"Any new history of World War II must clear a high bar to distinguish itself from the competitors that fill the shelves of libraries and bookstores. As our so-called Greatest Generation fades away, its memory appears better preserved than that of any other cohort of combatants in modern history, thanks to hundreds (if not thousands) of popular histories, memoirs, scholarly and military treatises dissecting the period and its players.
Michael Korda’s “With Wings Like Eagles,” his new volume on the Battle of Britain, clears this hurdle in a modest way, by stepping back from the minutiae of the clash between the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe in 1940 to focus on the truly critical events that determined the outcome. The book soars in those parts in which Korda describes how the British prepared for the war in the skies, or how the Germans failed time and again to deliver a knockout blow.
Determining the decisive point of any battle is the quintessential challenge of wartime command. The great military leaders have possessed a preternatural ability to see through the fog of war, as von Clausewitz described it, to find that moment and marshal their forces at precisely the time and place, and in precisely the right manner, to prevail against an enemy attempting to do exactly the same thing.
In the late 1930s, Britain’s politicians and generals could see war over the horizon. After watching German and Italian forces advance into parts of Europe and Africa, they could visualize how that war might look. Enormous uncertainty reigned, however, about whether Germany could be placated diplomatically; how much help Britain’s allies would offer in its defense; whether and how Germany would attack the British homeland; and how the British should fight the overwhelmingly stronger German military.
These questions needed to be answered before the war even started — and answered correctly for Britain to survive. After France’s defeat and the British retreat from the beaches of Dunkirk, and with Germany gathering barges on the French coast for its planned invasion of Britain, there was no margin for error.
Enter Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, head of the Royal Air Force’s Fighter Command from 1936 to November 1940. Dowding, a Scot by birth, began his military career as an artillery officer, but transferred to the Royal Flying Corps during the early days of World War I. He rose quickly, commanding an air squadron in France during that war, but was pushed out of his command after clashing with his superiors over how much rest his pilots should get between missions. Dowding went on to the Royal Air Force, rising in rank there and joining its prestigious Air Council in 1930.
Many accounts praise the invention of radar and the subsequent erection of radar towers around the British Isles, but few describe the Fighter Command system as well as Korda. The essential element was not the radar antennas themselves but the method by which radar reports were fused together in operations centers to produce a three-dimensional picture of the aerial battlefield in near real time. This innovation enabled the British to see the German formations as they approached and to efficiently deploy their fighters in ways that both maximized their lethality and deceived the Germans as to their numbers. Ultimately, more than anything else, it was this system that proved decisive.
But Korda’s narrative stalls when he injects the stories of pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain (he also heaps praise on the valorous men and women who staffed radar control towers, ground control rooms, maintenance crews and all the other units that combined to support Britain’s aces in the air). Korda was himself a member of the Royal Air Force years after the battle, and he writes with reverence for those who served during the war. But valiant as their exploits were, the emphasis on these tactical stories undermines Korda’s main subject: how the British set the conditions for victory by making sound operational and strategic decisions before the first fighter sorties ever flew.
Korda’s history offers some insight for American strategists today, particularly those focused on the question of how to organize this country against its myriad enemies. Our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines have proved their courage around the world.Valor alone, however, will not ensure victory. As “With Wings Like Eagles” demonstrates, we must first choose the right strategy, as the British did, and then choose the right form and shape for our military before our forces ever reach the battlefield."
WITH WINGS LIKE EAGLES
A History of the Battle of Britain
By Michael Korda
Illustrated. 322 pp. Harper/HarperCollins. $25.99
Michael Korda’s “With Wings Like Eagles,” his new volume on the Battle of Britain, clears this hurdle in a modest way, by stepping back from the minutiae of the clash between the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe in 1940 to focus on the truly critical events that determined the outcome. The book soars in those parts in which Korda describes how the British prepared for the war in the skies, or how the Germans failed time and again to deliver a knockout blow.
Determining the decisive point of any battle is the quintessential challenge of wartime command. The great military leaders have possessed a preternatural ability to see through the fog of war, as von Clausewitz described it, to find that moment and marshal their forces at precisely the time and place, and in precisely the right manner, to prevail against an enemy attempting to do exactly the same thing.
In the late 1930s, Britain’s politicians and generals could see war over the horizon. After watching German and Italian forces advance into parts of Europe and Africa, they could visualize how that war might look. Enormous uncertainty reigned, however, about whether Germany could be placated diplomatically; how much help Britain’s allies would offer in its defense; whether and how Germany would attack the British homeland; and how the British should fight the overwhelmingly stronger German military.
These questions needed to be answered before the war even started — and answered correctly for Britain to survive. After France’s defeat and the British retreat from the beaches of Dunkirk, and with Germany gathering barges on the French coast for its planned invasion of Britain, there was no margin for error.
Enter Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, head of the Royal Air Force’s Fighter Command from 1936 to November 1940. Dowding, a Scot by birth, began his military career as an artillery officer, but transferred to the Royal Flying Corps during the early days of World War I. He rose quickly, commanding an air squadron in France during that war, but was pushed out of his command after clashing with his superiors over how much rest his pilots should get between missions. Dowding went on to the Royal Air Force, rising in rank there and joining its prestigious Air Council in 1930.
Many accounts praise the invention of radar and the subsequent erection of radar towers around the British Isles, but few describe the Fighter Command system as well as Korda. The essential element was not the radar antennas themselves but the method by which radar reports were fused together in operations centers to produce a three-dimensional picture of the aerial battlefield in near real time. This innovation enabled the British to see the German formations as they approached and to efficiently deploy their fighters in ways that both maximized their lethality and deceived the Germans as to their numbers. Ultimately, more than anything else, it was this system that proved decisive.
But Korda’s narrative stalls when he injects the stories of pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain (he also heaps praise on the valorous men and women who staffed radar control towers, ground control rooms, maintenance crews and all the other units that combined to support Britain’s aces in the air). Korda was himself a member of the Royal Air Force years after the battle, and he writes with reverence for those who served during the war. But valiant as their exploits were, the emphasis on these tactical stories undermines Korda’s main subject: how the British set the conditions for victory by making sound operational and strategic decisions before the first fighter sorties ever flew.
Korda’s history offers some insight for American strategists today, particularly those focused on the question of how to organize this country against its myriad enemies. Our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines have proved their courage around the world.Valor alone, however, will not ensure victory. As “With Wings Like Eagles” demonstrates, we must first choose the right strategy, as the British did, and then choose the right form and shape for our military before our forces ever reach the battlefield."
WITH WINGS LIKE EAGLES
A History of the Battle of Britain
By Michael Korda
Illustrated. 322 pp. Harper/HarperCollins. $25.99
