My Coffee Pot Book Club Guest Today: Brodie Curtis – Angels and Bandits

Historical Context for The Battle of Britain Aerial Combat Scenes

in ANGELS and BANDITS 

The stage was set for The Battle of Britain when Nazi dictator Adolph Hitler’s German army swept through France and the low countries in May of  1940. British forces were pushed to the sea and Operation Dynamo was commenced to bring over 300,000 of them home from Dunkirk in a mismatched flotilla of Navy ships, ferries, trawlers and even civilian pleasure boats.

Fighter Planes under the command of Air Vice Marshal Keith Park covered the ships and soldiers on the beach. As portrayed in ANGELS and BANDITS, Park bravely lead his men by flying his Hurricane over Dunkirk and serving as a spotter during the evacuation.

Keith Park Monument

In July, 1940, the Luftwaffe commenced aerial attacks on shipping convoys in the Channel. For the next month, attacks came daily, and Spitfires and Hurricanes were sent on patrols and scrambled to intercept enemy planes. ANGELS and BANDITSportrays a fictional convoy, Silverload, steaming towards Dover and under fierce assault from the Luftwaffe with RAF fighters coming to the rescue.

Civilians learned the gravity of the situation in the Channel from BBC reports on the wireless, like this transcript of a moving report of a German bombing attacking on a Channel convoy by correspondent Charles Gardner:

“Well now, the Germans are dive-bombing a convoy out to sea in the Channel. There are one, two, three, four, five, six, seven German dive-bombers—Ju 87s. There’s one going down on its target now! Bomb! No! It hasn’t hit a single ship. There are about ten ships in the convoy, but he hasn’t hit a single one. There! You can hear anti-aircraft going at them now! Now the British fighters are coming up! Here they come in an absolute steep dive, and you can see their bombs actually leave the machines and come into the water. You can hear our own guns going like anything now! Oh, here’s a Spitfire coming down now! There’s one coming down in flames! Someone’s hit a German, and he’s coming down completely out of control! There’s a long streak of smoke! The pilot’s baled out by parachute! He’s a Ju 87 and he’s going to slap into the sea! There he goes! Smash! Terrific funnel of water! Only one man has come out by parachute.…”

In mid-August, the Luftwaffe changed tactics to focus its attacks on radar stations, RAF airfields and aircraft factories. Bombing raids came in the form of massed formations of German Dornier and Heinkel bombers escorted by Messerschmitts 110s and 109s, the latter of which proved to be the Spitfires’ most dangerous foe. 1,485 German sorties came over the Channel on August 13^th. Many RAF pilots got their first intense aerial combat experience during the German attacks and casualties were high. ANGELS and BANDITS protagonists Eddy Beane and Dudley Thane are put squarely in the midst of deadly missions during this period, both achieving their first kills and dealing with enemy machines guns that damage their Spitfires.

Angels Clear

“Here they come. We have just received a report that hundreds of enemy war planes are approaching the Kent coast. The expected target is the docks in East London. All residents in that area are urged to seek shelter.”

Blitz Memorial at St. Paul’s Cathedral

But Fighter Command kept coming at the Luftwaffe in unceasing interceptions of German bombing raids by Spitfires and Hurricanes led by Park’s Number 11 Group. Daily attrition stretched the Luftwaffe to its limit. The Luftwaffe Commander, Herman Göring, went for broke on September 15, 1940 and threw nearly everything he had left at London, launching over 1,000 sorties to try and turn the tide. Park scrambled every one of his fighter squadrons and German losses dealt a severe blow to the confidence of Hitler and Göring. Shortly thereafter, the Nazis called off plans to invade England and ended daylight bombing raids over Southern England. Of course, Eddy and Dudley were right in the middle of “Battle of Britain Day,” as September 15^thcame to be known, in the final aerial combat scenes of ANGELS and BANDITS, needing to depend on each other to get the job done!

Checkout my website brodiecurtis.com for a listing of great sources if you want to learn more about The Battle of Britain.