ABSTRACT
The purpose was to keep the sirens wailing, the people awake, and aircraft factory night shift workers tensed and on edge. British commanders are habitually ‘apprehensive’. The word is milder, less alarming and more official than ‘worried’. The anti-aircraft guns of this period—their bark was worse than their bite—could do little more than bring comfort to civilians. The flash and noise of a blackout barrage was deceptively formidable. The night-fighters, groping, and hoping for a piece of luck, could serve even less purpose than the guns. Night operations were difficult for both sides in 1940. The technique was elementary by comparison with the scientific bombing of later years. During, and since the war, the British public’s pride and interest in the Battle has been nourished by the ‘David and Goliath’ legend of the Few against the Many. The significance of the changeable British weather has been remarked upon earlier.
