What aree the most unknown factss on the Secoond World War?

Jim Schoofield, historiian (who shaamelessly repposts his ownn prior answeers)
Updatedd Dec 27

You’ve pprobably never heard of Air

A Chief Maarshal Sir Keeith Park. Heere’s the storyy of a hero who
w
saved thhe entire worlrld;

Sir Keithh was the firsst commandeer to defeat thhe Nazis in a major battle. Victorious i n the most im
mportant,
and one of the largesst, battles in history… Thee Battle of Britain.
B

Sir Keithh was “The Leeader of Thee Few”, in hiss role as commander of thhe Royal Air FForce’s Fightter
Commannd, No. 11 Group.
G Sir Keiith’s group reesoundingly defeated
d the Luftwaffe thrroughout fouur months
of intensse aerial warffare, fought over
o London and South East E England. Sir Keith annd his group
performeed near-perfeectly.

Battle coommenced inn ~May 1940, it was Britaain’s ‘darkestt hour’; the British
B Empiree at it’s weakkest
stood aloone against Hitler’s
H Reichh at it’s peak.. The four moonths that followed will foorever remainn ‘Their
finest hour’ - “The Few”
F won.
Sir Keith was a New Zealander; The Leader of The Few wasn’t British. I think that’s fitting, because one
sixth of Fighter Command pilots were foreign nationals. These men were generally experienced, skilled
fighter pilots - so their overall contribution to victory was enormous.

Sir Keith served in WWI as an army and air officer, fighting for New Zealand and later for Britain. He
was awarded numerous medals for multiple acts of heroism and leadership. He served at Gallipoli and
on the Somme. After being wounded on the ground, Sir Keith recovered and became a pilot. He
became an ace WW1 fighter pilot, scoring 20 recorded victories.

Sir Keith remained with the RAF between wars, rising to be Air Chief Marshal Lord Hugh Dowding’s
best and most experienced fighter commander, and his friend. Lord Dowding devised and deployed the
brilliant Dowding System in the years before the battle. Sir Keith helped Lord Dowding in developing
the system. Then, he used it to full effect in order to win the Battle of Britain.

The Battle of Britain

As World War Two loomed, Lord Dowding entrusted Sir Keith with air defense of London and South
East England. No 11 group’s area was the most vital portion of the nation, and by far the most-
threatened by the Axis.

Lord Dowding’s faith in Sir Keith was rewarded.

Sir Keith commanded brilliantly. He redefined air combat by taking full advantage the technology such
as radar and the vital visual observer information systems. Systems that Lord Dowding and Sir Keith
had devised themselves.

Before the battle, aerial combat doctrine was that “the bomber will always get through”, and suggested
intercepting fighters and/or bombers on their return flights, with massed squadrons. Sir Keith upended
that, much as Lord Nelson upended naval tactics at Trafalgar.

Sir Keith’s tactics were to attempt to intercept bombers before they reached their targets, using much
smaller formations. That proved to be a near-perfect choice; essentially all daytime Luftwaffe bombing
attempts were intercepted and harassed by RAF fighters. Because of this, those bombers couldn’t hit
their targets. His tactics also meant that fewer planes were left vulnerable on the ground at any one
time while refuelling/arming. So even if the Luftwaffe did manage to get a bomb on target, any losses
were minimised.

Others in the RAF (particularly 12 Group commander Trafford Leigh-Mallory) advocated for the
opposite approach entirely. Their opposition was strenuous and continual, and became quite
politicised… Many suggest that Leigh-Mallory resented Sir Keith’s more prestigious posting. Thankfully,
others supported Sir Keith’s suggested tactics. Lord Dowding in particular went in to bat for Sir Keith
and his tactics at the higher/political level, while Sir Keith was busy winning the battle - which is part of
the reason why Lord Dowding is another astonishing RAF hero! 10 Group’s Sir Quintin Brand (and
others) strongly supported Sir Keith’s tactics and 11 Group in general as well… And as a result of that
team effort, the best tactics prevailed and the battle was won.

This map details Sir Keith’s enormous responsibilities (edited for emphasis, from the original on
Wikipedia). Sir Keith was responsible for protecting the purple area, while Lord Dowding was
responsible for oversight of all the RAF Fighter Command groups.
Sir Keithh had ten fighhter aerodrom
mes, hundredds of aircraft, and hundredds of pilots too command. He was
responsible for the protection of South
S East E
England and London;
L and protection oof much of Britain’s
vital warr infrastructurre, commandd and its peopple. No. 11 Group
G were extremely
e cloose to the bulk of the
enemy bbombers and fighters. Esssentially all oof his sector was
w within Luuftwaffe fighteer range. As such,
they borre the brunt ofo the Luftwafffe bombing aattempts andd faced the most
m Luftwaffee fighters.

In spite oof enormous pressures, Sir

S Keith wass always a deecent and thooughtful man ; he enjoyed mutual
respect aand friendship with his crrews - during the battle, he
h visited the airfields reguularly in his
personalised Hurricaane, OK-1. Byy all accountss he was pleeasant and caaring to all th roughout hiss whole
life.

Had he m
made mistakkes during thee battle the cconsequencees could havee been catasttrophic. He didn’t
d
make anny mistakes. So Sir Keith’s fighters su cceeded in defending
d Britain.

Of the otther groups, only 10 grouup’s airfields w

were anywheere near as close
c to the LLuftwaffe. AV
VM Sir
Quintin B
Brand (a Souuth African) and
a his groupp performed spectacularly
s y too. They sstrongly supported
and prottected Sir Keeith and No 11 group whe never requireed. Like Sir Keith,
K Sir Quiintin helped
formulatte and carry out
o Lord Dow wding’s planss and supportted these tacctics throughoout the battlee. No 10
Group also contendeed with ferocious battles i n their own sector.
s Yet, Sir
S Quintin’s bburden was small
s
compareed to Sir Keith’s.

Nobody had ever beaaten the Nazzis. Undefeatted in eight years of war fought acrosss Europe… Until
U they
had to figght Sir Keith.

Sir Keithh led The Feww to victory over

o Hitler’s rreich every day.
d For nearrly four monthhs straight. The
T
Battle off Britain was won.

We celebrate The Feew. Their victtory will neveer be matched. This was their
t finest hoour (finest 2,712
hours?) But we don’tt celebrate Thhe Leader off The Few muuch as we prrobably oughht to.

Still donn’t believe me?

m Fine.

On 15th August 19400, Churchill made

m one of many visits tot the 11 Grooup commandd bunker at RAF R
Uxbridgee (now preseerved as the Battle of Britaain bunker). There, Churcchill watchedd Sir Keith leaading
The Feww to victory. As
A Churchill left Sir Keith’ss bunker aidees spoke to the
t Prime Mi nister. Inspirred and
overwheelmed by whaat he had seeen, Churchill yelled;

“Don’t ttalk to me!…

… Never befo
ore have I beeen so moveed”

He paussed, then for the first time said…

“Never in the historry of mankin

nd has so m
much been ow
wed by so many
m to so fe
few”

Air Chieef Marshal Sir

S Keith Park, GCB, KBE M RAF, (18892 - 1975).
E, MC&Bar, DFC, DCL, MA,
“The Defender of London” - Nazis gave him that title.

“The leader of The Few” - The Few

“If any one man won the Battle of Britain, he did. I don't believe it is recognised how much this
one man, with his leadership, his calm judgment and his skill, did to save not only this country,
but the world.” - RAF head Lord Tedder (1947).

"The awesome responsibility for this country's survival rested squarely on Keith Park's
shoulders." - RAF Ace Douglas Bader.

“If it hadn’t been for Park, we shouldn’t be here today … I think that he was a magnificent group
commander. I couldn’t have thought of anybody I would rather have had in preference to Park” -
Lord Dowding (links to audio of an interview with Lord Dowding)

"He was the only man who could have lost the war in a day or even an afternoon" - RAF Ace
Johnnie Johnson.

“Adolf Hitler met his first defeat in eight years … in what might go down in history as a battle as
important as Waterloo or Gettysburg”

“He played as important a role as the great Admiral Lord Nelson, who dominates Trafalgar
Square, in securing the freedom that we enjoy today” - Tony Benn and Lord Tebbit

“A man without whom the history of the Battle of Britain could have been disastrously different.
He was a man who never failed at any task he was given.". Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton

'Sir Keith Park saved us, and the world'

"If it were down to me we would name Hyde Park 'Keith Park', or 'Park Park”. - Then London
Mayor Boris Johnson.

Post-war Soviet interrogators asked Wehrmacht commander Field Marshal von Rundstedt which battle
he believed was most decisive.

“They expected him to say “Stalingrad”, but von Rundstedt replied “The Battle of Britain”.

Winning the Battle of Britain was the turning point of the war. The Few stopped Hitler’s advance.
Defeated, Hitler’s focus turned to invading Russia. This split the Axis, and led to their devastation at the
hands of the valiant Russians.

The Battle of Britain victory amazed the United States of America. There, the RAF’s ongoing successes
were publicised with excitement and admiration. Before the battle, the US Government didn’t believe
Britain could survive. Mid-battle, realising Britain was winning, the USA began to substantially increase
their material (and moral) support of the Allied war effort; eventually entering the war after Pearl
Harbour.

As an indirect consequence of Sir Keith’s victory, both the USA and USSR entered the war as Allies.
Preventing Nazi invasion meant Britain could later provide the vital staging ground for the Allies
Western invasion of Nazi Europe.
Siege of Malta

Sir Keith’s feats include winning not one, but two vital aerial battles of the war. His command
immediately turned the Siege of Malta in favor of the Allies. He took aerial command against what had
been a two year and five month long siege of relentless bombing. Within days, Sir Keith’s new tactics
forced the Luftwaffe to abandon daylight bombing of the island. Within months of his arrival, Sir Keith
had once more defeated the axis; they gave up trying to take Malta.

Sir Keith’s AHQ Malta then eviscerated Axis shipping supplies en route to Rommel’s forces Africa. The
damage they inflicted on Axis shipping contributed significantly to the Allied victory in Africa.

Remarkably, Sir Keith used almost totally reversed tactics in Malta. Whereas in Britain he used small
numbers of fighters against large enemy formations, in Malta he aggressively deployed large
formations of fighters, one squadron after another, to attack comparatively smaller Luftwaffe and Italian
formations - this too was an excellent tactical choice. Malta is much smaller; he had better visibility from
improved radar technology and different weather; and he had plentiful Spitfires to use.

Recognition

Despite being one of the finest military leaders in history, Sir Keith’s feats went almost unrecognised for
decades. In recent years he’s begun to recieve some of the recognition he deserves; in 2009 a
wonderful statue of Sir Keith was erected in London (Waterloo Place). Sir Keith in flight uniform stands
guard, forever watching the skies toward Continental Europe.
The bronnze plaque bestows
b his epic
e title:

“The Deefender of Lo
ondon”.

So an unnknown fact of WW2 is thhat a magnificcent hero named Keith, frrom the far sside of the gloobe,
stepped up when it mattered
m mosst, and savedd the whole damn
d world frrom Hitler.

If you ennjoyed this, please

p considder sharing thhis on Facebook, Twitter, and whereveer else - Sir Keith’s
heroism deserves grreater recognnition.