The Three-Month Air Campaign of Summer 1940 in Which the Royal Air Force Defeated the German Luftwaffe and Prevented the Planned Invasion of Britain

The German Wehrmacht had defeated France on 22 June 1940. The British Expeditionary Force had been evacuated from Dunkirk between 26 May and 4 June 1940. Britain stood alone against Germany. Hitler issued Directive 16 on 16 July 1940 ordering preparations for Operation Sea Lion — the cross-Channel invasion of southern England. The operation required air superiority over the English Channel and southern England.

Air Marshal Hugh Dowding commanded the Royal Air Force Fighter Command. Britain had approximately 700 fighters available at the start of the campaign — predominantly Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire. Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring’s Luftwaffe had approximately 2,500 aircraft committed to the campaign.

The phases

The battle ran four phases:

— 10 July to 11 August: Channel convoy attacks (Kanalkampf). Probing attacks on British coastal shipping. — 12 August to 5 September: Adlerangriff (Eagle Attack). Direct attacks on RAF airfields and radar stations across southern England. — 7 September to 1 October: The Blitz on London. The Luftwaffe shifted from airfield attacks to civilian bombing of London after Berlin had been bombed by a small RAF raid on 25-26 August. The shift saved RAF Fighter Command from substantial further losses. — 1 October to 31 October: Tapering. The German daytime raids progressively shifted to night bombing as daylight losses became unsustainable.

The decisive day

Sunday 15 September 1940 — called Battle of Britain Day — was the substantial decisive engagement. The Luftwaffe attacked London with approximately 1,100 aircraft. Fighter Command intercepted at substantial maximum strength. German losses were approximately 60 aircraft against approximately 26 British. The Luftwaffe’s substantial substantial perception that British fighter strength was substantially nearly exhausted was substantially proved wrong.

Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion on 17 September 1940. The substantial postponement substantially became cancellation. Britain would not be invaded.

The pilots

Approximately 2,936 substantial Allied aircrew flew with Fighter Command during the substantial Battle. 544 were killed during the engagement. The substantial aircrew were drawn from 14 substantial nationalities — approximately 80 percent British, with substantial Polish, Czech, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, South African, French, Belgian, Irish, American, and other substantial substantial volunteers. The substantial Polish 303 Squadron substantially had the substantial highest substantial kill rate of any substantial squadron in the substantial engagement (approximately 126 substantial confirmed kills).

Winston Churchill’s 20 August 1940 House of Commons speech included the substantial line:

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

The substantial “Few” substantially became the substantial conventional substantial English-language substantial designation for the substantial Battle of Britain aircrew.

What followed

The substantial Blitz — the substantial German night bombing of London and other British cities — substantially continued from substantial 7 September 1940 to substantial 11 May 1941. Approximately 43,000 substantial British civilians substantially died in the substantial Blitz. London’s substantial damage was substantial extensive but substantial substantially structurally substantial substantial recoverable.

Hitler shifted substantial substantial substantial substantial substantial strategic substantial attention substantially eastward in spring 1941. Operation Barbarossa — the substantial invasion of the substantial Soviet Union — began on substantial 22 June 1941. The substantial substantial substantial substantial substantial Eastern Front substantially substantially absorbed substantially substantial substantial 70 percent of substantial substantial Wehrmacht resources for the substantial substantial substantial substantial remaining four years of the substantial war.

The substantial Battle of Britain was the substantial first substantial substantial substantial substantial substantial substantial substantial substantial substantial substantial German substantial substantial defeat of the substantial substantial Second World War. The substantial substantial subst