Stories
Stories
Bomber Command in the Battle of Britain
Bombing before the ‘heavies’. A Handley Page Hampden of No. 83 Squadron with crew, seated on a loaded bomb trolley at Scampton, Lincolnshire, 2 October 1940
(Credit: Imperial War Museum)
The story of the Battle of Britain is well known. The air defence of the British Isles by Fighter Command, with New Zealander, Sir Keith Park at the forefront, is the stuff of legend. Less well known is the critical role that Bomber Command played during this time.
As historian, Professor Richard Overy said, “If Fighter Command was the defensive guard, Bomber Command would supply ‘a straight left’.” During this time, it was left to RAF Bomber Command to maintain the long-held faith in the Trenchard doctrine of strategic bombing that attack was the best form of defence.
Bomber Command, although somewhat poorly equipped with medium bombers such as the Blenheim, Hampden, Wellington and Whitley and lacking sufficient technology to bomb accurately, continually assaulted German military and industrial targets while Fighter Command defended against Luftwaffe attacks.
It is questionable how effective bombing attacks against German industrial targets was at this time, without the technology developed later in the war but certainly the relentless campaign waged by RAF bombers against German forward airfields, invasion ports, barges and vessels in France, Belgium and Holland placed a significant check on Hitler’s invasion plans.
Critically, the bombing of Berlin, with the first raid taking place on the night of 25 August 1940 – despite Goering’s claim a year earlier that no enemy plane would ever fly over the Reich – marked a turning point in the Battle of Britain and Hitler’s demands that the Luftwaffe retaliate against London provided Fighter Command’s stations and squadrons with much needed relief for the RAF at a crucial time.
And the appearance of taking the fight to the enemy was just as important in raising the morale of the British population as was the actual damage inflicted on the enemy.
New Zealanders were at the forefront of RAF service during the Battle of Britain, as they were throughout WW2. Of the 135 New Zealanders who served in RAF Fighter Command at that time, 20 lost their lives. But another 29 New Zealanders died serving in Bomber Command and eight in Coastal Command, making 57 New Zealand casualties in all. In fact, with more than 700 fatalities during the period of the battle, Bomber Command suffered even more heavily than Fighter Command.
Thanks to the Royal Air Force Museum.