"Cross-channel fighter actions after the Battle of Britain" Topic

After the Battle of Britain ended, the RAF began "leaning forward into France", then took up other operations and mission types until D-Day allowed squadrons to rebase to the continent. I'd like to find some books describing this period of RAF activity between the BoB and D-Day. Any recommendations?

This seems like a particularly good period to mine for dogfights, since the fighters are famous and the Luftwaffe was (until 1944) still actively defending the skies from forward bases along the Channel coast. And because I want an excuse to use all those planes.

- Ix

The JG26 War Diary, Vol. 1: 1939-1942

This is from the German side, but the "Abbeville Boys" tangled with the RAF a lot over France in the 41-44 time frame.

Rhubarb! Tasty.

B

A lot of Allied fighter pilot memoirs cover this period in more or less detail. Good ones, for example, are Johnnie Johnson's "Wing Leader", Al Deere's "Nine Lives" and Pierre Clostermann's "The Big Show" [Le Grand Cirque]. Other books in my collection that cover the period in some detail include Peter Caygill's "The Darlington Spitfire" and "Spitfire Mark V In Action". Dilip Sarkar's biography of Johnnie Johnson "Johnnie Johnson – Spitfire Top Gun" has almost a daily diary of missions across the Channel. "Fighter Pilot's Summer" by Paul Richey and Norman Franks also has a fair amount of material on this period, as does "Bader: The Man and His Men" by Michael G. Burns. I hope that helps.

Don't forget those Rangers and Rodeos too, among others:

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Rhubarbs were not quite so tasty for the pilots flying them! – this is from Johnnie Johnson's autobiography "Wing Leader":

(page numbers from my little hardback edition from the 1950s)

p.79: "…the great majority of fighter pilots thought privately that the dividends yielded by the numerous Rhubarb operations fell far short of the cost in valuable aircraft and trained pilots".

p.80-1: (After a description of the problems and hazards of Rhubarbs and how little useful damage they inflicted on the enemy) "I loathed those Rhubarbs with a deep, dark hatred. Apart from the flak, the hazards of making a let-down over unknown territory and with no accurate knowledge of the cloud base seemed far too great a risk for the damage we inflicted. During the following three summers hundreds of fighter pilots were lost on either small or mass Rhubarb operations. Towards the end of 1943, when I finished this tour of ops, and held an appointment of some authority at 11 Group, my strong views on this subject were given a sympathetic hearing and Rhubarbs were discontinued over France, except on very special occasions."

John Foreman's books on Air War 1941 as well a Norman Franks book Fighter Command's Air War 1941 are good books on the subject.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I picked up Kindle versions of The Big Show by Clostermann, Fighter Command's Air War, 1941: RAF Circus Operations and Fighter Sweeps Against the Luftwaffe by Norman Franks, JG26: Top Guns of the Luftwaffe and Day Fighters in Defence of the Reich by Caldwell, which should be enough to get me started. Most of the others seem rare and pricey, so will have to wait, though Johnnie Johnson's Wing Leader is joining my permanent search list until I score a copy.

- Ix

For this period you have Spitfires, Hurricanes and Blenheims but do not forget a few squadrons of Westland Whirlwinds:

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I wish I could get Whirlwind models in 1/144 or 1/200 scale. Maybe Warlord will produce some…

- Ix