Battle of Britain

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#1

The Battle of Britain 1940
In the summer of 1940, the German Luftwaffe attempted to win air superiority over southern Britain and the English Channel by destroying the Royal Air Force and the British aircraft industry. This attempt came to be known as the Battle of Britain, and victory over the RAF was seen by the Germans as absolutely essential if they were eventually to mount an invasion of the British Isles.

The Germans had overrun Belgium, the Netherlands and northern France in May 1940, using the Blitzkrieg (‘Lightning War’) technique that relied, among other things, on close coordination between ground troops and the air force. Although the Luftwaffe proved very competent in this role, it was not trained or equipped for the longer-range operations that became part of the Battle of Britain.

#2

The above post is simply a statement of fact so I’m not sure what the intent is. I’d add that the BoB was actually a draw even though it was sort of a win for Britain since they didn’t lose. :slight_smile:

#3

I think it was a definite calculated descision by the RAF not to lose, if thats what a victory means I’ll take it. The Germans may have outclassed the RAF initially in arial tactics but only one side fought a calculated battle. And that side was not the German one!

#4

I thought it was amazing that they won the battle at all the raf lost 300 planes on the first day of battle half or there airforce was done .

#5

Mate I dont know where you got your figures from, but the RAF didnt lose 300 ac on day one.

Check out this site:

http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pettypi/elevon/gustin_military/strength.html

#6

my bad that must have been a goof in the movie battle of britian.

#7

Mind you you may be referring to the fact they they did lose a lot of ac in France before the BoB.

#8

Didn’t the German propganda claim they had destroyed 300 planes on the first day?

#9

Didn’t the German propganda claim they had destroyed 300 planes on the first day?[/quote]

Yes they did with the way the war effort was going it helped the pilots have more confidnice on a easy mission.

#10

In total it played out that Germany lost 1,733 aircraft and some 3,000 air crewmen. The RAF lost 1,265 fighters and bombers along with over 1,500 aircrewmen- some 1,000 from Bomber Command alone.

#11

As a good overview of The Battle of Britain I recommend this book -

:slight_smile:

#12

Welcome Cash!

#13

Thanks. :slight_smile:

#14

The Movie

#15

Does anyone know that General Galland actually flew one of the Spanish-built Ha 112 “Messerschmitts” used in the film?

#16

nice statistic, does that include British aircraft destroyed on the ground?

#17

Well in my book, thats a win for the RAF then. More casualties caused and does not take into account captured German aircrew. And when you take out the Bomber Command losses it looks even more one sided as they didnt take an active part in the battle. Of course you could say the attack on the barges in the staging zones was an active part of course.

#18

We must realize that the “homefield advantage” also meant that there were an unknown number of write offs- RAF aircraft that landed on English soil but were too shot up to ever fly again. This opposite happened over Germany later in the war when crew and planes were over friendly territory.

We can imagine that a goodly number of British aircrew took to the silk and could not be considered “lost” if they landed on British soil while the opposite was true of the Germans.

At the time the loss of 1,265 aircraft was far more catastrophic due to their relative quantity to the entire RAF while the Luftwaffe could better afford their losses.

As we know the pendelum swung the other way later :smiley:

#19

I’m sure your wrong there, the strength of fighter command grew during the BoB, while the Germans diminsihed.

http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Alley/5443/fcweek.htm

This gives an idea of the strength of the RAF throughout the battle.

Also German yearly aircraft figures can be found here:

http://members.aol.com/forcountry/ww2/gma.htm

Also below is a really good BoB site which goes into things in a good more detail about the battle itself:

http://www.battleofbritain.net/contents-index.html

Britain also set up an excellent repair network for damaged planes as well.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IBO/is_4_24/ai_74582443/pg_2

So not only did the UK outproduce German aircraft production, it also out repaired the Germans too.

The biggest problem was probably the lack of trained pilots in Fighter Command.

#20

Look if a Brit bailed out he flew the next day. If a German bailed out he was POW. It’s as simple as that. Later when the 8th AF began ops in England there were always aircraft that “returned” to base but were otherwise wrecks. The planes that returned were not technically counted as losses in a traditional way. Certainly the Germans didn’t claim them as destroyed since they few away home! Yet they were losses nevertheless.

It is a certainty that this happened to RAF machines in the BoB time. My damn point is that losses were higher than what was counted, that’s all. I don’t care about production of aircraft in England. The RAF cound NOT afford to be cavalier about ANY machines lost. “Oh well we’ll build more.”

Later over Germany the reverse occurred. Any Allied airman that took to the chute was a POW and every German that bailed was flying the next day! German planes not claimed often limped in to be scraped later just as Allied planes returning to Britain. It’s simply an undeniable fact that this happened on both sides depending on the tide of the war. This is not mystical stuff just fact and logic.

Do we want to say that every claim put in by the RAF for kills of Germans in the BoB was true and those claimed by Luftwaffe personnel were bogus? No because in the heat of combat overclaiming is prevailent on both sides.

Fine the British had an overwhelming and crushing victory in the BoB from which the Luftwaffe was ruined for the war.