World+War+II+-+The++Battle+of+Britain

media type="custom" key="2970126" Colin Smith Email: colin.c.smith.smith@gmail.com

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World War II: The Battle of Britain

-The Battle of Britain occured between August and September 1940. - Britain was all alone at first after their victories. -The Germans need to have the english chanel before going to battle with Britain - They needed this control of the Channel so British Navy would not be able to attack - To get control of the english channel,the Germans needed control of the air. -The main fighter planes of the RAF were the [|Spitfire] and the Hurricane - At the start, Germany had **4,000** aircraft and britain had 1,660. At the start of the battle, the Luftwaffe had 2,500 planes that were working -any normal day, the Luftwaffe could put up over 1,600 planes. RAF had lots of planes which included 800 Spitfires and Hurricanes - but only 660 of these were working. - Britain had advantages over the Luftwaffe. -Britain had RADAR which gave early warning of the German planes. By the Spring of 1940, fifty-one radar bases had been built in southern Britain. also had the Royal Observer Corps (ROC) which was a group with binoculars and such. By 1940, over 1000 ROC posts had been built. British fighter planes could spend more time in the air because they could usually get fuel easy and the German fighters could not. German bombers could fly for longer distances than their fighter planes which meant the bomber had no guide planes or protection. The German fighters had troulbe reloading their guns.The British could. German bombers stood no chance with no pretection. -The battle started on July 10th 1940

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-summer of 1940, the Germans attemted to control the air by attacking the Royal Air Force and the British aircraft industry -known as battle of britian -victory over the RAF was a huge win which was known to be a great cause of victory for the british. -Germans had overrun Belgium, the Netherlands and northern France using the Blitzkrieg ('Lightning War') technique -The Luftwaffe's fighter, the Messerschmitt Bf109E (Me-109), had limited range.This was a this what was to come over Britain, and during the operation they lost 240 aircraft to the RAF's 177. German loss in the Battle of France was also heavy - 30 per cent - and the German aircraft industry was already falling behind the Allies in aircraft production. - strength of the RAF and the British aviation was too much for the germans. They believed they could eliminate RAF Fighter Command -British, over-estimated German strength. -they also had a new invention - radar - to help direct the fighters to wtach out for the german planes. the British were getting intelligence from intercepting German communications, having cracked the Enigma code system. - Me 109E was the mainl German fighter. However, with a range of 700 km, it had only 15 minutes' fuel over The two-engined Me-110 had a slightly longer range. -The RAF's high performance fighters were the Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire. -Battle of Britain began on 30 June 1940. -Reichsmarschall Hermann Göering, head of the Luftwaffe, ordered RAF into battle by attacking coastal convoys and bombing radar stations This is a good reason of why he eventually lost the war short range guns and no home field advantage =two major disadvantages for the Germans -and a damaged aircraft was likely to ditch in the sea - a damaged RAF aircraft could limp home, and downed RAF pilots parachuted onto English fields. -head of the British fighter command was Sir Hugh Dowding, who hleped wirt the hurricane and the spitfire and also helped with radar -The Battle officially began on 13 August, with an assault on //Adlertag// ('Eagle day'). -Luftwaffe lost a total of 1,733 aircraft from July to October -The Blitz, continued after the Battle of Britain had finished. During the Blitz, between September 1940 and May 1941, the Germans dropped more than 35,000 tons of bombs for the loss of 650 aircraft. London was attacked 19 times with 18,800 tons of bombs. -The RAF defence was very well prpared. Radar would pick up an approaching force and send the information to a sector airfield, which in passed it to 11 Group HQ at Northolt. The Group would inform Fighter Command and, bring in aircraft from other places. -On 17 September, two days after the Luftwaffe's worst day in the Battle of Britain, Hitler cancelled Operation Sealion -Hitler had already made one bad mistake, when he'd switched his tactic to focus on the bombing of British cities, just at the time when he was winning the air battle over England. Invading Russia was an even worse blunder. -the British did not immediately learn from their victory. [|bbc battle of britian]

-On July 10, the starting phase of the battle began. German planes attacked shipping in the english channel, trying to get the RAF into the action. -Dowding, under severe disapproval, did not fall into this trap. -He kept his main units back knowing very well that the Germans were going to come in force later on. -the germans lost about 227 planes between the mounths of July 10 and August 10 The RFA lost 96 -but many of their pilots lived where as the germans didnt -The main phase of the Battle of Britain began on August 13. Adlertag (Eagle’s Day) marked a move from the Channel attacks to the RAF network of airfields and radar stations. The Battle of Britain marked the first use of radar on a widespread scale in warfare. It allowed RAF fighter Command’s three main southern air groups to wait on the ground for incoming attacks, and then leap into the fray when the bombers were sighted on radar. (NM) The germans radar was not as developed as the british -thegermans couldnt understand why they were losing -then their intelliagence identified the radar as the problem -But the Germans were checked by confusion over their primary targets. After Adlertag, which caused the Germans 46 aircraft but cost the RAF 14 fighters in the air and on the ground, the Germans thought the radar stations were not worth the effort. Perhaps because the technology was new, the dangerously exposed stations were thought to be indestructible. The Germans abandoned the attack on the radar stations after only three days, allowing the stations to contribute valuable information throughout the battle. The attacks on the airfields continued through August 24, and the RAF was in danger of losing the battle. Almost 25% of their pilots were lost in those two weeks; if the Germans continued, Fighter Command would lose the battle.(NM) -Using tactical aircraft used in a strategic role was causing major losses in the Luftwaffe. While the bombers had the range to fight and return, the Bf-109’s short range was causing wrecks to wash up on the coast of England instead of German invasion barges. Also, facing a trained, experienced fighter force highly motivated to defend their home territory, the Germans’ vaunted Blitzkrieg weapons were coming up short. On August 17, more than 30% of the Ju-87 Stukas sent against England did not return. The Bf-110 Zerörsters not only could not defend the bombers, they needed fighter escorts themselves. (NM)

http://www.worldwar2database.com/html/britain_40.htm