Placing the Fairey Battle.

[tcolvin]

Originally Posted by Graham Boak

Absolutley untrue. Portals' meetings continually referred to the need for a long-range fighter. The RAF tried to get the Mustang - the British damn well nearly designed the Mustang - but deliveries were prioritised to the 8th and only small numbers were delivered until late in 1944. The RAF began the war with short range fighters, a policy that paid off in 1940 but left a legacy that restrained later operations. There was, however, plenty for those fighters to do.

Air superiority over Normandy was achieved by the joint operation of the RAF and the USAAF. 8th AF operations were only possible by the support of the RAF in providing an undisturbed base and escorting the bombers out, and back, when with the range of RAF fighters. Air superiority at a distance was only maintained by air supremacy at home. That was the RAF's achievement without any help from its US allies.

Hey! Aren't you the guy that was slating strategic bombing and interdiction behind enemy lines as a waste of effort? What do you want a long-range fighter for?

I am continually amazed by our differences.

Haven't you read 'Appendix G' of John Terraine's 'The Right Of The Line'? It starts off; "My repeated assertion of the direct involvement of Sir Charles Portal, while CAS, in the question of long-range fighters for the RAF, and his personal opposition to such a weapon, has been questioned. Yet it is strongly documented in the Official History..........."
Please fisk this Appendix if you think Terraine has got it wrong. He concludes that this crucial area of long-range fighter support was a blind spot in Portal's war direction, and made me ask if you would buy a used car from people such as Portal, Tedder, Harris, Coningham and Sholto Douglas.

As to your question as to what I want a long-range fighter for, I don't. What I want is the RAF to achieve air superiority over the battlefield so the Vengeances and Hawker IL-2/Hs129B can pound the shit out of fixed defences like Hillman overlooking Sword Beach, and let the Third British Infantry Division take Caen on D-Day. As it was the only air support came late from the mediums, IIRC, who missed.