Battlefield Bombers: Deep Sea Attack by Martin Bowman

Author:Martin Bowman [Bowman, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: Bic Code 1: HBWQ, HISTORY / Military / Aviation, Bisac Code 1: HIS027140
ISBN: 9781473841581
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2014-09-29T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

Battle of the South-Western Approaches

On 19 July 1588 the Spanish Armada set out to invade England, but after it crossed the Bay of Biscay ‘the feathers of the Spaniards were plucked one by one,’ and the English, who always blame Parliament for their defeats and thank the Almighty for their victories, cast a medal with the motto, ‘God blew and they were scattered.’ The Spaniards described their pompous fleet as the ‘most fortunate Armada,’ but this was before Howard of Effingham, stationed in Plymouth, sent out the English ships to destroy them. Three hundred and fifty-six years later, on 6 June 1944 another armada, of U-boats and German shipping, tried to move over the same waters, with a different purpose. The U-boats aimed at destroying the invasion fleet of the Allied Forces landing in Europe. The Germans failed because of the destructive attacks by aircraft of Coastal Command and ships of the Royal Navy... This task of sinking U-boats and German shipping by aircraft was called the Battle of the South-Western Approaches and was also conducted from Plymouth, by 19 Group of Coastal Command, near where Effingham planned his attack upon the Spaniards three and a half centuries before... Drake’s drum was heard again in the moment of England’s peril, but it was silenced and one month after the invasion of Europe began the Air Officer Commanding was able to announce that not a life had been lost or a pound of equipment sunk through the action of an enemy U-boat.

Hector Bolitho, Task For Coastal Command

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.