Jim Scanlon (deceased)
Senior Staff
FORUM CHAPLAIN
Commander South Texas outpost of the County Sligo Squadron
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Posts: 5,075
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Joined: July 2007
Retired: USAF NBA: Spurs NFL: Niners MLB: Giants NHL: Penguins
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Oct 5, 2012 12:41:56 GMT 9
Recently I read: With Wings Like Eagles, by Michael Korda.
Mr. Korda relates the story of The Battle of Britain, not just the flying part, but the political part.
The infighting in the RAF between the fighter guys and the bomber guys could easily have lost the war for Great Britain.
There was also the lots of infighting among politicians, even up to King George VI
Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, fought what amounted to a "one man" battle to get Hurricanes and Spitfires built and in the air.
Mr. Korda also brings in the situation in Germany and how Hitler ignored much of what was going on, until it was too late.
Fascinating book.
If you have an interest in World War Two, this is a must read.
Below is the Book Description from Amazon.com.
Jim Too
:god_bless_usa
"Michael Korda's brilliant work of history takes the reader back to the summer of 1940, when fewer than three thousand young fighter pilots of the Royal Air Force—often no more than nine hundred on any given day—stood between Hitler and the victory that seemed almost within his grasp.
Korda re-creates the intensity of combat in "the long, delirious, burning blue" of the sky above southern England, and at the same time—perhaps for the first time—traces the entire complex web of political, diplomatic, scientific, industrial, and human decisions during the 1930s that led inexorably to the world's first, greatest, and most decisive air battle. Korda deftly interweaves the critical strands of the story—the invention of radar (the most important of Britain's military secrets); the developments by such visionary aircraft designers as R. J. Mitchell, Sidney Camm, and Willy Messerschmitt of the revolutionary, all-metal, high-speed monoplane fighters the British Spitfire and Hurricane and the German Bf 109; the rise of the theory of air bombing as the decisive weapon of modern warfare and the prevailing belief that "the bomber will always get through" (in the words of British prime minister Stanley Baldwin). As Nazi Germany rearmed swiftly after 1933, building up its bomber force, only one man, the central figure of Korda's book, Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, the eccentric, infuriating, obstinate, difficult, and astonishingly foresighted creator and leader of RAF Fighter Command, did not believe that the bomber would always get through and was determined to provide Britain with a weapon few people wanted to believe was needed or even possible. Dowding persevered—despite opposition, shortage of funding, and bureaucratic infighting—to perfect the British fighter force just in time to meet and defeat the German onslaught. Korda brings to life the extraordinary men and women on both sides of the conflict, from such major historical figures as Winston Churchill, Neville Chamberlain, and Reichsmarschall Herman Göring (and his disputatious and bitterly feuding generals) to the British and German pilots, the American airmen who joined the RAF just in time for the Battle of Britain, the young airwomen of the RAF, the ground crews who refueled and rearmed the fighters in the middle of heavy German raids, and such heroic figures as Douglas Bader, Josef František, and the Luftwaffe aces Adolf Galland and his archrival Werner Mölders.
Winston Churchill memorably said about the Battle of Britain, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." Here is the story of "the few," and how they prevailed against the odds, deprived Hitler of victory, and saved the world during three epic months in 1940."
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Post by Mark O on Oct 5, 2012 12:52:28 GMT 9
The political, and personal conflicts between the ground force commanders, and the air commanders is also discussed in Stephen E. Ambrose's book, "D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climatic Battle of World War II". Although a small portion of the book, it nonetheless is a continuation of the problems the leaders had to deal with throughout the war.
I'll have to find a copy of the book you cited. Sounds interesting to say the least.
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Post by Jim on Oct 6, 2012 2:17:51 GMT 9
yes and look at OUR own Viet Nam.. Bomber people still around and in all levels/areas of command ... 3 Finger Jack, Sun Down Wells, Momeyer... PACAF, 7th AF, etc .... All from SAC and we have several books that speak of the rivalry of bomber/fighter...
side note:Coincidentally, Momyer accused one of his group's units, the 99th Fighter Squadron, as being a failure because its pilots were incompetent and cowardly. Ignoring both their winning of a Distinguished Unit Citation and the fact he personally had ordered them into a ground attack role, he blamed them for seeing little air to air combat.[3] He stated, "It is my opinion...they have failed to display...aggressiveness and daring for combat...It may be expected that we will get less work and less operational time out of the 99th FS than any squadron in this group." A hearing before the House Armed Services Committee refuted Momyer's accusations. This first squadron of the Tuskegee Airmen thus survived despite his recommendation, and became the nucleus of the all-African-American 332nd Fighter Group.[3][4] Momyer returned to the United States in 1944 and became chief of the combined operations of the Army Air Forces Board. As a member, he played a significant role in the development of Air Force doctrine for air-ground operations.
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