ADAP: Akten zur deutschen ausäwrtigen Politik
AHB: Air Historical Branch, Ministry of Defence, London
BA-MA: Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg
CAS: Chief of Air Staff
COS: Chiefs of Staff
FCNA: Führer Conferences on Naval Affairs, 1939–1945 (London, 1990)
GAF: German Air Force
IWM: Imperial War Museum, London
OKW: Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
PRO: Public Record Office, Kew, London
RAF: Royal Air Force
RDF: Radio Direction Finding
ONE THE SETTING
1 PRO AIR 14/381, Plan W1, ‘Appreciation of the Employment of the British Air Striking Force’, April 1938, p. 1.
2 R. Rhodes James (ed.), ‘Chips’: The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon (London, 1993), p. 215; gas masks in PRO INF 1/264, Home Intelligence, summaries of daily reports, 28 March 1940.
3 K.-H. Völker, Dokumente und Dokumentarfotos zur Geschichte der deutschen Luftwaffe (Stuttgart, 1968), doc. 200, pp. 469–71.
4 PRO AIR 1/5251, report by the Brooke-Popham Committee, 16 July 1940, p. 3.
5 PRO AIR 14/181, Commander, Advanced Air Striking Force to Bomber Command HQ, 5 March 1940; AIR 9/117, Anglo-French staff conversations, ‘The Attack on German Railway Communications’, 26 April 1939.
6 AHB, ‘Battle of Britain: Despatch by Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, 20 August 1941’ (hereafter: AHB, Dowding ‘Despatch’), p. 8.
7 PRO CAB 120/294, Air Ministry report to War Cabinet, 24 June 1940; German losses in N. L. R. Franks, The Air Battle of Dunkirk (London, 1983), p. 194. British losses over Dunkirk totalled 177, including 106 fighters: see R. Jackson, Air War Over France May – June 1940 (London, 1974), p. 121.
8 Lloyd George in G. Eggleston, Roosevelt, Churchill and the World War II Opposition (Old Greenwich, Conn., 1979), p. 130; Churchill speech in M. Gilbert (ed.), The Churchill War Papers, vol. 2 (London, 1994), p. 368.
9 R. A. Callahan, Churchilclass="underline" Retreat from Empire (Delaware, 1984), p. 79; P. Addison, ‘Lloyd George and Compromise Peace in the Second World War’, in A. J. P. Taylor (ed.), Lloyd George: Twelve Essays (London, 1971), p. 381.
10 PRO ΡREM 7/2, letter from Foreign Office to Desmond Morton, 28 May 1940.
11 PRO INF 1/264, Home Intelligence daily reports: 28 May 1940, p. 1; 31 May 1940, p. 1.
12 Addison, ‘Lloyd George…’, pp. 365,378; A. Roberts, The ‘Hοly Fox’: A Biography of Lord Halifax (London, 1991), p. 243.
13 PRO INF 1/878, War Cabinet conclusions, 18 May 1940, p. 3.
14 PRO PREM 7/2, note from Morton to Churchill, 30 May 1940, enclosing note by Cadogan dated 25 May 1940.
15 PRO INF 1/264, Home Intelligence daily reports, 17 June 1940.
16 PRO INF 1/264, Home Intelligence daily reports, 17 June, 18 June, 20 July 1940.
17 PRO AIR 9/447: War Ministry, Plans Division, ‘Eire’, 31 May 1940, pp. 1–3; COS meeting on home defence, 7 July 1940.
18 PRO AIR 9/447, Air Ministry minute, 20 June 1940.
19 PRO INF 1/849, Ministry of Information, Policy Committee: meeting of 8 July 1940, p. 2; meeting of 23 July 1940; meeting of 24 July 1940; INF 1/264, Home Intelligence daily reports, 20 July 1940. See too D. Cooper, Old Men Forget: The Autobiography of Duff Cooper (London, 1953), pp. 286–7.
20 V. Cowles, Looking for Trouble (London, 1941), pp. 416–17.
21 W. Boelcke (ed.), The Secret Conferences of Dr Goebbels (London, 1970), p. 60, meeting of 3 June 1940.
22 H.-A. Jacobsen (ed.), Generaloberst Halder: Kriegstagebuch (3 vols, Stuttgart, 1963), vol. 2, pp. 30–31, entry for 22 July 1940.
23 FCNA, pp. 110–11, ‘Conference with the Führer’, 20 June 1940; Jacobsen (ed.), Kriegstagebuch, p. 3, entry for 1 July 1940.
24 ADAP, Serie D, Band X, p. 56, minute of state secretary, 30 June 1940.
25 IWM, EDS collection, OKW Aktennotiz, ‘Chefbesprechung’, 12 June 1940.
26 ADAP, Serie D, Band X: p. 105, Schulenburg to German Foreign Office, 5 July 1940; pp. 202–3, Prince Max von Hohenlohe to German Foreign Office, 18 July 1940; p. 216, Dublin Embassy to German Foreign Office, 22 July 1940.
27 M. Muggeridge (ed.), Ciano’s Diary, 1939 – 1943 (London, 1947), p. 275, entry for 7 July 1940.
28 FCNA, pp. 116–17, Directive 16, ‘Preparations for the Invasion of England’.
29 M. Domarus, Hitler: Reden und Proklamationen 1932 – 1945 (3 vols, Munich, 1963), vol. 2, pp. 115–18; W. Shirer, Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934 – 1941 (London, 1941), PP. 355–8.
30 Shirer, Berlin Diary, pp. 355–6.
31 On Halifax see Roberts, ‘Holy Fox,’ p. 249; on Berlin see Shirer, Berlin Diary, p. 360.
32 See J. Förster, ‘Hitler Turns East – German War Policy in 1940 and 1941’, in B. Wegner (ed.), From Peace to War: Germany, Soviet Russia and the World, 1939 – 1941 (Oxford, 1997), pp. 117–24; E. M. Robertson, ‘Hitler Turns from the West to Russia, May – December 1940’, in R. Boyce (ed.), Paths to War: New Essays on the Origins of the Second World War (London, 1989), pp. 369–75.
TWO THE ADVERSARIES
1 PRO AIR 22/72, Air Ministry weekly intelligence summary, report for 18 July 1940, p. 4.
2 FCNA, pp. 124–5, ‘Conference with the Führer’, 31 July 1940.
3 M. Dean, The Royal Air Force and Two World Wars (London, 1979), ΡΡ.100–101.
4 Details in R. Wright, Dowding and the Battle of Britain (London, 1969), PP. 73–6,138–44.
5 PRO PREM 3/29, summarized order of battle, 19 June 1940, 9 August 1940.
6 AHB, ‘The Battle of Britain: A Narrative Prepared in the Air Historical Branch’, n.d., p. 574.
7 PRO AIR 22/293, Cabinet Statistical Branch, ‘Statistics on Aircraft Production, Imports and Exports, Schedule D, Exports of Fighters’.
8 PRO AIR 22/493, Schedule C, weekly imports April–November 1940.
9 PRO AIR 8/372, War Cabinet conclusions, 22 May 1940; minute, Chief of Air Staff, 22 May 1940; Cripps to the War Cabinet, 26 June 1940.
10 PRO AIR 16/365, ‘Fighter Command, Operational Strength of Squadrons and Order of Battle’.
11 PRO AIR 22/262, ‘Daily Returns of Casualties to RAF Aircraft’, 25 June–29 September 1940.
12 AHB, Dowding ‘Despatch’: p. 27; on self-sealing tanks, Appendix F. See too PRO AIR 16/715, HQ no. 24 Training Camp to HQ Fighter Command, 1 October 1940, ‘Notes of Conversations with Fighter Pilots’.
13 PRO AIR 22/296, Cabinet Statistical Branch, ‘Personneclass="underline" Casualties, Strength, Establishment of the RAF’; W. Murray, Luftwaffe: Strategy for Defeat, 1933 – 1945 (London, 1985), p. 54; C. Webster and N. Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive against Germany 1939 – 1945 (4 vols, London, 1961), vol. 4, p. 501, Appendix 49 (xxviii).
14 PRO AIR 8/463, Air Intelligence, ‘Present and Future Strength of the German Air Force’, November 1940.
15 PRO PREM 7/2, Churchill to General Hastings Ismay, 26 June 1940; War Cabinet Polish Forces Committee, meeting of 1 July 1940; ‘Minute, Position of the Polish Air Force in England’, 30 June 1940. On efforts to find pilots, see AIR 6/70, Air Council minutes, 23 July, 6 August, 22 August 1940; AIR 19/162, Churchill to Sinclair, 12 August 1940.