this country is at war with Germany. We shall go on to the end. I remember the

sheets of plane which came up and almost blinded us for my guns.

Hello and welcome to another episode of the World War Two podcast. I'm Angus Wallace.

In this episode, I'm joined by Patrick Erickson. If you cast your memory back,

Patrick has previously joined us to talk about the Luftwaffe and his alarm start trilogy of books.

Well, this time he's back to discuss the opening weeks of the Battle of Britain,

which is covered in his new book, Tally Ho, RAF Tactical Leadership in the Battle of Britain,

July 1940. But before we get to the aerial combat, this podcast is brought to you with the

kind contributions of fellow listeners. If you think there's a vast machine at work in the

background with assistance, research, and audio engineers all be ring away, paid for by a

philanthropic millionaire, you would be wrong. It is just me. But I could use your help.

All this costs me and it's not just my time. Software and research material is an ongoing cost.

If each one of you tossed a shekel in my virtual tip jar at patreon.com slash www.podcast,

I would have a pretty good monthly salary, but I appreciate not everyone has the luxury of spare

change. But if you do enjoy the show every couple of weeks, why not go to patreon.com slash www.podcast

and become a patron of the show. And for patrons, I will have more of Patrick and I chatting.

Right. Now on to the main feature, Patrick. Thank you for joining me again. Let's start with

Hugh Dowding. He had put in place a pre-war defensive system, which will be tested during the

Battle of Bren. Who was Dowding? What did he envisage? Well, I think Dowding saw the system building

as the technology developed. I don't think he saw the entire picture at the beginning,

but as he went along, the picture improved that he wanted and he got what he wanted. I mean,

Raider was absolutely critical without Raider. They could have been those systems. Raider enabled

...