Battle of Britain

Background

By late June 1940 Germany had overrun Poland, Norway, the Low Countries and France, and Britain stood alone. Hitler hoped Britain would make peace. When it refused, he ordered plans for an invasion, Operation Sea Lion, on 16 July. The army and navy agreed that a crossing was possible only if the Luftwaffe first controlled the air over the Channel. Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring's air fleets in France, the Low Countries and Norway had about 2,500 serviceable aircraft. RAF Fighter Command, led by Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, had some 600 to 700 serviceable fighters at the start. Dowding had spent the late 1930s building an air defense system around the new Chain Home radar stations along the coast. Radar picked up German formations as they gathered over France. Reports from radar and from the Observer Corps went to a filter room at Bentley Priory, and from there to group and sector control rooms. The controllers then sent fighters to meet the raids by radio, so that squadrons did not have to waste fuel on standing patrols.

The Battle

The British date the battle from 10 July. In its first phase the Luftwaffe attacked convoys in the Channel and ports. On 13 August, called Eagle Day, it began its main offensive against RAF airfields, radar stations and aircraft factories. The Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers suffered such heavy losses that they were withdrawn after 18 August. From late August the Germans pounded the sector airfields of No. 11 Group in the south-east, commanded by Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park, and Fighter Command came under severe strain. Its greatest shortage was trained pilots, not aircraft, since British factories were building fighters faster than the Germans. Then, after RAF raids on Berlin, the Germans switched their main attack to London on 7 September. That gave the airfields time to recover. On 15 September, now marked as Battle of Britain Day, two large raids on London were met by squadrons from No. 11 and No. 12 Groups and suffered heavy losses. Two days later Hitler postponed Sea Lion indefinitely. In October the Luftwaffe sent fighter-bombers by day, and its bombers turned more and more to night raids.

Weapons

The battle was fought mainly by aircraft, which have no separate entries here. The Hawker Hurricane, the most numerous British fighter, and the Supermarine Spitfire each carried eight .303 guns. These were a British version of the M1919 Browning Machine Gun, built under license as the Browning Mk II. The Messerschmitt Bf 109E was a match for the Spitfire, but its short range gave it only a few minutes over London. It and the twin-engined Bf 110 carried the MG FF Cannon. The Heinkel He 111, Dornier Do 17 and Junkers Ju 88 bombers, and the Stukas, dropped the SC 250 Bomb and other bombs. On the ground, Anti-Aircraft Command defended key sites with the Bofors 40 mm Gun, heavier 3.7-inch guns and the Lewis Gun.

Aftermath

Losses are disputed, and wartime claims on both sides were much too high. Fighter Command lost roughly 1,000 aircraft and about 540 aircrew killed. Most estimates put German losses at about 1,700 to 1,900 aircraft and some 2,500 aircrew killed, with many more captured. The RAF pilots, who included Poles, Czechs, Canadians, New Zealanders and men from many other nations, became known as "the Few" after a speech by Winston Churchill on 20 August. Historians still debate how close Germany came to success and whether Sea Lion was ever practical. The Blitz on British cities went on until May 1941, but Britain stayed in the war as a base for the later campaigns of World War II.