Operation Banquet

Operation Banquet
de Havilland DH 82A Tiger Moth, N81DH
Planned 1940–1941
Planned by  United Kingdom
Objective Air Defence of Great Britain
Executed by Royal Air Force
Outcome Cancelled

Operation Banquet was a British Second World War plan to use every available aircraft against a German invasion in 1940 or 1941. After the Fall of France in June 1940, the British Government made urgent anti-invasion preparations as the Royal Air Force (RAF) engaged the German Luftwaffe in a struggle for air superiority in the Battle of Britain. In May 1940, the Air Ministry had realised that beyond the normal reserves of the RAF, it may be necessary to throw every serviceable aircraft into the battle. On 17 May, an Air Ministry meeting outlined a series of ambitious plans to make use of various aircraft in the event of an invasion.[1][2][3]

Plan

On 13 July 1940, the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Training Command was ordered to plan to make the maximum practical number of aircraft available for operations.[3] The plan was called Operation Banquet and was divided into several operations that could be enacted independently. Banquet 6 Group would see the absorption of No 6 Group units (the Group Pool units, not the later Royal Canadian Air Force) into the operational striking force of RAF Bomber Command. Banquet 22 Group would move certain 22 Group (Army Cooperation) aircraft into the operational striking force of Bomber Command. Striking more of a note of desperation were Banquet Alert which called for the employment of Fleet Air Arm training aircraft under Coastal Command and Banquet Training which called for the absorption of aircraft from RAF Training Command into the operational striking force of Bomber Command.[3]

Aircraft allocated under Banquet would, in many cases, lack bombsights, armour protection, defensive guns and self-sealing fuel tanks. While these were to be fitted where possible, RAF instructions made it clear that no aircraft was to be considered unfit for want of such niceties; anything that could fly and drop bombs would suffice.[3] Ground crews would go with their aircraft and in some cases this would have involved civilian volunteers.[4] The air crew for Banquet Alert and Training would be the experienced instructors as well as those students that had reached "a reasonably satisfactory standard of training".[3]

Banquet Light

Among the Banquet plans was Banquet Light which would see the formation of striking forces composed of De Havilland Tiger Moth biplanes and other light aircraft of the Elementary Flight Training School.[3] De Havilland put forward plans for converting the Tiger Moth into a bomber by equipping it with eight under-fuselage racks beneath the rear cockpit, each carrying a 20 lb (9 kg) bomb. As an alternative, the bomb-racks could be installed four on each side beneath the lower wings, which would avoid trimming difficulties.[2] The racks had been designed for the military version of the de Havilland Dragons supplied to Iraq eight years previously. Trials were conducted at Hatfield by Major Hereward de Havilland and at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down and the machines earned a satisfactory report.[2] Tests were also carried out with a Tiger Moth carrying a 240 lb (109 kg) bomb.[2] Modification of the relatively small number of Miles Magister trainers were also attempted but this proved troublesome and Banquet Light mostly used Tiger Moths.[3]

The Banquet Light strike force would be used for Army co-operation role, bombing concentrations of airborne troops or soldiers landing on the beaches.[2] The two-seater Tiger Moth bombers should be flown solo into an attack at low altitude until the enemy was identified, climb to 800 feet (240 m) and dive to 500 feet (150 m) to release the bombs.[2][5][6]

Most of the pilots for Banquet Light would be students who had not yet graduated.[3] The scheme required that trainee pilots were introduced to bombing at an early stage in their instruction, in case they needed to go into action immediately. Instructors were told to "take every opportunity to carry out practice bombing".[3] With no dummy bombs available early in 1940, training exercises were carried out with the aircraft flown from the front cockpit by instructors and house bricks were thrown over the side from the rear cockpit. It was discovered that the bricks fell slower than a diving Tiger Moth and instructions were given to throw the bricks forcibly away from the aircraft.[5][6]

About 350 aircraft were available, but the Moths and their inexperienced pilots would have been vulnerable to enemy aircraft and the plan was widely regarded as suicidal.[7][4] Consideration was also given to adapting civilian aircraft for Banquet Civil but the idea was dropped.[3][8]

Cancellation

Operation Banquet was never put into effect in the way that was originally intended but was periodically exercised under various guises. One "exercise" provided secret cover for the temporary reorganisation needed for the first 1,000 bomber raid sent against the city of Cologne on the night of 30/31 May 1942. This plan required considerable reorganisation including the contribution of bombers from Coastal Command and Training Command.[9] Banquet was cancelled in October 1943 having never been put into effect.[7]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Cox 1975, p. 149.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lewis 1980, p. 320.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 The National Archives: AIR 14/1126 – Operation "Banquet": scheme to employ all available training aircraft in defence of UK against invasion
  4. 1 2 French, Ben. "Banquet Lights – 'Tiger Moth Bombers'". WW2 People's War (article A7467573). Retrieved 3 November 2011.
  5. 1 2 "70th Anniversary of the Tiger Moth at Cambridge Airport". Marshall of Cambridge. Cambridge Network. Retrieved 17 August 2010.
  6. 1 2 Johnson 1992, p. 57.
  7. 1 2 WO 199/2471 – "Banquet" light scheme, The Catalogue, The National Archives
  8. ↑ Lewis 1980, p. 321.
  9. ↑ Messenger 1984, p. 75.

References

  • Cox, Richard (1975). Operation Sea Lion. Thornton Cox. ISBN 978-0-902726-17-8.
  • Johnson, Derek E. (1992). East Anglia at War 1939–1945. Jarrold Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7117-0598-2.
  • Lewis, Peter (1980). The British Bomber Since 1914: Sixty-five Years of Design and Development. Putnam. ISBN 978-0-370-30265-2.
  • Messenger, Charles (1984). "Bomber" Harris and the Strategic Bombing Offensive, 1939–45. Arms & Armour Press. ISBN 978-0-85368-677-4.
  • "The National Archives". Repository of UK government records. Retrieved 19 February 2007.
  • "de Havilland Tiger Moth II". RAF Museum, London. Archived from the original on 13 October 2008. Retrieved 18 June 2008.

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