World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseOn 18 Jun, seeing the turn of events in Europe, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said to the House of Commons that "the Battle of France is over, I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin." He was right. Germany was planning on blockading Britain so that no food and supplies could get through, while pounding the British people into submission by aerial attacks. If necessary, Operation Seelöwe (Sea Lion) was to be launched to bring German troops onto British soil. Two days prior to Churchill's speech to the House of Commons, Adolf Hitler had already issued Directive No. 16, in which he noted:

ww2dbaseOn 19 Jul, Hitler made one last attempt for a negotiated peace, stating at the Reichstag that "... it is my duty before my own conscience to appeal once more to reason and common sense. I can see no reason why this war must go on.... I should like to avert [the war], also, for my own people." After hearing an unfavorable response from the British, Hitler decided to continue on with his war plans. However, at the face of a powerful air force and navy protecting Britain, Hitler had his doubts; Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel observed:

ww2dbaseKanalkampf

ww2dbaseIn order to transport a large amphibious force across the English Channel, Germany would need air superiority, which translated to the need to remove the Royal Air Force, RAF. The first phase of the German plan was the Kanalkampf, or the Channel battles. Oberst (Colonel) Johannes Fink was placed in charge of this first phase of the attack, with 60 dive bombers and 75 twin-engine bombers under his command, while he also had support from at least 200 fighters from nearby bases. He issued his orders from a mobile command center converted from an old bus, parking it at Cap Blanc Nez right on the English Channel. He also established mobile radar stations code named Freya. The first major attack took place on 4 Jul 1940 when 33 Stuka dive bombers attacked convoys that were getting ready to depart Portland in Dorset County on the southern coast of England as well as naval facilities on land. The attack was not unexpected as the presence of German reconnaissance aircraft on the day before had warned the British of the impending attack; nevertheless, none of the British fighters were launched in time to meet the German attackers and the entire defense was placed on the shoulder of the anti-aircraft weapons located on ships and on land near the area. On 7 Jul, six British fighters were shot down, with four of the pilots killed, as they engaged German aircraft over the British coast. On 8 Jul, in the evening, three British pilots were killed, leading to No. 79 Squadron RAF being transferred north for regrouping and resting. German pilot Leutnant (Lieutenant) Albert Striberny, who was also shot down on 8 Jul, recalled his experience in combat on this day:

ww2dbaseStriberny would land safely and was held as a prisoner of war in Britain until 1945. He was not the only German pilot lost, of course, as the Luftwaffe suffered as greatly as the RAF. Jagdgeschwader 51 (Fighter Group 51), for example, lost 10 pilots in Jul 1940 alone, half of them without scoring any victories.

ww2dbaseOn 10 Jul, a day with bad weather, a large number of German aircraft was launched to attack one of the eight convoys (code named "Bread") sailing in the English Channel. In turn, six Hurricane fighters of the No. 32 Squadron RAF based at Biggin Hill were launched to defend the convoy. At 1400 hours, British radar operators concluded that the incoming group of German aircraft was larger than expected; a short while later, the No. 32 Squadron pilots reported at least 60 enemy aircraft on the horizon. Immediately, aircraft of No. 56, No. 111, and No. 74 Squadrons were dispatched to reinforce. When the additional fighters arrived, Hurricane fighters of No. 111 Squadron headed straight into the bomber formation, ignoring the escorting fighters; the first attack saw one British aircraft down (Flying Officer Tom Higgs, crashing after clipping a German bomber) and four damaged, but the German bomber formation was broken up with three bombers shot down. Total losses at the end of the battle were 7 British aircraft lost and 13 German aircraft lost, which was a surprising success for the RAF. Although the Germans had already launched their Kanalkampf operation nearly a week prior, the British deemed 10 Jul, this aerial battle in particular, as the official start of the Battle of Britain as a morale booster. Of the "Bread" convoy, only one ship was lost.

ww2dbaseOn 14 Jul, German aircraft attacked convoys in the English Channel. From the coast, BBC reporter Charles Gardner gave the British listeners their first near-live eyewitness account of the Battle of Britain as he announced the play-by-play.

ww2dbaseGardner had made several mistakes in his broadcast. For example, nearly every downed fighter was identified as German, and if the fights were really 25,000 feet in altitude, he would not be able to see much. Nevertheless, he captured the intensity of combat for the listeners like they had never heard from a radio broadcast before, especially not on location and only after a short period of time. Audience response was mixed. Some thought the report was inspiring, while others thought the BBC was turning combat, and the resulting injuries and deaths, into something of an entertainment. While the BBC made this revolutionary broadcast on 14 Jul 1940, the Germans could claim that they had been a step ahead. The German propaganda machine had long since attached reporters to front line units. From the early days of the Battle of Britain, reporters had been flying over Britain in German bombers, making recordings as bombs drop out of the bomb bay doors.

ww2dbaseOn 19 Jul, a number of Defiant turret fighters were launched to protect a convoy, piloted by the inexperienced members of the No. 141 Squadron. Within eight minutes of the arrival of German aircraft, six Defiant turret fighters were shot down, with entire crews killed. The remaining Defiant aircraft were saved only by the arrival of Hurricane fighters of the No. 111 Squadron.

ww2dbaseBy 29 Jul, losses in the English Channel, both with ships and planes, were so great that the Admiralty declared that daylight movements of merchant ships were to be limited. All convoy routes were rerouted.

ww2dbaseAdlerangriff

ww2dbaseOn 21 Jul, Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring gathered his top officers for an expansion of the attacks on Britain. On 1 Aug, Hitler issued Directive No. 17, which called for a temporary halt on the attacks on shipping, shifting the goal toward the destruction of the RAF. During the lull between the ending Kanalkampft and the upcoming Adlerangriff (Eagle Attack) operations, the British pushed through several convoys through the English Channel; although aerial attacks were fewer, losses to the small E-boat surface vessels were still significant. The responsibility of the new air offensive fell on the shoulders of Albert Kesselring's Luftflotte 2 and Hugo Sperrle's Luftflotte 3; the former was to attack southeast England (including London), while the latter West Country, Midlands, and northwest England. Further away, Colonel General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff in Norway, in command of Luftflotte 5, was to play a small part by attacking northern England and Scotland, largely as diversionary attacks.

ww2dbaseOn 12 Aug, 20 German Bf 109 and Bf 110 aircraft specially converted as fighter-bombers flew fast at the English coast, raiding British radar stations. A short time later, almost 100 Ju 88 bombers escorted by 145 Bf 110 fighters attacked Portsmouth and the Ventnor radar station on the Isle of Wight. RAF Manston at Isle of Thanet off Kent, southeastern England was also attacked by Do 17 bombers.

ww2dbase13 Aug was the official launch date of Adlerangriff. In the morning, the skies were grey and the atmosphere misty, so Göring attempted to postpone the operation. Unfortunately for the Luftwaffe, not all squadrons received the message. One of the attack groups carried on with only bombers as the bomber crews missed the radio message while the escorting fighters received it and turned back for home. Due to the bad visibility due to mist, the bomber crews had no idea they had no escorts until they were intercepted by fighters of the No. 74 Squadron RAF, who shot down 5 German bombers and seriously damaged a further 5. A raid by a group by Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers also suffered heavy casualties due to the breakdown in communications.

ww2dbaseIn the afternoon, as weather cleared, Göring gave the word to launch the major attacks. Detling airfield suffered heavy damages and 67 killed, but ultimately this attack did not achieve Luftwaffe's primary goals as this was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) field and not a Fighter Command field. Nevertheless, many RAF airfields were attacked, as was Portland and Southampton, attacked as targets of opportunity. During the afternoon, 86 FAA aircraft and 1 RAF aircraft were destroyed on the ground and 13 aircraft were shot down in the air (with 3 deaths); the Luftwaffe suffered 87 killed or captured.

ww2dbaseDuring the night of 13 Aug 1940, German bombers attacked British cities of industrial importance. Aircraft factories in Belfast and Castle Bromwich were damaged during the night. German bombers encountered little resistance in terms of fighter defense as the RAF nightfighters did not yet possess radar equipment at this stage of the war.

ww2dbaseSome of the German fighter pilots blamed Göring for the failure of Adlerangriff. Adolf Galland, for example, noted that "[t]he problem was that at no point in time were the fighter leaders called in to assist in the planning.... We lost only around ninety aircraft and aircrews [but we lost] the initiative and focus necessary for future success.

ww2dbaseBlack Thursday

ww2dbaseIn the early morning of 15 Aug 1940, the Germans launched low level raids in the south to get British fighters' attention; while these southern attacks on the airfields at Manston, Hawkinge, and Lympne were diversionary in nature, the number of aircraft was still significant. Shortly after, the main German attack appeared over Yorkshire. When the German bomber crews arrived, they could immediately tell that the diversionary attacks to the south did not work, as they were encountering heavy fighter defense. After heavy fighting, 14 German aircraft were shot down, which was a significant part of the attack. On the British side, 10 Bomber Command aircraft were destroyed on the ground, while there were no losses in the air. While the attacks on Yorkshire suffered heavy casualties, the southern attacks had mix results. One of the attacks heavily damaged a bomber factory. However, an attack of 50 Ju 87 Stuka aircraft, about 60 Bf 109 aircraft, and 40 Bf 110 aircraft against the Portland area encountered heavy fighter resistance over the Warmwell airfield; 3 Stuka and 13 Bf 110 aircraft were shot down. Another attack group consisted of the experimental unit Erprobungsgruppe 210 successfully dive bombed Martlesham Heath, destroying fighters on the ground; on the way home, they luckily ran into some British fighters in low altitude and were able to bounce them, downing at least one.

ww2dbaseIn the early evening of 15 Aug, German aircraft attacked Kenley airfield, but heavy fighter defense led to bombers dropping bombs as quickly as they could, resulting in the bombing of the smaller satellite field of Croydon by mistake.

ww2dbaseThroughout this entire day, Göring and many of his top air force commanders were at a conference at his Berlin suburb estate of Karinhall. He had informed his aides that the conference was not to be interrupted for any reason. When he completed the conference at the end of the day, he was unpleasantly surprised to learn that on this day, he had lost a total of 75 aircraft, which made up about 20% of aircraft dispatched. The air crews who had survived the day saw so much destruction among their own forces that some of them named the day "Black Thursday".

ww2dbaseDespite the heavy casualties sustained on 15 Aug, a failure on the part of German intelligence caused the Luftwaffe leadership to believe that the losses incurred by the Germans were either less than what the British had suffered, or that the British losses suffered were less easily replaced when compared to the Germans. On 16 Aug, the 5th Directive (intelligence section) of the Luftwaffe High Command reported the RAF Fighter Command only had about 300 fighters left. In actuality, it had about 400 Hurricane fighters and 200 Spitfire fighters available at the time, which was twice of Luftwaffe's estimate.

ww2dbaseThe Hardest Day

ww2dbaseOn 18 Aug, the Germans launched attacks in two general areas. Aircraft of Luftflotte 2 was to attack Kenley, Biggin Hill, Hornchurch, and North Weald airfields; while they were all sector stations, this fact was coincidental as the Germans only selected them due to their high activities. To the south, Luftflotte 3 was to attack the Portsmouth region, including the Poling radar station; while this southern attack was not small by any means, it was considered a diversionary attack, and the primary objective of the day was to damage the RAF Fighter Command airfields assigned to Luftflotte 2.

ww2dbaseAs the attacks took place, the British quickly figured out that Kenley and Biggin Hill were among the main targets and pulled in fighters from nearby airfields accordingly for defense. The attack on Kenley was mostly broke off, but the German bombers were able to reach Biggin Hill and release their bombs with minimal opposition; fortunately for the British, most of the bombs fell short of the airfield.

ww2dbaseAround noon time, 109 Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers of Luftflotte 3, escorted by 150 Bf 109 fighters, reached the Poling radar station and the Ford naval station. Ford suffered heavy damage, while Poling lost one of the radar towers. The Germans paid a high price for the success, however, as 17 Stuka and 8 Bf 109 aircraft were shot down while the RAF had only lost 5 aircraft and 2 pilots.

ww2dbaseIn the evening, German bombers attacked North Weald, though most of the bombs were released too early and missed their targets.

ww2dbaseAt the end of this day, the Luftwaffe lost a total of 69 aircraft while the RAF Fighter Command 29. The British later named the day the "Hardest Day" to reflect the high casualties suffered by either side.

ww2dbaseLate Aug 1940

ww2dbaseDuring a conference on 19 Aug, after the heavy losses suffered on Black Thursday and the Hardest Day, Göring decided to withhold his valuable Stuka dive bombers from further attacks to preserve strength. The meeting focused on discussions of how to best use fighters to protect German bombers, and how to draw British fighters out to combat to wear down the strength of RAF Fighter Command. In terms of bomber targets, Göring instructed to focus on RAF Fighter Command airfields, while factories and RAF Bomber Command airfields were to be ignored for the time being. Finally, as for organizational changes, Göring transferred most of the fighters of Luftflotte 3 to Kesselring's Luftflotte 2 to consolidate command, and Luftflotte 3 and Luftflotte 5 were to become night bombers exclusively.

ww2dbaseOn the British side, the RAF took the opportunity with this lull of battle of replenish its losses. On 18 Aug, the No. 302 (Polish) and No. 310 (Czechoslovakian) squadrons were activated, followed by the arrival of a Royal Canadian Air Force squadron on 19 Aug. At around the same time, permission was given to No. 303 (Polish) Squadron, a training squadron, to engage in combat when opportunities presented themselves (No. 303 Squadron would be deemed operational on 30 Aug).

ww2dbaseOn 19 Aug, like his German counterpart, Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding also performed organizational changes. Within the No. 11 Group, he moved No. 111 Squadron and No. 601 Squadron to Debdan north of London. No. 64 Squadron was to move from No. 11 Group's RAF Kenley to No. 12 Group's RAF Leconfield. Going the other direction was No. 616 Squadron, which moved from No. 12 Group to No. 11 Group's RAF Kenley. Finally, the remainder of the casualty-ridden No. 266 Squadron was to remove to RAF Wittering in Lincolnshire. On the same day, No. 11 Group RAF commander Keith Park instructed his pilots to intercept Germans over Britain instead of over the English Channel in order to avoid losses at sea; an underlying reason for this tactical change was that he noticed German target selection seemed to be shifting away from shipping to targets on land. On the following day, 20 Aug, Park further instructed that German fighters were to be attacked only to expose German bombers; this order was to preserve strength of RAF Fighter Command.

ww2dbaseOn 20 Aug, Prime Minister Winston Churchill spoke before the House of Commons: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few", referring to the RAF Fighter Command personnel's efforts to defend Britain from persistent German attacks. Richard Grice, the station commander at Biggin Hill which had saw so much attention from German bombers took a different approach to fix up his station during this time; instead of repairing the damaged hangars, he left the main hangars in shambles, hoping that German reconnaissance flights might report that Biggin Hill had been abandoned due to damage beyond repair.

ww2dbaseOn 22 Aug, further organizational changes were made on the German side. Hauptmann Günther Lützow took over Jagdgeschwader 3, Major Hans Trübenbach took over Jagdgeschwader 2, and Hauptmann Johannes Trautloft took over Jagdgeschwader 54. These changes were called for by Göring, who wanted to put young and aggressive officers at the helm of fighter groups.

ww2dbaseThe lull did not last long, and German attacks resumed in late Aug with equal ferocity. On 30 Aug, Biggin Hill, to Grice's disappointment, was once again the target. The first wave of 90 Ju 88 bombers arrived just before noon, followed by an almost continuous stream of bomber waves, finishing up at 1800 hours with the final wave of 18 Ju 88 bombers. In total, 39 ground staff at Biggin Hill was killed and 26 were injured; many structures were damaged, including the operations room, briefly bringing down defense coordination at this site, but everything was back in operation by the morning. On the same day, in the mid-morning, Debden and North Weald were also attacked, causing minor damage. In the afternoon again on the same day, Duxford, Eastchurch, Croydon, and Hornchurch were attacked. 30 Aug was marked as RAF Fighter Command's day of greatest casualties with 40 aircraft destroyed, 9 people killed, and 18 people seriously injured.

ww2dbaseDespite the apparent success on 30 Aug, some of the German leaders knew the battle would not be sustainable. In late Aug, Theo Osterkamp reported to his superiors in concerns about the loss of experienced pilots. Instead of triggering an evaluation that perhaps would lead to a larger pilot training program, he was demoted by Air Inspector Erhard Milch.

ww2dbaseLate in the battle an Italian expeditionary force, the Corpo Aereo Italiano, briefly joined the fighting.

ww2dbaseEarly Sep 1940

ww2dbaseOn 1 Sep, Biggin Hill was the target once again for German bombers, along with Eastchurch, Debden, and Kenley, which were all RAF bases; the Fleet Air Arm base of Detling was also attacked on this day. On 2 Sep, Eastchurch, North Weald, and Biggin Hill were attacked; Biggin Hill once again suffered heavy damage (but operations continued almost seamlessly) while Eastchurch was down to only one slightly damaged runway with which to launch and recover fighters.

ww2dbaseOn 3 Sep, Göring met with his senior officers at the Hague in the Netherlands after Hitler expressed disappointment with Luftwaffe's inability to either bomb Britain into submission or achieve air superiority for a potential ground invasion. Kesselring suggested Göring to change the target to London, using the threat of civilian deaths to force more British fighters to come out and engage German aircraft, thus the British fighters would fight on German terms; additionally, Kesselring also thought that the bombing of airfields had proven to be useless because the British had so many of them. Sperrle disagreed with Kesselring's assessment, but Göring, faced with criticism that his defenses could not protect from British bombings on Berlin, agreed with Kesselring wholeheartedly, and Sperrle's objections were largely ignored. The notion of bombing London, especially after Berlin had already been bombed several times by the British Bomber Command, also won the support of Hitler.

ww2dbaseOn 4 Sep, Hitler addressed a crowd of factory workers, nurses, and relief workers, declaring that Germany would now answer British night raids on German cities with greater ferocity.

ww2dbaseAfter the war, Kesselring revealed that his greatest concern during the first week of Sep 1940 was that the Royal Air Force would withdraw their main bases north of London where British fighters would still be able to protect southern Britain while it would be too far for German fighters to reach.

ww2dbaseAlso around this time, the British-to-German loss ratio has shifted in favor of the Germans. During the first weeks of the Battle of Britain, 2.4 German aircraft were lost for each British aircraft lost; by the first week of Sep 1940, the Germans were only losing 1.4 aircraft for each British aircraft lost. The decision to remove most Stuka dive bombers from raids on Britain attributed to this statistical improvement.

ww2dbaseOperation Loge and the Bombings of London

ww2dbaseOn 7 Sep, German bombers launched Operation Loge, named after the Norse god of fire. Commenced at about 1600 hours, a total of 350 bombers from 5 different Kampfgeschwader, escorted by 617 Bf 109 and Bf 110 fighters, would be launched for London. Sandy Johnson, commanding officer of the No. 602 Squadron RAF, would later recall:

ww2dbaseDespite Hitler's speech on 4 Sep, RAF Fighter Command still responded by flying toward the airfields, and by the time they were ordered to change course for London, it was too late, and 448 Londoners would be killed by falling bombs. Nevertheless, many of the fighters were able to engage German bombers, resulting in 38 bombers being shot down at the cost of 28 British fighters. After sundown, German bombers returned and dropped further explosives on the British capital. This night attack would mark the first of 57 consecutive night of bombings on London.

ww2dbaseOn 9 Sep, two aerial pincers were launched at London, with one coming over Dover and the other over Beachy Head. British fighters intercepted the Dover pincer, forcing the bombers to drop their bombs early over Canterbury. The Beachy Head pincer met a similar fate, with their bombs dropped early in the countrysides before turning back for the French coast. 24 German aircraft and 17 British fighters were shot down; 6 British airmen were killed.

ww2dbaseAt 1100 hours on 15 Sep, British radar operators detected German bombers coming in from the French coast, and a small number of fighters were launched as usual to intercept. What took a little bit for the British commanders to realize was that this was to be yet another large scale attack in which a total of almost 500 bombers, almost 500 Bf 109 fighters, just over 100 Bf 110 fighters, and 21 Bf 109 fighter-bombers would be launched against targets in Britain, with the focus on London. The Bf 109 fighter-bombers arrived first, taking out a rail station and damaging Dulwich and Norwood without heavy opposition. When the main bomber formations crossed the British coast, Park knew a major response might result in losses that he would rather not take on. Taking a gamble, he continued to defend with small forces as he had typically done in the past, keeping the Germans in check at the risk of German bombers reaching London and releasing their bombs. Fortunately for him, weather was on his side, and many German bombardiers were having trouble locating their targets (some German bombers reportedly turned for France without releasing their bomb loads). By 1400 hours, Park concluded that the German fighters must be about to run low on fuel, and finally launched his major response. Within the next hour or so, German fighters indeed began to see the low fuel lights come on, and many of them began to turn for home, leaving the bombers with a weaker escort on their ways back to France. As British fighters swooped in, the bombers frantically fired their defensive guns, but without their new escorts, which were still en route from France after the departure of many of their initial escorts, they were extremely vulnerable and suffered losses. Göring accurately sensing that the British must be running low on reserve fighters, ordered his bombers to refuel and rearm upon landing and launch additional attacks. British intelligence intercepted this order, which made Churchill, who happened to be observing the battle from Uxbridge on this date, nervous; he asked what reserved the RAF had in store, and he was given the answer that it would take hours for fighters to be brought in from other regions, and the fighters currently in the air might be caught on the ground should the Germans launch attacks on the airfields. Luckily, perhaps due to worsening weather, the Luftwaffe was never able to launch the additional attacks that Göring demanded. On this day, the Germans lost 56 aircraft, with 136 air crew killed or captured; the British lost 29 aircraft with 12 pilots killed.

ww2dbaseOn 17 Sep 1940, as German bombers dropped more than 350 tons of bombs on London on this day, Hitler postponed Operation Seelöwe indefinitely, but Göring was allowed to continue the aerial attacks on Britain.

ww2dbaseA number of small raids were launched in the morning of 27 Sep as diversionary attacks on a main raid at London. As it would turn out, all attacks resulted in disastrous results for the German Luftwaffe. None of the targets on the ground were hit.

ww2dbaseThe small but continuous defense advocated by Dowding and Park had always been challenged by Trafford Leigh-Mallory and Sholto Douglas, who wanted to deploy "Big Wing" defenses where entire formation of fighters would swoop in against German bombers and cause great casualties against the enemy. Dowding and Park argued that small defenses were simple to deploy, where one or two squadrons could be called to launch to intercept bombers without having to wait for other squadrons. Meanwhile, operating one or two squadrons at a time meant that in a case of total defeat, only a limited number of aircraft and men would be lost. Finally, continuously dispatching one or two squadrons at a time, rather than sending nearly all available squadrons at once, meant that German bombers would be continuously hassled by fighters, keeping the enemy air crews tense through the entire flight. Although this strategic had proven to be working well, in Oct 1940, when the Battle of Britain was largely over when viewed in hindsight, Dowding was replaced by Douglas, and the British defense strategy quickly changed.

ww2dbaseThe Blitz Continued

ww2dbaseAccording to a British Air Ministry pamphlet published in 1941, 31 Oct 1940 was the official end of the Battle of Britain. However, German bombers would continue to rain fire on London. Through Apr 1941, the Germans were at times dropping over 1,000 tons of explosives on London on a single night. The nine months of the Blitz killed 40,000 to 60,000 people, destroyed 250,000 homes, and damaged 2,000,000 others; in total, 46,000 tons of high explosive bombs and 110,000 tons of incendiary bombs were dropped by German bombers (in comparison the Allied bombings of German cities, which began even prior to the Blitz, killed 600,000 German civilians). Although the British losses from the Battle of Britain and the Blitz were great, the shift in German strategy that took place in early Sep 1940 gave the RAF a chance to proactively attack German bombers instead of reactively defend against German assaults. With what Keitel said as the "vastly superior" British Royal Navy guarding the rough English Channel, and the fact that Germany could hardly find enough transports and even river barges to mount such an invasion, Operation Seelöwe was officially abandoned on 12 Oct 1940.

ww2dbaseEpilogue

ww2dbaseRAF's successes at the Battle of Britain also brought the importance of radar to light. Dowding, commander of the RAF Fighter Command, was generally credited with setting up an early warning system that led to the RAF's final success. With his direction, experts under him architected a system where coastal radar stations lined the coast, augmented by the Observer Corps which visually tracked from ground posts any German aircraft that crossed the English Channel. Centralized intelligence stations received all reports from all forward observation stations, whether radar or eyesight, and processed the data for RAF Fighter Command headquarters, which disseminated the information down to the tactical commanders. This system proved to be extremely efficient and allowed the British to respond to attacks quickly. Although the British government dramatized the Battle of Britain as a victory that was won against all odds, many historians argued that Germany actually had little chance of winning it. Stephen Bungay, for example, said

ww2dbaseWhile the fighters and fighter pilots of the RAF Fighter Command were much celebrated as the victors of the Battle of Britain, the Bomber Command and the Coastal Command contributed their share as well. While this statement made by a Bomber Command personnel was rather exaggerated, it reflected that not all the credit went to the Fighter Command; it was the Bomber Command missions that prevented the Germans from building up a transport fleet to bring troops to Britain.

ww2dbaseBetween Jul and Oct 1940, the Bomber Command flew 9,180 sorties; in Sep 1940, 60% of the missions were directed at Channel Ports, with certain nights where all attacks were directed at Channel Ports. The Coastal Command, which was in charge of protecting convoys, flew more than 80,000 sorties during the same period.

ww2dbaseThe final tally of losses during the Battle of Britain was 1,547 British aircraft lost (1,023 Fighter Command, 376 Bomber Command, and 148 Coastal Command) against 1,887 German aircraft. While the United Kingdom was able to slowly replenish the aircraft lost through its industries, and later through the Lend-Lease agreement with the United States, German losses would prove to cause greater consequences down the road. In terms of human lives, the RAF Fighter Command lost 544 airmen, while the British military overall lost about 2,300; the German Luftwaffe lost 2,698. 15 Sep was declared Battle of Britain Day in celebration of the victory, although it would be infrequently celebrated in the years to come.

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1.  Bill says:
16 Feb 2009 04:44:57 PM

This was the first time the luftwaffe met a real modern airforce. the R.A.F. pilots were fighting over England, if shot down, they would be back in the air the next day, the luftwaffe pilots faced different conditions the bf 109 had 20 minutes of air to air combat, then they had to head back to bases in france. if shot down they were out of the war, and taken prisoner. the spit and bf 109 were about even in combat, the one thing the german plane had over the spit, was it had a fuel injected system. also the bf 109 had two machineguns and two 20mm cannons carry a bigger punch, the spit had to get in close, with its eight 303 cal. machineguns.

2.  Bill says:
16 Feb 2009 04:51:10 PM

A luftwaffe pilot upon seeing english planes would call out "achtung spitfire" knowing he was in for a real fight.

3.  Bill says:
4 May 2010 04:21:54 PM

During the early part of WWII the Germans
would build dummy aircrft. These were Made of wood and canvas or other material as
decoys, to fool the British into bombing the
wrong airfield.
The British replied, with dropping wooden bombs!..

4.  Bill says:
4 May 2010 04:53:12 PM

Continued from #3

"Riddle of the Wooden Bombs"

Could this story be true? both sides used
ruses, or was it a wartime morale builder, more than Historical event.
Could it have been an anecdote told over and
over again. Maybe it was used by both the
Germans and British. How the tell started is
in the realm of legend rather than reality.
You decide...

To learn more read:
"The Riddle of the Wooden Bombs"
By Pierre-Antoine Courouble

Did it happen! its an obscure subject and a
book was published about it.
File it under the lessor known byways of WWII
History..

5.  Bill says:
5 May 2010 10:53:34 AM

"Ghosts of the Air"

Bizarre accounts of the supernatural from
the pilots who lived to tell the tail.
Mysterious flights of WWII aircraft,pilots
and crews on eternal patrol,trying to find
their way back from where?

To learn more read:

Ghosts of the Air
By Martin Caidin
Barnes & Noble Inc.
2007

12.  C. Peter Chen says:
30 Oct 2016 06:04:37 PM

To Anonymous of 29 Oct 2016: The first German aircraft to be shot down anywhere in Britain was on 29 Oct 1939, near Haddington, Scotland. The first to be shot down on English soil did indeed take placce on 3 Feb 1940; the crash was in North Yorkshire.