After the momentous events of the last few weeks, June was to constitute a relative lull for the British. The political crisis endured by Churchill in the first few weeks of his premiership was now over. He had achieved a remarkably smooth working relationship with Chamberlain, one of the five members of his War Cabinet. Bearing in mind that Chamberlain was Churchill’s former boss and previous antagonist, when it had come to the question of whether talks with Hitler should be entertained, he had made it absolutely clear that in his, Chamberlain’s view, the man could not be trusted, and there was simply no point in thinking of it. Chamberlain carried the day and Halifax was given the job of telling Hitler there was to be no parley. In Parliament, Churchill was establishing his ascendancy. This was, of course, hugely helped by his wonderful oratory. He had started by telling the truth: ‘I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat’.
This was the month when both the RAF and the Luftwaffe spent valuable weeks getting ready, filling gaps, doing repairs and generally catching up, following the extremely demanding weeks they’d just been through. For Fighter Command, it was a crucially important period to start rebuilding its strength. Following the French campaign, it only had 520 operational fighters. Production of aircraft was a priority. In May, Churchill had appointed Lord Beaverbrook as Minister of Aircraft Production. A combination of Beaverbrook’s bullying, the effects of the ‘shadow factory’ scheme starting to bear fruit, and sheer hard work by factory workers, saw production dramatically increase during June.
For the RAF, a good example of what was involved occurred in 242 Squadron up in Coltishall in 12 Group, above London. The squadron had returned from France in tatters. They’d had an extremely difficult time during the fighting there – flying at all times of the day in combat, for much of the time seeing their comrades shot down, and losing their CO. All the while, they had been scrambling from one inhospitable airfield to another. Finally, they had suddenly to pack up and get out before the Germans arrived. Now back in Britain, they had few possessions, other than their Hurricanes parked outside. They looked a motley bunch down at the dispersals where they lounged about in a disconsolate manner.
But this day their lives were, so to speak, to be switched on again. A strange figure had walked into the dispersal. He lurched a bit when he walked. Not surprising really, he had artificial legs. Quite a feat to walk at all. But more than that, he purported to be a pilot on active service. And to cap it all, he was about to be their CO. One of the Canadians, who was half asleep on a sofa, cocked an eye at the apparition and then shut it again. To send them this figure as their CO was the last straw.
Douglas Bader took in the scene. He obviously had a problem. Talk wouldn’t get him out of the difficulty. These chaps needed more than that, if he was to lift them out of their lethargy and depression. So he walked out of the dispersal, over to his Hurricane. With the ground crew’s assistance he got into the cockpit, strapped himself in and taxied out. He took off and then proceeded to cut the sky into ribbons. He had, at least, to show them he could fly. As he landed and taxied in, the Canadians had got up and were all watching as he returned. Bader strode in. He got chatting to them straight away. He heard their stories. He ticked them off for being scruffy in the Mess. One of them, however, spoke up, ‘We’ve nothing but what we stand up in. We lost all our kit in France’.
‘Ok’ said Bader, ‘there’s an outfitter in town, go down and order yourselves uniforms and put it down to me. Tomorrow we fly at 8’ o clock. See you in the Mess’. He stumped out.
Fighter Command was having to repair the ravages it had suffered in the battle of France and the retreat to the coast, together with providing cover for the evacuation. All had cost it dear. Now it would have to work hard to get itself ready for a new battle – this time, the big one.
