Battle of Britain and the battle of the Atlantic.

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THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN AND THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC

History Coursework

Battle of Britain and the Battle of the Atlantic

In late May 1940, British troops evacuated Dunkirk and left France to the mercy of the Germans. This left Britain on her own against the German war machine. The German invasion plan, Operation Sealion, could only work if the Luftwaffe had control of the skies. The Battle of Britain had begun.

        The Germans had nearly 2500 aircraft available: 969 bombers; 360 Skuka dive bombers; 869 ME109 fighters and 268 twin engined ME110 fighter bombers. Against this the RAF pitched 820 fighters. However most of the bombers did not play a part in the battle. Overall the fighter forces were equally matched.

        One serious handicap for the German fighter pilots was that they only had about 20 minutes flying time over South East England because of fuel limits. However, the use of radar greatly aided the RAF because it meant they could concentrate their fighters to intercept the Germans in large numbers at the right spot without wasting time looking for the enemy.

        The German aim was to cripple the RAF and make it possible for an invasion by troops from France. They also needed to take out the British Navy, but this would be easy with no RAF support. Therefore for any invasion to succeed the RAF had to be destroyed.

        At first Goering, the commander of the German Luftwaffe, concentrated his attacks on channel shipping and the ports (10 July-7 August)

        From 8 until 23 August the Germans concentrated on bombing radar stations and forward fighter bases.

        During the third phase (24 August-6 September) the Luftwaffe struck at inland fighter bases and aircraft factories.

        7th to 30th September he attempted to bomb London into submission.

15th September when Goering launched one final massive attack in which 60 German planes were shot down.

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        There were many reasons for the RAF success over the Luftwaffe. The RAF had Radar which could give us the numbers, altitude, speed and course of German fighters. This meant fighter command could use planes efficiently and they could sleep between patrols. When a German attacked was detected RAF planes would be scrambled and vectored to the target. Radar meant that RAF pilots were much fresher and the whole of Britain could be covered with fewer planes than would be needed for constant patrols.

        In June 1940 Hitler was not thinking about the invasion. The Navy and Army ...

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