Battleaxe to Lightfoot: The evolution of tactical air power in North Africa

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Battleaxe to Lightfoot: The evolution of tactical air power in North Africa
With Mike Bechthold
Part of a series of shows to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the battle of El Alamein on WW2TV
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More Canadian content on WW2TV
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The British Army and Royal Air Force entered the war with conflicting views on the issue of air support that hindered the success of early operations. It was only after the chastening failure of Operation Battleaxe in June 1941, fought according to army doctrine, that Winston Churchill shifted strategy on the direction of future air campaigns - ultimately endorsing the RAF's view of mission and target selection. This view adopted principles of air-ground cooperation that Canadian-born flying ace Raymond Collishaw (1893-1976) had demonstrated in combat. As part of our look at El Alamein, Mike Bechthold will trace the emergence of this strategy in the RAF air campaign in Operation Compass, the first British offensive in the Western Desert. There, Air Commodore Collishaw's small force overwhelmed its Italian counterpart and disrupted enemy logistics. He will then conclude by discussing air support in Operation Lightfoot - The Second Battle of El Alamein.
Mike Bechthold holds a PhD in History from the University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia and an MA & Honours BA from Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Mike is the author or editor of numerous books and articles. His most recent book is Flying to Victory: Raymond Collishaw and the Western Desert Campaign (University of Oklahoma Press, 2017) and he is the co-author of a series of guidebooks about the Canadian battlefields of the Second World. He specializes in the fields of military air power (especially tactical air operations in the First and Second World Wars), the Canadian army in Normandy and Northwest Europe, and the Canadian Corps in the Great War. For 22 years Mike worked as the Communications Director of the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies and the Managing Editor of Canadian Military History, an academic quarterly journal. Mike is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Fellow of the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society at the University of New Brunswick, and an Associate Air Force Historian. He recently served as the Executive Director of the Juno Beach Centre Association. mikebechthold.com/
Flying to Victory: Raymond Collishaw and the Western Desert Campaign, 1940-1941 by Mike Bechthold
UK uk.bookshop.org/a/5843/9780806155968
USA bookshop.org/a/21029/9780806155968
A previous WW2TV show with historian Ken Delve
The Desert Air Force ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cFGHXWT-yTE.html
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27 окт 2022

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Комментарии : 42

@spidrespidre 2 года назад

Awesome show, as always, Mike and Woody.

@davidk7324 2 года назад

Fantastic show today-- I'm enjoying the series. Thank you Dr. Bechthol and Woody --

@TheVigilant109 2 года назад

Fascinating presentation by Mike. Thoroughly enjoyed this episode. Many thanks. Look forward to more of Mike

@ErrolGC 2 года назад

This is already a useful set of related presentations, with the promise of being even better over the coming days. Well done Woody and guests!

@mjinoz1677 Месяц назад

Great talk; fascinating to learn about another unsung hero who clearly had quite an impact!

@OTDMilitaryHistory Год назад

Great show! Mike is a great historian and is always a great guest to have presenting about history.

@Chiller01 2 года назад

I would be interested to see an interchange between Jonathan Parshall and Michael Bechtold regarding combined arms in 1942. Parshall seemed to feel combined arms in the 8th Army were lacking in ‘42 whereas,at least regarding air ground cooperation, Bechtold asserts things were pretty functional. I also find it interesting that the 9th US Air Force can trace its origins to the Americans flying in support of the 8th Army in North Africa, often under RAF control.

@ethanmckinney203 Год назад

Parshall's argument is about armour-infantry cooperation, primarily. He's clear that artillery prep was excellent and that the artillery had great reactive flexibility. I didn't see him mention much about airpower, ut I doubt that he has deep criticisms.

@philbosworth3789 2 года назад

Mike is really good. He knows his stuff and presents it well. I can't wait until he's on again.

@scottgrimwood8868 Год назад

A great presentation on the role & development of Allied tactical air in North Africa.

@jimwatts914 Год назад

Howdy folks. Dr Bechtold is the greatest. I’d listen to him talk about WW2 aviation for as long as he wants. I wouldn’t mind a little chatter about the airplanes but I get the point.

@jim99west46 Год назад

Close air support for the Desert Air Force was tricky because all sides used each other'captured vehicles. The coms, identify ing signals just weren't that advanced to avoid blue on blue

@1089maul Год назад

Woody/Mike, Thanks for such an interesting presentation! Bob

@blueboats7530 2 года назад

I have to assume Collishaw was extremely bitter, having been ordered to operate in a manner against his judgement, then being relieved when it failed. Then to add more injury he was expected to adapt from North Africa to Scotland weather.

@Chiller01 2 года назад

That’s the military though. It’s a highly political animal and petty slights can derail a career.

@tonyvart7068 Год назад

Good to see Mike B on again...always very good indeed.

@fxdci Год назад

Brilliant show! Interesting subject matter.

@lllordllloyd Год назад

I have been binging these El Alamein lectures... terrific stuff. What amazes me is, in the general picture and in each specific aspect of fighting, the British Army forgot everything it learned between 1916 and 1918, and had to re-learn it all from scratch, including the 1915 BEF experience of removing many inept leaders (and arguably, like 1915, appointing a fair few inept leaders as well). The other big question is: what if Staffer Gott's plane had NOT been shot down and Churchill's commander-designate killed?

@judnichols8041 2 года назад

Great subject, always wanted to know

@anselmdanker9519 2 года назад

Thank you Woody and Mike for covering the development of the air power in the Western Desert. Most of the accounts I read paint Arthur Tedder as a slimy political animal.🤣🤣 So this machinations against Collishaw don't surprise me.

@jim99west46 Год назад

Viewers should take into account the huge logistics chain aircraft required then. While you see these planes fly, the ground crews worked in extreme heat with huge swarms of flies pestering them. The RAF did a splendid job with what they had, while the Army was the real mess with brigade commanders ignoring orders, tanks used for swanning about the front and a generally head up their ass refusal to conduct combined arms warfare. In short incompetent Army commanders tried to a fix blame on the RAF to cover the Army's requent bouts of tactical idiocy.

@andrewblake2254 2 года назад

I wonder how the Soviets saw this issue of air force command. Looking at its structure the most common aircraft, the Sturmovik was really just flying artillery. Did they ever get past this concept?

@fredkitmakerb9479 Год назад

Fascinating. I always wondered if there was a backstory to Raymond Collihaw's retirement in the middle of the battle. I did not know much about him after his time in the Russian revolution, and it seems like he had an amazing career. I don't know anything about Tedder. I don't like him for getting rid of Collishaw that sounds like he turned out to be an Allied asset.

@curtiswebb8135 2 года назад

Thank you from America. Sorry I'm late.

@AnthonyBrown12324 Год назад

For directly attacking military targets Hurricanes 11D s were fitted with 40mm cannons . theses were very effective , though dangerous for the pilots .

@thegreatdominion949 Год назад

I have to wonder if Collishaw would have been a better fit for the DAF if his given name had been Arthur, e.g. Arthur Longmore, Arthur Tedder, Arthur Coningham.

@richardschaffer5588 Год назад

Perhaps the difficulties historians have describing combined arms mirrors the difficulties in executing them?

@marktuffield6519 Год назад

When I noticed the speaker was Canadian and discussing the DAF, my initial thought was, ohhhhh this is going to be about Collishaw, so I did rather lol when the second slide came up. Let me say none the worse for that. I think it cannot be stressed too much how his experiences in WW1 influenced his and for that matter many other RAF officers thinking post 1918. Specifically the importance of the RAF being a "Strategic as opposed to a Tactical" Air Force. In Collishaw however we have an officer who brought his thinking into the tactical environment and mastered it in terms of interdiction despite the limited equipment available to him. I also wonder to what extent having an ex Navy man in Longmore above him helped. I have some sympathy for the Army in wanting a close support Air Force, they had experienced this in WW1 and it was a major element of the All Arms thinking. Ultimately it does happen, though I suppose the Air Force commanders would argue it happens on their terms. I tend to agree with the view that Tedder is a political animal, though he did have the good grace to bring Coningham with him. It is interesting that Churchill oft criticised for his meddling seems on this occasion to have got it right, just like he did in 1919 with his decision to retain the Air Force as a separate service when Lloyd-George (who had seen it as a way of resting control of the war from the Field-Marshals and Admirals) would have happily see it wither on the vine and be re-absorbed by the Army and Navy.

@WW2TV Год назад

Well, given that Mike has written a book on Collishaw, hardly a surprise

@marktuffield6519 Год назад

@@WW2TV not something I was aware of but it makes sense 😁

@morganhale3434 Год назад

Comparing the Luftwaffe to the RAF in 1942 is ridiculous. The Luftwaffe was a purpose-built air force with purpose-built aircraft always under Army control. The RAF was a separate service in co-operation with the British Army and the Royal Navy. What was also even more demanding on the RAF was that it was always up to this point a hodge-podge of different aircraft from a multitude of different aircraft manufacturers on two different continents! The American aircraft industry since WWI was mostly about commercial aircraft since isolationism after WWI was mostly centered around not funding the US military! The Navy got the bulk of interwar investment, the Army got the scraps, and the Army Air Corps was a beggar. The US Navy's air arm was more well-funded and advanced than the Army Air Corps before the late 1930's.

@iancarr8682 2 года назад

Any actions in the RAF which did not accord with the teachings of Trenchard (who set up the RAF) were highly political. Trenchard was retired but still in the background. May be that Collishaw was thinking differently.

@richardvernon317 9 месяцев назад

That is a Myth. The RAF spent most of its time between 1918 and 1938 engaged in Empire Policing missions. In a lot of places working quite closely with the Army and the Navy. The reason every thing went wrong against the Germans in 1940-42 was they had better aircraft and more experienced aircrew.

@mathewkelly9968 2 года назад

Cedric ended the Monty debate for me defeated nay destroyed a German panzer army in the field without an encirclement ......... I can't think of any western general who could claim it . Way better than Patton , MacArthur the German Generals and their ilk , more like in the league of Zhukov , Eisenhower , Bradley or Nimitz .

@ErrolGC 2 года назад

If your forces have the skills to defeat the enemy efficiently via encirclement, why is that a negative? I'm sure the 9th Australian Div would have preferred a different approach!

@mathewkelly9968 2 года назад

@@ErrolGC true of course , but an encirclement wasn't really possible here .

@mathewkelly9968 2 года назад

@@ErrolGC its a dirty job but someone has to do it sometimes , even if this had been an encirclement battle the 9th as 8th Armies premier infantry division where still going to be in the thickest fighting .

@lyndoncmp5751 2 года назад

Montgomery was certainly the most successful and capable the western allies had, and his overall track record proves it. Nobody else even comes close.

@MegaBloggs1 Год назад

greece and crete was all about politics-securing the greek merchant marine for the allies

@markgarrett3647 Год назад

That RAF Flag looks like it could have been designed by a high schooler and hella childish though.

@WW2TV Год назад

Thanks so much for that astute and enlightened observation. I look forward to more comments from you on WW2TV - your insight and wisdom is most welcome

@markgarrett3647 Год назад

@@WW2TV No prob👍