Hi Merlin,
>Do you think Dowding, should have had Leigh-Mallory sacked for his lack of co-operation over the cover for Park's airfields?
From what I have read, it's my impression you can't really blame Leigh-Mallory as Dowding himself had failed to make his expectations clear to him.
Another problem in judging Leigh-Mallory's role is that according to Winterbotham's "The Ultra Secret", Leigh-Mallory was not given the code-breakers' intelligence information Dowding and Park received.
This really looks a bit like sub-optimum leadership on part of Downing, but maybe the "Big Wing" controversy is actually overestimated in its impact on the conduct of the Battle of Britain anyway ...
Regards,
Henning (HoHun)