The man born this week (April 24) in 1882 arguably is, after Winston Churchill, the reason Great Britain survived World War II, for it was Air Chief Marshall Sir Hugh Dowding who won the Battle of Britain, and, ironically, he did so in spite of, not because of, Mr. Churchill.
Dowding recognized that fighter planes, not bombers, would be critical in the war’s early stages, and he quickly realized that the old methods of aerial battles — brave “lone wolf” pilots improvising on the fly (literally) — would no longer work. As the “Battle of Britain” approached, Dowding created a system in which his Fighter Command Headquarters would attempt to manage the battle from the ground, through an integrated structure in which numerous operators, using the latest technologies, choreographed their fighter pilots in the air.
Those technologies included radar — Dowding insisted on building radar towers to detect enemy fighters, even though radar was then unproven — as well as a sophisticated communications system in which fighter pilots, equipped with high-frequency wireless radios, could talk with one another in the air, while also communicating with ground-based operators, who were being fed “real-time” information by radar as to the enemy’s strength, location and direction.
Meanwhile, Dowding and his officers could follow each battle’s course on a large “tote board” in which markers representing British and German squadrons were moved about as the battle progressed. Dowding also created an army of civilian spotters, spread along the English coast and equipped with binoculars and radios, who relayed to headquarters their first-hand observances.
Dowding even created an effective repair system in which damaged British fighter planes were immediately towed to repair centers, quickly repaired and sent back into battle.
Dowding’s victory in the Battle of Britain was even more impressive given that he was engaged in a two-front war. His other enemy was his own prime minister, Winston Churchill, whose love of all things French clouded his judgment. As France fought desperately to hold on against the German blitzkrieg, Churchill insisted on sending British fighter squadrons to aid the French. To this Dowding objected adamantly, figuring, correctly, that France was doomed, so every available fighter plane and pilot must remain in Britain. Dowding managed to limit, if not end, Churchill’s transfer of British planes to France, although France’s surrender to Germany in late June finally (to Churchill’s chagrin) halted it for good.
Although Dowding’s military career subsequently stalled — partly the result of turf battles with too many jealous enemies — a plaque honoring him at Bentley Priory, his last headquarters, reads, quite fittingly: To him the people of Britain and of the free world owe largely the way of life and the liberties that they enjoy today.
