The Battle for Air Supremacy

The Battle of Britain

The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940.

The name derives from a famous speech delivered by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the House of Commons: “The Battle of France is over. I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin…”

What? RAF Spitfire MkI

The Battle can be roughly divided into four phases: 10 July – 11 August: Kanalkampf, ("the Channel battles"). 12–23 August: Adlerangriff ("Eagle Attack"), the early assault

against the coastal airfields. 24 August – 6 September: the Luftwaffe targets the airfields.

The critical phase of the battle. 7 September onwards: the day attacks switch to British towns

and cities.

When? German Heinkel

bombers

From July 1940 coastal shipping convoys and shipping centers were the main targets of the attacks; one month later the Luftwaffe shifted its attacks to RAF airfields and infrastructure. As the battle progressed the Luftwaffe also targeted aircraft factories and ground infrastructure and eventually resorted to attacking British towns and cities.

The Germans planned to invade Britain with the objective of landing 160,000 soldiers along a fourty mile coastal stretch of South-East England. This plan was codenamed Operation Sealion.

Hitler’s generals were very worried about the damage that the Royal Air Force could inflict on the German Army during the invasion and so Hitler therefore agreed that the invasion should be postponed until the British Air Force had been destroyed. Accordingly the campaign objective was one of gaining air superiority over the RAF, especially Fighter Command.

Where? & Why?

The German Lutwaffe The British RAF

The British mainly used fighter aircraft in their defense along with a revolutionary radio detection and ranging system (RDF) latter known as the radar.

The squadrons were formed up of Hurricanes and Spitfires first generation fighter planes. They were both very succesfull in all operations, especially in dogfighting, where they were vastly superior to the German Messerschmitt.

The Germans used 2 types of aircraft in their invasion, fighters and bombers, the Messerschmitt and the Heinkel Bomber respectively.

Their basic strategy was to send out the fighters ahead of the bombers both for scouting purposes and as an escort for the aircraft that carried the payload. Their #1 High Value Targets were the British airfields and any other potentially hostile facilities along the coastline.

The Two Factions & their aircraft

  Messerschmitt Bf109

Heinkell bomber

Hurricane MkI

Spitfire MkI

Similar , aren’t they?

Vapor trails left after a dogfigh

The outcome The Battle of Britain was the first major

campaign to be fought entirely by air forces and was also the largest and most sustained aerial bombing campaign to that date.

The Battle of Britain marked the first defeat of Hitler’s military forces, defeat that would tip the scales in favour of the allies

Records show that during the period of the Battle the Luftwaffe lost somewhere in the region of 1,652 aircraft while the RAF lost around 1087 aircraft, significantly less giving the Brits a higher Kill ratio and consequently, air superiority.

Thanks for the attention