phillip reed [email protected] november 30, 2009

8/14/2019 Phillip Reed [email protected] November 30, 2009

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Phillip Reed

[email protected] 30, 2009
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Hitler amazed the world in 1940 with his rapid takeover of theEuropean continent, and how quickly he was able to quarter offBritish and French troops, conquer France, and isolate GreatBritain from her allies. With complete Axis control of continentalEurope, Hitler turned his attention to the British Isles.

With nothing but a10-mile strip ofEnglish Channelbetween Germanforces and Britain,Britain appeared on

the brink of disaster.Hitler had only to gainair superiority overthe channel to securea successful invasion

of the island. Germanvictory looked


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FightersHawker Hurricanes(405)Supermarine Spitfire(270)

FightersMesserschmitt 109(800)Messerschmitt 110(250)

BombersJunkers JU88 (875)Junkers JU87

Jukas(316)

Royal Air Force: Luftwaffe:

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


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It was the British,however, that had theadvantage of surprise.

Unknown to Hitler, Britainhad developed a new

technology, radar, whichallowed them to see the

approach of aircraft longbefore conventional

methods. German aircraft,expecting the element ofsurprise, were caught off

guard by the quick,immediate, and surgical

response of the RAF.Radar stations such as this were deployed along theentire coast of Britain facing Europe. They consisted ofa high and low range series of towers used to detect

both high and low flying aircraft as they flew over theEnglish Channel. Not knowing their purpose, Hitler and


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The Fighter Command Network was key to British response toGerman bombings. Series of Radars, Balloons, and the ObserverCorps would relay information back to Sector Control hubs, whichwould filter data and send it on to the Fighter CommandHeadquarters. Here it was coordinated, and the information used todirect small squads of defending fighters to intercept invadingGerman air forces. This allowed a much smaller defensive force the


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Likely Hitlers first mistake in WWII

was his admiration for Britain,which caused him to hold backhoping to come to scare thenation into capitulation, giving theBritish time to organize Air andNaval defenses. But in July, Hitler

officially started his plans toinvade Britain with OperationSealion, which first required airsupremacy, which fell under thejurisdiction of Operation Eagle.


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Phase One: July 10th to August 7th

German Aircraft attack merchantfleets off the coast of Britainhoping to cut off supplies, anddraw out British Fighters into losingdogfights. When this failed tobring about the desired results, the

Luftwaffe moved towards land andbegan hitting coastal operations,accidentally hitting a few radarinstallations but never following upon the hits, and moves fartherinland before serious damage on

radar towers occur.

Phase Two: August 8th to September 6th

The Luftwaffe begin attacking air fields and factories in

Britain. They meet heavy unexpected resistance atevery turn due to the unknown British radar.Undeterred, Germany realizes that sector control basesare core elements to the RAF defenses. Heavy bombingbegins on these facilities even though Germanycontinues to lose more than twice as many aircraft as

Britain. The bombing begins to take its toll on Britishdefenses, with 6 out of 7 central sector bases hit the


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On August 24th 10 German bombers, lost in thenight, mistakenly bomb London. In reprisal, thefollowing night the RAF launches an assault of 80bombers on Berlin, the first attack ever on theGerman capital. Britain continues to bomb Berlinfor a couple days, enraging Hitler. In response, hecalls off all tactical attacks on factories and thebeleaguered sector control stations and focuseson attacking British population centers. Thistactic, proposed during WWI by Italian GuiloDoukert, called Strategic Bombing intended todemoralize a nation into surrendering by attacking

their citizens and cities.

Starting September 7th, large squads of

bombers and fighter escorts were sent tomajor British cities. Eventually thesebecame night raids primarily focused onLondon, and came to be known as theLondon Blitz. Heavy bombing of thesecenters continued through the rest of the

month. But, a staunch and determinedBritish Empire, with inspiration from its


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By October of 1940, what is generally considered Phase Four ofthe Battle of Britain begins. Air attacks continue on London and

other cities, but German casualties and expenditures arequickly rising as Britain learns how best to defend against the

Luftwaffes night bombings. Radar systems begin to beinstalled 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 troublethen shes worth to conquer now, Hitler focuses on the Soviet

Union, an enemy who is actually reachable, and who he sees asa possible staging ground for British Troops to assault Europe

from. Britain is spared conquest.


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After the defeat of France and Europe in 1940, Germanys conquestof Britain seemed all but assured. While none can dispute theadvantage that radar gave the Royal Air Force, nor the spirit anddetermination of the British people, these advantages alone couldnot have saved Britain at the times she was on the verge of being

overrun. Countless times the German Luftwaffe had Britishdefenses at the edge of collapse, only to move on. This happenedas German bombers began incidentally hitting British radar towersoff the coast, but before that could become a problem they movefurther inland. Of most extreme importance was the reprieveBritish defenses and the Fighter Command received, when on the

very brink of completely falling apart due to massive attacks ontheir information networks infrastructure, German bomberschanged their targets to populated cities. While this horribleatrocity towards civilians is nothing to be grateful for, if it had notoccurred it was inevitable that the British Defenses would havefallen, Operation Sealion would have gone underway, Great Britain

conquered, and possibly the Axis may have defeated the Allies inWWII Thankfull Britain throu h luck chance or fate was ranted

phillip reed [email protected] november 30, 2009

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