The Right of the Line  27730

• Part I: The Preparation – “Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum”
  1. Beginnings
  2. Disarmers and Bombers
  3. A modern Air Force
  4. Expansion
  5. Rearmament under way
  6. The knock-out blow
  7. Munich
  8. Coming of age, coming of war
• Part II: The Test – “The battle is the pay off …”
  9. North Sea tutorial
  10. Night bombing; Ludlow-Hewitt
  11. Norway, 1940
  12. Crisis of battle: fighter cover, bomber offensive
  13. The pay-off; Dowding protests
  14. Dunkirk
  15. 1940 catastrophe: The Reckoning
• Part III: The Strain – “The only plan is to persevere:
  • The Battle of Britain – “… a few thousand airmen …”
    16. Britain alone
    17. The Dowding System
    18. “Contact phase”; Sir Keith park
    19. “Adler Tag“; the “numbers game:
    20. August, the Crunch; Beaverbrook
    21. The “Big Wing”; Leigh-Mallory, Bader
    22. Battle of attrition, the climax
    23. Defeat for Dowding
    24. Victory for Fighter Command
    25. Battle of Britain: Envoi
  • The Battle of the Atlantic (I) – “Anxiety supreme”
    26. Coastal command: rôle and equipment; U-Boat war, wireless war
    27. The U-Boat enemy; bombs and depth-charges
    28. The battle begins; the Dönitz system; ASV radar
    29. Lord Beaverbrook rushes in
    30. The Atlantic gap; “the crow and the mole”; Western approaches; False Dawn; Bismarck and others
  • The Strategic  Air Offensive (I) – “The leading element in bringing about our victory …”
    31. Newall and Portal; the growing service; the Empire training scheme
    32. Bomber offensive resumed; German morale; area bombing
    33. Photographic reconnaissance
    34. Oil; “Diversions”; heavy bombers; the Mosquito
    35. New allies; “Rhubarbs” and “Circuses”; Compulsions of alliance
    36. Four thousand bombers
• Part IV: The Victory – “The Air must hold the ring”
  • The Mediterranean – “… Air warfare in its own right …”
    37. Middle East command; The Takoradi route; Longmore’s problems
    38. War with Italy; war for aerodromes; Operation “Compass”
    39. East Africa; air support
    40. The Greek Fiasco, 1941
    41. The Afrika Korps arrives; first desert defeat
    42. Tedder in command; “Combined operation in the full sense”; a system of air support
    43. Air support / army cooperation
    44. Churchill and Tedder; “Crusader”
    45. America in the war; a new strategy
    46. Malta
    47. Gazala: the lowest ebb; “First Alamein”
    48. Montgomery and Coningham; Alam Halfa
    49. “Second Alamein”; Advance to Tunisia
    50. Operation “Torch”; the Casablanca conference; Victory in Africa
    51. The way forward
  • The Battle of the Atlantic (II) – “… the dominating factor all through the war …”
    52. Science and intelligence; the Leigh light; Tasks of Coastal Command
    53. False dawn; defensive and offensive
    54. The dark night; anti-shipping operations; oil supplies; “an obstacle to victory”
    55. Turning point; the “Gap”; Liberators; U-boat reverses
    56. ASV III and H2S; Ultra breakthrough
    57. The last convoy battles; new weapons; Atlantic victory
    58. “Per ardua”
  • The Strategic Air Offensive (II) – “… they are sowing the wind …”
    59. Bomber Command problems; aircraft and aircrew
    60. Harris; the Americans arrives; bombing aids; incendiaries
    61. “Millennium”; precision bombing in 1942; Pathfinders
    62. “Prescription for massacre”; another strategic debate
    63. Air “battles: 1943; aids and opposition; the Ruhr
    64. Moral fibre
    65. The dams raid; master bombers
    66. The German fighter force; “Pointblank”
    67. Hamburg fire-storm; Luftwaffe victory; Mustangs; Bomber Command defeat
  • Victory in Europe – “… the highest degree of intimacy …”
    68. Combined operations, 1942-45: “Cossac”; Leigh-Mallory
    69. Combined operation: Pantelleria; Luftwaffe eclipse; Sicily blueprint
    70. Combined operations: mainland Italy; systems of air support
    71. Combined operations: “Overlord”; Commanders; manpower; aircraft
    72. “Overlord”: Command problems; a question of airfields
    73. Air supremacy; interdiction; tactical air forces; “Bodyguard:
    74. “Overlord”: U-Boat fiasco; airborne assault; air effort
    75. Tactical air supremacy
    76. Command relations
    77. “Race-meetings”; V-weapons; “had for suckers”
    78. Making air history; Normandy: Triumph of Air Power
    79. “Bagration”; advance to the Rhine; Arnhem
    80. Portal and Harris; Dresden; the final acts
    81. The Right of the Line

Appendices

• Western Air Plans, September 1, 1939
• “Diversions” of Bomber Command
• The Crisis of the U-boat war: British, Allied and neutral shipping sunk, January 1942-May 1943
• Sinkings of U-boats, January 1942-May 1943
• A Mass Air Force
• Secretaries of State and Chiefs of Staff, 1933-45
• Sir Charles Portal and the long-range fighter question

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