Defence of Dowding
Sir: I wonder how many of your readers find acceptable the attack that has been made in your columns by Mr Patrick Cosgrave on the integrity of the late Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding? This appeared in your issue of January 8. In referring to the account that was rendered by Lord Dowding of what happened just prior to the Battle of Britain, Mr Cosgrave commented: 'The truth of the matter is that the Dowding account of events is a fabrication from beginning to end.' The account of the events which Mr Cosgrave accused Lord Dowding of fabricating is to be found in Lord Dowding's official dispatch on the Battle of Britain, which was written by him in 1941, at the request of the government, after he had been given full access to the official files that are now in the Public Record Office. The same events are also to be found recorded in the official history The Defence of. the United Kingdom, which was written by Mr Basil Collier and published in 1957. Mr Collier also had full access to these same files in the normal course of his work, which is of such great value, as the accredited official historian.
Can it possibly be that we are expected to accept without question the incredible and unwarranted attack by Mr Cosgrave on the good name of Lord Dowding, particularly when it is based on a presentation by Mr Cosgrave of facts that are so gravely at fault? Robert Wright Lafayette, Hambrook Hill, Hambrook, Chichester, Sussex
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