The Spitfire was critical in defeating the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. It was designed by Reginald Mitchell and others under the direction of Barnes Wallis. All worked at Brooklands Race Circuit, located about three miles from Woburn Park in Addlestone, Surrey.
“Completed in 1907, Brooklands was the world’s first banked racetrack. It inspired the construction of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in America some two years later. From the outset, Brooklands was a front for British aeronautical research and development. Barnes Wallis, Reginald Mitchell, and the other engineers mentioned in this novel worked there on the design of the Spitfire attack aircraft. In WWII aerial combat, it proved to be superior to the Messerschmitt Bf 109s.
It was the Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane aircraft and pilots who were primarily responsible for winning the Battle of Britain. This was the confrontation between Hermann Göring’s Luftwaffe and the Royal Air Force under Sir Hugh Dowding’s Fighter Command. This air battle raged over southern England and the Midlands between July and October 1940. Hitler’s intention was to gain air superiority over England and the English Channel by decimating the RAF along with the British industrial heartland in Coventry and Birmingham. He regarded victory as a prelude to the invasion of Britain, which the Nazis codenamed Operation Sea Lion.”
At a dinner party thrown at Woburn Hall, the residence of the Harcourt-Heath family, Humphrey Harcourt-Heath invited his ‘boffin’ friends who were working at Brooklands.
At the dinner table, James asked Barnes Wallis, the Chief Engineer at Brooklands, what progress they were making on the new fighter.
“It’s all very hush-hush, and walls have ears, don’tcha know. I can tell you we’re set to produce a very fast and manoeuvrable short-range aircraft that’ll give the Hun something to think about if push comes to shove.”
“Does it have a name yet?”
“On the drawing board, it’s the refined version of the Type 300. Apparently, some bugger at the Air Ministry decided to call it the Spitfire. Just the sort of bloody silly name they’d give it.”
As a bit of trivia, readers might find it interesting to note that the above is a direct quotation from Barnes Wallis in June 1935.