Of all the written accounts by the fighter pilots of the RAF during 1941, two stand out, in my opinion. Both were by pilots who flew Spitfire Mk Vs with 610 Squadron, which by summer 1941 was one of the squadrons under Wing Commander Douglas Bader. “Circuses” were usually composed of six bombers, escorted by many squadrons of fighters, typically Spitfire Mk Vs; the formation was called a “Beehive.”
At this time, RAF Fighter Command, headed by Air Marshall William Sholto Douglas, was carrying out its new policy, “Lean towards France.” The policy was suggested by retired Air Marshall Hugh Trenchard, who had commanded the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. Unfortunately, Trenchard failed to absorb the lessons of the Battle of Britain, which had finished in victory for the RAF in 1940: principally, that the German Luftwaffe had suffered from tying their Messerschmitt Bf 109E fighters too close to their bombers to be effective against the attacking Hurricanes and Spitfires.
This new policy resulted in RAF Fighter Command losing aircraft and pilots over France at the rate of four to one during 1941 and 1942. Any pilots who survived being shot down were captured.
Sholto Douglas had been initially skeptical of Trenchard’s suggested policy, but on reflection and after writing a paper about it, he changed his mind. His reasoning is difficult to understand, as the fighters that were shot down over France would have been far better used in either the Western Desert campaign or in the defense of Malta or Singapore.
In a hot sweat of fear, I keep turning and turning…
In his book, “Wing Leader,” James “Johnnie” Edgar Johnson of 610 Squadron described a typical Circus mission to Lille, France in July, 1941:
Fighter controller A.B. “Woody”
