Boulton Paul Defiant

[stona]

Very true. Also serials or codes were more likely to be noted in the 'tasks carried out', the other form that comprised the ORB. The summary of events was just that, and sometimes obviously completed retrospectively.
The most pertinent fact in the extract above is that the squadron CO flew to Northolt to a conference with his seniors at Fighter Command on the evening of the day of the disastrous action. It is clear that it was suspected that there was a serious issue with the Defiant, something had to be done quickly, and it was.
Cheers
Steve (from Helsinki)

 

[nuuumannn]

Of course, it was disaster all the way with low number of real kills and high number of destroyed and damaged Defiants by enemy fire.

Well, considering my initial post, all you are doing is just repeating rubbish published by others about a subject you know little about. The official claims for the period of the Battle of Britain was 19 E/A claimed for the loss of 11 Defiants. As a day fighter, the total balance was 86 (or 88) E/A claimed for 32 lost to all causes, including accidents. These are, of course official records from the time and don't take into consideration research carried out since the war.

The question as to why the Defiant was kept as a day fighter for as long as it was is easy to answer; the British had their backs to the wall - FC needed fighters and on paper including two Defiant squadrons, even Gladiator squadrons was better than not having them at all. Bearing in mind the type's weaknesses, perhaps it would have been prudent for the type to have been based in Scotland, where single seat fighters did not have the range to counter it. But, as it is so easy to look back with hindsight and question the decisions made at the time, all we can do is speculate.

There is a good little monograph about the Daffy as a day fighter by Allied Wings; No.8, by Phil Listerman and Andrew Thomas and they've taken the leg work out of the statistical side of researching the Defiant's record, and the authors quote the files accessed for the information presented. Also, check out Air Britain's The Defiant File by Alec Brew, who is the Boulton Paul Heritage Society's researcher who has listed the fate of every Defiant built from the RAF's Aircraft Movement and Accident Cards, which are kept at Hendon, as well as operational records.

 

[stona]

The more stress an organisation is under the more errors there are. How do RAF records in 1940 compare to LW records in 1945?

That's a very good point. Peter Cornwell has noted that RAF records for the campaign in France are 'fragmentary in nature'.

Regarding the records of the Air Component of the BEF, one official account explains that
"what survives...is entirely inadequate as a basis for an accurate account, and the historian in search of fuller documentary material...is regretfully referred to an indeterminate spot at the bottom of Boulogne harbour."

To add to the problem many squadron ORBs were completed retrospectively from log books, personal memories or whatever else was to hand for the crucial months of May and June 1940, the pressure under which units were operating during the rapid German advance precluding normal book keeping practice.

Of course, none of this will have effected the famous historian who has now gone rather quiet in this thread

Cheers

Steve