Hugh Dowding commanded Fighter Command during the summer of 1940 and is widely credited with the strategic decisions — including preserving aircraft reserves rather than squandering them over France — that made the RAF's survival possible. Churchill sacked him in November of that year, just weeks after the battle was won, a dismissal still debated by historians. Guernsey's inclusion here carries some geographic weight: the island was occupied by German forces from June 1940 until May 1945, making the Channel Islands the only British territory to fall under Nazi occupation.
Hugh Dowding commanded Fighter Command during the summer of 1940 and is widely credited with the strategic decisions — including preserving aircraft reserves rather than squandering them over France — that made the RAF's survival possible. Churchill sacked him in November of that year, just weeks after the battle was won, a dismissal still debated by historians. Guernsey's inclusion here carries some geographic weight: the island was occupied by German forces from June 1940 until May 1945, making the Channel Islands the only British territory to fall under Nazi occupation.