With Wings Like Eagles (39 page)

and English Channel, 7, 126

Fleet Air Arm, 144, 209

and German attacks, 121, 126

shipboard discipline in, 60

shore bases of, 227

in World War I, 29

Rubensdörffer, Walter, 197, 199

Sackville-West, Vita, 233

Salmond, Sir John, 293

Schmidt, Josef “Beppo”:

failure to follow up, 169

inaccurate estimates of RAF capability, 173, 189, 210, 222, 272

as
Luftwaffe
chief of intelligence, 166

poor intelligence reports from, 166, 168, 222, 227, 288

Schneider, Jacques, 50

Schneider Trophy races, 50–52, 54

Scots Guards, 224

Seeckt, Hans von, 62

Shakespeare, William, 56n, 160

Sholto Douglas, Sir William:

and Dowding, 39, 150, 151, 183, 192, 211, 238, 257, 290, 291, 293–94, 295, 296

and fighters vs. bombers debate, 39

and October meeting, 290, 291, 292

personal traits of, 151

Short aircraft factory, bombing of, 171, 196

Short Stirling bombers, 196

Simpson, Wallis Warfield, 21–22

Sinclair, Sir Archibald, 105, 111, 201, 210, 295, 296

Slessor, Sir John, 297

Smith, Roddick Lee, 169

Somerville, Sir James, 153

Sopwith planes, 79

Soviet Union:

German invasion of, 250n, 281, 282, 285

in World War I, 19

Spain, German attacks on, 13

Spanish Armada, 163–64, 274

Spanish Civil War, 73, 81

Sperrle, Hugo:

and bombing capacity, 183

and bombing of London, 199–200, 245, 246, 247

and Eagle Day, 158, 183, 187

and Göring, 187, 199–200

and
Luftflotte
3, 122, 158, 227, 245

Stuka planes,
see
Junkers Stukas

Stumpff, H.-J., 122, 129, 183

Summers, “Mutt,” 55

Summersby, Kay, 263n

Supermarine Aviation Works, 50–52

shadow factory of, 167–68, 242

Supermarine Spitfire:

capabilities of, 46, 56, 81, 174, 183, 260, 267–68

design of, 52-56, 58, 69, 70, 72n, 83, 88

production of, 17, 26, 32, 38, 42, 52, 55–56, 68, 168, 171

seaplanes, 51–53

Type 224 monoplanes, 53–54

“There’ll Always Be an England” (song), 234

Things to Come
(film), 20, 24, 44, 188

Thorney Island airfield (HMS
Peregrine
), 227, 228, 230

Tobin, “Red,” 145, 194

Treaty of Versailles, 10, 19, 62

Udet, Ernst, 40, 71–72, 75, 80, 96

United Kingdom,
see
Britain

United States:

admiration of British in, 232

aircraft produced by, 268, 269, 296–97

aviation fuel imported from, 74–75

British requests for help from, 109, 123

Great Depression in, 19

Lend-Lease supplies from, 285

neutrality of, 123

and Pearl Harbor, 282

Vickers (Aviation), 52–53, 55, 167–68, 171

Volkswagen, 69

war, as chance, 7

War Cabinet, May 13 meeting, 106, 107, 109–18, 138

Warsaw, bombing of, 166, 246, 247

Watson-Watt, Robert, 16n, 34

Waugh, Evelyn, 130, 263n

Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, duke of, 208

Wells, H. G., 23, 28, 42, 107, 235

The Shape of
Things to Come
, 20, 188

Wellum, Geoffrey, 90–93

Wilhelmina, queen of the Netherlands, 109

Windsor, Edward, duke of, 5, 249

Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF):

air attack described by, 225

as the “Beauty Chorus,” 44

casualties among, 159, 286

courage under fire, 75n, 159, 174–75, 193, 226, 230, 254–55

and death in the air, 87, 286

tasks of, 39, 44–45, 182, 214

as unsung heroes, 75n

Women’s Royal Naval Service (Wrens), 226, 230

Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS), 207, 210

Wood, Sir Kingsley, 101n

World War I:

air combat in, 86

armament in, 29, 39, 79

balloons in, 220

Britain in, 15, 18, 20, 22, 29, 95, 105, 232, 292

France in, 93, 94, 95, 96, 98

Germany in, 18, 22, 143

Royal Flying Corps in, 15

World War II:

and fog of war, 76

Japanese surrender in, 269

as new kind of war, 44

Soviet Union in, 250n, 281, 282, 285

subsequent events in, 284–85

U.S. entry into, 282

what-ifs, 288

Young, G. M., 21, 30

zeppelins, 18, 43, 50