Does anyone know which AA battery shot down the most planes during the period of the Battle of Britain? Many thanks in advance Guy
Hmmm....indeed; for instance, what about AA fire at night? Or losses of damaged aircraft on landing, or struck off charge ? The British would have no way of knowing or counting these... Let's face it, there were enough problems with inaccurate "claiming" by fighter pilots to contend with... But - is there a good history of AA Command???
A very difficult question to answer, with the amount of flak they all put up I'm thinking they would never know exactly who hit the enemy.
An almost impossible question to answer. AA fire during the Battle of Britain and Blitz was highly ineffective in shooting down enemy bombers but better at disrupting their flight paths and bombing runs. It wasn't until later in 1944, when AA Command had fully integrated radar directed fire and proximity fuzed shells did enemy losses increase significantly. The main killer of enemy bombers were RAF nightfighters and again, only by 1943-44 were they really effective due to much improved Airborne Interception radar and the De Havilland Mosquito nightfighter. There were as many if not more Luftwaffe losses during the Blitz due to Luftwaffe bombers crashing on take off or landing due to the poor muddy condition of occupied French grass airfields.
My interest was aroused when I found an article in a wartime magazine. It featured a story about a Heavy AA Battery, RA (Number removed due to censorship) There claims for the period August 15th to September 30th 1940 were 19 aircraft, 6 of which were 109's. The gunnery officer was Lt. K.R Coleman. I wondered if these statistics had been recorded within AA Command?
I have scanned all of the relevant chapters of Brig. Routledge's "History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. Anti-Aircraft Artillery, 1914-55", Colin Dobinson's "AA Command" and Gen. Sir Tim Pile's "Ack-Ack" and found nothing concrete regarding numbers downed during BoB. I didn't see one mention of an Me 109 being brought down by HAA.
Me109s would more likely have been brought down by 40mm Bofors LAA guns than HAA. That sort of grand total of 19 aircraft for one HAA may well be simple exaggerated magazine propaganda - as with the figure of 185 enemy aircraft shot down on Battle of Britain Day 15th September, which turned out to be nearer 60-odd.
I agree with the propaganda theory. The article wasn't published until October 1941. Interestingly, they made no claims for October 1940 when the Luftwaffe reverted to night raids.
Not intentionally propaganda as such, I feel. More just a combination of desperation, confusion and high spirits. The one thing that the three books I have did agree on was the wild overestimation of downed aircraft. Don't forget the humble Lewis gun either, there are many reports of them bringing down low flying daylight raiders.
There were as many if not more Luftwaffe losses during the Blitz due to Luftwaffe bombers crashing on take off or landing due to the poor muddy condition of occupied French grass airfields And, as John Ray notes - before the arrival of the first "dedicated" AIR-equiped nightfighters, the Defiants and Blenheims, when "nightfighting" was done by the aircraft of the dual-trained "day/night squadrons" of Hurricanes and Spitfires (!!!)...there were more RAF aircraft downed by friendly fire, mid-air collisions and landing accidents attempting nightfighting than they EVER brough down German bombers during the early Night Blitz! (The lack of preparations for nightfighting was also one of the major brickbats thrown at Dowding in Spetember-October 1940; the "Big Wing controversey" has just grabbed the headlines better )
Ammuntion Expenditure And Enemy Destroyed Throughout AA Command For July, August And September. July 1940 - Day* 344 rds. per aircraft. Night (26 a/c = 8,935 rds.) ............................................................................................... August 1940 - Day* 232 rds. per aircraft. Night (167 a/c = 38,764 rds.) ............................................................................................... September 1940 - Day# 1,798 rds. per aircraft. Night (144 a/c = 258,808 rds.) ............................................................................................... *Mainly by day, little night activity # Including considerable night activity and large expenditure of ammunition by night. On the night of 15/16 Oct, 235 German bombers raided London. The guns fired 8,326 shells to destroy two and damage two. Night firing was generally ineffectual. Info taken from - Battle of Britain by Townsend Bickers
AA history is notoriously difficult to research, for example there are no accurate lists of which AA (Light or Heavy) unit occupied which position or when. The only way to establish that info is by trawling through the monthly army lists. So establishing which unit brought down the most aircraft will be, I fear, next to impossible.
