Britain's air chief marshal, Hugh Dowding was also head of Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain. Under his leadership, the Luftwaffe was defeated in the skies above England and the nation thereby saved from invasion.

Dowding was trained as an artillery officer but became a squadron commander in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I and ended that war with the rank of brigadier general. He was then commissioned in the newly formed Royal Air Force (RAF) and served in command, staff, and training posts in Britain and Asia. In 1936, he was named commander in chief of the newly created Fighter Command and was responsible for advocating the development of radar and of the great Spitfire and Hurricane fighters. These technological developments would prove invaluable during the Battle of Britain.

When World War II began, Dowding fought fiercely against dispersal of fighter resources first in Norway and then in the Battle of France. Slated for retirement, he extended his service and led Fighter Command in the Battle of Britain. The RAF was outnumbered by the German Luftwaffe, but Dowding conducted a campaign that leveraged superior strategy and tactics, prevailing against the Germans and, by denying the Luftwaffe air supremacy, preventing what was surely imminent invasion.

Dowding was a great husbander of resources, coordinating his fighters with ground-based radar information. Some of his subordinates believed he was too cautious. Whereas Dowding fought the battle chiefly over English skies, some advocated conducting an aerial counteroffensive farther out over the English Channel. Dowding's advancing age was cited as the reason for his replacement as commander in chief of Fighter Command on November 24, 1940. It is likely, however, that the command's failure to defend against the Coventry air raid was the more immediate cause. Certainly, at the time, Dowding was given little enough credit for what he had accomplished in the Battle of Britain. However, over the years, the importance of his early leadership has been widely recognized.

Dowding was given other assignments, as liaison to U.S. aircraft factories and as a kind of inspector general of factories at home. He was never satisfied with these assignments and requested retirement in November 1942. The following year he was created Baron Dowding of Bentley Priory.

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