The Battle of Britain : The Only Numbers You Need To Know!

as the Vermont stop to regain its breath at the end of June 1940 the world was in shock especially the Germans The Unbelievable success of case yellow had taken Everyone by surprise it had achieved in weeks what many of their fathers or younger selves had failed to do in over four years just two and a half decades before Hitler had just become a superstar and the moment for miracles seemed close at hand having knocked Belgium the Netherlands and even France after the fight could Britain really be next those in the know were well aware that Britain's power didn't lie in its recently evacuated Army nor in its independent Air Force no to take Britain or bring her to the peace table Germany would have to neutralize the Royal Navy while the kriegs Marine may not have the strength to achieve this alone coupled with the apparent might of the luftwaffe could it be done over the next few months if they had a hope first they would have to drive the Royal Air Force from the skies given the clearly Superior performance of German forces the would be a piece of strudel or would it what did the luftwaffe really face and how did the battle Britain play out on the scoreboard that summer facing off across the English Channel which is just 21 miles at its narrowest point where two air forces gearing up for a fight the two bodies of men and machines consisted on one side largely of the newly Victorious Germans later to be joined in a very limited Way by their Italian allies on the other side was Britain supported by both her allies and volunteers from across the globe as you can see this was a very multinational Force the Germans would attack Britain with its bomber force made up of three main medium range variants mainly the dornier do 17 heinkel he-111 and junkers ju-88 the famous Stuka ju-87 dive bomber would also see action over England that summer these more vulnerable aircraft would be protected by the messersmith bf-109 single-engine fighter and less numerous twin-engine messersmith bf-110 the latter was a real favorite of the head of the Air Force Hermann Goring in addition to the Germans the Ally Italy would also send a small contingent of Fiat br-20 bombers Fiat g50s and cr-42 biplane Fighters however they didn't join the fight until the closing days of the officially recognized battle defending British Skies was fighter command with its Hawker hurricanes and the less numerous supermarine Spitfires these single engine interceptors would be supported by a few squadrons of Bristol Blenheim Fighters and Defiance as well as the Bristol Beau fighter in the night fighter role a single RAF Squadron number 247 of Gloucester Gladiators was also used to defend Plymouth while a Fleet air armed Squadron 804 flew defensive patrols over scarper flow German aircraft would also be faced by approximately 695 heavy anti-aircraft guns and 253 light guns which was a lot less than the 2232 heavy and 1200 light guns thought required however this force would claim approximately 300 aircraft shot down by the end of the summer I wish I could say they were all German planes in terms of the numbers of the aircraft committed by each side coming up with a definitive figure seems to have stumped successive historians but here is the best estimation of the operational strength of the ref and lufwether in the summer of 1940 making ready for the opening phase of the battle known as Canal camp where 1576 German bombers and 1089 fighters of which 1968 were operational this represented about 80 of the total luffa for force facing them were as many as 768 Spitfires and hurricanes of which 643 were serviceable in addition there were just over 60 blenheims and 20 Defiance available by the middle of the battle this had increased to 715 operational hurricanes and Spitfires with 424 in storage ready to resupply RF squadrons the next day on paper in total the entire RAF including fighter bomber and Coastal command could muster around 2670 aircraft getting ready to fly the aircraft across the channel were over a thousand German bomber Crews and at least 906 German fighter pilots ready for operations on the 10th of July 1940 compared to 1259 RAF Pilots as the battle progressed between the 10th of July and 31st of October 1940 the number of operational pilots on hand which actually grow the RAF while it was significantly depleted in the German camp the same could be said of aircraft the Germans may have begun the battle with 1968 operational aircraft but during the entire year of 1914 they only Built 10 247 aircraft of all types despite having been on an apparent War footing for years the British built 2091 hurricanes and Spitfires between June and November 1940 alone meaning that while in July 1940 they had 643 operational Fighters by November 1940 despite losses they had built their Force up to about 721 operational Fighters plus 103 in storage as the Battle of Britain developed from attacks on shipping to attacks on RAF airfields casualties mounted the British were losing an average of 17 Pilots a week across the three months of fighting that summer the worst period being between the 7th and 13th of August when at least 58 men lost their lives when looking at operational causes in total 412 RF Pilots lost their lives 228 were wounded 67 were injured and 15 were taken prisoner having pushed their luck while pursuing a retreating German aircraft the official tally is 544 Airmen killed by all causes during the battle an RAF pilot had an average 49 chance of being killed if his aircraft was shot down this survival ratio dropped in the second part of August but Rose steadily again as a battle progressed during the last week of September and into October by the 1st of November 1940 the Germans had suffered at least 2 000 men killed in combat only 638 of these bodies were recovered by the British nevertheless 967 men were captured and many of them were sent to North America to live out their days of captivity for them the war was over they represented the cream of the Air Force with the average fighter pilot being shot down having undergone five years of training and being highly experienced the luftwaffe claimed to have shot down around 2 698 British planes while the RAF putting claims for 2741 German aircraft the actual losses are much lower it's generally agreed that the luftwaffe Lost around 1 887 planes of all types during the battle compared to 1023 RAF aircraft during the bombing attacks of Britain 23 000 and two civilians were also killed as were additional RAF Personnel on the ground RAF bomber command also participated throughout the Battle of Britain and flew 10 689 sorties between the 26th of June and 13th of October dropping 6010 tons of bombs during those 109 days and nights they lost 246 aircraft with 800 aircrew being killed 200 captured and a further 103 injured Coastal command lost 148 of its own aircraft during the battle in anti-shipping Convoy protection and reconnaissance sorties to win the battle German fighter Commander Teo osterkamp had set a victory to Lost goal for his fighter pilots of five to one as the battle progressed the bf-109 was indeed much more successful against the British Fighters particularly the more numerous hurricane however the Germans never achieved more than a 1.2 to 1 ratio meanwhile the British managed a ratio of 1.8 to 1 themselves this was enough to keep the Wolves at Bay and Jack Boots from marching on the mouth ultimately the battle Britain was a morale boosting Victory as well as a military one the Germans had suffered their first defeat and had been denied the result they sought while invasion of Britain and her Empire may never have been a true desire of Hitler or even operationally possible its denial by a still fighting Britain would shape the course of the war and European history right up to the present if you found this video useful please do give it a like to help it spread to more people and let me know what you think in the comments below you can check out the description for a full list of all the books I used for away research and if you're interested in the battle Britain why not watch the next video on screen for you right now

Channel: Caliban Rising - Aviation History

Views: 124,401

Keywords: aviation history, military aviation

Id: DbYOs8Q72q8

Length: 8min 59sec (539 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 02 2023