As with all fighter aircraft deployed during the Battle of Britain, there was a significant attrition rate. Andy Saunders puts the spotlight on three Messerschmitt Bf 110s that came to grief over England in separate incidents during 1940.
BATTLE OF BRITAIN
Although the start date for the Battle of Britain was retrospectively set by the British as 10 July 1940, there had already been German air incursions and skirmishes over the British Isles for many months, including fighter actions. Already, two Messerschmitt Bf 109s had been downed over the mainland – and battle had not yet ‘officially’ been joined.
The first ‘official’ date of the battle, 10 July 1940, saw limited air activity and no Luftwaffe aircraft were downed over Britain. The next day was different, however, and on 11 July the first German aircraft fell on British soil within what is now the universally recognised time frame for the Battle of Britain, its two crew members killed. There was, however, a supreme irony attached to the identity of the first German pilot to be killed over England during the Battle of Britain when his Bf 110 slammed into cliffs at The Verne, Portland.
Of the Bf 110, it is fair to say that great store was placed in its prowess and virtual invincibility by Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring. According to some sources, Göring stated in 1938 that the Bf 110 was being set up to spearhead the Luftwaffe fighter force and would be a formidable offensive asset. Göring is said to have compared the aircraft to Cromwell’s forces during the English Civil War, referring to the aircraft as Eisenseiten – or ‘Ironsides’.
In his book The Most Dangerous Enemy (Aurum Press Ltd, 2000), historian Stephen Bungay relates the supposed origin of the Eisenseiten epithet by linking it to Göring, but without providing any references or sources. Of the Bf 110, Bungay also goes on to incorrectly tell how Flight Lieutenant James Nicolson earned his VC in action with Bf 110s on 16 August 1940, although that action involved Bf 109s and not Bf 110s. He adds:
“It [the Bf 110] could no more dogfight than could a Blenheim”, further referring to the ‘failure’ of the aircraft in 1940 writing that ‘embarrasing massacres’ forced Göring to turn the aircraft over to night fighting. (Note: These are all issues we address on pages 70 – 73 of this issue.)
Whatever the truth of the ‘Ironsides’ story, that a
