Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding was a big advocate of squadron rotation to give respite and time for training. The Luftwaffe on the other hand kept their units continuously in the front line.
Even as far back as July 1915 after the Battle of the Somme, Dowding was a strong supporter of pilot rotation. When Dowding was commanding officer of No 16 Squadron, he clashed with General Trenchard, commander of the RFC, over the need to rest pilots exhausted by non-stop duty.
Here's how squadron rotation worked during the Battle of Britain, in Dowding's own words:
A fresh squadron coming into an active Sector would generally bring with them sixteen aircraft and about twenty trained pilots. They would normally fight until they were no longer capable of putting more than nine aircraft into the air, and then they had to be relieved.
This process occupied different periods according to the luck and skill of the unit. The normal period was a month to six weeks, but some units had to be replaced after a week or ten days.
By the beginning of September, the incidence of casualties became so serious that a fresh squadron would become depleted and exhausted before any of the resting and reforming squadrons was ready to take its place.
Fighter pilots still could not be turned out by the training units in numbers sufficient to fill the widening gaps in the fighting ranks. Transfers were made from the Fleet Air Arm and from the Bomber and Coastal Commands, but these pilots naturally required a short flying course on Hurricanes and Spitfires and some instruction in formation flying, fighter tactics and interception procedure.
by Steve Dunster
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