Much has been said and written about the last-minute preparation of the Royal Air Force for war after Munich, and of how disaster was so narrowly averted by inspired activity to produce fighters and train fighter pilots. Albeit there was more than a little luck on our side in the inability of the enemy to exploit a unique opportunity to attack this country immediately upon the outbreak of war in September 1939. We really were too weak to have stopped them at that time.

We were not only unprepared in numbers, but also to some extent in terms of tactical thinking and training. One of my earliest recollections of the Service was finding with something of a shock that as a newcomer, and at 18 scarcely more than a schoolboy, I had different ideas about the tactical use of fighters to those being taught at the time.