Dec
3
12:30pm
The Forgotten ‘Few’: Bomber and Coastal Command in the Battle of Britain
By RAF Museum
James Jefferies will discuss the contribution made by Bomber and Coastal Command during the Battle of Britain.
Circumstances permitting, this lecture will be live-streamed from the RAF Museum, London. The moderator will select question from in the room and from the online broadcast.
This free lecture is part of the RAF Museum's Research Lecture Programme. If you'd like to support the RAF Museum, you can make a donation at: https://support.rafmuseum.org/Donate-Now
TALK OUTLINE
The popular narrative of the Battle of Britain has focussed mainly on the role of RAF Fighter Command as they defended the skies over Britain from Nazi Germany’s Luftwaffe. However, the Battle of Britain was as much about the RAF’s offensive capabilities as its defensive ones.
Using contemporary sources, such as newspapers, eyewitness accounts and speeches as well as post war examinations, this talk strongly suggests that Winston Churchill’s ‘Few’, the title so often bestowed solely upon the fighter pilots, was equally attributed to the bomber crews of the RAF Bomber Command who engaged on frequent, and often fatal, missions over enemy territory attacking Luftwaffe airfields, bombing German industrial targets and attacking the invasion barges.
Coastal Command also made an important contribution , undertaking minelaying operations and coastal patrols. The role of Coastal Command and its contribution during the Battle of Britain will be examined.
As well as exploring the crucial the role of Bomber and Coastal Commands to the RAF’s success in 1940, this talk will then examine why their story was neglected in the historiography of the battle and why it has only come to light in the last decade. From Larry Donnelly’s The Other Few to more recent works about the Battle of Britain, by historians such as James Holland and Stephen Bungay, this talk will look at how our historical appraisal of the Battle is slowly changing.
It will also examine the public memory of the battle that still often chooses to omit the role of the bomber crews and concludes that future narratives and sited ‘rolls of honour’ should include those members of RAF Bomber and Coastal Commands.
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