[Music] [Music] between June and October 1940 the greatest air battle ever seen was fought in the Skies over England and the English [Music] Channel in the Battle of Britain the German Luft Rafer and the British royal Air Force waged a bitter struggle for aerial Supremacy that lasted almost 4 [Music] [Music] months the Battle of Britain wrote a new chapter in the history of Warfare for the first time a major conflict was fought by Air Forces alone the outcome was settled not by armies of millions but by a handful of men on each side armed with the most advanced weapons of their day fast monoplane Fighters mounting multiple machine guns or Cannon Advanced bombers some capable of ranging over a, miles radar a revolutionary air defense system never before tested in combat the Battle of Britain was a trial not only of the courage and skill of fighting men but of the scientific and Technical Ingenuity of the Waring [Music] Nations for Nazi Germany the great prize in this epic contest was to have been a clear path for an invasion of England in fact at the hands of the RAF the Third Reich would suffer its first major [Music] defeat the months following the German Blitz cre in Poland saw an uneasy LW all along the third reich's Western borders there were occasional artillery exchanges across the Franco German Frontier but behind the elaborate defenses of the majino line France felt utterly [Music] secure if there were to be a German attack in the west it was generally believed it would be directed first at Belgium to meet it the cream of the French Army and a British expeditionary force of 150,000 men waited on the Belgian border with the expeditionary force was the bulk of the British Army's transport and heavy Weaponry the force also had several squadrons of British Fighters and some were already seeing action against German aircraft intruding into French territory while the Allies waited for the inevitable attack in the west Hitler struck to the north Norway and Denmark were invaded by land sea and air Denmark fell quickly while Norway put up a determined but hopeless resistance even before the Norwegian campaign was over the countdown to Blitz Creek in the west had already begun German armies were massing on the frontiers of France and the low countries the storm broke on May the 10th 1940 the German offensive opened with more than 300 lvfa bombers attacking 22 Allied airfields in northern France Belgium and Holland paratroops seized vital border defenses at the same time the ground assaults began the German strategy was a two-pronged attack first Army Group B with 29 divisions Advanced into Holland and Northern Belgium the intention was to lure the British expeditionary force and the best divisions of the French army to the Northeast out of their prepared positions meanwhile the main German striking Force Army group a with 45 divisions including seven armored divisions pushed into Southern Belgium and Luxembourg outflanking the fortifications of the majino line the they crossed the wooded Hills of the ardan an area believed by the Allies impossible for tanks to [Music] penetrate the drive through the Arden culminated in a decisive breakthrough on the 13th the river Ms was crossed the last natural barrier before the Open Spaces of central France within days the Germans have torn a gap in French lines 50 m wide and were racing [Applause] westwards nothing could stem the German Advance Fierce air battles raged over France and Belgium but the Luft raer quickly gained the upper hand by May the 15th the French Air Force was already collapsing and the British had lost more than 200 aircraft in the dash across France which followed the crossing of the mys the panzas covered 200 miles virtually unchecked by May the 20th German armored spearheads had reached the channel Coast the Allied armies had been cut in two and the war had swept to within 50 Mi of the British Mainland soon the British expeditionary force and the bulk of the French first and seventh armies were caught in a shrinking pocket around the port of Dunkirk the successful evacuation of the expeditionary force from Dunkirk would be seen in Britain and around the world as a towering achievement but the fact remained that in France Britain had suffered Dreadful losses of men and Equipment most dangerous of all the battle had severely weakened the Royal Air Force almost 1,000 RAF aircraft had been destroyed more than half of them Fighters and already from Norway to the West Coast of France the Luft Rafer was establishing itself on the airfields of its conquered enemies [Music] with the fall of France Hitler had achieved all of his immediate War aims and had achieved them with a speed that astonished even himself in Hitler's mind the war was over at least for the time being not only had he made no plans for dealing with continued British opposition but for many years he had nurtured deep misgivings about war with the United [Music] Kingdom to Hitler the defeat of Britain would only serve to hand her Empire to the United States and Japan now with the British powerless to intervene on the continent they would surely come to some kind of arrangement ment anything else Hitler believed would be simply [Music] irrational increasingly impatient Hitler waited for news that Britain was willing to make peace but compromise never came on July the 2nd he finally ordered his generals to prepare preliminary plans for an invasion and on the 16th he ordered the plan put into effect the operation code named Seine was to be ready by mid August yet even at this stage Hitler was hoping that the threat of invasion itself would be enough to force the British to [Music] negotiate [Music] above all others it was Winston Churchill who was the driving force behind Britain's refusal to come to terms with Adolf [Music] Hitler appointed prime minister on the very day that Germany invaded Western Europe Churchill had been a compromised candidate for the leadership and his authority was far from complete many of his senior colleagues believed that his Hardline rejection of Hitler's peace overtures was suicidally [Music] obstinate Churchill had no such doubts for many years he had warned of the threat posed by Nazi Germany and now he announced that Britain would fight Churchill understood that any German invasion attempt would depend on the ltva winning Mastery of the air and that only the raf's fighters could prevent them doing so to increase Britain's fighter strength Churchill created a new government Department the ministry of aircraft production and put at its head an energetic and talented newspaper Tycoon Lord Beaverbrook through Beaverbrook Churchill could ensure that even while his Air Marshals demanded bombers fighter production was given the highest priority as the great test of the Battle of Britain Drew closer Churchill in spite of his stirring oratory had yet to gain the complete confidence of the British people what sustained him in this the greatest crisis in Britain's history was his own unshakable belief that Victory would come to resistance and Revolt and if driven to desperate hazards he attempts the invasion of the British is as well he may we shall not flinch from the Supreme child lift up your hearts all will come right out of the depths of sorrow and of sacrifice will be born again the glory of [Music] mankind in overall command of operation sea lion the invasion of England was Field Marshal V rinstead the man who had overseen the decisive flanking drive through the Arden which had won the Battle of France The Invasion Plan called for two Army groups all together over a quarter of a million men to land on the shores of Britain [Music] Von Rad's Army group a made up of the 16th and Ninth armies with 10 divisions and 650 tanks was to Embark in Harbors between the esteras of the Shel and the sand protected at Sea by OTS and minefields they would land on a strip of the English Coast between folston and Brighton part of the ninth Army would also land in the aisle of white Portsmouth area at the same time parachutists would be dropped to cover the flanks of the invasion beaches to the West a secondary Landing was to be mounted by the sixth Army of army Group B sailing from cherborg with three divisions in its first wave sixth Army its flanks also covered by parachutists was to land in Lime Bay and advance northward towards Bristol and the Seven estery after a week consolidating their Beach heads the Invaders would push forward to take The High Ground along an arc from the temp's Esty to Portsmouth in a second phase London was to be cut off from the west and encircled and the whole of Southern England occupied up to a line running from the seven to molden in Essex the sheer quantity of shipping required for operation Seine 155 transports and 3,000 smaller craft for the first wave alone meant that Hitler's orders to be ready to invade in mid- August were impossibly ambitious the Navy protested that assembling the ships would take until at least the middle of September nor could it guarantee to to protect the invasion flotilla from Britain's powerful home Fleet to the Army's dismay the Navy was insisting that The Landings be restricted to a narrower and much more easily defended front on only one subject with the German Army and Navy in full agreement no Invasion could succeed unless the Luft Raff of won complete control over the Skies of Southern England and the English Channel the prospect of the invasion Fleet being bombed and straighted as it crept towards England was a nightmare and only German airow could prevent interference by the Royal Navy operation Seine therefore depended totally on the destruction of Britain's Air Force the lvfa flushed with its recent victories in Europe was supremely confident that it could achieve that [Music] objective the first phase in the German air offensive was to be a series of bombing attacks on British Merchant ships in the channel mounted from airfields in France and Belgium Britain was to be faced with a major dilemma send fire fighters to defend the convoys and have them shot down by German fighter escorts or lose the ships after the preliminary stage of gradually wearing down British fighter strength the fullscale assault would begin the eagle offensive would involve massive raids on RAF fighter fields and sector stations aircraft factories would also be hit within 4 days of the launch of the offensive the Royal Air Force would have to abandon in its Southern airfields for Sanctuary further north another 4 weeks would annihilate the remnants of the raf's fighter strength the way would be open for [Music] Invasion if British Air and sea power were unable to beat off a German invasion Fleet the nation's survival would depend on the British army after the evacuation from Dunkirk the Army had only 786 field guns and 167 anti-tank guns there were only two armored divisions one of them incomplete and altogether Britain had little more than 200 tanks heavy enough to take on the German panzas the Army pled plan for defeating a German invasion depended heavily on Infantry and on fixed [Music] defenses from ber on Tweed to Waymouth coastal areas up to 20 mi deep were closed to the public sewn with mines and fenced off with barbed wire across Britain a series of Def defensive stop lines was created made up of pill boxes and linked anti-tank obstacles at the heart of the defenses was the GHQ line covering London and the industrial Midlands on which all of Britain's anti-tank guns were cited later a less wasteful and more flexible strategy was adopted mobile infantry formations were established on the coast and the emphasis on lengthy defense lines was replaced by the fortification of Key Road Junctions and strategic [Music] points if the worst happened and Britain were invaded every available able-bodied man was expected to join in the fight the local defense volunteers the part-time Force later renamed the Home Guard had by now over a quarter of a million men but was pitifully short of weapons few expected that against the seasoned Veterans of the German Army it would stand much of a chance nevertheless the force could play a useful role by relieving the regulars of the more mundane tasks of Manning minor roadblocks and doing local guard duties in anticipation of the battles to come 127,000 civilians were evacuated from the east coast and another 880,000 moved from the kentish coast plans were already being laid to bomb The Invasion beaches with poisoned gas and experiments were carried out with underwater fuel pipelines which would set the Sea and the beaches Ablaze as the German invasion flotilla approached [Music] British planners knew that any German invasion must be preceded by a massive Air Assault the RAF strategy would be to conserve its Fighters as an effective Force no matter what the provocation every raid must be met with just enough strength to deflect the Raiders from their target and perhaps destroy some bombers but no more in this Britain's most important asset would be its highly secret radar defense [Music] system the radar stations of chain H Bo stretched from the north of Scotland to the westernmost tip of Wales the system was capable of detecting aircraft to a range of 120 M however it could not detect low-flying Intruders to fill the Gap stations operating on a shorter wavelength were added to the system chain home low could detect aircraft up to a distance of 50 Mi whenever a radar station or group group of stations detected aircraft approaching the British Coast the information was passed directly to fighter command headquarters at Bentley [Music] prior at fighter command the job of evaluating radar reports estimating ranges and deciding whether detected aircraft were friendly or hostile was done in a filter room staffed mainly by members of the women's auxiliary air force there counters representing enemy and friendly aircraft were moved around a giant plotting table the filtered information was passed next door to the fighter command operations room and there an identical plotting table was updated and a decision was taken about which fighter groups were to be called in to the defense Britain was divided into four fighter command groups 13 group in the north its headquarters at Newcastle 12 group in the Midlands commanded from watel 10 group was in the southwest with its headquarters in box and 11 group the group likely to take the brunt of German attacks was in the Southeast its headquarters at axbridge every group headquarters had its own operations room its plotting table updated minute by minute with information from Bentley prior a duty controller decided which of the sector stations under his group's command should meet the raid and how many fighters should intercept on orders from the group controller the sector station's Fighters were brought to a state of Readiness or scrambled for an [Music] interception in the sector operations room plotters tracked not only the course of enemy Raiders but also the positions of intercepting ourf squadrons [Music] while Inland of the radar net these were known by means of a system called Huff Duff or pipsqueak in which radio signals automatically emitted by the fighters were tracked by the sector station the sector controller could then direct the leader of each Fighter Squadron to his Target giving By Radio the enemy's position height course and estimated [Music] numbers once enemy Raiders had crossed the British Coast they could no longer be tracked by radar and Technology gave way to the eyes and ears of the Observer core a vast civilian organization made up mostly of part-timers from Posts all over the country observers armed with binoculars and a crude direction finder reported the course position and identity of all aircraft within their area on cloudy days all this had to be judged from the sound of aircraft engines alone Observer reports were passed to the core's own filter Center at ham and from there to fight a command group and sector operations rooms Britain's air defense network was meant to ensure that RAF aircraft would have no need to fly wasteful standing Patrols in the hope of catching sight of an enemy whenever the fighters flew they would fly to combat fighter command's entire strategy depended upon the proper functioning of this new and relatively untried system in June 1940 no one could tell how such a complex machine would fare in the chaos of an allout battle [Music] it was air Chief Marshall Sir Hugh daing who had devised fighter command's defensive strategy for the Battle of Britain daing had been appointed chief of fighter command on its creation ation in 1936 he was the man responsible for the raf's decision to opt for metal monoplane Fighters and he had quickly seen the promise of radar he went on to create the network of filter and operations rooms observers and controllers that transformed primitive radar into a functional weapon once a course of action had been decided upon daing would follow that course without swerving in the Battle of France he had already proved his metal by resisting moves to send more fighters to the continent by so doing he antagonized Churchill but succeeded in Saving aircraft that fighter command could ill afford to lose in the Battle of Britain dating's strategy of conserving his fighter strength would again face serious opposition the battle would be a trial not only of ding's air defense system but also of his belief in his own policy and his determination to see it through to the [Music] end air minister of the Reich and commander-in-chief of the Luft vaer Herman guring was the man charged by Adolf Hitler with destroying the Royal Air Force and Paving the way for an invasion of [Music] Britain during the Great War guring had become one of Germany's most famous fighter Aces winning the PO Merit Germany's highest decoration and succeeding Baron von Richtofen as commander of the renowned Flying [Music] Circus a close friend and Ardent supporter of Adolf Hitler from the earliest days of the Nazi party guring wielded enormous power in the Third Reich as well as commanding the Luft vafer he was prime minister of Prussia and the president of the rear alone amongst the Nazi hierarchy guring affected an aristocratic style he lived in a castle dressed flamboyantly and was devoted to hunting after the fall of France he spent little time on lvfa business instead he was scouring the museums of occupied Europe for works of art to plunder for his contribution to Germany's victories Hitler created for Garing the unprecedented military rank of reichs Marshall yet the triumphs of the luffer had owed little to ging's own thinking he believed uncritically the theories of those who claimed that bombers by breaking the will of the enemy were capable of winning wars alone as for fighter tactics the limit of ging's Interest was to exhort his Flyers to shoot down as many enemy aircraft as possible guring was completely confident about the Battle ahead he saw his orders to destroy the RAF as another chance to prove the metal of his LT vaa to Garing the needs of the German Army and Navy in the runup to Operation Sea Lion were irrelevant the Luft raffer would wage its own [Music] war in the days following the evacuation of the British expeditionary force from Kirk our AF fighter command was desperately trying to bring its forces to battle Readiness every Squadron suffered from some kind of shortage many Pilots had been lost and many aircraft had been damaged or were in need of servicing some squadrons had only half their establishment of ground crew while while less than a third of RAF Fighters had been fitted with if a new device designed to identify British aircraft to the radar Network amongst the chaos there was one Ray of Hope production of hurricans and Spitfires in June was 446 aircraft more than 2 and a half times the level of only 3 months before on July the 6th Britain had 688 modern single seat Fighters 2/3 of them fit for combat and another 450 in [Music] reserve the Hawker Huracan a monoplane fighter built of wood Fabric and a tube metal framework had entered service with the Raf in late 1937 although the hurricane was a halfway stage between the old wooden fabric biplane and the new generation of metal aircraft in the hands of a good flyer it was an effective [Music] weapon during 1939 the hurricane had been extensively modified the aircraft's fixed pitch two-bladed propeller had been replaced by a two- pitch three-bladed type and its wing had been covered with a metal skin instead of fabric the result was a dramatic increase in performance armor protection was also fitted armor was placed first between the pilot and the engine and later behind the pilot as well at the instant ation of air Chief Marshall Hugh daing the aircraft was given a bulletproof windscreen these additions meant that the Man flying a huran was far better protected in combat than any German fighter pilot during the Battle of Britain the Hurricane's rugged Simplicity would pay valuable dividends for RAF fighter command the aircraft would prove quick to manufacture damage resistant and easy to repair the Hawker Hurrican quickly won the trust and admiration of the men whose task it was to fly it the aircraft was a delight to handle and its wide track undercarriage made for particularly safe landing and takeoff on rough airfields more than 2third of ourf Fighters deployed in the coming battle would be hurricans [Music] the supermarine Spitfire was an advanced allmetal monoplane fighter with a monoco fuselage and a stressed metal skin for Speed the spitfire's wings were extremely thin yet their characteristic shape gave them the maximum area and great strength the Spitfire had entered RAF service in August 1938 its design called for new and complex manufacturing techniques particularly in the forming of the Wings and in consequence production of the aircraft in numbers was painfully slow by the time of the Battle of Britain far fewer Spitfires would be available for squadron service than the RAF had hoped the Spitfire was fast maneuverable and very responsive to fly except at high speeds when its fabric covered aerons caused lateral forces to become heavy it was an extremely stable aircraft so much so that it could be flown with hands and feet off the controls however for the novice pilot there were dangers Landing could could be tricky and if the aircraft entered a spin the result could be lethal fitted with the same propeller and armor modifications as the hurricane the spitfire's performance was unsurpassed at low and medium altitudes a feature particularly admired by Spitfire Pilots was its bubble canopy which gave a superb allround View a Priceless asset in a dog [Music] fight in early July 1940 our AF fighter command had only 1,200 Pilots 4 135 experienced veterans had been lost in France and until recently the training schools were producing only 200 a month it took almost a year to train a pilot in basic flying skills alone and fighter command was painfully conscious that in an allout struggle losses could Mount horrifyingly quickly one solution was to expand the contingent of Commonwealth pilots in the RAF and many flyers from Australia New Zealand Canada and South Africa would fight in the Battle of Britain there was also an influx of skilled flyers from the air forces of conquered Europe including many poles and checks some of these men would become the most dedicated and dangerous fighter pilots in the RAF at the outbreak of War part- timers from the RAF volunteer reserve and the auxiliary air force had been immediately mobilized and would make up around a quarter of RAF strength although they could fly they'd been given little training in how to fight even the training of regulars was of a very poor standard RAF combat practice was always in strictly choreographed section or group at while solo combat skills and Marksmanship were badly [Music] neglected just as important as the fight of Pilots were the RAF and civilian Personnel responsible for keeping the aircraft at the highest state of combat readiness a daily inspection was carried out on every machine and after a sauty as a squadron landed each fighter was met by its ground crew including an armorer and his assistants a fitter a rigger and a radio mechanic aircraft were normally checked for damage refueled and rearmed in 35 minutes behind the ground crew were the maintenance mechanics highly skilled men who serviced the fighters overworked engines and air frames often in very primitive conditions the station workshops also carried out what repairs they could but if the damage was too great the aircraft was dispatched to the civilian repair organization under Beaver Brook's Ministry of aircraft production the repair units achieved near miraculous results over 60% of all the fighters sent to the organization returned to [Music] Combat Complete Fighters were made by cannibalizing damaged aircraft and during the Battle onethird of all new fighters to reach the squadrons would come from repair [Music] units while Britain's Fighters with a major weapon against enemy Raiders the ground defenses would also play an important part mainly by forcing bombers to fly higher and so spoiling their [Music] aim anti-aircraft command a branch of the army was led by the energetic and effective General Sir Edward pile who worked closely with fighter command in July 1940 pile had only 4,000 guns almost half of them light weapons and about the same number of search lights at night or on cloudy days accurate shooting was all but impossible there were few of the new gun laying radars and Gunners had to depend on all but useless sound locators the second component of the ground defenses was a force of barrage balloons balloons were meant to discourage low-flying bombers particularly at night and were handled by a 12-man team made up of RAF Personnel because the mile of cable connect connecting the balloon to the ground could easily be severed by an enemy aircraft without causing the radar to crash a system called the double parachute link was devised to make the balloon a truly lethal obstacle when hit by an aircraft the cable would separate from the balloon and the winch while the cable was being trailed by the aircraft it would deploy two small parachutes which would cause a sudden drown bag of about 2 tons stopping the radar dead in its tracks with the double parachute link The Barrage balloon was a powerful deterrent to low flying bombers however in the summer of 1940 there were far too few balloons for an adequate defense only 1,400 barrage balloons were available to protect key sites around the country [Music] the German campaign in Western Europe although a Triumph for the luw had not been won without cost almost 1500 aircraft had been lost in combat and operational accidents in less than 2 months now the force was expected to go on the offensive against Britain without the rest and replenishment it so badly needed although guring believed that wars were to be won by strategic bombing his Air Force had never been equipped to fulfill that role the lraf had developed as a tactical weapon whose task was to support a ground defensive it had numerous bombers but the emphasis was on relatively short range types able to carry only a modest load all together the luffer had 4 and a half thousand aircraft of these almost 1,600 bombers and 1100 Fighters would be deployed for the battle about 70% of them fit for combat [Music] the mmid 109 was Germany's only modern single engin fighter its overall performance was comparable to the Spitfire but it was more effective at high altitudes and better in a dive unlike British Fighters which were fitted with carburetors the 109 had fuel injection and could dive suddenly without stalling an advantage many would use to evade opponents in the battle like the Spitfire the 109's handling was Heavy at high speeds it had no tendency to spin although its very delicate Wings meant that German Pilots were reluctant to turn as hard as their British counterparts the aircraft's takeoff was extreme ly short and its climb was excellent but on the ground the 109's narrow undercarriage and poor view made it a difficult machine to handle and 5% of all 109's built would be destroyed in landing [Music] accidents the mmid 1100 to sea was intended as a long long range escort Fighter the first aircraft of its type in the world after its Naval counterpart it was known as a destroyer guring saw his Destroyer squadrons as the elite of the lvfa and their pilots were the best available but the aircraft would be a disaster in the Battle of Britain although formidably armed and much faster than the Hurrican the 11 was too cumbersome a machine to take on the Spitfire before the end of the battle destroyers would suffer the indignity of needing to be escorted by [Music] 109s the Yun 87 stooker was designed as a Precision dive bomber whose main role was to support infin reactions as long as it operated in areas in which the Luft raffer controlled the skies it was a formidable weapon its bombing accurate to within 100 [Music] ft the stooker was fitted with Sirens to strike Terror into the enemy and automatic dive braks to pull it out of its steep [Music] attack in spite of the Stoker's ungainly appearance it handled well its controls were light and for its size the aircraft was very maneuverable cockpit visibility was excellent but compared with single seat Fighters the two-seater stooker was slow and poorly [Music] armed when it first entered service the hle 111 was one of the most outstanding aircraft of its Day by the time of the Battle of Britain although it was still a formidable weapon and had been updated many times the design was beginning to show its limitations the 111 was heavily armored and well armed but the aircraft was underpowered and slow because its bombs were stored vertically the heaviest weapon it could carry in its Bombay was only [Music] 551 the Doria 17 known from its shape as the flying pencil had already ceased production by the start of the battle of Britain the aircraft was limited in bomb load speed and range it also had no armor protection in spite of all this the daia remained popular with air crew it was the most reliable of all German bombers and was highly maneuverable the aircraft was also structurally very strong and could bomb in a shallow dive but over 370 [Music] mph because of their vulnerability Doria units favored low altitude terrain following tactics to gain the advantage of [Music] surprise the junas 88 had been designed at astonishing speed and the battle of Britain would see its first operational use on a large scale the aircraft was admitted by the RAF to be the best warplane of its type anywhere and it would remain Germany's most effective [Music] bomber the junas 88 was fast versatile rugged and highly maneuverable it was poorly armored and armed but its dive brakes would often allow it to escape even from a [Music] Spitfire amongst the Airmen of the Luft Rafer morale was at an all-time high victory in Poland and the West had left them with the belief that the German air force was invincible they had suffered heavy losses since the start of the war but the force had an enormous number of combat tested veterans and the men knew that their training and tactics were superb fighter pilots learned to attack not only bombers but other fighter formations Wing against Wing Squadron against Squadron down to individual combat bomber Crews were often trained together as a unit and the captain of the aircraft normally The Observer was taught to do the job of every other crew member including flying the [Music] airplane pilots had up 250 hours flying experience including more night sties than the pilots of any other air Force the Luft raer had been training 800 new pilots a month since long before the War [Music] Began like their RAF counterparts German ground crew would be under enormous pressure throughout the battle the whole LT buffer offensive would depend on them turning around bombers and Fighters as fast as possible and keeping them in serviceable condition the job would be made infinitely more difficult by the quickly improvised nature of many German airfields servicing work including engine changes often had to be done in the open with the absolute minimum of facilities like their air crew comrad the morale of the men on the ground was high but after 2 months of operations and still laboring to establish a 100 new air bases they were badly in need of rest on the production front although few Airmen knew it the Luft raffer had already lost its Edge over Britain in June Germany had built fewer than 900 aircraft including only 140 single engined Fighters less than oneir of British fighter [Music] [Music] production the the Battle of Britain would begin in Earnest on July the 10th 1940 with Luft Fafa attacks on British Channel convoys but even before the first phase of the conflict the British people were to be shown that the lvfa was within Striking Distance every day the number of intrusions by German reconnaissance aircraft over England increased the air defenses were probed and the response time of the ra was [Music] measured The Next Step was a series of night attacks on British factories ports and airfields the first largescale air raid on Britain was on the night of June the 18th 100 bombers attacked Targets in southern Eastern and Northern England and South Wales before the end of the month there were eight more nights of bombing the Raiders ranging widely over the north the Midlands and Southern England causing many civilian [Music] casualties on July the 1st German bombers mounted the first major daylight raid on Britain the targets were Wick in Scotland and Hull in Yorkshire from now on the Raiders would come by day and by night and on both sides losses would begin to [Music] mount the deadly contest of grinding attrition that would become known as the Battle of Britain was about to enter its first [Music] phase while the Luft Rafer completed its deployment for an allout offensive against the RAF and waited for the final go-ahead from Adolf Hitler British Channel convoys offered easy targets our a fighter command was to be presented with a terrible dilemma commit fighters to protect the convoys or lose the ships when plans had been drawn up for Britain's air defense the RAF had never been asked to include fighter cover for convoys the caros could have been transport ported by rail but the admiralty was insisting that the merchantmen continue to sail for reasons of national Prestige air Chief Marshall sahu daing was forced to agree to defend the ships but he was determined to do so with the smallest possible number of [Music] Fighters [Music] because of poor weather over the channel the German campaign got off to a slow start it was July the 4th before the Luft raffer launched its first large scale Convoy attack the same day the first fighter sweep in strength was flown over Kent on the 7th and eth the tempo sharply increased Channel ports were bombed and more convoys were hit leaving several ships sunk or damaged it was doubting strategy to refuse to respond to German fighter sweeps and where possible these were ignored but attacks on ships and ports had to be counted Often by unit of only six or seven aircraft it was on July the 10th that the Luft raffer launched the first massive attacks clearly intended to draw RAF Fighters into combat July the 10th is the day officially recognized as the start of the Battle of [Music] Britain [Music] the L's Target was a convoy codenamed bread heading from the temp's estery to the DOA [Music] Straits the Raiders were 27 daers of the second bomber Wing escorted by 2411 and the same number of [Music] 109s to meet them elements of four British squadrons were scrambled 56 and 111 squadrons fielded 18 hurrians 32 squadron from bigin Hill scrambled another six and 74 squadron from horn Church joined in with six Spitfires in all 30 British Fighters met 75 German aircraft in a vicious dog fight nine German Raiders were destroyed and four damaged the RAF lost one fighter shot down two crash landed and two damaged only one ship was sunk although such a rate of exchange was perfectly acceptable to fight a command the results of future clashes would not always be so favorable on the 19th when a major battle was fought in the defense of nine convoys 11 British aircraft were lost for only four Germans shot [Music] down during the following weeks as increasing numbers of ships were sunk by German bombs Hugh daing faced insistent demands from the admiralty and from Downing Street that he do more to defend the convoys as a compromise he agreed to mount a limited number of standing patrols a severe drain on his Resources with the real battle yet to begin the number of sorties flown by fighter command was already reaching as many as 600 a day [Music] [Music] during the channel fighting many British Pilots gained their first experience of air-to-air combat already some valuable lessons had been learn learned unofficially many Flyers had begun harmonizing their guns so their fire converged at 250 yards instead of the prescribed 650 to get more concentrated hitting power at close range the new de wild incendiary bullet was proving a valuable Aid to Marksmanship and a popular mix of ammunition amongst experienced Pilots was to load two guns with standard bullets two with armor-piercing rounds and two with incendiaries veteran Flyers concluded that closely harmonized guns and incendiary bullets made the difference between damaging a German aircraft and shooting it out of the sky the performance of British Fighters was also being [Music] improved new constant pitch propeller units were fitted to increasing numbers of Spitfires and hurricanes as a result British and German Fighters were more closely matched than ever before in spite of this a disturbing Trend was emerging in the channel combats British Pilots were all too often coming off badly in fighter to- fighter encounters the problem of though few realized it lay with desperately inadequate RAF [Music] tactics the standard RAF unit was a Vic of three aircraft flying in close formation in a turn the two inside aircraft had to throttle back to allow the one outside to accelerate round Maneuvers had to be gentle if Flyers were to hold their place and much of the agility of the single seat fighter was lost equally dangerous a three aircraft formation would eventually break in the turmoil of combat and there was a very high chance that one pilot would be left flying alone for a fighter pilot the most dangerous situation imaginable the British Fighter Squadron was made up of 12 12 aircraft split into two flights each of two Vicks because the fighters were packed tightly together the formation was easy to spot in the sky and the high risk of collision meant that little of any Pilot's attention could be devoted to watching for the enemy sometimes an extra aircraft was placed to weave behind and keep a lookout alone and highly vulnerable the chances of survival for a tail end Charlie were Slim and the practice was soon abandoned the tactics of the Luft faffer were immeasurably better suited to the realities of air fighting the basic formation was the RoR of two aircraft a leader and his wingman whose Duty it was to support the leader at all times two Roa made up a section or scharm normally well spaced and staggered in height and position the schwam was difficult to spot in the sky it gave plenty of room to each aircraft and so the time to keep a sharp Lookout and it was easy to maneuver German fighter pilots had reinvented the first world war crossover turn in which every aircraft flies at the same speed but positions within the schwam are reversed no throttle adjustments were needed and the turn could be tight and fast three Schwan formed up Loosely AB breast and well spaced made up a staffle or Squadron of 12 aircraft in the first 6 weeks of Channel fighting the Luft raffer dropped nearly 2,000 tons of bombs and sank almost 40,000 tons of British shipping the cost to the German air force was 316 aircraft in those same 6 weeks the RAF lost just over 200 Spitfires and hurricanes as yet the loss of aircraft posed no real danger to fight a command deliveries from the factories were at the highest level ever the real danger lay with the toll of Veteran Pilots a high proportion of cash casualties had been Squadron or flight leaders the most experienced flyers in fighter command with a full scale German offensive about to be Unleashed less than half of the raf's remaining fighter pilots had any combat experience [Music] whatsoever [Music] by the first week in August the Luft Rafer had virtually completed its buildup for the eagle offensive the allout attack on the RAF that was intended to win Air Supremacy over Southern England in a matter of days the aircraft and the men were in place bombs ammunition and fuel were stockpiled and the forces were fully organized for the battle ahead the Luft Rafer in the west was divided into three lft floton or air fleets each a self-contained force of bomber fighter reconnaissance and support [Music] units [Music] of the three lft floton facing Britain the strongest was the second air fleet with its headquarters in [Music] Brussels its area of operations was to the east of a boundary drawn down the center of England second air fleet was commanded by field Marshall Albert kessle ring a former Army officer kessle ring had under his command five wings of mmid 109 Fighters each of around 100 aircraft two wings of twin engined 11's and a mixed group of 109 and 11 fighter bombers numbering about 40 kessle Ring's striking power was two wings of stokers and six wings of twin engined [Music] bombers third air fleet was based in France South of the S and had its headquarters in Paris the fleet was commanded by Field Marshal Hugo Spar the most experienced senior officer in the German air force for escort duties Spar had three wings of 109 Fighters and a wing of 11's his bomber force was made up of four wings of stokers some under strength and five wings of twin engine machines there was also a single group around 30 aircraft of precision night attack and Pathfinder bombers to the North in Norway and Denmark was the fifth air fleet with its headquarters at Stanga fifth air fleet was commanded by Colonel General Hans Yogen stump an ex- army officer Stumpf had two wings of twin engin bombers and one of twin engin [Music] Fighters he also had a wing of 109s but their range was too limited for operations over Britain altogether fifth air fleet had only 163 combat aircraft capable of fighting in the battle [Music] unlike the German air fleets which were independent entities often unaware of each other's operations fighter commands four groups were designed to work closely together cooperation would not always be Flawless or wholehearted but when the system functioned as it was meant to it could make very effective use of fighter [Music] resources the strength of each fighter commands groups was geared closely to the degree of threat each area of fac 11 group closest to France was by far the strongest of the rf's fighter groups 11 group was commanded by air Vice Marshall Keith Park a fighter Ace of the first world war and a brilliant [Music] tactician Park had 15 squadrons of hurricans and six of [Music] Spitfires 10 group to the West had only recently been formed the group's Commander was air Vice Marshal Sir Christopher Quentin brand brand had three hurricane squadrons and four squadrons of Spitfires 12 group was based in the Midlands and was the second most important of the raf's fighter groups the group was commanded by air viice marshall Trafford Lee mallerie Lee mallerie had six squadrons of hurricans and five of [Music] Spitfires to the north facing Scandinavia and the German fifth air fleet was 13 group 13 group's Commander was air viice marshall Richard Saul Saul had nine hurricane squadrons and four squadrons of [Music] Spitfires at the start of the July battles German intelligence had compiled a reasonably accurate picture of RAF Fighters strength but since then it had overestimated British losses and seriously underestimated the rate of production of new aircraft even after so many weeks of operations the Germans knew very little about fighter command's air defense system although Germany had developed radar equipment of its own it had never devised anything like the complex Network the British had built the function of sector station operations rooms was unknown and it was assumed that the radar control of RAF Fighters was rigid and inflexible on the British side intelligence was much more effective by listening to radio traffic including signals sent when aircraft sets were checked before auty the strength of an imminent raid could be estimated with remarkable accuracy Britain's most dramatic intelligence breakthrough had happened just before the war Poland had given the British an example of the secret German code machine Enigma the code had been broken and German radio traffic would be deciphered through throughout the Battle of Britain in the first week of August decoded German messages included references to an impending Adler angri or eagle attack it was clear to the British that the battle was about to enter a new [Music] phase in fura directive number 17 Adolf Hitler authorized guring to begin the eagle offensive at any time from August the 5th due to logistical problems and the weather the offensive was postponed twice but the forecasters finally concluded that August the 13th would see clear conditions for Eagle day the start of operations the day before the aerial Armada was to strike the way would be cleared by the destruction of key British radar [Music] stations the radar installations chosen as targets were the chain home stations at Ry pavy ventner and Dunkirk and the chain home low station at Dover August the 12th began with 11 fighter sweeps by mmid 109s starting at 0700 hours almost 200 Fighters all together their role was to draw The Defenders away from the target area at 0840 hours 16 mmid 11's took off from Cal the Raiders belonged to the elite air probs grouper 210 aircraft evaluation Specialists and experts in Precision fighter bomber attacks the first four aircraft section of 11's left the main formation and attacked the DOA station several buildings were damaged but the bombs failed to destroy the masts or prevent operations the second section peeled off Inland towards the chain home installation at Dunkirk buildings were hit and the station stopped transmitting but the masts survived Ry was the next Target there several Huts were destroyed Communications were damaged and the station stopped functioning again the masts remained standing the last section hit peny little damage was done but by chance a bomb hit the main electricity supply line and transmission was interrupted later in the day a formation of 80 junas 88s escorted by 12110 and 25109 headed for Portsmouth 15 of the bombers broke away and attacked the ventner station almost every building was destroyed and the masts were [Music] damaged for the rest of the day the Luft raffer worked hard to take advantage of the chaos in British defenses manston Airfield was badly damaged as were the fighter stations at Hawkings and limb in the channel stokers attacked convoys sinking two small ships and their 109 escorts shot down four hurricans to the Luft ruffer the day's operations seem to have been a resounding success however in spite of the dash with which the attacks have been carried out and the loss of 27 German aircraft little had been achieved the only targets that really counted were the radar stations and of of the five hit four were out of action for no more than 6 hours only ventner was so badly damaged that it would stay down for several weeks on Eagle day the German formations would find it as difficult as ever to take RAF fighter command by [Music] surprise [Music] August the 13th the first day of the eagle offensive got off to a chaotic start for the Luft raffer in the morning the weather was bad with low cloud and poor visibility borders went out to postpone operations but several units never received them and raides were launched peace meal two of them without fighter [Music] cover it was midaf afternoon before the weather cleared and the eagle offensive could be launched in full strength the fiercest action would take place in the Portland Southampton [Music] area the first massive assault was spearheaded by 3109 and 311's behind them came 120 Juna 88 bombers their first Target was Southampton which suffered heavy damage some of the yunas broke off and attacked Portland the ra ERS were intercepted by elements of four British Fighter squadrons the next wave of German Raiders was of 77 stokers escorted by 109s of the 27th Fighter Wing their target was the sector station at middle Wallop but on Route they were bounced by the returning Spitfires of 609 Squadron and nine stokers were destroyed further to the east there were more stooker attacks covered by 109s of the 26th Fighter Wing the first Target was Rochester in Kent where there was a bomber Factory but the Raiders were intercepted by hurrians of 56 Squadron and forced to turn back the second attack was on a coastal command Airfield at detling there the operations block and all the the hangers were destroyed and 67 people [Music] killed on the first day of the eagle offensive the Luft raffer flew 1,485 sorties and the RAF 727 15 German Fighters and 19 bombers were shot down with another 15 aircraft forced to crash land in France the RAF lost 12 hurricans and one Spitfire with another four Fighters crash landed remarkably only three RAF Pilots were killed and two seriously wounded few considering the violence of the day's encounters on the ground 47 British aircraft had been destroyed but only one was a fighter the day after Eagle day August the 14th German operations were once more ciled by the weather but on the afternoon of the 15th conditions improved German intelligence calculated that fighter command had just 300 operational aircraft left and to stretch the defenses to their absolute limit the Luft Ruff are meant to attack with all three of its air fleets simultaneously flying almost 1,800 [Music] sorties in the South the acttion began with a raid by 60 stokers covered by 4109 escorts their targets were fighter command forward airfields at Hawking and limb both airfields were badly damaged and limb would be out of action for 3 days the next wave was of 25110 which swept in to strafe the Airfield at manston [Music] while the air battles raged in the Southeast the north saw its first major raids assured by LT vafer intelligence that Northern Britain had been stripped of its fighters to reinforce the South the fifth air fleet had targeted airfields and factories in Yorkshire and the Newcastle area as a Prelude to the main assault a decoy force of 17 SE planes were sent to trigger the British defenses and draw RAF Fighters well to the north of the real [Music] targets hurricans of 605 squadron from drem were dispatched to intercept unfortunately for the German bombers 63 hle 111s escorted by 21 measure Schmid 11's a navigational error LED them along the path of the decoys they ran straight into 605 squadrons hurricans and elements of three more British squadrons joined the [Music] chase the Raiders were cut to pieces to the South a second attack by 50 unescorted Yuna 88s from Denmark was also badly mauled by fighters from 41 squadron at C [Music] trick in the day's battles over the North Sea and Northern England fifth air fleet lost 14 bombers shot down three badly damaged and seven twin engine Fighters destroyed the losses were 20% of the fleet's offensive strength a catastrophic blow no more Daylight raids would be mounted from Scandinavia even before the battle in the north was over the second and third air fleets were launching their own gigantic assaults British radar screens on the channel Coast were so swamped with signals from incoming formations that individual units could know longer be told [Music] apart first in at 1500 hours were 25 fighter bombers of airpro 210 with an escort of 109s three hurricans of 17 Squadron and nine of number one Squadron Tangled with the [Music] 109s but the fighter Airfield at martam Heath was hit and badly [Music] damaged next came 88 Doria 17s with a huge fighter escort of 130 109s backed up by another 60 109s of the crack 26th Fighter Wing which flew a sweep over Kent elements of five British squadrons 39 fighters in all were scrambled to intercept but could make almost no impact on such a powerful force the bombers split into two groups hitting Rochester and airfields at East church and Hawking later in the day the fighter bombers of airo 210 went into action once more their intention was to bomb and strafe Kenley a vitally important sector [Music] station however the Raiders instead hit nearby Cen the next raid by 24 Daria 17s was supposed to be on bigin hill but once more a navigational error saved a sector station the Raiders hit West Mali an ordinary fighter Airfield which was not yet fully operational to the West another raid this time of 60 Yuna 88s escorted by 40110 was intercepted in turn by elements of three British squadrons but broke through to hit the sector station at middle Wallop and airfields at odham and worthy down causing some damage next came a stooker attack on Portland 30 dive bombers escorted by 109's and 11's the Raiders were intercepted by 18 British fighters from three [Music] squadrons August the 15th would prove to be the most hardfought day of the Battle of Britain 14 British squadrons saw action some of them scrambled several times and in all the RAF almost a thousand fighter sorties air Chief Marshal s Hugh ding's policy of going for enemy bombers while trying to avoid fighter to- fighter engagements paid off handsomely 71 German aircraft were shot down for the loss of 31 British fighters on two of the following three days the Germans maintained the awesome power of their offensive the radar stations at ventner and polling were badly damaged Airfield after Airfield was attacked including sector stations at Kenley tangir and bigin [Music] Hill another 100 German aircraft were destroyed for 53 [Music] British [Music] in the week since Eagle day the German air fleets in the west had written off 284 aircraft 10% of their strength the slow and unwieldy stokers had suffered particularly horrific losses 30 destroyed or badly damaged in one one day alone even more serious for the Luft ruffer the vaunted mmid 110 Destroyer the only longrange German fighter had shown itself incapable of taking on the Spitfire or the hurricane 7910 had been destroyed in a week it was a particularly hard blow to the air fleets now the bombers would have to depend exclusively on the 109 for protection and with no suitable drop tanks available the endurance of the 109 over Britain was hardly more than 20 [Music] [Music] minutes on August the 19th Herman guring announced radical changes to his battle plan first the stukas were to be withdrawn the third air fleet was to concentrate on night bombing and its 109s were to be transferred to the second airet closer to the main area of operations attacks were to concentrate on enemy airfields in southeast England instead of ranging over the whole Southern Coastal area in one of the greatest errors of the campaign guring also insisted that no more effort was to be expended on radar stations since they were proving too difficult to [Music] destroy fighter tactics were also to change responding to Bitter criticism of the fighter arm from his bomber Pilots guring ordered the 109's to stick close to the bombers the fighter leaders were horrified they would be throwing away the advantage of height and the Priceless ability to attack out of the sun to make matters worse because they would have to zigzag to keep station with the slower bombers they would waste already precious fuel guring also ordered that the ratio of Fighters to Bombers be increased for every bomber there would be three Fighters as a result the number of missions would have to be curtailed there simply weren't enough 109s to escort all the available [Music] bombers from the 19th to the 23rd of August cloudy weather restricted daytime operations by the LOF Ruff to small scale hidden run [Music] attacks meantime night raids were intensified with the bombing of Liverpool Sheffield Derby cantry and Hull the aim was to [ __ ] the Industries on which Britain's fighter strength depended but although there were many civilian casualties aircraft production was hardly affected it was on the 24th that major daylight operations began once more with them commenced a period of Crisis for RAF fighter [Music] command the main targets of the new Luft raffer tactics were the airfields of 11 group particularly the seven sector [Music] stations the first to be hit in this new phase of the battle was North wield which was badly damaged on the 24th horn church was hit the same day on the 26th Debon was bombed on the 30th bigin Hill was struck twice and the next day Debon and Horn Church were hit and bigin Hill bombed once again when the main targets were defended by British Fighters lesser airfields were hit instead including manston East Church Lim and [Music] Rochford on the 31st detling cuden bigin Hill debden and East Church were attacked horn church was hit twice the first week of September saw no letup in the fury of the German assault day after day the same airfields were bombed and strafed until many including several key sector stations were barely able to [Music] function in believing that the RAF could be forced to defend its inner airfields Herman guring was being proved correct the massive German fighter escorts were making it extremely difficult for the Defenders to penetrate to the bomber formations and often single squadrons would face 30 enemy bombers and an escort 100 strong as British casualties grew many squadrons had been reduced to a handful of experienced men while the training of new Flyers had been cut until many had only 9 hours in modern Fighters while many British fighter pilots were privately losing the belief that the RAF would survive the onslaught ironically amongst their German enemies confidence was also steadily draining away the last month had seen losses of aircraft running at 18% and many bombers had returned badly shot up and with wounded crewmen in August alone lraa air crew losses were 229 killed or captured 80 wounded and 264 [Music] [Music] missing while RAF fighter command struggled for its existence in the face of Relentless German pressure a bitter dispute broke up between senior officers about dating's handling of the battle the commander of 12 group Trafford Lee mallerie supported by one of the raf's most celebrated Squadron commanders Douglas B insisted that tactics must be changed huge formation s called big wings made up of three or even more squadrons should be assembled to meet the Germans in force in the opposing Camp 11 groups Commander Keith Park firmly supported Ding and insisted that his policy was the right one the RAF would survive only by committing its forces with the greatest caution the arguments grew so Fierce that cooperation between 12 and 11 groups were seriously disrupted and Lee mallerie took his campaign to have doubting replaced all the way to Winston Churchill the feuding within fighter command was taking place at the period of greatest strain for 11 group and for ding himself after a fortnight of concerted attacks on 11 group's airfields as land lines were severed and operations rooms destroyed fighter control was be becoming ragged and uncoordinated aircraft losses were now overtaking production and the toll of Pilots killed was so great that the system of rotating squadrons from hardpressed to quiet sectors was breaking down fresh Frontline squadrons were taking casualties so quickly that no rested units were available to take their place RAF fighter command was on the brink of total [Music] collapse while fighter command was struggling to survive the LT raffer Onslaught bomber command had been restricted to raids on Germany's Industries however on August the 24th German bombs have been accidentally dropped on a London suburb and the RAF was ordered to retaliate by attacking Berlin British bombers made five minor raids on the German capital in 11 days they did little real damage but Adolf Hitler was incensed on September the 4th he made a furious speech calling the RAF night gangsters and vowing revenge Hitler insisted that the LT vafer reply at once to the British raids on his Capital by bombing London on Saturday September the 7th Herman guring and Albert kessing stood together on the Cliffs at cap green a in Normandy to watch a massive formation assembled for the Lu Raffa's first great daylight attack on [Music] London the first wave of German aircraft was detected by British radar at, 1600 hours in all there were more than 300 bombers and 600 fighters in the belief that the target was again the sector stations 21 British squadrons were scrambled it soon became apparent that the target was London and too late the fighters were redirected to [Music] intercept the main targets of the massed bombers were the London docks and the city's East End warehouses crammed with rubber rum sugar and other highly inflammable materials were quickly a blazing [Music] Inferno as night fell the Flames guided 300 more bombers to the scene civilian casualties were unprecedented in an air raid on Britain 448 people were killed over the following 4 days bad weather gave the British Capital some rest Spide but continued night attack and on the 11th another heavy daylight raid confirmed to RAF commanders that Luft faffer strategy had indeed changed radically with the German bombers concentrating on London the pressure on fighter command's airfields had suddenly eased ourf station commanders took immediate advantage of the L damaged Communications were quickly repaired and crated runways were reopened ground crew could once more maintain their aircraft in peace and Pilots could catch up with desperately needed rest there was a new confidence no matter what damage was done to London and however regretable the direct threat to the survival of fighter command was over it was the turning point of the [Music] battle the next fullscale assault on London was on September the [Music] 15th it began with a massive buildup of German aircraft that could be seen by British radar long before they headed for the Channel with the near certainty that the target was the capital 11 group had plenty of time to form pairs of squadrons for the interception 12 group also so benefiting from the lengthy warning could assemble even larger formations to the Luft vafer Airman who had been told that the ARF was down to its last 150 Fighters the scale of the opposition would come as a brutal [Music] shock the first wave of German bombers was made up of 100 Doria 17s of the 3 and 76th bomber wings with a powerful escort of 109s the formation crossed the British Coast at 11:30 hours first to intercept were the Spitfires of 72 and 92 squadrons from bigin Hill as the Raiders approached London elements of another 19 squadrons joined the fry including a big wing of five squadrons from 12 [Music] group as the German formations were met by one attack after another the 109 escorts were gradually peeled away either embroiled in combat or short of fuel by the time the first wave of bombers reached London they had lost almost all their fighter escort faced with the frenzied attacks of an enemy far more numerous than they had ever imagined possible many bombers jettisoned their loads at random and ran for the [Music] channel 2 hours later the Luft raer launched a second massive raid preceded by a powerful sweep of 109s it fared no better than the first British Fighters refueled and rearmed once again met the Raiders in numbers that staggered the German Amon altogether in the two major raids of the day the Luft Rafer lost 56 aircraft destroyed 12 crash landed and many more severely damaged and with dead or wounded air crew the RAF had lost 20 hurricans and seven Spitfires with seven more Fighters crash landed while the confidence of the Luft rapper had been all but shattered for the British the events of September the 15th marked the turning point there was plainly no possibility that the German air force could decisively defeat the RAF before autumn weather made an invasion Impossible on September the 17th Adolf Hitler ordered that Operation Sea Lion be postponed [Music] indefinitely during the next 6 weeks there were several more Daylight raids on London there were fighter clashes with heavy losses on both sides but by the end of October the air War had shifted to the hours of Darkness the Battle of Britain was over and the RAF had won a victory simply by continuing to [Music] exist [Music] during the Battle of Britain 746 British Fighters were lost and 520 Pilots were killed on the German side 1,733 aircraft of all types were destroyed and of combat aircraft lost forces ran at over 40% of the air fleet's initial strength more than 2,600 German Airmen were [Music] killed in spite of the lraa Staggering losses its failure to subdue Britain was of little concern to Adolf Hitler he was already preoccupied with his long cherished plan to invade the s IET Union and sooner or later he believed night bombing and blockade by ubot would force the British to concede defeat what Hitler would fail to anticipate was that after the Battle of Britain the Luft faffer would embark on its Russian campaign with far fewer aircraft than expected and seriously weakened by the loss of so many experienced air crew the Battle of Britain would have one more far-reaching effect Britain's struggle for survival had captured the imagination of millions of Americans and with the United States enterry into the war in December 1941 a potent Alliance was created within 2 years the island that the LT raffer had failed to subdue in the Battle of Britain would be transformed into a springboard for the liberation of of [Music] [Music] Europe [Music] [Music]
