"Never before in the field of human conflict have so many owed so much to so few"
- Winston Churchill, in his tribute to pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain
On June 23, 1940, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi entourage stood for a photo in front of the Eiffel Tower (below), which marked one of the most defining moments of World War II. France fell to the Nazis and the government signed an armistice agreement after surrendering. The Blitzkrieg campaign of the Nazi forces that took over Poland, Belgium and the Netherlands in just six months also succeeded in bringing France to its knees.
The war was at a critical moment. In western France, across the English Channel, Britain was under Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who refused Hitler's offer of an armistice. “We stand as the last bastion against the threat of tyranny,” Churchill said after the fall of his neighbor and strongest ally in Europe. Initially the Germans made no plans to invade Britain; Hitler counted on his country's military supremacy and strong industrial network to maintain the war. But the relative peace could not last long and in July he ordered the implementation of 'Operation Sea Lion' for the invasion of Britain.
The Battle for Britain
The Royal Navy was one of the most formidable forces in the world, a wing that helped Britain expand and maintain its global colonial presence. An invasion of the country would require a coordinated naval and air attack before ground capture would take place. And so the Luftwaffe, that is, the German air force, began its bombing campaign. The aim was to render the Royal Air Force (RAF) defenseless and enable an operation at sea. The battle for Britain had begun.
The attack on British convoys and ports was just the beginning. The first major and concentrated offensive against the RAF, called the 'Adlerangriff' or the Eagle Attack, took place in August, during which the German Stuka bombers and the mighty Messerschmitt Bf.109 unleashed their relentless bombing campaign. What formed the air bulwark against them were the RAF's Supermarine Spitfires and Hawker Hurricanes in Britain, and the P-51 Mustangs, Fairey Battles and Lancasters in other theaters. Dubbed the “arsenal of democracy” for air war, they all had one thing in common: a mass-produced, highly efficient Rolls-Royce engine.
Let us introduce ourselves…. The 'Merlijn'
Rolls-Royce, until then mainly known for its car engines, decided to develop high-power engines in the 1930s. The Air Ministry issued a notice in 1935 for the construction of a new fighter plane that would be fast, manoeuvrable and have four machine guns. Britain's two most important air fighters against the Luftwaffe, the Spitfire and the Hurricane, were both powered by the V12 Rolls-Royce piston engine, also known as 'Merlin'. The engine was a V12 (12 pistons) liquid-cooled aircraft engine with a capacity of 27 liters. Like all Rolls-Royce aircraft engines, the 'Merlin' is named after a bird of prey. But it also evoked the spirit of King Arthur's famous wizard. To the pilots who relied on it, the Merlin seemed truly magical.
Initially the 'Merlin' produced around 900 hp, but by the end of the war in 1945 it had been further developed and powered the de Havilland Hornet, a twin-engine bomber in which each 'Merlin' produced over 2,000 hp with a supercharger. Being a quite reliable engine, it was put into mass production during the war after Rolls-Royce allowed the American company Packard to manufacture it under license. No fewer than 55,000 Merlins were produced between 1942 and 1945. The collaboration proved crucial, especially when British cities became the target of nightly bombings and industrial production was badly hit. By the end of the war, about 1.5 lakh such engines had been produced to fight the Axis powers. The American P-51, later called the 'Mustang', was also equipped with the Merlin. At the Imperial War Museum (IWM) in London, a volunteer told me that the Merlin became so popular that a man in Britain put it in his car years after the war and called it “The Beast.”
Killing machines
However, IWM expert Graham Rodgers points out a flaw in the engine that in some cases became the Achilles heel of the Spitfires and Hurricanes. The plane could not perform a negative 'G-dive' against the German Messerschmitt 109 because “the carburetors would be flooded with oil and the engine would cough up during a dogfight,” Rodgers explains in a video.
Nevertheless, the Spitfires and Hurricanes together held their ground, shooting down 1,733 German aircraft for 913 of their losses – although the former with 32 squadrons was numerically superior to the Spitfire, which had only 19 squadrons in Britain. The 'Merlin' could propel the Hurricanes to a speed of 300 miles per hour, the first RAF fighter to do so. More than half of the enemy aircraft were shot down by the Hurricane, not the Spitfire.
The Lost Indian Story
The Hurricane was the only RAF aircraft to be deployed to every theater of war. One of these was India, where it was ordered to conduct operations in Burma.
Of the nine Indian Air Force squadrons that witnessed action during World War II, eight were equipped with Hurricanes. Spitfires also appeared, but Hawkers were deployed in greater numbers in the eastern theater.
The Forgotten Few: The Indian Air Force in World War II by KS Nair documents the less recognized contributions of the IAF during World War II. Squadron Leader – then Pilot Officer – Mohinder Singh Pujji, one of the first Sikh pilots to serve in the RAF and later the Indian Air Force, flew Spitfires and Hurricanes in France, Burma and the Middle East.
He even received the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for his reconnaissance operation over Japanese-occupied territory.
Another officer, Flying Officer Jagadish Chandra Verma, shot down a Japanese 'Oscar', giving the IAF its first kill in Burma. He was immediately honored with the DFC because he prevailed over a superior Oscar with his Hurricane.
(Divyam Sharma is a senior sub-editor at NDTV)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author.