The Second contributing factor in helping Britain to win the B of B was Leadership. Leaders from both Germany and Britain affected the B of B in some way. Sir Hugh Dowding was the head of the RAF and had been a World War one pilot. Dowding was well respected within the whole of the RAF and most of the pilots looked up to him. He was a great teacher and role model, as he taught many of the pilots first hand. This is shown as the RAF pilots were referred to as “Dowding’s chicks” Dowding always looked forwards and planned for the future. One of the main example of this was shown during the evacuation of Dunkirk. The RAF was asked to send almost it’s entire fleet to provide air cover and fight the Luftwaffe during the evacuation of Dunkirk and it’s beaches. Instead of complying to the request, Dowding sent over very few aircraft as he thought that they would be needed in the close future. He knew that once the evacuation had taken place that Hitler would turn his priorities on invading Britain. Dowding rightly suspected that the RAF would have a critical role to play in the B of B. Dowding also contributed massively to the Chain Home system which was a vital new technology that helped Britain to win the B of B. Dowding split the RAF into groups which each covered a certain part of Britain and were informed of enemy locations by the new Chain Home system. During the B of B Goring and Hitler made many mistakes. Goring was the Head of the Luftwaffe and had also flown in WW1. Hitler’s first mistake was offering the British a chance to surrender after they had invaded France and the British had evacuated from Dunkirk. Hitler knew that the British would not surrender but he wanted to insult them. Instead of the surrendering, the British used the time to prepare for war and an invasion. This was critical as the British would not have been able to repel an immediate attack. Goring first mistake was made after the 5th August, Luftwaffe 5 was hit badly after they were fed false information. Following that day, Goring decided that Luffwaffe 5 should not appear as much in the B of B. This had a huge effect on the Germans as the North of England could only be bombed heavily by Luftwaffe 5. Goring next mistake was withdawing the Germans best precision bomber, the Ju 87 Stuka. Goring did this because a lot of the bombers were lost in one raid and he had once flown them in WW1. He was personally attached and this mistake was vital as they were very by far the German best bomber and was very effective in the B of B.
In previous campaigns the Luftwaffe played a supporting role for the German army; just like it had been designed to do, whilst using Blitzkreig tactics. This tactic successfully overcame most of Europe, including Poland and France, but this time the Luftwaffe would have operate alone as a weapon in itself. This was something that it was not suited for, as it lacked the strategic bombers and long-range fighters that would be needed to overcome the RAF. Tactics, therefore, played a huge role in the B of B. Hitler and Goring changed the German tactics several times during 1940, the first tactic that the Germans employed was trying to draw out the RAF fighters by bombing the Navy ships and coastal convoys. This took place between 1st July and the 31st July. This did result in air combat over the sea but this quickly stopped when the British stopped taking the bait and withdrew its ships from the channel. During this period 120 British planes were shot down compared to 225 for the Germans. This was a huge win for the British, as they were outnumbered 3 to 1 prior to the start of the B of B. For the first time bad weather stopped the Germans from attacking the Radar Stations and Air Fields. The Germans then switched their tactics to bombing the Radar stations and British Air Fields. They codenamed this new tactic Adlerangriff (Eagle Attack). Eagle assault started on 12th August 1940 with Adlertag (Eagle Day). Eagle Day focussed bombing on Chain Home and the Radar Stations. Four of the Radar Stations were damaged in one day, but they were repaired within six hours. The Germans failure to mount repeated bombing raids on the Radar Stations meant the British were able to always have several Radar Stations operational at any one time. This also disheartened the Germans and they believed that it would be very hard to knock-out all of the Stations and make a gap in the British defence system. As Eagle Assault commenced the Germans attacked several British Air Fields and carried on varied assaults on Chain Home. On August 15th Luftwaffe 5, coming from Norway and Denmark, mounted a huge bombing raid on North England. They unrepentantly ran into fierce resistance and they took huge casualties because they were not escorted by the correct type of aircraft. Following this disaster, Goring, decided that Luftwaffe 5 should not feature as much in the B of B. This was one of Goring’s worst mistakes, as North England could only be attacked heavily by that Air Fleet. On the week commencing 18th August, bad weather meant that operations came to a halt and the Luftwaffe had time to review what had happened so far. Goring decided that the Ju 87 Stuka should be withdrawn from fighting, this was a huge mistake as it was the Germans best precision bomber and meant that the already stretched Erprobungsgruppe 210 would be their only precision bomber. Goring also decided that the Bf 110 was not good enough for the intense dog-fighting with single engined fighters. He decided it would only be used if a long-range fighter was needed or as a last resort. He transferred hundreds of planes from Fleet to Fleet, meaning that Luftflotte 3 would concentrate on night bombings and that Luftflotte 2 would escort bombers. Göring, expressing disappointment with the fighter performance thus far in the campaign, also made a large change in the command structure of the fighter units, replacing many Geschwaderkommodore with younger, more aggressive pilots like Adolf Galland and Werner Mölders. Eagle Assault continued with variable results until the 24th August, when Goring ordered for attacks on the Radar Stations to stop. Instead, Goring continued to target the British Air Fields and Fighter Command. This was very successful, as the British resorted to emergency measures to rescue the British Defence System. From the 24th onwards, the B of B was essentially a slugging match between Luftflotte 2, who had all of the bombers, and 11 Group. Within two weeks of the 24th, 33 heavy attacks were launched against the Fighter Command HQ’s. The Luftwaffe was easily winning the B of B with it’s new tactics. On the night of 25th August the British bombed Berlin. The Germans, previously, had unintentionally bombed the suburbs of London in late August. This hurt Goring very personally the head of Luftflotte 3 (Kesselring) seized the chanced to convince Hitler to bomb London, just like Kesselring had always wanted. On the 4th September 1940, Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to bomb London. This was the start of the Blitz and a welcome break for the British Air Fields. Some people say that if the British Air Fields had been bombed for another 2 weeks then the British would have withdrawn from South England. This change of tactic gave the British time to rebuild the Air Fields, build more planes and train more pilots. The Blitz was ultimately the turning point in the Battle of Britain and is probably why they were able to win the B of B. On 7th September the first major raid on London was launched, it targeted docks in the East End of the city. Over the coming days large raids were launched, some targeting the docks but others bombing indiscriminately. The RAF did come up, in greater numbers than the Luftwaffe expected. The Big Wing was deployed for the first time. The Big Wing was a British tactic was involved meeting incoming Luftwaffe bombing raids in strength with a wing-sized formation of three to five squadrons. On 11th September 1940 Hitler postponed Operation Sealion until 24th September. RAF Bomber Command contributed to the problems facing the German naval forces by sinking eighty barges in the Port of Ostend alone. On 15 September 1940 two massive waves of German attacks were decisively repulsed by the RAF. The total casualties on this critical day were 60 German aircraft shot down versus only 26 RAF, roughly 2:1 in favour of the RAF. The German defeat caused Hitler to order, two days later, the postponement of preparations for the invasion of Britain. Henceforth, in the face of mounting losses in men, aircraft and the lack of adequate replacements, the Luftwaffe switched from daylight to night-time bombing. On 13 October 1940, Hitler again postponed the invasion until the spring of 1941. It was not until Hitler's Directive 21, was ordered on 18 December 1940, that the threat of invasion finally vanished.
Weaponry evolved massively between the two World war, both the Germans and British had produced planes which were more advanced and ultimately better than those of WW1. Never before in WW2 had the Germans faced an Air Force anywhere near the quality of the RAF. The Germans main planes were the Messerschmitt Bf 109E and Bf 110, and The Junkers Ju 87. The British mainly used the Spitfire Mk I and the Hurricane Mk I.
