Battle of Britain Combat Archive - Volume 18

Announcing Volume 18 of the Battle of Britain Combat Archive Series 4-11 October 1940 – The most significant work on the Battle of Britain for 35 years.

By early October, it was clear that the ‘Classic’ time of the Battle of Britain was over. The ‘long, hot, summer’ was turning to a drab autumn, the worsening weather would preclude a full-scale invasion, and the concentrated bombing raids against cities had evolved into the night Blitz.

Although the mass battles of August and September were a thing of the past, there was still trouble aplenty for the pilots of Fighter Command. Bad weather and poor visibility were obvious problems and began to claim machines and lives. A greater problem was the tactics of the Luftwaffe.

Me109s were plotted by RDF over the Channel and approaching the English coast during most of the day. Many ‘plots’ turned back or flew mid-Channel, leaving Fighter Command guessing at which would pose a threat. Typically over the course of a day, four or five raids would cross the coast at around 30,000 feet (about 5 ½ miles) usually between Dungeness and Dover, heading to Maidstone, then the Thames, before dispersing. Among the 109s were some bomb-carrying ‘Jabos’ Jagdbombers that would attempt to scatter their bombs over south east London.   It took the average raid 12 to 15 minutes to fly from the coast to outer London, but 27 minutes for a Spitfire to reach 30,000 feet!

With the usual blend of first hand accounts and all original research using contemporary documents from both sides, author Simon Parry and his team of experts have gone beyond where most Battle of Britain books finish.  The air battles that took place after 27th September rarely get a mention in any history of the Battle but this end period was probably the closest the RAF came to losing control of the skies over England .