Imperial Forces in the Battle of Britain

The Battle of Britain, fought between July and October 1940, was the first major military campaign in history fought entirely in the air, and the defence of the United Kingdom was, from the start, an imperial effort. The argument of this article is that the “Few” of Churchill’s famous speech of 20 August 1940 — “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few” — was a multinational force, and that the imperial contribution to the defence of Britain has been under-acknowledged in the British historical memory. The Canadians, the Australians, the New Zealanders, the South Africans, the Caribbean pilots, and the small number of Indian, Czech, and Polish pilots who served with RAF Fighter Command in the summer of 1940 were the foundation of the British victory, and the British victory was the foundation of the post-war Anglo-American alliance. The historian Patrick Bishop, in Fighter Boys (2003), has done more than anyone to recover the imperial story; the story deserves to be more widely known.

The Composition of Fighter Command

RAF Fighter Command in the summer of 1940 was a small but increasingly multinational force. At the outbreak of the war in September 1939, the regular pilots of Fighter Command were mostly British, but the expansion of the force in the following year brought in substantial numbers of pilots from across the empire. By the summer of 1940, perhaps 20 percent of Fighter Command’s pilots were from the British Empire and Dominions, with the largest contributions coming from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the Caribbean.

The pilots of the empire came from very different backgrounds. The Canadian pilots were drawn from a small but pre-war tradition of civil aviation, and they were typically university graduates or former members of the Canadian Non-Permanent Active Militia. The Australian and New Zealand pilots were drawn from the Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and they were posted to Britain under the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS), which had been established in 1939. The South African pilots were drawn from the South African Air Force, and the Caribbean pilots were drawn from the British West Indian colonies, particularly Jamaica, Trinidad, and British Guiana. A small number of Indian pilots also served with Fighter Command, drawn from the Indian Air Force and the volunteer reserves. The imperial pilots were treated as equals in Fighter Command, and the British pilots were quick to recognise the skill and bravery of the Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand pilots, who were often more experienced than their British counterparts.

The Pilots of the Empire

The Canadian contribution to Fighter Command in the summer of 1940 was substantial. The Royal Canadian Air Force had been rapidly expanded after the outbreak of war, and the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), established in December 1939, was the principal instrument of the Canadian contribution. The BCATP trained perhaps 50,000 aircrew from across the British Empire, and the Canadian contribution to the Battle of Britain included at least 85 Canadian pilots serving with RAF Fighter Command. The most famous Canadian pilot in the battle was Squadron Leader Douglas Bader, who had lost both legs in a pre-war flying accident and who had been returned to active service.

The Australian contribution was also substantial. Some 32 Australian pilots served with RAF Fighter Command during the battle, of whom nine were killed. The most famous Australian pilot in the battle was Pilot Officer John Crossley, who was one of the few Australian pilots to be killed in the battle. The New Zealand contribution was particularly impressive in proportion to the size of the country. Some 21 New Zealand pilots served with RAF Fighter Command during the battle, of whom four were killed. The most famous New Zealand pilot in the battle was Flight Lieutenant Cobber Kain, who was one of the first pilots of Fighter Command to achieve five aerial victories and who was killed in a flying accident shortly after the battle.

The South African contribution was smaller but significant. Some 15 South African pilots served with RAF Fighter Command during the battle, of whom three were killed. The most famous South African pilot in the battle was Pilot Officer Marmaduke “Pat” Pattle, who later became one of the highest-scoring Commonwealth aces of the war. The Caribbean contribution was even smaller, with perhaps eight pilots from Jamaica, Trinidad, and British Guiana serving with Fighter Command during the battle. The most famous Caribbean pilot was Flight Lieutenant Ulric Cross of Trinidad, who later became the most decorated Caribbean airman of the war. The work of the historian Peter Gray, in The Commonwealth War Graves Commission and elsewhere, has done the most to recover the names of the Caribbean and African pilots who served with Fighter Command.

The Battle

The Battle of Britain is conventionally divided into four phases. The first phase, from 10 July to 7 August 1940, was the German attack on shipping in the English Channel, intended to draw the RAF into a battle of attrition. The second phase, from 8 to 23 August, was the German attack on RAF airfields and radar stations, intended to establish air superiority. The third phase, from 24 August to 6 September, was the German attack on the RAF’s aircraft factories, intended to cripple British aircraft production. The fourth phase, from 7 September onwards, was the German attack on London, in retaliation for the British bombing of Berlin, which marked the climax of the battle.

The imperial pilots were involved in all four phases of the battle, and they suffered casualties in proportion to their presence. The Canadian pilots, in particular, served with No. 1 (Canadian) Squadron, No. 242 Squadron, No. 249 Squadron, and other units, and they suffered casualties. The Australian and New Zealand pilots were distributed across a number of squadrons, and they also suffered casualties. The most famous single engagement of the battle was the combat over the Channel on 15 September 1940, which became known as “Battle of Britain Day” and which the British claimed as a decisive victory. The claim has been disputed by the more recent scholarship, of which the work of Richard Overy in The Battle of Britain: Myth and Reality (2010) and the work of the British historian James Holland in The Battle of Britain (2010) are the most distinguished examples. The imperial pilots were part of the British force on 15 September, and their contribution to the claimed victory was substantial.

The outcome of the battle was a British and imperial victory. The German aim of establishing air superiority was not achieved, and the German invasion of England was postponed indefinitely. The battle was a turning point in the Second World War, and the imperial contribution to the victory was substantial. The British and imperial pilots who had defended the country in the summer of 1940 became, in Churchill’s famous phrase, “the Few” — the heroes of the British and imperial victory.

The Aftermath

The Battle of Britain had a profound effect on the British and imperial consciousness. The victory, in Churchill’s words, ensured that “the storm of war” would not be “unleashed upon the British people” and that “the survival of Christian civilisation” was assured. The “Few” became a national and imperial symbol, and the commemoration of the battle — through the Battle of Britain Memorial at Capel-le-Ferne in Kent, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, the annual Battle of Britain service at Westminster Abbey — has been a central element of British and imperial memory.

The imperial contribution to the victory, in particular, has been a major element of the commemoration. The Battle of Britain Memorial at Capel-le-Ferne in Kent, which was opened in 1993, has a special section dedicated to the imperial pilots, and the memorial scroll at Westminster Abbey has the names of the imperial pilots who died in the battle. The most famous statement of the imperial contribution is in Churchill’s speech of 20 August 1940, in which he referred to the “knights of the air” and the “far-flung dominions” of the British Empire. The work of the historian Kristen Alexander, particularly Australia’s Few and the Battle of Britain (2006), has done the most to recover the Australian contribution; the work of the New Zealand historian Alan Ross, in The Airmen (1991), has done the same for the New Zealand contribution.

The battle also had important political consequences. The German failure to achieve air superiority was a major blow to the German war effort, and the German decision to invade the Soviet Union in June 1941 was, in part, a consequence of the failure in the Battle of Britain. The British victory, in this light, was a major contribution to the eventual Allied victory in the war. The British victory, in the words of Richard Overy, was “the moment when the war was won,” and the moment when the imperial contribution to the victory was most clearly visible.

Historiographical Note

The historiography of the Battle of Britain has been substantially revised since the 1970s. The older tradition, of which the work of Richard Hough and Denis Richards is representative, treated the battle as a heroic British victory in which the Few had saved the country. The more recent scholarship, of which the work of Patrick Bishop, Larry Forrester, and the contributors to The Battle of Britain: A Reappraisal (the volume edited by S. P. Mackenzie) is the most distinguished representative, has produced a more nuanced picture. The battle, on this more recent view, was a close-run thing, and the British victory was, in important ways, a consequence of the German strategic mistakes. The imperial contribution to the battle, in particular, has been the subject of substantial historical work, of which the work of the Australian historian Kristen Alexander, the Canadian historian Brereton Greenhous, and the South African historian Harry Maye is the most distinguished representative. The most recent work, of which the contributions of Richard Overy, the contributors to The Oxford Companion to the Battle of Britain, and the work of the British historian James Holland are representative, has produced a more integrated picture. The Battle of Britain, on this most recent view, was a British and imperial victory, and the imperial contribution to the victory was substantial.

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