Battle of Britain

Four developments laid the foundations of Britain’s survival:

1. Firstly, Britain had built a series of radar stations (July 1935).   British radar was superior because, not only could it tell where the enemy planes were coming from, but it had a way to telling the fighters so that they could go and attack them.
2. Secondly, in July 1937, Air Chief Marshall Dowding was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command.   He was a brilliant commander who – on a small budget – was able to reorganise the RAF into four Groups, each divided into a number of sectors (each with a main sector airfield with a number of supporting airfields).
3. Thirdly, the British developed two brilliant planes – the Hurricane (Nov 1935) which was reliable and was used to shoot down the Luftwaffe bombers; and the Spitfire (March 1936), the fastest plane in the world, which was used to destroy the Nazi fighters which protected the bombers.
4. Fourthly, in May 1940, Churchill put Lord Beaverbrook (owner of the Daily Express) in charge of aircraft production.   He ran one appeal for aluminium  – ‘We will turn your pots and pans into Spitfires and Hurricanes’ – and another scheme where towns, groups or individuals could ‘buy’ a Spitfire (for £5000) and send it off the fight the Nazis.   He also set up a Civilian Repair Organisation, which made new planes from the left-over pieces of planes which had been shot down.   Beaverbrook cut through government red tape, and increased the production by 250%; in 1940, British factories produced 4,283 fighters, compared to Germany’s 3,000.

On the 15th September more than 1,000 enemy aircraft carried out a day and night attack on London - it was a day of very heavy fighting and later became commemorated as Battle of Britain day. The RAF announced that they had shot down 175 enemy aircraft - the figure was wildly inaccurate - the real number that the Germans had lost was closer to 56 - but the inflated numbers were accepted at the time as both sides fought a propaganda battle as well as a military war. The Spitfire summer was nearing its end.

The attacks on British cities caused widespread damage and loss of life. If German forces had continued to concentrate their attacks on British air bases they might soon have overwhelmed Fighter Command. But, as it was, German air chiefs overestimated the number of British casualties and their bombers were being shot down faster than they could be manufactured. Hitler needed summer weather for his channel invasion - so as winter approached with no breakthrough, the threat of invasion receded.

Hitler had failed to establish air superiority and his fleet of invasion barges assembled in French ports had also suffered heavy losses in RAF bomber attacks. In mid October he ordered his invasion fleet dispersed. The battle was over and Britain was safe. About 1,700 Luftwaffe bombers and fighters had been shot down in just a few months and Britain had lost more than 900 fighter planes. Nearly 500 British pilots and aircrew had also been killed. The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill memorably said: "Never... was so much owed by so many to so few."