Originally Posted by
Chugalug2
Thank you for that succinct and informative post, At ease. Others will no doubt cavil at the detail, but if this long running thread has any purpose it is surely to inform and to learn about this pivotal battle. You have done the former and I, for one, the latter.
Incidentally, the explanation of Dowding's Stabilisation Scheme illustrates quite clearly what a great leader he was. We were very lucky to have the right man, in the right job, and at the right time.
Thank you for the kind words.
Indeed, he was a great leader.
From pp84/85 of:
War: A Matter of Principles
By Air Marshal David Evans
Although he suffered resentment and ingratitude at the time, and was retired immediately the battle was won, Churchill, much later, was big enough to pay tribute to Dowding's perceptiveness and generalship when writing his account of World War II:
The foresight of Air Marshal Dowding in his direction of fighter command deserves high praise, but even more remarkable has been the restraint and the exact measurement of formidable stresses which had reserved a fighter force in the north during all these long weeks of mortal combat in the south. We must regard the generalship here shown as an example of genius in the art of war.
https://books.google.com.au/books?id...alship&f=false