Our Shared Agenda

Appendix 1 - why did Keith Davenport fail?

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In a nutshell, he concentrated his attention on individual needs at the expense of task and group needs. The evidence to support this includes:

 

• excusing Bishop's crew from debriefing (these provide critical feedback to what happened in this mission and for planning future missions);

 

• protecting the navigator Zimmermann;

 

• criticising Bomber Command's orders in front of subordinates;

 

• telling the Met. Officer "you're no good to me";

 

• not giving the doctor, Kaiser, a policy on maximum effort;

 

• telling Savage that Bomber Command were treating his boys as a "set of numbers" and that they would drop bombs on Pinetree instead of targets;

 

• Savage's reference to Davenport's "over-identification" with his men.