Phillip Reed November 30, 2009

Phillip Reed [email protected] November 30, 2009

Hitler amazed the world in 1940 with his rapid takeover of the European continent, and how quickly he was able to quarter off British and French troops, conquer France, and isolate Great Britain from her allies. With complete Axis control of continental Europe, Hitler turned his attention to the British Isles. With nothing but a 10-mile strip of English Channel between German forces and Britain, Britain appeared on the brink of disaster. Hitler had only to gain air superiority over the channel to secure a successful invasion of the island. German victory looked

At the start of the Battle of Britain, German air power, or the Luftwaffe, had a serious advantage over the British Royal Air Force (RAF) in numbers. They also believed they had the advantage of surprise.

Royal Air Force: Fighters Hawker Hurricanes (405) Supermarine Spitfire (270)

Luftwaffe: Fighters Messerschmitt 109 (800) Messerschmitt 110 (250) Bombers Junkers JU88 (875) Junkers JU87 Jukas(316)

It was the British, however, that had the advantage of surprise. Unknown to Hitler, Britain had developed a new technology, radar, which allowed them to see the approach of aircraft long before conventional methods. German aircraft, expecting the element of surprise, were caught off guard by the quick, immediate, and surgical the the RAF. Radar stations such as this wereresponse deployed of along entire coast of Britain facing Europe. They consisted of a high and low range series of towers used to detect both high and low flying aircraft as they flew over the English Channel. Not knowing their purpose, Hitler and

The Fighter Command Network was key to British response to German bombings. Series of Radars, Balloons, and the Observer Corps would relay information back to Sector Control hubs, which would filter data and send it on to the Fighter Command Headquarters. Here it was coordinated, and the information used to direct small squads of defending fighters to intercept invading German air forces. This allowed a much smaller defensive force the

Likely Hitler’s first mistake in WWII was his admiration for Britain, which caused him to hold back hoping to come to scare the nation into capitulation, giving the British time to organize Air and Naval defenses. But in July, Hitler officially started his plans to invade Britain with Operation Sealion, which first required air supremacy, which fell under the jurisdiction of Operation Eagle.

Phase One: July 10th to August 7th German Aircraft attack merchant fleets off the coast of Britain hoping to cut off supplies, and draw out British Fighters into losing dogfights. When this failed to bring about the desired results, the Luftwaffe moved towards land and began hitting coastal operations, accidentally hitting a few radar installations but never following up Phase Two: August 8th to September 6th on the hits, and moves farther The Luftwaffe begin attacking air fields and factories in inland before serious damage on Britain. They meet heavy unexpected resistance at radar towers occur. every turn due to the unknown British radar. Undeterred, Germany realizes that sector control bases are core elements to the RAF defenses. Heavy bombing begins on these facilities even though Germany continues to lose more than twice as many aircraft as Britain. The bombing begins to take its toll on British defenses, with 6 out of 7 central sector bases hit the

On August 24th 10 German bombers, lost in the night, mistakenly bomb London. In reprisal, the following night the RAF launches an assault of 80 bombers on Berlin, the first attack ever on the German capital. Britain continues to bomb Berlin for a couple days, enraging Hitler. In response, he calls off all tactical attacks on factories and the beleaguered sector control stations and focuses on attacking British population centers. This tactic, proposed during WWI by Italian Guilo Doukert, called “Strategic Bombing” intended to Starting by September demoralize a nation into surrendering attacking7th , large squads of bombers and fighter escorts were sent to their citizens and cities. major British cities. Eventually these became night raids primarily focused on London, and came to be known as the London Blitz. Heavy bombing of these centers continued through the rest of the month. But, a staunch and determined British Empire, with inspiration from its

By October of 1940, what is generally considered Phase Four of the Battle of Britain begins. Air attacks continue on London and other cities, but German casualties and expenditures are quickly rising as Britain learns how best to defend against the Luftwaffe’s night bombings. Radar systems begin to be installed in newer models of interceptors, significantly increasing the lethality of the RAF against German bombers. Hitler puts an indefinite hold on his Operation Sealion, and eventually just abandons it. Thinking Britain is more trouble then she’s worth to conquer now, Hitler focuses on the Soviet Union, an enemy who is actually reachable, and who he sees as a possible staging ground for British Troops to assault Europe from. Britain is spared conquest.

After the defeat of France and Europe in 1940, Germany’s conquest of Britain seemed all but assured. While none can dispute the advantage that radar gave the Royal Air Force, nor the spirit and determination of the British people, these advantages alone could not have saved Britain at the times she was on the verge of being overrun. Countless times the German Luftwaffe had British defenses at the edge of collapse, only to move on. This happened as German bombers began incidentally hitting British radar towers off the coast, but before that could become a problem they move further inland. Of most extreme importance was the reprieve British defenses and the Fighter Command received, when on the very brink of completely falling apart due to massive attacks on their information network’s infrastructure, German bombers changed their targets to populated cities. While this horrible atrocity towards civilians is nothing to be grateful for, if it had not occurred it was inevitable that the British Defenses would have fallen, Operation Sealion would have gone underway, Great Britain conquered, and possibly the Axis may have defeated the Allies in WWII. Thankfully Britain, through luck chance or fate, was granted