| Battle of Britain Day 08:07 - Sep 15 with 3948 views | Churchman |
Today is Battle of Britain Day. It marks the point where the Germans realised they could not gain overwhelming air superiority over Britain and any thoughts of forcing surrender from Britain this way and at this point with threat of invasion were at an end. Ichoose my words carefully as I don’t believe Sealion plans were ever that serious once a month or two had past post-Dunkirk.
Actions of course continued and large scale daylight raids moved to night bombing (the Blitz), but eight days after switching from attacking airfields to London in trying to destroy Fighter Command, both sides knew the Luftwaffe couldn’t do it.
The battle was a series of actions throughout the summer really. It started with closing the Channel, the key phase of the assault on airfields and ended with the attack on London. The critical period was broadly around August when the airfields were attacked.
Excluding civilians casualties were about 1,500 RAF killed, 3,500 Luftwaffe killed or captured. The blow to the quality of Luftwaffe was one from which they never truly recovered.
It was a key turning point of the war and in my view should be remembered as such. |  | | |  |
| Battle of Britain Day on 14:40 - Sep 16 with 390 views | NthQldITFC |
| Battle of Britain Day on 11:25 - Sep 15 by Keno |
Also I dont think we should forget the impact of the pilots from occupied countries flying for the RAF in the Battle of Britain |
Bloody Poles, coming over here, shooting down all our German bombers. |  |
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| Battle of Britain Day on 14:43 - Sep 16 with 386 views | NthQldITFC |
| Battle of Britain Day on 11:42 - Sep 15 by ElephantintheRoom |
Propaganda hyped it up at the time but in reality it was a series of small scale skirmishes between wheezy pre-war era planes scarcely able to do the job they were designed for - neither side had planes capable of flying any significant rangé which seriously hampered the German effort as they had a small body of water to cross
Contrary to popular belief the RAF was never hard pressed and could afford to maintain their five fighter regions, effectively leaving three to R&R, only two were ever involved to any extent
The savagery of ‘the battle’ is perhaps best illustrated by the scale of damage to Duxford airfield, so far removed from the action that legless air ace (or pompous, arrogant bar steward) devised the ridiculous ‘big wing’ to try and get in on the action, which proved very hard to find. Duxford was hit by one bomb, which ironically killed a couple of Czech pilots hiding in a bomb revetment
The Germans dont even agree with the Brits on when ‘the battle’ ended - possibly because it never really began. Interestingly, as the RAF had decided the Defiant, with no forward-firing guns was to be their front line fighter, the allies almost went into the conflict with the Gloucester Gladiator Biplane as their best hope. Luckily, a somewhat bemused and determined Harry Hawker had continued to produce the rejected Hawker Hurricane as a private venture - and it proved to be the workhorse of the ‘battle of Britain’ while the Gloucester Gladiator was left to Crete its own myth on Malta. |
My grandfather would have referred to you as a 'rum bugg3r'. | |
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| Battle of Britain Day on 16:26 - Sep 16 with 336 views | Radlett_blue |
| Battle of Britain Day on 10:15 - Sep 15 by Churchman |
I think the discussion about how serious Sealion was is interesting. The Germans certainly put a lot of effort into collecting and converting barges (as you say, attacked and disrupted to good effect at a cost by the RAF), but the Luftwaffe and German navy had little confidence in it. Would Hitler have risked his army on the unknown? Well he proved the ultimate gambler he might have done.
The German failure to secure sufficient air superiority over southern England is due to a number of factors including:
Lack of co-ordination in the structure of the Luftwaffe
Over estimation of what medium bombers with limited capacity can do.
Under estimation of how hard it is to put an airfield out of action for any length of time
Senior leadership failure to use assets like the 109 to best advantage (free chase) given its critical short range and lack of understanding of how best and when to use the Bf110 heavy fighter - not against Spitfires and Hurricanes..
Not understanding the RAFs command and control system, including Chain Home or its capacity to re-supply. Pilot shortage was the threat, not aircraft.
For the RAF
Its organisation was superb. So was Dowding and Keith Park. (11 Group). Leigh-Mallory, less so. A difficult, incompetent man who should never have replaced Dowding after the battle.
Pilot quality was patchy and losses of the less experienced were disproportionately high. This was mitigated to an extent by rotating squadrons in and out.
Radar in putting aircraft in the right place was absolutely crucial. Losses when height could not be gained quickly enough showed that
The Spitfire and Hurricane (two thirds of Fighter Command) proved excellent. Easy to fly and in the Hurricane’s case repair and service, they were up to the task. US high octane fuel, De Wilde ammunition (pilots could see the strikes), better propellers, and marginal improvements on the aircraft all helped.
Carburettors instead of fuel injection in the Merlin engine caused problems in that the engine would cut moving into a dive - and diving/climbing were crucial to combat flying. There was also a lack of cannon armament then - many German bombers returned with over 100 303 bullet holes in them.
The Defiant of course proved a failure and was moved to night fighting until phased out.
Overall, a fascinating albeit deadly period. |
The Germans abandoned the daytime raids on airfields & radar stations largely because losses were alarmingly high. The biggest issue was experienced pilots - if a German pilot bailed out or crash landed when over England or the Channel, that was the end of the war for him, but a British pilot would usually be back on duty the next day. Aircraft were replaceable, experienced pilots were not. And yes, it proved much easier to get bombed airfields back up & running than had been expected. |  |
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| Battle of Britain Day on 16:46 - Sep 16 with 321 views | Churchman |
| Battle of Britain Day on 16:26 - Sep 16 by Radlett_blue |
The Germans abandoned the daytime raids on airfields & radar stations largely because losses were alarmingly high. The biggest issue was experienced pilots - if a German pilot bailed out or crash landed when over England or the Channel, that was the end of the war for him, but a British pilot would usually be back on duty the next day. Aircraft were replaceable, experienced pilots were not. And yes, it proved much easier to get bombed airfields back up & running than had been expected. |
Yes, the Luftwaffe never truly recovered from the loss of so many experienced aircrew.
It should not be forgotten that this was all new. The Luftwaffe hadn’t faced an adversary like the RAF with its modern aircraft and command and control - the latter of which the Germans never had anything quite as comprehensive throughout the war.
Britain by the end of 1940 was out producing Germany in aircraft 2-1. The gap would only increase. [Post edited 16 Sep 2024 16:55]
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