The Air Marshal versus the Admiral: Air Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding and Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles Morton Forbes in the Pantheon

Abstract

AbstractThis article assesses two military commanders who would have played key roles defending the nation had Germany invaded Great Britain in 1940. It challenges Air Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding's enviable public reputation as the man most responsible for preventing invasion by winning the air campaign misleadingly known as the Battle of Britain. By contrast, it rescues Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles Forbes who led the Royal Navy's most important tactical force in home waters. Previously, their reputations have been largely pegged to misleading public perceptions of the defence contributions of their service branches between the wars and during the early phases of the Second World War. These perceptions mainly stemmed from propaganda requirements for gaining essential American support, but it is argued here that the performance of Dowding and the Royal Air Force fell significantly short of the Battle of Britain legend. Instead, mainly because of an overwhelmingly powerful British fleet and Forbes's decimation of the German Kriegsmarine around Norway, the German planners came to believe that even with air superiority, invasion was not a viable operation. It concludes that the maligned Forbes and the Royal Navy should now be recognized as the real winners of the wider Battle of Britain.