Battle of Britain

Beginnings of the Battle With the fall of France,

Germany set its sights on conquering Britain

The first step was to control the skies which would allow for a landing force to cross the English Channel

Germany would send waves of fighter planes across the channel to ware down the Royal Air Force (RAF)

German Advantages Germany had an

advantage in the number of aircraft

Advanced technology of aircraft design.

Many German pilots had battle experience in earlier battles in Poland, France, North Africa.

Phase 1 of the Battle During the first phase of the

battle, German aircraft would cross the channel multiple times a day.

British and Canadian (Allies) fighter pilots would often fight in multiple battles each day where they were usually outnumbered and outgunned.

The Allied air forces employed their own advantages...

Radar Prior to the war, the British

had invested into a new technology called Radar

Utilizing this advantage, the Allies were able to see the German aircraft set up in their formations over France and where they were going.

This allowed the British planes to wait on the ground until the proper time in order to save fuel

Home Territory The dog fights would take place

over Britain therefore any Allied pilots who were shot down could be back into another aircraft within a couple of hours

German pilots were taken into POW camps.

This added survivability for Allied pilots would allow them to gain valuable experience

The British got more damaged planes back which could be repaired and sent back into future battles

At some points of the battle, there were more planes than available pilots.

Distance to the Fight The Germans had to fly over the

channel, which meant the fighters had a limited amount of fuel to fight

The British planes would be able to stay in the fight longer

The British fighters would have more fuel and the ability to get re-fuelled and come back

Strategy The Germans had poor

strategy. In Phase 2 of the battle, the

Germans switched to bombing London.

Their intent was to terrorize the civilians in London• it allowed the RAF airfields to

recover from when they were the target earlier in the battle

• It also provided a fixed target that the allies could assume all bombers were heading to attack

The Blitz By bombing British cities, Hitler

hoped to degrade the morale of the British people

It was his hope that they would push their government for peace with Germany

British citizens were forced to observe blackouts at night and sleep in the subway tunnels

During the day, they would resume their normal jobs and clean up from the previous nights bombing.

Allies Britain had more able

allies than the Germans This allowed the British

many advantages:1. An increased supply of

men to become pilots.2. The ability to train pilots in

the safety of Canada3. The ability to build planes

in factories out of reach from German bombers (Canada)