The Battle That Saved The Free World!

By Tom Morrow

          Arguably, the “Battle of Britain,” which took place in the summer and fall of 1940, saved the free world from Nazi tyranny.

          After Adolf Hitler’s lighting success in capturing most of Western Europe using the German army’s “Blitzkreig” (lighting warfare) tactics, only Great Britain remained to be harnessed in the Nazi yolk of dictatorship. But all that stood in the way of German domination of England, Scotland, and Wales was the English Channel and the world’s most powerful flotilla: Britain’s Royal Navy.

          At that time, German Luftwaffe (air force) was the most powerful in the world with more than 2,500 fighters and bombers; Britain’s Royal Air Force numbered less than 800 fighters and bombers. Probably around 600 usable aircraft was a more realistic number. Hitler decided that bombing British airfields and demolishing the RAF would be a prelude to a Channel crossing and land invasion from the French coast some 25 miles away.

          Luftwaffe leader and Hitler’s No. 2, Herrman Goering, underestimated the tenacity of the British people’s will to resist and the bravado of RAF pilots. In order to equalize the numbers, British pilots would have to shoot down invading German planes on a four-to-one ratio.

          Hitler was confidant his bombers could overwhelm the British with brute force, knocking out coastal defenses and shipping, eventually giving the Germans air control over the whole of southern England.

          When the initial mission failed to destroy the RAF, Hitler launched a night-time bombing campaign, or as the British called it, “Blitz,” of London. So confident Goering was of his air force’s superiority, he bragged to Hitler that if any British bombs ever fell on Berlin, he mockingly told the Nazi leader that he could call the rotund air marshall, “Meyer,” (a Jewish name considered by the Nazis to be a supreme insult). When the first RAF bombs rained down on Berlin, no one knows what Hitler said to Goering, but it’s a good bet it wasn’t pleasant.

          Hitler under estimated the stamina of the British people and the skill of RAF pilots and their aircraft. While the Me-109 fighter was a fast and agile aircraft, the RAF “Spit fire” was a superior weapon.

          The Brits united under Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s leadership to defend their nation at all costs. They refused to give up, even as their cities were repeatedly bombed. The British had an advantage over the Germans: radar, which they invented. The Brits knew exactly when the Luftwaffe was coming, in what strength and at what altitude. RAF fighters, “Spitfires” and “Hurricanes,” kept German air raids at bay, but at great cost to the RAF. British and German aircraft factories were turning out planes as fast as possible to keep up with the daily destruction. Still, when the Battle of Britain ended, the British had lost some 900 aircraft to the Germans’ 2,300 planes. The RAF had nearly equalled their needed “four-to-one” combat ratio.

          Though the United States had yet to enter the war, President Roosevelt persuaded Congress to approve the “Lend-Lease” agreement, which sent ships, planes, guns, ammo, and desperately-needed food and medical supplies to the beleaguered British people. Historians generally agree that if the British nation had not stopped the Nazi aggression, an attack on North America would have been imminent. That one air battle might very well have preserved our democratic way of life instead of living under a dictatorship.

          One footnote to history – Goering asked his top fighter ace what he needed to defeat the British? Flight leader and fighter ace Adolf Galland replied: “Give me a squadron of Spitfires.” Goering was not amused.

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         Be sure a pick up the latest edition of "The Paper," and read my weekly column, "Historically Speaking," available at restaurants, grocery, and near or on newspaper stands throughout North County.

Go to my web site at: www.tomorrowsnovels.com to read about my novels and self-help books. Below, find Chapter Four of "Dark Angel."

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Chapter

4

       Down at the crime scene on Via del Flores, Shamus stood, studying the front yard for several minutes. A few curious neighbors began filing out of their houses, standing in their own yards, trying to determine what the retired detective was doing.

       “Whadda ya lookin’ at?” Danny finally asked.

       “Nothing. I’m just giving the yard a look-see for the benefit of the neighbors. They have to be assured their tax dollars are being spent wisely.”

       Danny was holding in a belly laugh.

       “Besides, you never know who might say something that could be of help,” Shamus said.

       “Lookin’ over where it happened, are ya?” a man said as he strolled into the yard.

       Danny and Shamus looked at each other. Shamus wanted to crack wise, but figured it’d not be appreciated under the circumstances. What he really wanted to say was: “No, I’m trying to estimate how much I’d charge to mow this lawn.”

       That’s what he wanted to say, but instead: “Yes, we are. And, you are?”

       “Oh, hey officer, I’m just a neighbor. I didn’t see the accident, nor did I really know the guy.”

       “Accident?” Danny said in a mocking voice.

       “Well, I guess I shouldn’t have said that.”

       The man identified himself as Carver Woodside, a neighbor who lived one door over to the east of the victim.

       “Did you know Mr. Schlicter well?” Shamus asked.

       “No, no I didn’t. Was that his name? Schlicter?”

       “How long have you lived here?” Danny asked.

       “Oh, golly, let’s see. Well, it’s going on 19 years,” Woodside replied.

       “Schlicter has lived here for more than a year and you didn’t know his name?” Danny asked.

       “Well, you know, I don’t have anything to do with his sort – no sir, I surely don’t.”

       “It’s okay, Mr. Woodside. You can go. If we need you we’ll give ya a holler, okay?”

       Shamus was back in his element.

       Danny admired Shamus for his ability to tell people to shove off and make them more or less happy they were on their way.

       "Hand me those binoculars," Shamus said. Danny complied, reaching into his car and pulled out a set of Zeis binoculars.

The old detective aimed them up at the ridge where the forensic tech estimated the shot might have been fired.

"Well, I can see where an expert marksman with a quality rifle and scope could make the shot," Shamus said. "I'm looking right at the ridge."

"How far ya figure?" Danny asked.

"Oh, maybe 700 or 800 yards."

"You'd have to be a pretty damned good shot at that distance," Danny reckoned.

"Naw. A good Marine sniper can hit a target in the right or left eye at a 1,000 yards," Shamus replied. “You choose which eye."

Arriving on the ridge, Shamus and Danny stopped their car along the side of the hill overlooking Mission Valley. The entire region was visible – the city’s airport, the old multi-screen drive-in theatre, and the venerable Mission San Luis Rey, which has stood since 1798.

       The two detectives stopped approximately where the forensic technician estimated from where the sniper had been shooting. Surely they’d find some sort of evidence that might give them a clue as to whom they were looking.

       They found nothing – nada. There was evidence the area had been traversed by motorcycles and off-road vehicles, but all of the tracks were several days, maybe even weeks, old.

       “I doubt if we’ll find anything around here,” Shamus mumbled. “I figure whoever this is we’re looking for isn’t going to leave any clues like empty cartridge casing, cigarette butts – you know, the usual stuff you see in movies. In reality it ain’t never that easy.”

    Danny agreed.

The two men looked around the area further, taking yellow tape and marking off a large area where they estimated the shooter was when he or she fired their rifle.

"We should get some forensic techs out here to comb this area," Shamus suggested. "It doesn't hurt to go through the motions for the record."

Danny agreed as he got on the car radio to make the request.

"We'll stay here until they arrive," he told the radio dispatcher.

Shamus continued surveying the terrain. It was a sweeping view that took in at least four hundred, maybe more, lower to middle-class homes.

“Ya know, just for grins, if I were you I believe I’d map out where all of the convicted and suspected child molesters live in this area,” Shamus advised.

“Good idea,” Danny agreed.

The district attorney’s office keeps track of such things. Anyone can go online and view maps and street locations of known felons convicted of child molestation.

“It’s not like it used to be,” Shamus reckoned. “These guys and their addresses are right in front of us at the click of a computer’s mouse.”