Roland Harold "Rolly" Dibnah

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"On September 5, twenty-two different German formations attacked these targets within eight hours. In the midst of these raids, John Boyle of 41 Squadron destroyed an Me 109, as did Jack Carpenter, the transplanted navy pilot, while Roland Dibnah, one of Bader's pilots, brought down a 110.
Boyle's combat report illustrated the intensity of the day's fighting:

I was Green 3 ... patrolling between Maidstone and Ramsgate. Interception was made at 20,000 feet; enemy aircraft varying from 16,000 to 22,000 feet. Green Section attacked bombers [Do 17s] in line-astern formation. Seven or eight Me 109s were covering these bombers. Three Me 109s came in between me and Green 1 and 2. I attacked the most convenient e/a, starting to fire from above with quarter deflection closing in to dead-astern. A four or five-second burst was enough. The 109 broke up, with flame and smoke coming from the right-hand side; it immediately rolled on its back and spun.

Dibnah's unit, 242 Squadron, had been practicing take-offs and landings, and forming up with two other squadrons from Duxford. The exercise had Leigh-Mallory's full blessing as well as the hearty approval of the deputy chief of the Air Staff, Sholto Douglas. Bader had reduced squadron take-off time to three minutes, but the Wing still had to form up. Keith Park of 11 Group was not against the "Big Wing" formations per se. Far from it. At the time of Dunkirk, he had initiated their use in formations as large as four squadrons. But that was for offensive purposes when there was lots of time to form up. Not so easily done defensively.
Rarely was it possible to detect the enemy's intentions until it reached the coast, about twenty minutes' flying time from the centre of London. It took all that time and more for the British fighters to reach 20,000 feet, so they had to be off the ground and climbing in a flash. For that reason Park, for the most part, confined his formations to single squadrons, two at the most, although on rare occasions this was increased to three.
Hugh Dowding said later that had Big Wings been used by 11 Group, a great many more enemy bombers would have reached their targets. Park was even more explicit: "Had I tried Bader's theories of the Big Wing," he said, "I would have lost the Battle of Britain." *

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