Dunkirk and the R.A.F.

[John Arton]

Did anyone watch the documentary on Dunkirk on t.v. last night and the supposed lack of air cover given to the troop's waiting on the beaches under constant attack by the Luftwaffe?
It showed that in recently released documents that the R.A.F. and the Spitfire were instrumental in the sucess of the evacuation of troops, as much as the navy and small boat flotilla. The R.A.F. lost many plane's over the period and some of the downed, rescued pilots we're told to ditch their uniforms due to the feelings of the soldiers on the beaches. In fact record's show that without the support of the RAF and in particular the introduction for the first time into combat of the Spitfire, t the evacuation could have been a complete disaster. The Spitfire's were in combat at such high altitude that those on the ground would not have been able to spot them, also they were operating much further inland, meeting the German plane's head on and destroying them in there hundreds. There was a record of one flight leaders flight of Spitfires forching over 50 German planes to turn tail and retreat before they got anywhere near Dunkirk.
The Spitfire's reputation was formed in the air over Dunkirk and the lessons learned there would enable the R.A.F. win the Battle of Britain. It was a channel 4 documentary if my memory serves me correctly.
Rgds
J.A.

[vic mcclymont]

John,similar programme few years ago, started off by stating that some historians said the dam buster raids were a waist of time and gained nothing.
When analysed properly the programme believed that the raid actually cut t war by months.
Hitler had to redeployed workers from the European coastal defences to repair the dams.
This when we invaded Europe the German defences were incomplete.
Vic

[robpage]

As kids there were some things that were quite important the war was already over by 10 years . And the Dambusters with a very famous bomb had practiced over the Bamford Arms in North Derbyshire but more important the town that I came from Ripley in Derbyshire was the hometown of Mr Barnes Wallis so whatever he did lately he was our own hero . I can't think that the town was known for much else the next small village was known for Flamstead the first royal astronomer but Barnes Wallis had to be everybody's Hero

[happy daze john in oz]

There is always a problem with historical facts and figures.
When result scan clearly be seen as good then al is well.
But when they take time to show there will always be the nay sayer who will say this was a flop.

[John Arton]

Vic
Using the actual flight logbooks from the time they were able to show on a map the location of the downed r.a.f. planes. One spitfire that crash landed on the beach, from which the pilot survived, was discovered some years ago buried in the sands. It was recovered, restored and now flies in the battle of Britain squadron.
Rgds
J.A.