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BNPS.co.uk (01202 558833)<br />
Pic: LaidlawAuctioneers/BNPS<br />
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Controversial policy to abandon France revealed in RAF chiefs letter from 16th May 1940.<br />
<br />
A historically significant letter penned by Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding outlining the case for 'sacrificing' France to allow Britain to better defend itself from a Nazi invasion has emerged for sale at auction.<br />
<br />
The head of Fighter Command state's 'not one extra fighter' should be deployed to help their beleaguered ally across the channel 'however urgent and insistent the appeals for help may be'.<br />
<br />
And he chillingly concludes that diverting more resources would cause the 'final, complete and irremediable defeat of this country' in World War Two.<br />
<br />
Although subsequent events in the Battle of Britain fully vindicated Dowdings decision the policy still rankles with some French historians to this day.

BNPS.co.uk (01202 558833)
Pic: LaidlawAuctioneers/BNPS

Controversial policy to abandon France revealed in RAF chiefs letter from 16th May 1940.

A historically significant letter penned by Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding outlining the case for 'sacrificing' France to allow Britain to better defend itself from a Nazi invasion has emerged for sale at auction.

The head of Fighter Command state's 'not one extra fighter' should be deployed to help their beleaguered ally across the channel 'however urgent and insistent the appeals for help may be'.

And he chillingly concludes that diverting more resources would cause the 'final, complete and irremediable defeat of this country' in World War Two.

Although subsequent events in the Battle of Britain fully vindicated Dowdings decision the policy still rankles with some French historians to this day.