Fighter Command's Air War 1941: RAF Circus Operations and Fighter Sweeps Against the Luftwaffe

by Norman L.R. Franks

Following the Battle of Britain, the RAF started taking the air war to the Germans. A small number of bombers, escorted by large numbers of fighters tried to force the Luftwaffe into battle. Much air combat ensued with RAF light bombers escorted by scores of fighters, but it was not until Germany invaded Russia in June 1941 that operations were stepped up in an effort to take pressure of Stalin's Russian Front. Two major German fighter groups, JG26 and JG2, were, however, more than able to contain the RAF's operations, generally only intercepting when conditions were in their favor.

As the author describes, over-claiming combat victories by pilots of both sides is amazing, and several of the top aces had inflated scores. Fighter Command, however, lost massively even though they believed they were inflicting equal, if not better, losses on the Luftwaffe. This battle of attrition was virtually a reverse of the 1940 battles over Britain, and pilots who had to bale out over France, were lost completely.

The book covers the 100+ Circus operations and their accompanying fighter Sweeps in detail, whilst also mentioning lesser operations where the RAF were concerned. The tactics employed by both sides are examined and show how each fighter force quickly adapted to changing conditions tempered by experiences gained in air combat."

248 pages, Hardcover

Published September 28, 2016

About the author

Norman Leslie Robert Franks was an English militaria writer who specialised in aviation topics. He focused on the pilots and squadrons of World Wars I and II.

Reviews

[Edward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though as is usual for Franks the book lacks a lot of penetrating analysis, he plumbed both British and German records for it. The narrative confirms the well-known and depressing story of RAF overclaiming, low German losses, and a steady drain of RAF aircrew lost to little purpose, but also confirms something I've long suspected: that the allegedly incredibly accurate German claim confirmation system was almost as bad as the RAF's over France in 1940, with JG2 being by far the most egregious offender. It seems pretty clear after reading this that most RAF claims over France in 1941 can be discounted, even those by greats like Johnnie Johnson, and especially those claimed by pilots who got separated from their formations, but also that a good number of German "experten" were flat-out making up claims (a number of three-in-a-day Spitfire claimants, for instance, could not possibly have obtained such scores in actuality, in some cases encountering aircraft that never existed), possibly in order to receive awards of the coveted Knight's Cross, possibly as just one more symptom of Nazi Germany's deeply sick and corrupting culture.

[Brian Knipple · Rating 3 out of 5]

An acceptable account of an under-represented period of WW2. The biggest problem is the editing. The book is written in chronological order and in two cases the author repeats himself in the same day, in one case with different details.

[jeremy cooper · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very dull book

Just a list of operations. I wanted to know about the planes and how they improved over the period, the pilots and tactics. As just snog list of things and very dull correspondence. Shame because the cost in pilots and machines in the book are huge and no one probably knows about it!