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Disgusting wartime treatment of Sir Hugh Dowding

• Message 1. 

  Posted by Herewordless (U14549396) on Monday, 5th December 2011

  Whilst the bitter Battle of Britain raged in the skies during the hot summer of 1940, a different dogfight was being fought on the ground.
  
  Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, Sholto Douglas and Trafford Leigh-Mallory, who both believed in the "Big Wing" tactic of huge swarms of RAF fighters attacking at once (which took too long), plotted against their rival and superior, the Commander of RAF Fighter Command, Sir Hugh Dowding and his 'ally' against them, head of no.11 group, Keith Park, both of whom were conducting the war with small fighter squadrons attacking the Germans, whilst keeping some fighters in reserve.
  
  Throughout the summer, both camps locked horns bitterly about their opposing tactical theories (after WWII Dowding himself blamed Leigh-Mallory and even ace pilot Douglas Bader)
  
  Sholto Douglas/Leigh-Mallory lobbied Charles Portal (newly-made Chief of the Air Staff in Oct 1940) and even Churchill, who finally gave them their rival's positions replaced Dowding and Park, who were unceremoniously dumped. Literally, Dowding was sent a brief note of paper informing him of his dismissal and told he could 'make himself useful' inspecting service waste
  
  Luckily by then, and with great courage and tenacity on the part of the RAF Fighter pilots especially, Dowding's leadership won through and the Luftwaffe had been defeated.
  
  Sadly, as the land's church bells tolled the great RAF victory in November, Dowding wasn't even in Britain, but had been ordered by Churchill to go to the US on special duty for the Ministry of Aircraft Production, where he remained outspoken and a thorn in the side of offialdom, as he had in the Royal Flying Corps during WWI.

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Mutatis_Mutandis (U8620894) on Tuesday, 6th December 2011

  That is a rather one-sided summary.
  
  What tends to be overlooked about the "unceremonious dumping" of Dowding was that he was over the normal retirement age and had already been at the head of Fighter Command for an unusually long time. It had been prudent and wise to maintain Dowding in command before and during the Battle of Britain. With the battle won, the command question deserved a fresh look. Keeping Dowding for the duration of the war did not look like a very good option at time, and it probably wasn't. The attempt to make use of Dowding's undoubted technical skills in the efforts to purchase combat aircraft in the US did not work well because of his rather acerbic personality.
  
  The behavior of Leigh-Mallory and Bader during the battle can be fairly criticised. However, it is understandable that these men were, to put it mildly, annoyed at being relegated to a secondary role in the north, while a battle for survival was fought in the south. The "big wing" was a vehicle that suited them because it gave them heir own, distinct role.
  
  But from the perspective of Portal and Sholto Douglas, Dowding was hardly blameless. He allowed a fierce quarrel to erupt between his subordinates in the middle of a major battle, and did very little to stop it. Perhaps because Dowding admitted that neither side was completely wrong; the Big Wing made sense for Leigh-Mallory and Bader who had fairly secure bases and time to assemble, but it did not make sense for Park who had to protect targets within easy reach of the German bombers.
  

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• Message 3

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by LongWeekend (U3023428) on Tuesday, 6th December 2011

  Hereword
  
  I agree with MM on this.
  
  There was a lot of spite shown toward Dowding, mainly by men to whom he had frequently been rude when they were junior officers, or those who felt he had unfairly taken credit for other mens' work. This spitefulness has tended to twist the fact Dowding was not on balance treated unfairly in terms of honours and awards.
  
  After leaving Fighter Command he was allowed to remain on "active service" until he was 60, something of an obsession with him. His direct contemporaries had all agreed to retire earlier (for instance Ludlow-Hewitt, who created Bomber Command), so a special exception was made for him. He was almost the last of his generation to hold a major RAF Command (Joubert, who was briefly recalled to Coastal Command was the only one to outlast him).
  
  He was knighted by the King at his HQ at Bentley Priory. Dowding was senior enough to have received the GCB in any case, but holding the ceremony at his HQ had the significance of being knighted "in the field" i.e was a recognition of his achievement in the Battle of Britain.
  
  He was only the second RAF officer to receive a peerage for his services - the first was Trenchard. Even Trenchard's successors as Chiefs of Air Staff had not been made peers (Newall received a peerage in 1946, in part for having been Governor-General of New Zealand).
  
  He was not made Marshal of the RAF, but up to that point only CASs had received that rank. Had he been promoted, he would have been senior to Portal, who did not have the seniority to be promoted at the same time. This was not just snubbing Dowding - Wavell was not made a Field Marshal for OP COMPASS, either. Promotions to that rank for non-Chiefs of Staff did not come until later in the war, for the Army as well as the RAF (the RN was slightly different, as the First Sea Lord and the senior Fleet commander were usually Admirals of the Fleet in peacetime, whereas in the other two services it was just the Chief of Staff).
  
  Had Dowding conducted himself well after leaving Fighter Command, he might have found later employment. But he went against his brief in the USA (told them to build fighters and tanks instead of the bombers and ships Britain wanted) and was too taciturn to be a big hit. On return to UK he allowed Beaverbrook to embroil him in his political machinations.
  
  As for Keith Park, he was worn out by the end of the Battle, and 11 Group needed a new commander for the next phase of operations. He was offered a job on the Air Staff, hardly a sidelining move given the close involvement of the Air Staff in operations. He declined it and took a Training Group. After a year, he returned to active Commands and finished the war as Allied Air CinC South-East Asia (ironically in succession to Leigh-Mallory).
  
  Unfairness in park's case came at the end of the war when he wasn't allowed to stay on long enough to qualify for a full Air Chief Marshal's pension (by no means the only officer who suffered in this way).
  
  Some RAF seniors officers behaved very shabbily on a personal level toward Dowding, including Trenchard and Salmond interfering from retirement, but his removal from Fighter Command was justified and already planned, and he received his due reward.
  
  LW

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• Message 4

  , in reply to message 3.

  Posted by Herewordless (U14549396) on Tuesday, 6th December 2011

  And I still maintain that, considering his treatment in the last months of 1940, he definately was 'unceremoniously dumped.
  
  Yes he was deservedly feted and recognized etc, but he was also plotted against and rudely dropped unbecoming of his station, as I - and Dowding himself- described

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• Message 5

  , in reply to message 3.

  Posted by PaulRyckier (U1753522) on Tuesday, 6th December 2011

  LongWeekend and Mutatis Mutandis,
  
  thank you very much for your replies, I remember something along the same lines from you or MM, some years ago, when I studied Dowding from a documentary I had seen. I remember that we had a polemic about that Dowding called his pilots his "chickens" and I referred then to the French word "poulain" which could have the same meaning. Did some search with the search robot here on the right side, but it is useless, while it gives only the hits from recent threads as you will see with "dowding" if you put it in the search window. I knew it from recent experience and have it already mentioned in the specific thread about the announcemenof that search robot. Having no time to seek it back by clicking on my own name, I am nevertheless pleased with the new information here.
  
  Kind regards and with high esteem to both,
  
  Paul.

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• Message 6

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  Posted by LongWeekend (U3023428) on Tuesday, 6th December 2011

  Paul
  
  Thank you. I remember the thread you mention. I cannot remember if anyone came back to you on "Dowding's chicks".
  
  He referred to his pilots as his "chicks" - newly hatched birds. The flying analogy is obvious and the description is indicative of his old-fashioned paternalistic views. The Press liked it and adopted the phrase.
  
  Chicks are fairly helpless and need protecting. It is not really an accurate way to describe young adults capable of flying high-performance aircraft and killing and dying for their King and Country, but they didn't seem to mind too much. Young men, particularly of the middle classes, were more respectful of their elders in those days, and from their own memoirs, they seem to have looked on Dowding as a venerable old chap and did not resent the patronising expression (or not much, anyway).
  
  Dowding had an interest in Spiritualism and later in the war spoke publicaly about speaking to the spirits of his dead pilots. This caused some concern to the authorities, including Churchill, who worried for Dowding's reputation.
  
  I believe "poulain" translates as "foal" - a new-born horse. I think the idiom would be similar to chicks, except that the horse comparison would be unusual in English. An English expression that does use a horse analogy is "filly" ("poliche"?), to mean a high-spirited young woman. It is a bit old-fashioned these days, and would be regarded as patronising and sexist. I wouldn't dare use it in the office.
  
  I mentioned at the time we last discussed Dowding that John Ray had written a book "Battle of Britain: New Perspectives". This was reissued as a cassell paperback retitled "Battle of Britain: The First Victory". It examines the question of Dowding's removal in depth and remains the best recent account.
  
  Regards
  
  LW

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• Message 7

  , in reply to message 6.

  Posted by PaulRyckier (U1753522) on Tuesday, 6th December 2011

  LW,
  
  yes now I remember it was indeed with you. Thank you very much for the additional information and yes you gave already a lot of information in the thread of some years ago.
  
  As about "poulain" I have humbly to admit that I stand corrected and it is my own fault to not check something that I have in mind for years .
  
  To my relief however I can say that I picked up the word eight years old and always thought until now that it had something to do with a little chicken (poulet). In our Flemish dialect we have many French words and normally they have the same meaning and concept of word as in French.
  
  For this particular one I found among other meanings on internet : jeune talent dont la carrière s'annonce promettant . Synonym: protégé. (young talent whose career started to show promising. Synonym: protégé (in my Collins paperback I find: a person who is protected and aided by the patronage of another)
  In my Petit Larousse illustré I found also: young horse aged less than 18 months (indeed the same as foal, but it seems that foal in English has also colloquial the meaning of protégé?) and then colloquial in French also: "être le poulain de quelqu'un: être appuyé par une personnalité" (be the "poulain" of someone: be supported by a personnality)
  
  In nowadays Dutch and nowadays French that particular meaning of poulain seems not to exist anymore?
  Although it still exists in our Flemish dialect...
  
  I see that I till now had the right colloquial concept of the word, but I needed the interference of a LW, although as an Englishman? better versed in French than I, to see that the word came from a foal and not from a little chicken. I could have done the same research before my 68...
  
  Kind regards and with esteem,
  
  Paul.

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• Message 8

  , in reply to message 7.

  Posted by LongWeekend (U3023428) on Wednesday, 7th December 2011

  Paul
  
  I am indeed English (to be strictly accurate in honour of my mother's memory, I am an Anglo-Scot). My French is very poor, particularly with colloquialisms, so I may have caused more confusion than I resolved!
  
  I must admit that when you originally posted "poultain", I thought it must mean the same as "poulet" - a closer equivalent of "chick". It was only when i checked I found it was "foal"
  
  In English, "foal" is rarely used to describe people. You might find "foal-like" used as an adjective to describe a child.
  
  I have remembered that we do use "Colt" in a sporting context. Under-16 rugby teams in schools, are often referred to as "Colts", meaning they are young players not yet ready for the mian school team.
  
  "Chicks" might be used to mean protege in its classical sense of someone to be protected, but not in the more modern sense of someone whose ambitions and career you influence and advance. In English, proteges are usually individuals or small groups rather than large ones. Dowding did want to care for his chicks as far as possible (bullet-proof glass for cockpits being an example), but they were not all his proteges.
  
  Keith Park, on the other hand, was Dowding's protege, and Douglas Bader a protege of Leigh-Mallory.
  
  There is a term "poodle" sometimes applied to proteges - but it is derogatory and is meant to imply the individual is a pampered pet, more for decoration than of any actual use!
  
  Having given this a bit more thought, "griffin" (in this case meaning a young bird of prey) used to be used in English to describe young officers. In the C19th it was originally applied to young men of the East India Company newly arrived in India and then more widely to young Army officers, and entered everyday language back in Britain. In the first half of the C20th, it was used to describe young pilots. Itwould have been a more accurate description of the pilots of Fighter Command, but "Dowding's griffins" doesn't resonate as well as "Dowding's chicks".
  
  The usage has almost disappeared these days. However, the RAF adopted the name "Griffin" for the Bell 412 used for helicopter training, with precisely this meaning of a young bird of prey intended.
  
  regards
  
  LW

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• Message 9

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  Posted by PaulRyckier (U1753522) on Wednesday, 7th December 2011

  LW,
  
  thank you very much for the additional information.
  
  Kind regards and with esteem,
  
  Paul.

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