The Royal Airforce
In case you are wondering why i chose the colors I did
it is because 90% of all people prefer the white on black
as opposed to the black on white. It's easier on the eyes
especially since this is a 10 page paper. ENJOY!
The most recognized airforce of the Allies in Europe during World War II was the Royal Air Force also known as the RAF. By the time that WW II came around the RAF was young and inexperienced. It was the youngest air force in the war at the age of 21 when the war broke out. The RAF is composed of three operational commands: Bomber, Coastal, and Fighter.
In the beginning the RAF was almost cut, but it was protected by England's Ten-Year Rule started in1919 and renewed annually until 1932. It was based on the assumption that the British wouldn't fight another war for ten years. This was the cornerstone of British defense policy. The policy itself stressed the development of stronger military forces, especially the new and experimental RAF. When war broke out, the RAF was prepared under the Ten-Year Rule.
In the outset of war the RAF was assigned not to bomb civilian areas because the government believed that no civilians should die if they didn't have to. Instead, British Whitmore Whitley heavy bombers were assigned to shower German cities and German occupied areas with anti-nazi propaganda to create dissidence against the German government. This went on between 1939-1940 and was called the Phony War. It was called this because of the non-existence of weapons being used.
One of the flyers dropped by the bombers read, "Gestapo
The Gestapo ravages entire countries and calls it peace.
Is this what you are fighting for?" (Barker, pg.27) People in Europe were greatly angered by this campaign. While Hitler devoured Poland the Allies fought back with nothing more lethal than paper. There was a joke going around at the time that the bombers had to make sure that they untied the bundles of paper lest they wouldn't hurt the civilians. In early 1940, the campaign was stopped. Two weeks later the campaign resumed in the naive belief that the German people could influence their government. This brought two things to Britain's attention: there was no noticeable reaction from Germany and that the RAF's bombers had difficulty in finding their target. By April 1940 the British government realized that they had to upgrade their leaflets to bombs.
Up to this point the Germans had dominated the air war, yet there was one bright spot by the time the Phony war was over France. The Hawker Hurricanes, fighter with 8, .303Browning Machine Guns, easily shot down all crafts that came into the vicinity of France. During this time period reconnaissance photography was developed. Certain planes were equipped with cameras instead of machine guns others were equipped with cameras that took pictures when the machine guns fired.
The Phony War ended with a call to Winston Churchill's bedside at 7:30 AM May 15, 1940 from French prime minister Paul Reynaud. This was only 5 days since Churchill succeeded Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister. Reynaud said, "We have been defeated."(Barker, pg. 47) At this time, the RAF was defending France with quite a few squadrons of fighters and the RAF would be wasted away leaving nothing left for the sure attack on Britain. They had to evacuate Dunkirk where the rest of the ground troops were stationed. To do this, RAF pilots flew 2,739 sorties (flights by one plane at a time) to help ward off enemy forces. Ground troops didn't give any credit to the air troops, but they did more for the ground troops than they ever knew.
For years Hugh Dowding, leader of the fighter command, had been a failure. But the Commander of Airstaff couldn't fire him. So, he was left in charge. If he weren't left in they would have died in the Battle of Britain.
Hermann Goring the leader of the Luftwaffe used 1,715 sorties to start the battle, but it started out as a great loss, with the Germans losing over 2/3 more planes than the RAF did. Meanwhile, a graver battle was being fought. It was a battle over tactics. Vice Air Marshall, Trafford Leigh-Mallory, wanted big wings and large squadrons fighting together for defense. On the other hand, Dowding wanted smaller forces, which would be easier to put together on a short notice. Before the war of tactics was over, Goring struck again. This time the plane losses were about equal with the Luftwaffe losing 4 more planes than the RAF. That night, Germans bombed London. Churchill ordered immediate reaction by bombing Berlin. The next day 80 Wellingtons, the most reliable British fighter, were sent to bomb Berlin. They only caused minor damage. In the months that followed the Germans continued to bomb Britain; thousands of British lives were lost. The lost too many planes and had to give up on taking over Britain. The controversy over tactics never settled. The battle was over for Dowding who was replaced on November 16.
Unterseeboats (a.k.a. U-boats) were one of the most feared German weapons. The Coastal Command was in charge of taking care of the submarines. They started with 265 aircraft at its disposal, and had done a rather good job through 1940 with what they had.
Most of what they had were Avro Ansons. They were dubbed faithful annies by the pilots because of their slow reliability, yet not very good at attacking. They were backed up by a few Lockheed Hudsons and Short Sunderland flying boats. To wear out U-boats the command flew "scarecrow" patrols, flown by unarmed Tigermoth trainers to scare U-boats into diving and interrupting the battery charging. This wore out the U- boats. All Coastal Command technology was obsolete because of the lack of funding. Their anti-submarine bombs couldn't destroy a sub even with a direct hit. This was proven when one of the bombs hit the British sub the Snapper in the conning tower, where all of the subs controls are. The total damage was 4 broken light bulbs. The Sunderland 250 lb. bomb did more damage but was only effective when it hit within six feet of the hull.
German U-boats planted electromagnetic mines throughout the ocean and could only be detonated by metal or an electro-magnetic charge. Since submarines were metal, they blew up the mines. So, the Coastal Command used the Wellingtons they had available to help destroy the mines. These planes placed a two ton electromagnetic ring around itself and skimmed close to the surface of the ocean detonating the mines.
In June 1941, the Coastal Command got its first B-24 from the Americans. A B-24 is a four engine American bomber with a 2400-mile operational range, almost double the range of any other Ally search plane.
The Coastal and Bomber Command's mission was to destroy merchant ships of the Germans in 1941. But the German ships stayed close to shore so the bombers were flying into flak or enemy gunfire. The coastal command introduced new ships called CAM-Ships. Merchant ships that carried a single catapult launched Hurricane. The Hurricane's flight was a one way trip because once they were launched, they could not land again. But, it was an effective deterrent of the new German Focke Wulf. This was the new tactical fighter for the Germans and it out did any plane that the RAF had.
The RAF's Bomber Command was to bomb Lubeck on March 18th. There was force of 234 bombers with half of them loaded with incendiaries. Incendiaries are very large bombs that when they impact, they burn as well as explode. The outcome of this battle was that 75% of the town was burned to the ground and the remaining portion was severely damaged. They bombed this area because it was a large docking bay for German ships. From there after in RAF slang, to Lubeck a target meant to pulverize it. At this point in the war, the RAF had grown enormously and the newest operation was Operation Millenium. The entire point was to have 1000 bombers attack a certain field at 600 planes an hour or also 10 planes a minute. Actually 1046 bombers took off for Cologne, France on May 27, 1942. The Wellington's struck at 12:47 A.M. They dropped incendiaries for 15 minutes and then 1000 and 4000 pound bombs. In the end, Cologne was destroyed to rubble and the Millenium had a great psychological effect on the British and the Germans.
The RAF mounted squadrons on Malta, a small island between North Africa and Sicily. From there they expanded bombing Sicily, Italy, North Africa and Greece. This gave the Allies an easier time trying to take over these places. German pilots who landed or ran out of fuel were taken as prisoners and their planes were repainted with British colors so the British could learn about the usage of German planes. In North Africa, at the RAF base El Almein, the Germans launched an attack of 500 planes. The British defended with 100 Spitfires and ended up victorious.
Another use for shot down planes if they landed on allied soil, they were scraped for metal and rebuilt for Allied planes. From their bases in North Africa, Malta, and Greece swept around Germany and crushed them.
New bombs were invented to destroy certain targets such as the huge German navy's ship The Tirpitz. No bombs could even get close to damaging this ship. So they created the largest bomb yet, a 12,030 pound bomb! They used this to bomb large targets including Germany. After that even more powerful bombs were made for the same purpose.
In 1942, the RAF lost 1042 planes. From November 1943 to 1944, the bomber command lost 1047 aircraft and crews. Eight hundred bombers set out to bomb Hamburg, Germany, July 24, 1943. It was a huge success, but 95 of the bombers never returned to England.
In 1943, the RAF's target was hydroelectric plants in Germany. The new bombs were designed to sink under the water before exploding so its power would be magnified by the water hammer effect destroying all of Germany's hydroelectric power. The attack was never executed until May 16, 1944. They bombed the Mohane Dam and the Eder Dam. The RAF on June 6, 1944, went into a notorious battle: D-Day. The entire RAF and the United States Eighth Air Force were there to bomb Normandy, so that it would be easier for the Allied Marine soldiers to take over the beaches. Most U-boats that were in the Normandy area were sunk.
On the seventh of July 1944, the RAF delivered 3000 tons of bombs on Germany. This continued until July 18th when another air raid much larger than the first composed of about 2000 bombers dropped 8000 tons of explosives on the Germans. There was no way the Germans could counteract the annihilating effect this had on them. From this time on up to May 1945 when the war ended, the RAF bombed gas and water systems, railroads and vital shipping areas. This completely shut down the Germans so there was no possible way they could counter back. On May 20th, Germany surrendered to the Allied powers. This was the long awaited end to the most notorious war in history. One that will live in our hearts forever.
Bibliography
1. Barker, Ralph. The RAF at War. Chicago: Time-Life Books, 1981
2. Crouch, Tom D. Aviation in World War II. 1997 Version. computer
software. Microsoft, 1997. PC-Windows 95, 210 kb, CD-ROM
3. Ethell, Jeffrey L. World War II Fighting Jets. London: Butler & Tanner
Ltd., 1994
4. Franks, Norman. Aircraft Versus Aircraft. New York: Macmillan
Publishing Company, 1986
