Dowding wasn’t the only casualty of the RAF’s new approach; Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park, head of 11 Group during the Battle of Britain, was replaced by Air Vice-Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory, previously head at 12 Group and a man whose support for Bader’s ‘Big Wing’
tactics was enthusiastically shared by Fighter Command’s new commander-in-chief.

Throughout 1941 Fighter Command took the war to the enemy with ever-increasing strength and offensive patrols, especially ‘Circus’ operations – the codename for large-scale sweeps over northern France with Fighter Wings providing cover for small formations of light bombers, usually Blenheims, to attack strategic targets such as airfields, power stations and railway marshalling yards, and specifically designed to lure up the Luftwaffe’s fighters into combat.