 88 and the initial problems encountered with it, quoting Peter Stahl.