RAF at the Crossroads by Greg Baughen

Author:Greg Baughen [Baughen, Greg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, World War II, Aviation, Modern, 20th Century
ISBN: 9781526795342
Google: XV_SzQEACAAJ
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Limited
Published: 2021-03-15T03:32:35+00:00

Chapter 10

The Tide Turns

Auchinleck’s defensive victory in the first Battle of El Alamein was not enough to save him from being the latest general to lose Churchill’s confidence. Lieutenant General William Gott was to replace him as commander of the Eighth Army, but he was killed when the Bombay transport plane he was flying in was shot down. Lieutenant General Montgomery was drafted in as a replacement.

Montgomery and Coningham made an odd couple. Montgomery kept his headquarters as austere as possible, Coningham liked his surroundings to be as pleasant as war would allow.1 Both possessed huge self-belief bordering on arrogance, which perhaps initially encouraged a mutual respect but laid the seeds of future problems. Montgomery was not a risk taker: in future, no Commonwealth soldiers would die as the result of ill-prepared offensives or rash counter-attacks. Any advance would only be attempted when everything was in place and maximum fire support was available. That fire support included air support. The retreat to El Alamein had seen the intrinsically repulsive Army and Air Force commands spring apart yet again. Montgomery insisted Army and Air Force staff work together with Montgomery and Coningham in adjacent command posts.

Following Rommel’s failed attempt to storm Auchinleck’s defences at the beginning of July, both sides set about building up their forces. This was much easier for the Allies than it was for the Axis with their now much extended lines of communications. German difficulties were increased by an aerial offensive from bases in Egypt and Malta against Axis ports and convoys. Rommel knew the long-term advantage lay with the Allies and he could not afford to wait too long if he was to stand any chance of breaking through to the Nile.

The Axis forces were still outnumbered in terms of tanks and aircraft, but at the end of August Rommel decided he was as ready as he would ever be. In terms of quality the Axis had the clear edge with 100 Bf 109s, nearly all the ‘F’ version and 80 Macchi C.202s. Half of the Commonwealth fighters were still Hurricanes (nine squadrons) and even the rest (three Spitfire V, five Kittyhawk and one Tomahawk) were, in varying degrees, inferior to the Bf 109F. The Spitfire V was clearly the best available Allied fighter and Ludlow-Hewitt, whose report had highlighted the Spitfire shortage in the Mediterranean, reported back to London following another tour of inspection, that even the few that had arrived had ‘made a difference … out of all proportion to their numbers’.2 Once again, that a fighter now rated as obsolescent by the Air Ministry should make so much difference rather underscored the enormous and unnecessary handicap Commonwealth and RAF fighter pilots had been forced to fight under in so many previous campaigns. It was also an indication of how much easier it might have been had all eighteen fighter squadrons, rather than just three, been equipped with Spitfires. More than six years after the fighter had been ordered into production, four years after it entered service and three years into a war, this was not an entirely unreasonable expectation.

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