The Battle of Britain
By mid-1940, the Germans and their allies were in control of most of Europe. On June 17, 1940, Prime Minister of France Philippe Petain publicly announced that France will seek armistice with the Nazi Germany. The new British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was aware that his country will be the next target of the Nazi Germany. On June 18, he turned to the British public, saying: "… the Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin."
After the surrender of France on June 25, 1940, the United Kingdom was the last country to resist the Nazi Germany. Hitler, however, was at the time occupied with the invasion of the Soviet Union which started three days earlier (on June 22, 1940) and hoped to negotiate peace agreement with Britain. But Hitler did not only hesitate with the invasion of Britain due to his campaign in the Eastern front. The Führer and his generals were aware that the invasion would be a disaster because the Royal Navy was superior to the Kriegsmarine. The only way to invade the British isle was therefore to destroy the RAF which would enable the German bombers to neutralize the British naval superiority. And since Churchill and his cabinet refused to even consider an armistice with Hitler, the latter approved the aerial campaign which was to be followed by an invasion on the British coast (Operation Sealion).
At the beginning of the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe appeared to have the advantage over the RAF. The Royal Air Force suffered heavy loses during the Battle of France and was short in both trained pilots and aircraft. It was outnumbered by the Luftwaffe in both aircraft and experienced pilots. Despite that, the RAF and Luftwaffe were relatively evenly matched. The Germans were fighting on the enemy territory and depended on short range aircraft. As a result, they could not spent as much time in the British airspace as the British fighters nor provide adequate protection to the bombers which had a longer flight range. Thus the German bombers were often left on their own. The inability to refuel, however, was not the only disadvantage of the Luftwaffe. When the German fighters went out of ammunition, they had to return. The RADAR and ROC (Royal Observer Corps) were another major advantage of the RAF over the Luftwaffe. Lastly, the Luftwaffe had to work without the support of the army in the ground.
The Battle of Britain took place in four phases:
- from July 10 to August 11
- from August 12 to August 23
- from August 24 to September 6
- from September 7 to September 15
The first phase of the Battle of Britain was primarily fought for the control of the English Channel. The Luftwaffe launched the attack on July 10 and concentrated on shipping and coastal towns in the Straits of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel. The plan was to force the British to adopt close fighter escort for shipping in the Channel but according to some historians, the so-called Kanalkampf was also launched because Field Marshals Albert Kesselring and Hugo Sperrle did not have an idea what to do. In addition, they had a considerable numerical advantage over the RAF commander Hugh Dowding. The Luftwaffe caused serious damage to the Royal Navy and sunk about 30,000 tons of shipping, however, the Germans did not get any closer to destroying the RAF. Furthermore, the Luftwaffe suffered heavier loses in aircraft than the RAF. On August 12, the Reich Minister of Aviation Hermann Göring ordered his Field Marshals to attack the British fighter aerodromes staring the so-called Adlerangriff (Eagle Attack). The idea made sense. If they would destroy the RAF ground infrastructure, they would not have to fight the British fighters in the air. During the next two weeks, the Luftwaffe concentrated on the RAF aerodromes but it failed to achieve its objective partly due to inability to destroy the radars and partly due to ill conceived attacks.
On August 15, the Luftwaffe attacked North East England from Scandinavia, expecting to meet little resistance (the Germans were convinced that the RAF strength would be concentrated in the south). However, the poorly defended attack meet heavy resistance and suffered heavy loses as nearly all the Stuka bombers were destroyed by the British fighters. However, the Germans who were convinced that the RAF strength had been reduced to 300 fighters decided to strike the final blow to the Fighter Command and launched a large scale attack. But the Luftwaffe was not about to face 300 but over 600 fighters. Both sides suffered severe losses during the so-called Hardest Day on August 18 but the RAF outperformed the Luftwaffe in a ratio 2:1. While the RAF lost 34 fighters, the Germans lost an estimated 70 to 75 planes. During the period of the bad weather between August 19 and 23, Göring decided to change the tactic.
During the third phase of the Battle of Britain, Göring continued to attack airfields but this time he decided to use smaller concentrations of bombers accompanied with considerably larger escort. At the same time, the Luftwaffe also started with night bombings of the British cities. The new tactic proved to be more successful, however, the German tactic was based on presumption that the RAF is close to defeat. Inability to decisively defeat the British air force put the Operation Sealion or invasion of Britain under a major question. On September 4, the Germans once again changed their strategy. This time, they decided to destroy London and other major British cities.
There is some discussion about the Hitler's switch from the airfields to London. Some historians suggests that Hitler's decision may have been influenced by a British attack on Berlin on August 25 as a response on accidental German bombing of London a few days earlier. The others, however, speculate that Hitler thought that it would crush the British morale and perhaps force Churchill to seek armistice under the pressure of the terrified British public. There is, however, another possible explanation. Attacks on London were perhaps expected to force the Fighter Command to use all the available forces to defend the city which in turn would relief the resistance during the invasion. However, like the later course of events reveals Hitler was not willing to take any chances without the RAF being destroyed.
By September 14, Hitler was aware that the Luftwaffe failed to destroy the RAF. On the meeting with the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, he allegedly asked if the operation should be called off all together. However, he approved a large scale attack London on September 15 with the goal to force the RAF into a decisive battle. Dowding indeed sent most of his fighters in the battle that came to be known as the Battle of Britain Day, however, the RAF successfully repulsed the German attack despite being outnumbered to 2:1. The Battle of Britain virtually came to an end on September 15 and Hitler ordered postponement of the Operation Sealion on September 17. The German attacks on the British cities, however, continued until the end of the war.
Although most historians agree that the Luftwaffe simply could not destroy the RAF, some experts also theorize that Hitler decided to focus on the Eastern front where he appeared to be close to victory. In a matter of a few weeks, the Wehrmacht reached the outskirts of Moscow and Hitler was convinced that the Soviet Union would collapse if the capital city would fall. Speculations that Nazi Germany could have win the Battle of Britain if it would continue with the assaults are highly unlikely due to the above mentioned disadvantages as well as due to the failure to cause irreparable damage to the British airfields. The shift from airfields to London also did not bring the desired results although Hitler's impatience with the Luftwaffe undoubtedly contributed to the German defeat as well. But as some historians point out, the RAF could withdraw in the north and regroup in case if the loses would become too severe. Although it is impossible to determine the loses of both sides due to exaggerations of the damage caused to the enemy by both sides, there is a consensus that the German casualties were severer. The RAF is estimated to lose about 1,023 aircraft, while the Luftwaffe lost about 1,887 aircraft. However, since the German planes were shot down above the enemy's territory, the Luftwaffe had incomparably severer loses in men. About 1,700 German aircrew was killed during the Battle of Britain, while another 967 were captured by the British.
The threat of the German invasion of Britain finally came to an end by the end of 1940 due to the German failure to achieve quick and decisive victory over the Soviet Union although Hitler wanted to keep the British population in insecurity and ordered the Luftwaffe to continue to raid the British cities. However, he failed to crush the British morale and force the British government out of war. Instead, Britain established itself as one of the most powerful opponents of the Axis and as an Allied stronghold. It was the victory in the Battle of Britain which enabled the country to serve as a base for the Allies to strike the final blow to the Nazi Germany in the Western front in 1944.
Britain paid a high price for victory in the largest air battle in history. From July to December 1940, 23,002 civilians were killed and 32,138 were wounded during the German raids. By the end of the war, the Hitler's war of terror against Britain claimed about 60,000 civilian lives.
