The History of WWII Podcast XX
[0] Welcome to True Spies, the podcast that takes you deep inside the greatest secret missions of all time.
[1] Suddenly out of the dark, it's a bit in love.
[2] You'll meet the people who live life undercover.
[3] What do they know?
[4] What are their skills?
[5] And what would you do in their position?
[6] Vengeance felt good seeing these.
[7] People paid for what they'd done, felt righteous.
[8] True Spies, from Spyscape Studios, wherever you get your podcasts.
[9] I'm Dr. Samuel Hume, and I'm here to tell you about my new podcast, Winds of Change.
[10] Winds of Change is the story of how the sun set on the British Empire.
[11] This first season is on British India, and in these weekly episodes, we'll cover the whole history.
[12] through to the final days of the Raj in 1947.
[13] If you love learning about the past and discovering why the world is the way it is, then listen to Winds of Change.
[14] You can listen to Winds of Change on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and everywhere you find great podcasts.
[15] This episode is brought to you by Audible .com.
[16] In case I haven't said it enough times, Audible is the internet's leading provider of audiobooks with over 100 ,000 titles to choose from.
[17] old -time radio shows, magazines and newspapers, and so much more.
[18] At any time, you can go to worldwar2podcast .net and click on the Audible link and sign up for a free 14 -day trial.
[19] Cancel any time or choose one of their membership programs, but either way, you get to keep the free audiobook you downloaded.
[20] This time, I would like to recommend Hitler's Holy Relics by Sidney Kirkpatrick.
[21] It starts near the end of the war with German prisoners being interrogated.
[22] although the vast majority know next to nothing.
[23] First Lieutenant Walter Horn of the U .S. Army, an art history professor in his past life, is in the middle of an interrogation when he stumbles upon information about the location of the crown jewels of the Holy Roman Empire and the Spear of Destiny, which was taken from Austria after the Anschluss.
[24] The German soldier is simply trying to be obliging and has no idea of the significance of his own knowledge.
[25] General Patton's intelligence staff gives Horn just three weeks to find the priceless artifacts before they are taken by neo -Nazis hoping to revive Hitler's dream of domination.
[26] In fact, some of the artifacts have already disappeared.
[27] It's an amazing story, well told and well read.
[28] It's part detective story, part thriller, and all true.
[29] Trust me, you will end up sitting in your driveway listening long after the engine has been turned off.
[30] Hello, and thank you for listening to The History of World War II, Episode 44, Defense of the Air.
[31] By the end of World War I, it was clear to all that air power would play an important, if not dominant, role in the next war.
[32] But, as is often the case, after a war, military expenditures dropped quickly.
[33] In Britain, military thinking was offensive, as in it would be better to fight on someone else's land instead of their own, so the bomber was focused on.
[34] But there were those who gave thought to the defensive side of the equation as well.
[35] So in 1923, a committee was formed to create a plan to defend against an attack from the continent.
[36] The first step was the obvious setting up of anti -aircraft guns around London and establishing observatory posts along the coast.
[37] Clearly, whether offensive or defensive, planning and any future military production would center around the battle for the skies.
[38] Although the offensively minded focused on bomber development, tactics, and strategy, there was surprisingly little progress throughout the 1920s.
[39] This neglect was continuously brought to the attention of the government and public by the insistent MP from Epping, Mr. Churchill.
[40] Eventually, the government relented and voted for a five -year expansion plan for the RAF.
[41] At the time, this included all aspects of military aviation and supporting entities.
[42] Two years later, as it grew, significant changes were made as the growing RAF clearly needed reorganizing.
[43] It was decided to break up the organization into commands of bomber, fighter, coastal defense, and training.
[44] So, on July 6, 1936, Fighter Command was created, and its first commander -in -chief, appointed eight days later, was Hugh Caswell Tremahir Dowling.
[45] On that very day, he visited his new headquarters.
[46] Of course, new is a relative term.
[47] since Fighter Command would be run from a 166 -year -old mansion named Bentley Pryor in Middlesex.
[48] Dowling soon found out that his Fighter Command would also be responsible for Anti -Aircraft Command, Balloon Command, and the Observatory Corps.
[49] Fortunately for all, Dowling, due to his experience, actually knew in detail and understood these different issues, their technology, and how to apply them in a cohesive, effective defense.
[50] But all this organization and knowledge means very little without the funds to obtain the necessary equipment to make it a reality.
[51] But Downing, an odd fellow, there is no other word for it, but it's not meant disrespectfully, found not a friend but an ally in Neville Chamberlain when he came to power in 1937.
[52] Chamberlain was always skeptical of the Army and Navy's complaints of wasting money towards the RAF, but in reality, they just wanted the funds for themselves.
[53] And Chamberlain knew this.
[54] Another, albeit initially a known ally for Downing, was Minister of Coordination of Defense, Sir Thomas Inskip.
[55] But what put him in Downing's camp was a combination of economics and lacking of belief that the bomber would always get through.
[56] For Inskip, it came down to the fact that fighters were cheaper to make, and so he actually built up Fighter Command and still saved money.
[57] For Downing.
[58] His job was to protect Britain from an invasion, and the best way to do that was with fighters.
[59] Fighters could control the sky, harass enemy troops, and destroy needed supplies.
[60] Thinking of how he would deploy his fighters to accomplish all this, he calculated the need of 45 squadrons.
[61] Still, this was only a plan, an observation.
[62] Britain needed time to build the squadrons he wanted, and looked at through this light, the Munich Accord of 1938.
[63] did just that.
[64] So thanks to the politicians who saw the value of a defensive shield, Dowding started getting his funds.
[65] And thanks to the ambiguous achievement of the Munich Agreement, Dowding gained more time.
[66] But it simply wasn't a matter of filling the skies over Southern Britain with aircraft.
[67] Enemy aircraft had to be found and engaged before causing their own damage.
[68] And since all of Southern Britain was open to attack, The defense had to be organized and focused so that the adequate number of planes met the enemy in a timely manner with enough remaining fuel and ammo to accomplish the job.
[69] And it's probably fair to say that no one thought of these complex, integrated issues as much as Downing.
[70] He is credited, and rightly so, with coming up with the overall system of detection and response.
[71] His first steps were made before 1936.
[72] when with the Air Council.
[73] Back in 1934, the RAF was experimenting with sound location technology to detect aircraft.
[74] It turned out to be hopeless, so the next idea in mind was examined.
[75] Some scientists had talked of a death ray for aircraft, but few believed in its viability.
[76] Still, nothing could be left to chance, and so Henry Tizard, the head of a committee set up by the Secretary of Air, asked Robert Watson Watt, of the National Physical Laboratory to prove it would not work.
[77] The report was conclusive, but they also found and reported that radio beams, though not harmful to humans, were affected by aircraft.
[78] The report ended with the idea that maybe radio waves could be used to detect aircraft.
[79] Most in the field already knew that radio waves bounced off solid objects because it had been proven by Heinrich Hertz in the 1890s.
[80] The Germans experimented with the phenomena, which one day would be called radar, but the Navy only wanted it used to aid in gun laying, or the aiming of their large guns.
[81] Any advantage over the British Navy was welcome, but the Luftwaffe was interested, with Gehring leading the way, and by 1938 had developed a detection system of their own.
[82] Back in Britain, Watts and Watts' team got to work and had a successful test of detecting reflected radio waves from an airplane in February of 1935.
[83] This only encouraged them further, and by September of that year, they were able to detect planes 50 miles away.
[84] So the Air Defense Subcommittee was convinced that a chain of these had to be set up along the coast.
[85] The station started going up, with constant improvements made along the way, and more tests in 1937 showed the Air Ministry.
[86] that they were definitely on the right track.
[87] In 1940, with war declared, additional chains were set up to capture signals from low -level flying aircraft as well as ships in the channel.
[88] All this equipment in place had to be run by people, but the air ministry certainly didn't want word getting out.
[89] So people were hired, told not to talk about their work, and were shown only as much as they needed to do their jobs.
[90] On paper, they were mostly called...
[91] clerk's special duties.
[92] But the truly skilled operators were at the core of this project.
[93] Technicians used the developed instruments and with practice were able to tell four things about incoming aircraft.
[94] The time between sending the signal out and receiving it back after bouncing off the aircraft told them the range of the target.
[95] A go -neometer showed the bearing or direction of the flight.
[96] Next, the shape and amount of interference of the radio signal told the number of aircraft.
[97] And finally, by using different stations and crossing their signals, the operators could tell the height.
[98] This last one was very important, as height determined a pilot's initial tactics in meeting an opponent.
[99] But height was also the hardest piece of the information to get right, thus the cross -readings of the multiple signals.
[100] Still, pilots learned early on to add a few thousand feet to enemy height readings that they were given.
[101] The system invented by Downing and others only gets more complex from here.
[102] But after years of practice, and I do mean practice, as well as tweaking along the way, everyone knew their role and everyone who needed it had access to the information needed to make informed decisions.
[103] Downing did not direct the actual fight against the Luftwaffe.
[104] The group commanders decided which sectors to activate and so control the tactical situation.
[105] The sector commanders had the responsibility to get the activated squadrons into the air in such a way as to give them the best tactical approach.
[106] Simply, Downing built the system that allowed Britain to focus its assets of aircraft, pilots, post -combat information, and measures for constant improvement against the enemy.
[107] Of course, no one man could do it all, and two major weaknesses would be discovered and improved later.
[108] First, many of the RAF staff were housed in buildings above ground, and second, there was a lack of an organized air -sea retrieval system in place to rescue pilots.
[109] Fighter Command and 11 group headquarters were underground, but most of the sector stations were not, and in ordinary unarmored buildings.
[110] They were small and thus hard to hit.
[111] but the ultimate test was, if attacked, these highly trained, valuable personnel could be killed by a single bomb.
[112] As for the pilots in 1940, if one of them went down over the channel, they could only hope that the locals saw them and would send out craft to search for them.
[113] Pilots were not equipped with a dinghy or fluorescence to mark their location, and although they wore a May West to help stay afloat, the temperature of the water during the summer meant that the men could only expect to hold out for about four hours.
[114] Of course, if a downed pilot wore a regulation dress, that time was made shorter.
[115] The color of the standard officer's Van Helsing shirt shrank in seawater and could easily strangle a wounded pilot, which is why many wore the silk scarves around their neck.
[116] It wasn't vanity, it was expedience.
[117] But as someone once said, adapt or die.
[118] But as more valuable pilots drowned in the early stages of the battle, changes were made in August of 1940.
[119] But not until 1941 was a proper air -sea rescue service formed.
[120] Ironically, the Germans never fully appreciated or discovered more of the RAF's workings or secrets.
[121] As the British had shared much with the French, who soon came under the control of Nazi interrogators, the Germans did not seem to press the issue.
[122] especially after their inability to conquer the RAF as time went on.
[123] But it seems that the Germans did not try to find out more because they thought they knew it all.
[124] After all, they knew about radar.
[125] They invented it.
[126] They used it.
[127] But what set the RAF apart was Downing's application and supportive system around it.
[128] You do not need equal or larger numbers than your enemy if you can focus what you have and apply it only where needed.
[129] Only if one had to keep planes constantly flying all over the place would impossible numbers of planes and pilots be needed.
[130] And because of downing and radar, that simply wasn't the case in the Battle of Britain.
[131] An excerpt from Adolf Galland, a Luftwaffe general and flying ace after the war.
[132] Quote, From the first, the British had an extraordinary advantage, never to be balanced out at any time during the whole war.
[133] which was their radar and fighter -controlled network and organization.
[134] It was a very bitter surprise for us.
[135] We had nothing like it.
[136] We could do no other than knock frontally against the outstanding, well -organized, and resolute direct defense of the British