Royal Air Force 1939-1945
Volume 3: The Fight is Won
By Hilary St. George Saunders
1954
The final chapter of this volume was written jointly by Hilary St. George Saunders and Denis Richards
Crown Copyright Reserved
Printed and Published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: POINTBLANK and Area Attacks
Chapter 2: The U-boat in the Atlantic and the Bay
Chapter 3: Stratagems and Spoils
Chapter 4: Before the Curtain Rose
Chapter 6: The Battle for France
Chapter 7: Flying Bombs and Rockets
Chapter 9: From Brussels to the Rhine
Chapter 11: The Balkans and the Middle East
Chapter 12: Oil and the Climax
Chapter 13: Over the Rhine to the Elbe
Chapter 14: The Long Road Back to Burma
Chapter 15: Arakan, Kohima, and Imphal
Chapter 16: The Rising Sun Sets
Appendices
Appendix I: Members of the Air Council, 1944-1945
Appendix II: Principal Air Commanders, 1944-1945
Appendix III: Royal Air Force Command Organization, June 1944
Appendix IV: Royal Air Force Command Organization, January 1945
Appendix V: First-Line Aircraft of the British and German Air Forces, June 1944 and January 1945
Appendix VI: German and Italian Submarines Destroyed by Allied Shore-Based Aircraft
Appendix VIII: Principal Operational Aircraft of the Royal Air Force, 1944-1945
Appendix IX: Principal Operational Aircraft of the German Air Force, 1944-1945
Appendix X: Principal Operational Aircraft of the Japanese Air Force, 1944-1945
Appendix XI: Order of Battle, Allied Expeditionary Air Force, ‘D Day’, 6th June 1944
Appendix XII: Order of Battle, Air Command, South-East Asia, 1st July 1944
Appendix XIII: Glossary of Code Names and Abbreviations
Maps and Diagrams
The Battle of the Atlantic (VI), June–August 1943
The Battle of the Atlantic (VII), September 1943–April 1944
The Air Plan for the Landings in Normandy, 6 June 1944
The Battle for France, July–September 1944
Deployment of Defences against the Flying Bomb, 13 June and 20 July 1944
Air Operations against Walcheren, 3 October–8 November 1944
Air Operations up to the German Frontier, September–December 1944
The Campaign in Italy, 8 June 1944–2 May 1945, and the Liberation of the South of France, 15 August–12 September 1944
The Balkans
The Indian Ocean
Principal Targets Attacked by Bomber Command, 1 January 1944–5 May 1945
The Battle of the Atlantic (VIII), May 1944–May 1945
The Advance into Germany, January–May 1945
The First Arakan Campaign, December 1942–May 1943
The First Chindit Expedition, February–June 1943
Air Supply Operations in the Second Arakan Campaign, February 1944
Japanese Attacks on Imphal and Kohima, March–April 1944
The Second Chindit Expedition and the Northern Front in Burma, December 1943–August 1944
The Reconquest of Burma, November 1944–May 1945
RAF Bomber Command. Distribution of Effort Between Principal Target Systems, 1940–1945
Annual Tonnages of Bombs Dropped by the RAF Bomber Command and the U.S. Eighth Air Force 1939–1945
Plates
Marshal of the Royal Air Force The Lord Portal of Hungerford—Wing Commander G. L. Cheshire—A ‘Kill’ in the Bay—Flying Officer L. A. Trigg—The Railway Yards at Aulnoye before and after an attack by Bomber Command—Amiens Prison after the Mosquitos had struck—Pre ‘D-Day’ Bombing. Tours Airfield—Horsa Gliders in Normandy after the Airborne Landings—Wreckage of German Transport near Chambois—AEAF Daily Conference, August 1944—The Flying Bomb (V.1)—A V.2 being prepared for Launching—Arnhem—The Gestapo Headquarters at Aarhus after No. 2 Group’s Attack—A Synthetic Oil Plant at Bohlen after Bomber Command’s Attack—Oil Refinery at Bremen under attack by Lancasters—The Last of the Tirpitz—Beaufighters Attacking a Minesweeper off Borkum—The Railway Viaduct at Bielefeld after Bomber Command’s Attack—A Battered Target in the Patch of the Allied Advance—Bocholt—A Beaufighter attack on a Japanese Storage Dump—Bombing of Japanese Dock Installations at Surasdilani—A Japanese Tanker Hit by RAF Liberators—Heavy Bombers Attacking Japanese Positions on Ramree Island—A Bridge over the Myitnge River after Attack by RAF Thunderbolts—The Docks at Rangoon, shattered by Allied Bombing