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In 1936, whilst based at the Air Ministry, Arthur Harris (later to be known as ‘Bomber’ Harris) successfully argued that Bomber Command would need larger heavier bombers rather than the existing medium-size aircraft. He foresaw that to have real offensive power the RAF needed aeroplanes that could carry significant bomb loads over great distances.

To cope with the larger aircraft, bigger airfields with longer runways were built and training programmes were organised to produce increasing numbers of skilled aircrews. Many potential aircrew travelled overseas during wartime to complete basic flying training in the USA, Canada and Southern Africa, or remained in their native countries to train (e.g. Australia and New Zealand) where plentiful fuel supplies, relatively good weather and lack of enemy aircraft meant pilots could quickly hone their flying skills before coming to Britain to finalise their training and then join an operational squadron.

Difficulties of navigation at night

A key part of accurate bombing was accurate navigation. Forced to fly at night to avoid German fighters and flak, aircrews operating in the early part of the war found their way around Europe in darkness and frequent bad weather with little more than sextants, the navigator’s estimates of the aircraft’s position based on speed, direction and wind conditions and occasional radio directional bearings on the return journey.

On one occasion in May 1940 a disorientated crew flying in poor weather at night bombed what they took to be an enemy airfield in Holland. They later realised to their horror they had actually bombed an RAF fighter base in Cambridgeshire. Fortunately no-one on the ground was hurt and the bomber got home safely. In the typical humour of the time, two Spitfires from the fighter base flew over the errant bomber’s home airfield the next day and dropped mock German Iron Cross medals.

In 1939, the British Navy was the largest Navy in the world. Its strength was paramount to the defence of the Empire. The professional head was the First Sea Lord, Admiral of the fleet Sir Dudley Pound. There were almost 200,000 officers and men including Royal Marines and Reserves. There were 15 battleships and battle cruisers, 7 aircraft carriers, 66 cruisers (of which most were new), 184 destroyers (over half were new), 60 submarines and a number of support vessels. As Robert MacKay states, ‘The Royal Navy was in a reasonably healthy state in September 1939’⁹. However, the Navy had to defend the world’s oceans (excluding the help of the French Navy) and relied on the generosity of the Americans to protect the Pacific Ocean. D Dilks agrees and points out that Britain ‘had command of the ocean’¹⁰. The Empire proved very difficult to defend especially in the Far East. As Corelli Barnett states, ‘it was the greatest example of strategic overstretch the world had ever seen’.

However, out of all the services, the Navy was the most prepared for war. Under construction were 5 ‘King George V’ class battleships (which helped to sink the German battleship the Bismarck in May 1941), 6 fleet carriers of which 5 were already under construction, 32 fleet destroyers, 20 escort types, 9 submarines and 9 patrol vessels. Furthermore, 23 new cruiser minelayers were laid down. On the other hand, only 2 of the 15 battleships were new and there was only one new aircraft carrier. Also many capital ships were old. In addition it was hard to tackle the threat of the U boats and ASDIC (the Royal Navy’s submarine), had limited range and was little use against surfaced U boats. Survival depended upon the Enigma, a coding machine, for the submarine war, which helped to break German codes.

However the Stern-dropped and Mortar-fired depth charges were the only lethal anti-submarine weapon available. This was illustrated in the Battle of the Atlantic 1940-1942. Also the Royal Navy severely underestimated the threat of aircraft to their vessels. This was evident in 1941 off the coast of Singapore where Britain suffered its biggest naval disaster of the war and lost 2 battleships, The Prince of Wales and the Repulse. Torpedo bombers sank the two battleships it was the first time capital ships of any nation had been lost to air attack while in the open sea. ‘Their loss tilted the balance in the Battle for Malaya and just two months later Singapore surrendered to the Japanese Army’¹². This highlighted the fact that few ships had anti aircraft defence on board. Another problem was that the German Navy could read the Navy’s operational and convoy codes and the Royal Navy did not compete when it came to landing large armies onto hostile shores. It was only in 1943 with the capture of Sicily that Britain, with the support of the USA, overcame this problem. However radars were fitted onto ships helping them detect enemy vessels quicker and Scapa Flow, a body of water in the Orkney Islands which holds the UK’s chief naval base, was considered impregnable. This was proven to be false as the British aircraft-carrier Courageous was sunk by a U-boat in the first major naval loss.

The Royal Navy may have been the largest in the world but it was almost certainly not fully prepared for war. The submarine war was particularly deficient on the British side, as stated. Due to Britain’s outdated shipbuilding industry, many ships were old and not al lot of progress could be made. However, its strength was imperative to the Second World War, and again, radar proved to be one of Britain’s main dominances.