Hugh Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding

Hugh Dowding about 1935

Hugh Caswell Tremenheere Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding (born April 24, 1882 in Moffat , Scotland , † February 15, 1970 in Tunbridge Wells , Kent ) was an officer in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and commander of the RAF during the Battle of Britain Fighter Command (hunting weapon). He was the bearer of the Order of the Bath , Royal Victorian Order, and Order of St. Michael and St. George .

With the so-called " Dowding System ", an air defense concept based on radar, central information processing and radio-guided interceptors, Dowding created the conditions for the defense of England in World War II .

Life

School and First World War

In his hometown of Moffat, Hugh Dowding attended St. Ninian's Preparatory School , which was founded in 1879 by his father Arthur Dowding and his fellow student, Reverend Churchill. At the age of 15 he was admitted to the renowned Winchester College in southern England on the recommendation of his father . Since his lack of interest in Greek and Latin prevented his success at school there, he left the institute two years later. He successfully applied to the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich . However, due to his aversion to mathematics, he was not admitted to engineering.

Following his family's advice, he first went to the Royal Garrison Artillery . As an artilleryman, Dowding expected to be dispatched to South Africa , since England had been at war with the Boers since 1899 . However, he was not stationed there, but successively in Ceylon , Gibraltar , Hong Kong and India , where he served in the mountain artillery.

In 1912 he returned to England and attended the Staff College of the British Army in Camberley. During his time there he privately acquired the flight license (Royal Aero Club pilot's certificate No. 711) , which he received on December 20, 1913, his last day at Staff College. He then joined the newly founded Royal Flying Corps as a reserve officer against his father's wishes .

During the First World War , Dowding first fought in the 6th and 9th Squadron. His early interest in wireless telegraphy led him to temporarily return to England and found the Wireless Experimental Establishment in Brookland . Back on the front lines in France , he was appointed commander of the 16th Squadron . His nickname Stuffy is said to go back to an incident during this time . Allegedly Dowding complained to a supervisor that young, insufficiently trained pilots of his squadron were used against the experienced Germans and often died in the process. The legendary answer was: “Don't be stuffy, Dowding!” (German: “Don't be awkward, Dowding!” )

During the Battle of the Somme in 1916, he led several squadrons as a large association (headquarters wing) . However, disagreements with authorities such as Commander-in-Chief Hugh Trenchard led to his recall from the front until the end of the war. Dowding ended the First World War with the rank of Brigadier-General.

Interwar period

In February 1918, Dowding married Clarice Maude Vancourt. She was the cousin of a fellow 6th Squadron squadron who introduced them to each other. Clarice Maude brought her daughter Marjorie Brenda from her first marriage into the family and Dowding adopted her as a stepdaughter.

Their son Derek Dowding was born on January 9, 1919. When Clarice Maud Dowding died unexpectedly in 1920 after only two years of marriage, Hugh moved to his father's house at Wimbledon. His sister Hilda presumably took over the care of his son and representative duties for Dowding as his career with the RAF progressed. Derek attended Winchester College and later the RAF Elite College in Cranwell , where the popular fighter pilot Douglas Bader was trained. Dowding was an excellent skier, slalom champion and president of the English ski club from 1924 to 1925.

Dowding joined the new Royal Air Force (RAF), in which he held the rank of Air Vice-Marshal from 1929 (for ranking see: Luftmarschall ). This was followed in 1933 by promotion to Air Marshal and in 1934 to be knighted .

In the 1930s he was a member of the research and development department within the RAF and campaigned for the conversion from biplanes to monoplanes in all-metal construction. In doing so, he pushed the modernization of the aircraft fleet to include the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire models . In this capacity, Dowding also witnessed an attempt to locate aircraft by the Scottish technician Robert Watson-Watt on February 26, 1935. The results of these tests convinced Stuffy Dowding, who was also known for his stiffness and lack of humor, so that he had tax money available for the further development of this technology. He promoted the development of radio location, which was later an essential part of the dowding system .

Contrary to what he had expected, it was not he but Cyril Newall who was appointed to the staff of the Royal Air Force in 1936. Instead, he was only appointed commander in chief of the newly established fighter units, the Fighter Command .

His son Derek also became a fighter pilot and served with the 74th Squadron during the Battle of Britain. The fatherly relationship with his fighter boys, as he sometimes called the pilots, had a family background.

Second World War

politics

In view of the unmistakable German armament efforts and the military successes of the Wehrmacht, Dowding's attention was directed to the rapid development of a powerful hunting weapon. To gain time for this, he encouraged British Prime Minister Arthur Neville Chamberlain in his policy of appeasement .

Dowding was scheduled for age-related retirement as early as 1939. However, Christopher Courtney , who was appointed as his successor , had an accident with other high- ranking officers of the RAF and was seriously injured. Dowding agreed to extend his tenure until March 1940, and then through October 1940.

During the battle for France , more and more squadrons were transferred to the mainland and wiped out in the fighting against a rapidly advancing German armed forces. The energetic Winston Churchill , who was Prime Minister after Chamberlain's resignation, wanted to give in to the demands of the French for more RAF fighter squadrons so that the French could continue the war against Germany.

Dowding's request, however, was to spare the reserves of the RAF and prepare them for home defense. Then Dowding was given the opportunity to explain his point of view to the War Cabinet and Winston Churchill at a meeting on May 15, 1940. He vividly described that if the loss rate remained constant, not a single hurricane would soon be available for defense. Churchill stressed that he had personally promised the French government support and that they were urgently demanding fighter squadrons. Dowding was demonstratively indifferent and pointed out that his task was to prepare the Fighter Command for the defense of England.

The next day, Dowding wrote to Churchill to immediately request a statement from the Department of Aviation , which had previously set the minimum strength of the Fighter Command for national defense at 52 squadrons. A fully equipped squadron of the Fighter Command had an average of 20 aircraft each with crew and maintenance, which corresponded to about a squadron of the German Air Force. There are currently 36 squadrons still operational, explained Dowding. Politicians should give him a minimum strength that would never be undercut. He carefully avoided naming the 52 squadrons mentioned as his personal minimum requirement and cleverly passed the ball on to politics. Afterwards, under pressure from the troubled French leadership, the war cabinet approved four (instead of the required ten) squadrons for the British expeditionary corps in France one last time.

As a result, no one wanted to take responsibility for a weakening of home defense. All further desperate requests from the French were rejected. Winston Churchill later stated that Dowding had given him a trustworthy assurance that he only needed 25 squadrons for home defense, which Dowding always denied and presented his letter of May 16 as evidence.

When Dowding heard of the signing of the armistice between France and Germany, he remarked succinctly: "Finally alone" (German: "Finally [we are] alone" ).

In May the Fighter Command was reduced to 32 squadrons. Immediately after the end of the fighting in France, the Battle of Britain began, first over the English Channel and then increasingly over the island . On the eve of August 18, the day when both sides suffered the heaviest losses, 62 squadrons of the Fighter Command were ready to defend. 53 of them were equipped with Hurricanes and Spitfires , all operational machines totaled 1065 pieces. In addition, the RAF had 373 modern and technically ready machines in maintenance operations and training units, which could be brought to the squadrons with a short advance warning. By October 31, 58 squadrons of the Fighter Command had actively participated in the air battle.

A key aspect of Dowding's strategy was the economical use of the available reserves. This was also supported by intercepted German radio messages, from which it emerged that the air force command wanted to decimate the RAF in a major air battle. Dowding gave his group commanders largely a free hand in the performance of their duties. But it was also criticized that it offered a rivalry between two group commanders, namely Park and Leigh-Mallory, space for a dispute over the use of large units. This so-called Big Wing controversy was discussed long after the war. From today's point of view, Park's approach of avoiding the formation of large and therefore cumbersome associations in the critical phase is seen as the right one.

Dunkirk

When the British Expeditionary Force (British Expeditionary Force) withdrew from the beach at Dunkirk across the English Channel in late May and early June 1940 and was heavily attacked by the Air Force , soldiers criticized the alleged lack of the RAF. It was believed that Dowding did not want to sacrifice the hunters to cover the withdrawal of the troops.

This assessment was wrong. Fierce aerial battles took place in the Dunkirk area, but mostly out of sight of the beleaguered English and French troops. The RAF lamented the loss of at least 90 pilots; more than 170 Fighter Command fighters were shot down or irreparably damaged. For propaganda reasons, these high numbers of casualties were not published.

For the first time in World War II, the RAF achieved air superiority over the Luftwaffe, limited in time and space . 134 German aircraft were shot down in the largest air battle to date. Although the initial situation for the evacuation was unfavorable, 338,226 Allied soldiers were brought to England.

Battle of Britain

The Battle of Britain is from the Battle of Britain Historical Society limited in time (Society for the History of the Battle of Britain) in agreement with the RAF between 10 July 1940 and 31 October 1940th There was little time to make up for the losses from the Battle of France and Dunkirk. In order to meet the urgent need for personnel, Dowding had foreign units with a moderate knowledge of English from the RAF lead into the fight. The success was resounding, for example the kill rates of the Polish pilots were above average, although there were complaints about a lack of radio discipline. In the heat of the battle, the Polish pilots communicated in their native language and not in English via the on-board radios.

The fiercest fighting occurred between the eagle day on August 13 and September 17, when Hitler suspended " Operation Sea Lion " for an indefinite period. Sea lion was the name of the planned invasion of England, the condition of which would have been the defeat of the RAF. In this phase of the air battle, the 11th Group, led by Keith Park, had to bear the brunt of the fighting. Park had previously served as an adjutant on the staff of Fighter Command, direct subordinate to Dowdings. Park enjoyed Dowding's absolute trust and was even privy to the ultra intercepts (intercepted and decrypted German radio messages, the existence of which was strictly confidential). Dowding himself was only put on the list of persons to be informed by the secret service on October 16, 1940 and on that day officially learned of the existence of the Ultra project. The course of the battle suggests that the secret service occasionally passed on information to Dowding without naming the sources.

As a result of an increased aircraft production rate, the air defense that was decisively developed by Dowding and the brave efforts of the pilots and their commanders, the immediate threat was considered averted from October 31, 1940. Dowding's triumph was overshadowed by personal controversy between Dowding, his successor William Sholto Douglas, and two of his rival commanders. He was recalled as Commander in Chief of Fighter Command.

Further use

Dowding with British pilots to mark the second anniversary of the Battle of Britain

As soon as the imminent danger of defeat was averted, Dowding began a diplomatic mission to the USA in November 1940, at Churchill's request, during which he was supposed to convince President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the importance of a modern hunting weapon and to provide support in developing such a weapon.

He then worked within the Royal Air Force in administrative tasks such as the survey of required manpower before he retired in June 1942 as Air Chief Marshal (Colonel General). William Sholto Douglas and later Trafford Leigh-Mallory followed him as commanders of Fighter Command . On July 5, 1943 he was by King George VI. appointed Baron Dowding of Bentley Priory, Middlesex . The title belonged to the Peerage of the United Kingdom .

post war period

On September 25, 1951, Dowding married the widow Muriel Whiting at Caxton Hall Westminster. They lived together in the same house in Wimbledon that Dowding had lived in before the war. Lady Muriel Dowding founded the animal welfare organization Beauty Without Cruelty (BWC) in 1959 . Both were vegetarians and anti- vivisectionalists and dedicated themselves to spiritualism and animal welfare , among other things . Dowding was a widely quoted speaker on the parapsychological scene in England because of his popularity and high nobility . In an interview published several times, he confirmed the plausibility of the existence of UFOs of extraterrestrial origin. Dowding argued that the Allied victory over Hitler was made possible by direct divine intervention. In various publications Dowding went into the thesis of reincarnation .

In this context, he reported that pilots who had fallen during the Battle of Britain had appeared to him and he had spoken to them.

In addition to articles for journals, he also wrote books, namely:

• Many mansions. Rider & Co, London 1943
• Lychgate. Rider & Co, London 1945
• Twelve legions of angels: essays on was affected by air power and on the prevention of war. Jarrolds, London 1946
• God's magic: an aspect of spiritualism. Museum Press, London 1946
• The Dark Star. Museum Press, London 1951

None of these titles are currently being published.

Dowding died on February 15, 1970 in his home in Tunbridge Wells in the county of Kent . His ashes were buried in front of the Battle of Britain Memorial window at Westminster Abbey . His son and only child Derek Hugh Tremenheere Dowding followed him as 2nd Baron Dowding.

Commemoration

Statue dowdings in front of St. Clement Danes in London

The St. Ninian's school was closed in 1980 due to disrepair as a school, but renovated to 1988 with private funds and with the support of the RAF in the amount of 1.6 million pounds Sterling and under the name Dowding House opened as a home for needy former RAF staff . On October 1st, 1988 12 double and 14 single apartments were available.

A Lord Dowding Hall is located in the house for disabled or disabled RAF servants in Sussexdown, Storrington, Sussex .

A sandstone and bronze monument by artist Scott Sutherland stands in Moffat Station Park .

In front of the Church of the Royal Air Force St Clement Danes in London is a larger than life bronze statue by the sculptor Faith Winter , completed in 1990, entitled Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding, Baron of Bentley Prior and Commander-in-Chief of the Fighter Command of the RAF.

The Hugh Dowding Memorial Hangar in the Battle of Britain Museum of Kent in Hawkinge shows, among other things, the well-preserved remains of three Messerschmitt Bf 109 -E4s that were shot down in the summer of 1940 . Hawkinge was an 11th Group operational airfield under the command of Keith Parks .

The former headquarters of the Fighter Command of the Royal Air Force at Stanmore , a luxurious mansion called Bentley Priory , still houses the Lord Dowding Office Room with original furnishings and authentic notebooks from the then high commander.

The Lord Dowding Fund, a project to end animal testing, was established in 1973 by the National Anti-Vivisectionalist Society (NAVS), of which Dowding had been president.

literature

• Basil Collier: Leader of the few, the authorized biography of Air Chief Marshal The Lord Dowding of Bentley Priory. Jarrolds, London 1957.
• Robert Wright: Dowding and the Battle of Britain. Macdonald & Co, London 1969, ISBN 0-356-02922-0 .
  (Biography Approved by Protagonist, Wing Commander Wright was Dowding's adjutant during the war)
• Laddie Lucas: Flying Colors. The epic story of Douglas Bader. Wordsworth Editions, Ware 2000, 2001, ISBN 1-84022-248-4 .
  (Douglas Bader's biography of his brother-in-law, background information and details about "Big Wing")
• Len Deighton: Eagle Day. Battle of Britain. Weltbild, Augsburg 1989, ISBN 3-89350-021-9 .
  (Comprehensive list of the air battle)
• Alfred Price: The Hardest Day, Battle of Britain, August 18, 1940. Jane's Publishing Co Ltd., London 1979. ISBN 1-898800-12-X
  (detailed description of a single day, with a lot of background)
• Robert Buderi: The Invention That Changed the World. How a Small Group of Radar Pioneers Won the Second World War and Launched a Technological Revolution. Touchstone, New York 1997, ISBN 0-684-83529-0 .
  (Details about the development of the radar)
• John Colville: Downing Street Diaries 1939-1945. Siedler, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-88680-241-8 .
  (A private secretary unabashedly wrote a diary about Winston Churchill's environment)
• Robert Jackson: Spitfire. The Combat History. Airlife, Shrewsbury 1995, ISBN 0-7603-0193-X .
  (Development and use of the legendary fighter aircraft)
• Peter Checkland : Information, Systems and Information Systems, making sense of the field. Wiley, Chichester 1998, ISBN 0-471-95820-4 .
  (An analysis of the dowding system as an early but complex information system)

Web links

Commons : Hugh Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Dowding - short portrait, private page
• The Battle of Britain - Official site of the Battle of Britain Historical Society (English)
• Royal Air Force Commanders 1940 - Royal Air Force Official Website
• Personalities of the RAF - Story about the Battle of Britain and their commanders, private page
• Moffat Webpage - Dowding from the perspective of his hometown

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Baron Dowding 1943-1970	Derek Dowding

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on November 4, 2005 in this version .