Battle of Britain

I have two reasons for abiding interest in the Battle. The emotional one arises because when I was small learning to read there was a Battle of Britain booklet on the chair by my bed. Published during the war this was as much propaganda as information but written in a fairly simple style it was ideal for reading practice. I was determined to learn to read and I spent hours poring over this booklet. I was able to buy a facsimile fairly recently and the document still feels totally familiar.

My lifelong interest in modern history stems from this first experience learning to read. When I was growing up the war was still very recent. However it was always tiny snippets that I would hear in passing.. I found it puzzling that the world was divided into two blocs which seemed locked into stasis. Clearly this derived from the war but I could not see how. I had the sensation that I was missing the overarching story. I set out to discover this story and much more besides

Considered now as an intellectual interest I increasingly feel the Battle of Britain was of pivotal importance. Obviously one critical result was that Britain was not invaded. Also of great importance was the moral effect. Nazism had swept through all Western Europe only to encounter the first all important check.

The Battle itself was a bit less one sided that the popular David versus Goliath legend admits. The Luftwaffe was about twice the size of the RAF but in the all important modern fighters the RAF still trailed but not by much. The Luftwaffe bombers although numerous were rather light twin engine types. In terms of aircraft technology there was little difference with the Messerschmitt 109 superior to the RAFs’ Hurricane and the approximate equal of the Spitfire.

The RAF did have “home advantage”. The endurance of German fighters was limited and aircrew who bailed out became prisoners. RAF aircrew who took to parachutes landed in friendly territory. RAF machines which were damaged were efficiently repaired and put back into battle while damaged Luftwaffe aircraft were often lost in the Channel.

The course of the battle from mid July to the end of September 1940 can be split into 3 phases. The opening battle over the Channel was really more of a  skirmish although it did close the channel to British shipping. The main phase from mid August saw the Luftwaffe attacking mainly aerodromes and aircraft production. It did have some limited success with one forward airfield closed. However it was strangely diffuse as the Germans failed to realise the importance of the RAF command and control structure. Although outward looking radar gave some warning the closeness of south east England to Nazi occupied France meant it was a struggle for the RAF fighter aircraft to gain sufficient height. The RAF commander in the south east and London, Keith Park, was forced to commit his aircraft piecemeal The final phase where the Luftwaffe started daylight raids in London resulted in heavy losses for them  and a switch to night attacks. Thus the infamous blitz when London was attacked for some 250 nights over 1940/41.

The head of Fighter Command was Hugh Dowding. He had been position for some time and had developed a complete well organised air defence system. This used outward looking radar, observer tracking inland, a detailed  command and control system and integrated anti-aircraft guns.

One legitimate criticism is that Dowding did not exercise control of a subordinate commander, Trafford Leigh-Mallory. Leigh- Mallory became convinced that his fellow area commander , Park, was not using the best tactics. Leigh-Mallory believed that The RAF squadrons should be grouped together into a “big wing” before meeting the Luftwaffe offensive. Regrettably Leigh-Mallory used various tactics to try and impose his method including directly not fulfilling his promises to assist Park. It is unfortunate that there were elements of personality clashes and jealousy. In particular Leigh-Mallory thought he should occupy Park’s position as south east commander.

The critical problem is that big wings took time to assemble once airborne. This assumed that all the components were at equal or short readiness on the ground. The time to organise a big wing was at least 15 minutes. In contrast Park’s tactic was to vector in squadrons as fast as he could. In this way he aimed to give some time for his fighters to climb and hopefully break up the bomber formations allowing easier targets for later aircraft. Park also subdivided the tasks with Hurricanes attacking bombers and Spitfires attacking the Me109 formations flying as top cover.

Park’s tactics were successful although in the overall battle he was helped by Luftwaffe disorganisation. The Luftwaffe never grasped the RAF defensive system rarely attacking radar installations and diffusing effort to all RAF aerodromes irrespective of whether they were important control bases. In switching to attack London they swerved away from the critical task of attacking RAF bases.

It is sad to record that Leigh-Mallory later found favour with his strenuous arguments while Park and particularly Dowding were poorly treated. Dowding had strongly resisted the political desire to send more fighters to France in the earlier stages of the war and one must suspect his stubbornness, which was correct, cost him political support.

Overall the Battle was vastly important and Britain was the key part of the eventual victory. It is slightly ironic that while the RAF fought with Teutonic system the Luftwaffe were disorganised. with poor intelligence and lack of focus.

With my early emotional link I have collected and read a lot of material on the Battle. I hope my understanding and empathy with those tumultuous events have progressed well past my earlier impression of “derring-do” to a proper appreciation  of its rightful historical place.

Faraday meeting at Cambridge University

My first experience of Cambridge while working was at a scientific conference. It was a Faraday Society Surface Science event chaired  by the head of Unilever Research, Brian Pethica. This was a very prestigious event and it was a great honour for him. He was naturally looking for a good attendance so many of us from Unilever Research attended ( it was an invitation we could not refuse! ). From my group Dave, Norman and myself agreed that we would travel together. The meeting over 3 days was at a Cambridge college ( Churchill ) at Easter time while the normal students were on vacation.

We travelled in a hire car which I drove, a Hillman Hunter GT. Norman had done a doctorate at Cambridge attached to Churchill college. He was eager to show us around. As we arrived in early afternoon he suggested we go in a punt on the river Cam which flows by the colleges. He assured us that he was experienced and he did a fair job. The views from the Cam are impressive with many of the colleges strung out along the riverside..

After our spell on the river we took a walk around the college. I was interested to see a photo of a group of doctoral students which included a lad, Rodney, I had been at school with. He had been an outstanding student and I felt rather inadequate to be working in a similar area. This was quite by chance in my case and not then at such an elevated level. I have been in contact with Rodney since then and he moved into medical research and particularly ethical matters.

In particular Norman showed us the rear gates, massive with vertical spikes. He explained that he used to climb in over this gate when the main entrance was closed late in the evening. He was eager to show us how but we dissuaded him.

In the evening there was some sort of social function to which we, as mere minions,  were not invited.. The following evening there was to be the course dinner which to my disappointment was fully booked. However the actual organisation of the course had been delegated to my friend, Roy, from the lab so I asked him to use his influence if it would be possible to take up any cancellation.

We retired to our rooms (  usually the students accommodation ) ready to be up bright and early the next day. Going off to the bathroom the following morning I was puzzled by a trail of bloody footprints. Then Dave found me and said that Norman had tried to climb in through the back gate in soft soled shoes. Standing on the pointed spikes to clamber in the spikes had penetrated his shoe and his feet. Norman was lying on his bed in agony. He had been up all night although earlier partly anaesthetised by the amount he had drunk. Off we went to Accident and Emergency missing our breakfast and only returning minus Norman just in time for the start. The irony was that for the conference the main gate was open all night so climbing in had been completely unnecessary.

The papers presented were generally pretty high powered. One was a particularly elegant work using an instrument designed and made by researcher himself. I was frankly absolutely amazed. In fact the whole conference made me feel inadequate.  I certainly didn’t draw attention to myself by asking any questions; such questions as were asked seemed very erudite. As it was the cream of world surface science which was presented it made my niche seem far away from the leading edge. There were people present who were pillars of surface science and of near mythical status. One well known researcher came to spend some time at Port Sunlight immediately after the conference.

At lunchtime we collected Norman from hospital although he wasn’t able to attend the rest of the conference.

Roy had scrounged me a place on the course dinner. I seem to remember I spent some time chatting to his wife, Maureen, who I knew slightly. It was a 95% plus male attendance in those days  ( the seventies ) and I think she felt slightly out of place so she saw me as a welcome diversion.  I found out later she was avoiding one of the eastern European delegates who had propositioned her. Roy was busy with organisation so couldn’t give her the attention she deserved.

The next day we drove back to the Wirral. It was a subdued trip with Norman crossways in the back seat full of pain relievers. Norman was definitely in disgrace. Perhaps not coincidentally he was invited to leave the company not long afterwards.

My only other visit much later was to a Mongolian student postgraduate in sociology. He was the partner of a young lady who we knew as she was a friend of Alison and Frances. Isabel was the daughter of a colleague in Castrol France who had stayed with us for a while working at the research centre at Pangbourne and improving her English. I was quite amazed because although in rented rooms they were on the university internet which was very fast. Although such high speeds are quite common now it was the first time I had seen such blistering performance. The student was a great football enthusiast and his leisure time seemed to be taken up watching football video’s over the internet. I was amused that his knowledge of England was based on football teams. As soon as I mentioned a place he immediately referenced their team.

Later our friend Isabel had a child by him, lived briefly in Mongolia but then they split and she returned to France. The last I heard Chuka ( the Mongolian guy ) was lecturing at the university in Ulan-Bator. I was impressed that Chuka said he didn’t have much English language tuition but learned by meeting with Americans in NGO’s.
Bringing me right up to date, Rajiv, my step son, has just started studying at Cambridge

Flexible Working Hours

I’m a great enthusiast for flexible working. The idea is that you attend work for a fixed part of the day ( the core period) and attend as you wish during open hours outside the core period. The hours you work in the week remain the same as with fixed hours. If you build up surplus hours then you can take up to,  for example, an extra day holiday per month. The actual agreement varies from site to site.

When I worked for Unilever Research in the 70’s this was a concept in its infancy. One almost never worked at home and hours were fixed. Unilever had a staff association which was really uninspiring. It was regarded as more or less a duty to become a representative in rotation. It happened that I was the representative when a new personnel supremo arrived. Among the reps he admitted the existing system was moribund and proposed a new wider Management Association Committee (MAC) This would be for the management grade staff which was all the scientific staff and a few others in various support functions. This would encompass maybe 250 out of some 900 on site. Apart from a few very senior managers the rest of the staff were unionised.

I was excited because flexible working hours were on the table; in fact the personnel man said he personally thought they were a good idea. Now it should be said straightaway that a motivation for this on the company’s behalf was that ASTMS had been recruiting among the scientific staff albeit without big success. ASTMS was led by Clive Jenkins, an urbane charismatic showman very far removed from the typical union official of the day. I remember going to a recruiting meeting of theirs. The local speaker addressed us in typical union style as “brothers”. Jenkins was far too canny for that using “ladies and gentlemen” realising his audience was far from the usual. In fact the opening for unionisation had come about because of the shock closure of Burmah Oil research labs nearby. This has caused many to think that perhaps our science jobs were not as secure as we hoped.

Joining with some other enthusiasts for flexible hours our newly constituted MAC quickly negotiated a scheme acceptable to both the company and staff. Clearly this had to be site wide so a joint meeting was arranged. It had always been understood that staff generally looked to be gaining from the flexibility in one’s personal life such as the ability to attend say school sports day. The company had traditionally granted leave for such as dental appointments but the ability to use holidays was limited not least because only 3 weeks leave was available at that time. I was shocked at the joint meeting to hear a union rep  assert any deal on flexible hours was unacceptable that didn’t include other company concessions on pay.

To me and my colleagues flexible working was the concession and we certainly hadn’t contemplated trying to link it to anything else. An impasse was avoided only because MAC continued trying to organise a workable scheme and the ASTMS union was ignored.. One major discussion point was how to record attendance. We looked hard at two types of time clock in addition to the timesheet approach. The idea was that employees signed in and out with the time sheets on open display. Cheating was monitored by the employees colleagues who in many cases were the managers of the employees. There was an acceptance by personnel department that a high quality workforce justified a degree of trust. We had to make some special provision because of the nature of the work such as the rule that at least two people had to be present in any single area in case of accident.

As time went on it became apparent that there was division about the value of flexible working. Many objected to the possible use of time clocks; “just like clocking in at a factory”. Others felt that loss to traditional time off for doctor/dental appointments now to be taken out of flexitime was a considerable loss. Personnel department felt that a trial requiring installation of time clocks was an expense hard to justify.

In the end it was decided to put the matter to a ballot. Time clocks were installed by the ballot area as a demonstration along with proposed time sheets. The balloting took place on one arbitrary day with anyone away losing their vote.

Along with some colleagues I helped supervise the vote. It was very nearly a disaster as at the end of the day the vote was precisely tied. As we looked at one another in consternation a friend suddenly said  that in all the chaos of the day he had forgotten to vote himself. So carried by just that one vote an experiment for six months was started using timesheets. The experiment was a huge success and any opposition melted away. Flexible hours working was established and continued for the rest of my time. I found it an unwelcome shock to go back to fixed hours.

I have wondered since whether the tie break was genuine forgetfulness or just a ploy by someone very keen. Whichever I am very grateful to that man.

Postscript

Many years later at the Castrol Technology Centre I entered a flexible system using time clocks. This worked well and was regarded as perfectly normal by all the staff. My children regard flexible working and working at home as totally normal nowadays. They are used to being judged by output not hours worked.

On being 78

Not a birthday ending in a zero but still a pause for reflection. So this is an unashamedly personal post.  At this time it is important to have some forward looking events; things to look forward towards. It is also time during lockdown, shielding in my case, to confront some fears. I am frightened, very frightened of Covid 19. My lung function has been somewhat compromised for a long time. I have, and have had for a long time, the persistent dry cough given as one of the symptoms. I don’t know when this started. I suspect it was after a virus years ago when I often got a cough which disappeared after a time. Except that once it didn’t disappear- in fact it has got worse with increasing age. I have had several chest X rays but little comment except one doctor talked of some irreversible scarring.

Going back to the time, now 20-30 years ago, when I had annual health checks even then my lung function was below par. Not seriously so and I shrugged it off as the doctor made no adverse comment. But then his closing comment was usually “well you’ll live… for at least the next hour.” This was followed by saying no long term prognosis was possible. These health checks by my then employer were not useful to me and certainly high blood pressure was noted but not actioned. This turned out to be a big mistake.

We are thinking about how we could or should exit shielding. I know Annette tends towards the view that not until a vaccine is available. We will be very keen to visit Martin and family when their house move finally happens. This was decided last December but with chains and lockdown it has taken until now to start to look imminent. This is a move to an old house; part of a former terrace with at least two knocked together. The significance is a large garden and a small plot of land about an acre in size adjacent. The situation at the top of Robin Hood’s Bay is magnificent.

Martin intends to keep their existing house as a short term let. He already owns and lets a small adjacent property which is part of the same building. We are very supportive of this move. Lindsey already manages our Whitby flat as a holiday let. I’m planning to pass on some of the maintenance equipment ( such as scaffold tower ) which I’m now too old to use. Martin modified an outbuilding as a home office and will continue to use it as the old and new properties are only about a half mile apart.

We are plotting how we can visit safely. We would travel by car and have a safe place to stay. Our flat in Whitby is one of only 5. As all are holiday flats they are often unoccupied outside of peak season. The issue we identify will be services en route. The present level of Covid 19 is too high and it is only falling slowly. Like many I wonder what the effect of easing lockdown will be.

I have to say lockdown has been fairly pleasant for us. We have a largish house, a large garden and all the IT we could need to keep in touch remotely. Like many others we have become used to video calls and conferences. Recently we have fallen into a routine of fortnightly online deliveries, weekly top up courtesy of a friendly villager and fortnightly trips to a pop up farm shop. This latter is very well organised at the closed National Forest Adventure Farm. Prices and availability are online and posted at the entrance then drive to a pay and order point through the car window. The clerk is equipped with a remote card reader so she is a two metres away. Then drive and park outside the shop where the order is packed and placed in the boot. At no time are you out of the car.

My daily routine is get us a early morning cuppa, then after breakfast a  potter in the garden. Nothing very strenuous and duration depends on the task. Many tasks are subdivided as my stamina isn’t great. Then after a morning coffee  settle in for an internet session. I have a routine pattern  of newspaper and company sites. I’ll check emails also. Once my daily pattern is over I will check out some of my interests such as space travel updates. Evenings in front of the TV often catch-up

As I finish writing this we have just had news that Martin has provisional completion date of 3 July. We will start planning a visit but this will depend on Covid 19 progress. After seeing TV scenes of folks ignoring social distancing I guess progress may be slow, or even reverse.

New cold war-Russia

New Cold War-Russia

We are at present in a new Cold War. The first Cold War ran from 1945 to 1989. It was the shorthand description for the conflict between the Communist bloc and the Western democracies, In 1989 the communist bloc collapsed and today there is a rump centred on Russia known as the Commonwealth of Independent States. The CIS states are independent to some degree but form a military and economic bloc which can be roughly defined as those countries formerly in the communist bloc which did not set up western style systems. For simplicity we can refer to this as Russia.

Post 1989 Russia underwent a chaotic movement towards a western style economy and government which included an attempted counter revolution. Vladimir Putin came to power and he has steadily established an authoritarian regime. Putin who was formerly a Communist Secret Service agent regrets the passing of the communist bloc and is re-establishing something like it albeit on a smaller scale. There are some quasi democratic features to Russian life which are increasingly ignored or overridden by Putin.

Russia under Putin has become increasingly aggressive. This was most clearly seen in the annexation of Crimea which is actually part of Ukraine. Putin had regarded Ukraine as a member of CIS and part of the communist bloc. When Ukraine veered towards the West Putin exploited the situation where many ethnic Russians live in the East of Ukraine to annex Crimea and to fight a low level war in the eastern, Donbass, part of Ukraine. This was done while denying involvement beyond some spurious excuses.

Putin’s Russia is also militarily aggressive. After a period when Russian arms were much reduced the level of military build up has markedly increased. Russia aircraft again make attempts at penetrating UK airspace. This period roughly from 2010 to the present day has enabled  Russia take hostile actions while often maintaining deniability. A blatant example was the attempted poisoning in Britain of a Russian exile. Putin’s Russia also makes use of social media to influence elections as in the US presidential election where Russian influence played a significant part in Trump’s victory.

While this is all worrying it appears, thus far, to be less dangerous than the 1945-89 Cold War. The Russian bloc is much weaker both militarily and economically than it was. Former Warsaw Pact countries such as Poland, East Germany, Slovakia and Czechia are now part of NATO and relatively secure in the Western family. It has to be said there are disturbing signs of totalitarian behaviour in some such as Hungary. This does not mean that they are necessarily well disposed towards Russia but they are departing from free democratic independent legal behaviour.

What we can expect will be more Russian adventurism. If firmly countered they will deny and withdraw. If successful they will press to exploit any weakness. Putin finds the prospect of any dissent, certainly any organised opposition, deeply threatening. His answer is repression. It is very much in our Western interest to stay firm while encouraging civic progress in CIS states. At present Putin is manoeuvring to continue as Russian dictator.