In the summer of 1940, the German Luftwaffe attempted to win air superiority over southern Britain a

1
THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN

• In the summer of 1940, the German Luftwaffe
  attempted to win air superiority over southern
  Britain and the English Channel by destroying the
  Royal Air Force and the British aircraft
  industry. This attempt came to be known as the
  Battle of Britain, and victory over the RAF was
  seen by the Germans as absolutely essential if
  they were eventually to mount an invasion of the
  British Isles.

2

• It is widely believed that had the Germans
  succeeded in their aim of destroying the RAF,
  they would have been able to invade Britain
  relatively easily.
• Although the fear of a German invasion was real,
  it was perhaps unfounded, however, as German
  plans were in fact somewhat amateurish - when
  planning the air attacks they made the mistake of
  regarding the Channel as a relatively minor
  obstacle, little more than a wide river crossing.

3

• Another factor counting against a German success
  was their underestimation of the strength of the
  RAF and the British aviation industry's
  production capacity. They believed they could
  eliminate RAF Fighter Command in four days and
  the aviation industry in four weeks.
• The British, on the other hand, had a new
  invention - radar - to help direct the fighters
  to intercept attacking German aircraft.
  Furthermore, the British were starting to get
  intelligence from intercepting German
  communications, having cracked the Enigma code
  system.

4

• Thus, in the struggle for air superiority, the
  two sides were about evenly matched. All the
  German aircraft had first seen action in the
  Spanish Civil War. The Me 109E was the principal
  German fighter. However, with a range of 700 km,
  it had only 15 minutes' fuel over Kent and was at
  the limit of its range over London. The
  two-engined Me-110 had a slightly longer range.
• The RAF's high performance fighters were the
  Hurricane, the mainstay of its effort, and the
  Spitfire. The Spitfire was faster and more
  manoeuvrable but the Hurricane carried slightly
  more ammunition, and was absolutely lethal
  against the German bombers.

5

• The Battle of Britain began on 30 June 1940.
  Reichsmarschall Hermann Göering, head of the
  Luftwaffe, ordered his force to draw the RAF into
  battle by attacking coastal convoys and bombing
  radar stations along the south coast,
  installations of the British aircraft industry,
  and RAF airfields. This dilution of effort, which
  became more marked as the battle progressed, was
  one of the principal reasons why the Luftwaffe
  eventually lost the battle.
• The short range of the German aircraft and the
  fact that they were fighting over enemy territory
  were two major disadvantages for the Germans. A
  downed German pilot was lost to Germany, and a
  damaged aircraft was likely to ditch in the sea -
  whereas damaged RAF aircraft could limp home, or
  land somewhere friendly, and downed RAF pilots
  parachuted onto English fields. They were
  returned to their units almost immediately, not
  infrequently after a spell in the pub.

6

• The head of the British fighter command was Air
  Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding,
• He had resisted demands by Churchill to send his
  fighter reserve to France during Dunkirk, holding
  it back for the defence of the UK.

7

• The Battle officially began on 13 August, with an
  all-out assault on Adlertag ('Eagle day'). Five
  waves of bombers and fighters were sent against
  nine airfields - from Eastchurch to Portland. At
  times the Luftwaffe threatened to overwhelm the
  Kent and Sussex sectors, but airfields were
  rapidly repaired and there was a continuous flow
  of replacement aircraft and pilots.
• Many of the pilots were from Australia, Canada,
  New Zealand, South Africa and from central
  European countries overrun by the Germans, in
  particular Poland and Czechoslovakia. The
  experienced Polish and Czech squadrons achieved a
  better kill ratio against the Germans than the
  British squadrons.

8

• The Luftwaffe lost a total of 1,733 aircraft from
  August to October, the RAF 800. The Germans,
  frustrated by the unexpected numbers of Allied
  planes opposing them, switched in early September
  to night bombing of cities. This was a fatal
  mistake.
• The Blitz, as it was known, continued after the
  Battle of Britain had finished.
• The switch to city bombing also allowed Fighter
  Command to recover

9

• The RAF defence was well organised. The brunt was
  borne by 11 Group, covering Kent and Sussex.
  Radar would pick up an approaching force and
  relay the information to a sector airfield, which
  in turn passed it to 11 Group HQ at Northolt. The
  Group would inform Fighter Command and, if
  appropriate, bring in aircraft from other sectors.

10
The victory

• On 17 September, two days after the Luftwaffe's
  worst day in the Battle of Britain, Hitler
  cancelled Operation Sealion - the name of his
  plan for the invasion of Britain.
• The campaign of city bombing continued, but
  Hitler by now was focusing on Russia - and on 22
  June 1941, he launched the greatest land-air
  campaign in the history of war. This campaign was
  called Operation Barbarossa - and its aim was the
  invasion of the Soviet Union.

11

• Never in the field of human conflict has so much
  been owed by so many to so few.
• Winston Churchill