Editing Hugh Dowding (section)

===Inter-war years===
Dowding was given a permanent commission in the RAF on 1 August 1919 with the rank of [[group captain]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32372|page=5139|date=28 June 1921}}</ref> He commanded [[No. 16 Group RAF|No. 16 Group]] from October 1919 and then [[No. 1 Group RAF|No. 1 Group]] from February 1920 where he was responsible for organising two of the annual air displays at [[Hendon]]. He was promoted to [[air commodore]] on 1 January 1922,<ref>{{London Gazette|city=e|issue=13774|page=11|date=2 January 1922}}</ref> and served as chief staff officer at Inland Area headquarters at [[Uxbridge]] from February 1922 before being appointed Chief Staff Officer for [[RAF Iraq Command]] in August 1924.<ref name=air/>

Dowding was an accomplished [[skiing|skier]], winner of the first ever National [[slalom skiing|Slalom Championship]], and president of the [[Ski Club of Great Britain]] from 1924 to 1925.<ref>Carver 2005, p. 206</ref> The dominant personality within the RAF in the 1920s was [[Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard|Hugh Trenchard]] who ardently believed in strategic bombing as a war-winning measure and as a result, the interwar RAF was dominated by a "bomber cult" as Trenchard tended to promote officers who shared his views about strategic bombing.{{sfn|Murray|Millett|2000|p=31}} Dowding stood out as one of the few RAF officers not totally englamoured with bombers and who was more interested in fighters.{{sfn|Murray|Millett|2000|p=31}}

In May 1926 Dowding was appointed director of training at the [[Air Ministry]]. He was appointed a [[Order of the Bath|Companion of the Order of the Bath]] on 2 January 1928<ref>{{London Gazette|city=e|issue=14405|page=5|date=3 January 1928}}</ref> and promoted to [[air vice-marshal]] on 1 January 1929.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33453|page=71|date=1 January 1929}}</ref> Trenchard sent him to Palestine and Transjordan to study security problems caused by Arab–Jewish unrest: his reports, which gained Trenchard's approval, were a cause of further career advancement. Dowding became Air Officer Commanding Fighting Area, [[Air Defence of Great Britain]] in December 1929 and then joined the Air Council as [[Air Member for Supply and Research]] in September 1930.  One of his first responsibilities in this post was the approval of the granting of a [[certificate of airworthiness]] to the [[R101]] airship shortly before it set off on its ill-fated voyage to India; he later said  "I think I was wrong not to insist on much more extensive trials and tests" and that his decision had been based on optimistic technical advice.<ref>Wright 1970, p. 53</ref> Dowding's time in this office coincided with a period of rapid development in aircraft design and a growing fear that another major war was on the horizon. Although without scientific or technical training, he displayed a great capacity for understanding technical matters. He was promoted to [[air marshal]] on 1 January 1933<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33898 |supp=y|page=16|date=30 December 1932}}</ref> and advanced to [[Order of the Bath|Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath]] on 3 June 1933.<ref>{{London Gazette|city=e|issue=14971|page=468|date=6 June 1933}}</ref>

In July 1936 Dowding was appointed commanding officer of the newly created [[RAF Fighter Command]], and was perhaps the one important person in Britain, and perhaps the world, who did not agree with [[British Prime Minister]] [[Stanley Baldwin]]'s 1932 declaration that "[[The bomber will always get through]]".<ref>Korda 2009, p. 18.</ref> He conceived and oversaw the development of the "[[Dowding system]]".<ref>Deighton 1980, pp. 88, 89.</ref> This consisted of an integrated air defence system which included (i) [[radar]] (whose potential Dowding was among the first to appreciate), (ii) human observers (including the [[Royal Observer Corps]]), who filled crucial gaps in what radar was capable of detecting at the time (the early radar systems, for example, did not provide accurate information on the altitude of incoming German aircraft), (iii) raid plotting, and (iv) radio control of aircraft. The whole network was linked in many cases by dedicated telephone cables buried sufficiently deeply to provide protection against bombing. The network had its centre at [[RAF Bentley Priory]], a converted country house on the outskirts of London.<ref name=odnb/> The system as a whole later became known as [[Ground-controlled interception]] (GCI).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rquirk.com/cdnradar/cor/chapter11.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.rquirk.com/cdnradar/cor/chapter11.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Ground Controlled Interception Radars in Operation Neptune / Overlord|access-date=19 August 2014}}</ref>

A major problem for the RAF was the way that the Canadian prime minister [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] from 1935 onward repeatedly vetoed plans for the Empire Air Training Scheme for training pilots from all the Commonwealth nations in Canada, which prevented Fighter Command from building up a reserve of properly trained pilots.{{sfn|Deighton|2000|p=43-44}} By the time the [[British Commonwealth Air Training Plan]] was finally launched in the autumn of 1939 after Mackenzie King gave his consent, it was far too late for Dowding. On an average, it took about one year to train a pilot plus another year of squadron flying to prepare a pilot for war.{{sfn|Deighton|2000|p=45}} In lieu of the Empire Air Training Scheme that he wanted, Dowding was forced to depend upon the [[Auxiliary Air Force]], the RAF Volunteer Reserve and the University Air Squadrons to provide him with a reserve of trained pilots.{{sfn|Deighton|2000|p=44-45}} However despite all the efforts to give Fighter Command a reserve of pilots, Dowding complained in 1939 that he lacked sufficient reserves of properly trained pilots to face the Luftwaffe.{{sfn|Deighton|2000|p=45}} On the basis of the First World War experiences, Dowding predicated that many of his pilots would be rapidly killed or seriously injured in the event of war, all the more because the Luftwaffe had many combat-experienced pilots who had served in the [[Spanish Civil War]], and it still took a year to train a pilot, leading him to warn that he would almost certainly face a shortage of pilots.{{sfn|Deighton|2000|p=45}}

Dowding also brought modern aircraft into service during the pre-war period, including the eight gun [[Supermarine Spitfire|Spitfire]] and [[Hawker Hurricane|Hurricane]].<ref name=odnb/> He is also credited with having fought the Air Ministry so that fighters were equipped with bullet-proof wind shields.<ref name = "blue">{{cite web|url=http://yesterday.uktv.co.uk/battle-britain-real-story/article/fighting-blue-battle-britain/|title=Fighting The Blue|publisher=Yesterday TV |date= 25 June 2011|access-date=19 August 2014}}</ref> At a meeting with the Air Ministry when told that bullet-proof windows were too expensive, Dowding replied: "If Chicago gangsters can have bulletproof glass in their cars I can't see any reason why my pilots cannot have the same".{{sfn|Deighton|2000|p=42}} Dowding was a quiet, reserved man, but was greatly admired by those who served under him.{{sfn|Deighton|2000|p=43}} He was promoted to [[air chief marshal]] on 1 January 1937<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=34356|page=17|date=1 January 1937}}</ref> and appointed a [[Royal Victorian Order|Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order]] on 23 January 1937.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=34420|page=4733|date=23 July 1937}}</ref>