A Great War fi ghter ace, Douglas was deputy chief of air staff during the Battle of Britain in 1940.. He succeeded Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding as head of Fighter Command in Novembe
Trang 1Douglas, William Sholto (1893–1969)
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DOUGLAS, WILLIAM SHOLTO (1893–1969) RAF Air Chief Marshal A Great
War fi ghter ace, Douglas was deputy chief of air staff during the Battle of Britain in
1940 He succeeded Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding as head of Fighter Command
in November 1940, and was in charge of fi ghter defenses during the Blitz He served
in the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean from January 1943, then as head of RAF Coastal Command from 1944 to 1945
DOWDING, HUGH (1882–1970) RAF Air Chief Marshal Originally trained
as an offi cer of artillery, he took to the air as an austere, even aloof, member of the Royal Flying Corps in World War I Dowding became head of Fighter Command
in 1936 In that role he was principally responsible for the RAF’s edge in radar
and ground-to-air control during the Battle of Britain in 1940 He was responsible
for trenchant advice to Neville Chamberlain not to throw away additional fi ghter squadrons in Norway and to Winston Churchill not to do the same in France once the Battle of France was lost by the end of May 1940 Dowding was nearing retirement age even before the great summer fi ght with the Luftwaffe, to which
he made an invaluable contribution But he was not without critics, notably those
such as Leigh-Mallory who championed the “Big Wing” approach to concentrated
fi ghter defense Dowding was pushed out of Fighter Command on November 24,
while the Blitz was still underway He was treated quite shabbily, especially given
his enormous service in the RAF’s and the British nation’s hour of greatest need
In July 1942, he formally retired
DOWNFALL Code name of the planned invasion of Japan’s home islands It
was subdivided into discrete invasions of Kyushu and Honshu U.S 6th Army and the Marines would provide 14 combat divisions for landings on Kyushu in OLYMPIC, a huge amphibious operation based in the Philippines and Okinawa OLYMPIC was to be an all-American show on land, though other Western Al-lied naval assets would be involved It was originally scheduled for September 1,
1945, but was rescheduled to November 1 Not all Kyushu would be occupied, just enough of a lodgement to secure air bases for land-based aircraft to support the invasion of Honshu by over 25 combat divisions in an operation code named CORONET CORONET was set to take place on December 1, 1945 It was re-scheduled for March 1, 1946, once logistical problems and resistance on Okinawa forced a reconsideration of plans The main assault was to be carried out by U.S 8th and 10th Armies, which were already in the Pacifi c U.S 1st Army was in Ger-many but was pulled out of fi ghting on May 1, one week before the German sur-render, to ready for embarkation to the Pacifi c Some 1.5 million Americans and half a million additional troops from various Western Allied nations were desig-nated for transfer to the Pacifi c theater That prospect embittered many who felt they had “done their bit” but were told they could not yet go home An oversized