ISBN 1-871187-39-7
396 pages

Introduction; Notes; Sources; Acknowledgements; photos; tables; OBs; sidebars; Index

   A long time coming, but worth the wait!
   The first volume (covering 3 September 1939 through 6 September 1940) of John Foreman's Fighter Command War Diaries was published in 1997 and promptly won high honors in our Top Ten Books poll for that year. The second volume (covering September 1940 through December 1941), equally good, appeared almost three years ago. So it's been a long wait for the latest volume in what is proving to be one of the most important works on the air war in recent memory.
   The author has set himself the stern and admirable task of recording the whole of Fighter Command's war in a lengthy series of day-by-day entries carefully quantifying all the important action in terms of losses and claims, as well as accompanying this numeric data with clarifying notations and thoughtful sidebars. Every volume in the series contains a wealth of very accessible tabular data for the numbers freaks, and every volume also contains explanations, interpretations, and further material for those who prefer text to numbers.
   Like the first two volumes, this one divides the action into chapters based on the evolution of the air war:

1. Bleak Outlook
2. Black March, Bloody April
3. Summer Nightmares
4. New Allies, Old Enemies
5. Rhubarbs and Jabos
6. The Great Alliance
7. Light at the End of the Tunnel
8. Slowly Applying the Pressure

   Chapters are introduced with a paragraph or two about the overall events for those months. Here's the introduction to chapter three, covering May, June, and July 1942.

Chapter Three: Summer Nightmares

   As has been seen, the strength of the Royal Air Force fighter squadrons, in terms of front-line quantity, had increased hugely since the beginning of 1941 and the Luftwaffe fighter forces in the west were now heavily outnumbered. All other things being equal, Fighter Command should have enjoyed massive air superiority over their Luftwaffe counterparts—but the FW190 had effectively cancelled this advantage out. Fighter Command could, tactically speaking, reckon on a loss ratio of at least 2:1 when fighting over enemy territory, but the ratio had increased to around 4:1 in aircraft, and in pilots it was around 7:1, since a German pilot killed in action was a rarity. Work was in hand to upgrade the Spitfire Vb and the result was to be the superb Spitfire IXb—which was itself proposed as a 'stop-gap Mark VIII'—but this would not enter service, with 64 Squadron, until June and even then, slow production of the new fighter would prevent many units from receiving it until 1943. Until then, RAF fighter pilots would simply have to 'soldier on' against the well-equipped, well trained and highly confident Luftwaffe pilots. One significant, but almost unnoticed event was the arrival of the first American regular combat units. These would begin familiarisation flights with experienced RAF units during July. They were like the first small pebbles in an avalanche that was eventually the overwhelm the Luftwaffe....

   The main themes in this volume are—as hinted in this particular chapter introduction—first, the appearance of the Focke Wulf 190 fighter which out-classed the British Spitfires and threatened to upset the entire balance of forces in the air campaign; second, the increasing use of Fighter Command aircraft in the fighter-bomber role; and third, the gradual introduction of American air units and aircraft into the theater.
   In addition to the daily numeric tallies, Foreman tracks these developments with well-chosen sidebars covering aircraft specifications, thumbnail biographies of leading pilots, supporting material about events such as the Dieppe Raid and the Channel Dash, after-action reports from pilots, and more general ruminations by the author. Here's a fairly typical sidebar:

A Rainy Day in March

   In the afternoon of 11th March, four Spitfires from 308 Squadron set out on a Rhubarb to attack targets near Dieppe. Pilot Officer T. Stabrowski's aircraft was hit by Flak and he struggled out to sea before ditching. Shortly afterwards, Flight Lieutenant Peter Howard-Williams, recently transferred to 610 Squadron as a Flight Commander, led eight Spitfires off on an air-sea rescue mission to find Stabrowski, but instead found FW190s, some 30 miles south of Beachy Head. In a short action, Howard-Williams claimed to have shot one down into the sea. With fuel running short, the Spitfires now turned for home and the lost fighter pilot was never seen again.
   At 17.10 hours, four Spitfires of 118 Squadron took off for a weather reconnaissance over the North Sea. At 17.50 hours, when about twenty-five miles from Ijmaiden, two Schwarme of Focke Wulfs appeared. These were from Il./JG I and were at once engaged by the Spitfire pilots. Flight Lieutenant R.A. Newberry opened fire on one, seeing hits before it evaded him. He claimed it damaged, but it would appear that, if this was so, the damage was too insignificant to be reported. Flying Officer F.T. Brown's Spitfire was jumped and badly shot-up, either by Oberfeldwebel Hans Ehlers or Unteroffizier Kolschek, both of whom claimed victories. Then Kolschek was himself caught by Pilot Officer Cyril 'Jimmy' Tallaia and was shot down into the sea and killed. The two sides disengaged and Brown's ailing Spitfire was carefully nursed back across the North Sea to England, where it was landed safely.

   Of course, the real meat of Fighter Command War Diaries remains the daily scorecards, and Foreman maintains the same format with the same detailed data:

27th June 1942
Day: Patrolling fighters claimed a Ju88 shot down and another damaged, but two Spitfires, patrolling near the Isle of Wight, were jumped by Bf109s of JG 2 and both were shot down.

Spitfires
Unit	Dest	P.D.	Dam	MIA	Cat E	KIA	MIA	WIA
133 Sqdn	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-
416 Sqdn	-	-	-	2	-	-	2	-

Beaufighters
Unit	Dest	P.D.	Dam	MIA	Cat E	KIA	MIA	WIA
125 Sqdn	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Night: Offensive Operations: A night Roadstead was flown against Cherbourg, losing a Hurricane pilot to flak. Intruder Hurricane pilors claimed 1:0:1 over France, but a Boston crew failed to return from Evreux. Defensive Operations: Beaufighter crews fought bombers in the southwest, claiming 1:0:2.

Beaufighters
Unit	Dest	P.D.	Dam	MIA	Cat E	KIA	MIA	WIA
307 Sqdn	1	-	2	-	-	-	-	-

Bostons
Unit	Dest	P.D.	Dam	MIA	Cat E	KIA	MIA	WIA
23 Sqdn	-	-	-	1	-	-	3	-

Hurricanes
Unit	Dest	P.D.	Dam	MIA	Cat E	KIA	MIA	WIA
87 Sqdn	-	-	1	1	-	-	-	-
247 Sqdn	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

   Finally, Foreman wraps up each month with a summary:

Summary June 1942

Air Combat Claims:
Air: 86 : 27 : 89. Ground: 0 : 1 : 1

Missing/destroyed aircraft:
59 Spitfires, 8 Hurricanes, 2 Bostons, 1 Havoc MIA;
18 Spitfires, 7 Hurricanes, 3 Typhoons, 1 Boston, 5 Beaufighters and 1 Mosquito Cat. E;
70 pilots and 6 aircrew MIA, 10 pilots and 1 aircrew killed, 13 pilots and 1 aircrew wounded.

Notes:
23 Sqn commenced re-equipment with Mosquito lls, retaining Havocs and Bostons until August.
54 Sqn deactivated, embarked for Australia.
64 Sqn replaced Spitfire VBs with Spitfire IXs.
93 Sqn re-formed at Andreas with Spitfire VBs on 1st.
168 Sqn formed at Snailwell with Tomahawk IIs on 15th for Tac/R duties.
170 Sqn formed at Weston Zoyland with Mustang Is on 15th for Tac/R duties.
171 Sqn formed at Gatwick with Tomahawk Is on 15th for Tac/R duties.
243 Sqn formed at Ouston with Spitfire VBs on 1st.
256 Sqn relinquished Defiant lIs, retaining Beaufighter IFs.
266 Sqn relinquished Spitfire VBs, retaining Typhoon IA/IBs.
400 Sqn replaced Tomahawk l/IIA/IIB with Mustang Is.
409 Sqn replaced Beaufighter IIFs with Beaufighter VIFs.
414 Sqn replaced Tomahawk I/IIs with Mustang Is.
452 Sqn de-activated, moved to Australia.
453 Sqn re-formed at Drem with Spitfire VBs on 9th.
457 Sqn de-activated, moved to Australia.
488 Sqn formed at Church Fenton with Beaufighter IIFs on 25th.
605 Sqn re-formed at Ford on 7th, to equip with Havoc I.
616 Sqn relinquished Spitfire VBs, retaining Spitfire Vls.

   Foreman also provides some excellent compilations of information about the equipment and location of Fighter Command squadrons. Here's an excerpt from one:

Royal Air Force Fighter Command Squadrons, Equipment and Locations - 1st January 1943

1 Sqn	Typhoon IB	Acklington
2 Sqn	Mustang I	Sawbridgeworth, det Gatwick
3 Sqn	Hurricane IIC	Hunsdon, dets Manston, Shoreham
4 Sqn	Tomahawk IIA, Must I	Clifton
16 Sqn	Mustang I	Andover
19 Sqn	Spitfire VB/VC	Perranporth, dets Exeter, Fairwood Common and Harrowbeer
25 Sqn	Beaufighter IF/Mosq II	Church Fenton, det Predannack
26 Sqn	Mustang I	Gatwick
29 Sqn	Beaufighter IF	West Malling, det Coltishall
41 Sqn	Spitfire VB	Llanbedr
56 Sqn	TyphoonlB	Matlask
63 Sqn	Mustang I	Macmerry, dets Lossiemouth, Odiham, Dalcross and Acklington
64 Sqn	Spitfire IX	Predannack
65 Sqn	Spitfire VB	Drem
66 Sqn	Spitfire VB/VC	Ibsley
68 Sqn	Beaufighter IF	Coltishall, det Peterhead
85 Sqn	Mosquito II	Hunsdon
91 Sqn	Spitfire VB	Lympne, det Hawkinge
96 Sqn	Beaufighter IIF/VIF	Honiley, dets Tangmere and Ford

   This series was quite good to begin with, and it improves with each new volume. We've said it before, and we'll say it again: It's a valuable set of books about one of the most important aspects of the war, and Foreman has done a tremendous service by transforming so much raw archival data into readily accessible—and comprehensible—information. Three cheers to John Foreman and Air Research for sticking with this mammoth project. And bring on volume four!
   Available from online booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from Air Research.
   Thanks to Air Research for providing this review copy.