The Battle Of Britain: the battle that stopped Hitler

 In 1940, Hitler said, “I will succeed where Napoleon failed. I shall land on the beaches of England.” His invasion heavily relied on his Luftwaffe, which was under the command of General Field Marshal Hermann Goering. The only resistance the British had against Goering’s massive army was a small army of planes called the Royal Air Force (RAF). The RAF was made of many skilled pilots of many countries, mostly Great Britain and Poland. The Polish pilots decided to join the RAF to fight in this last stand, to hopefully liberate their country from the German occupation. How could such a small army of planes cripple the German invasion? How did the British repel the Nazi invasion with the odds so much against them?

This battle was between two powerful leaders: the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The Nazis were on their final stage to world domination but an obstacle stood in their way: England. If England was to be successfully invaded, then there would be no future for the British, but if they repelled the Nazis, Hitler would never get his dream of world domination. The Germans had a powerful army. Their planes were built to shred other aircraft into nothing and their tanks were built to take the heaviest blows, while the British only had their “never give up” spirit and their RAF, which consisted of a few well-trained pilots.

On July 10th, 1940, when the first news came over the BBC, the British knew that they had arrived into their worst situation. The British deployed all available civilians to get “all hands on deck” to prepare for the upcoming invasion. Civilian men had been given basic training and performed roadblock duties and worked in factories, while women civilians were given jobs in the military mission control rooms; and a lot of the children either helped at home to prepare, or were being evacuated out of school. The people not working in the war efforts sheltered in either subway stations or air bunkers that the people set up as a preparation for the Battle of Britain. Men could work up to more than 10 hours a day either fixing damaged aircraft or manufacturing munitions and new planes. Not only did Britain start attacking the invading Luftwaffe fighter and bombers over France, Britain fortified her defenses with surface-to-air weaponry.

 

AAA guns were anti-aircraft warfare cannons that were used to shoot down any plane within range, bomber, fighter and surveillance aircrafts. The cannons had deadly firepower that could shoot shells the size of your arm up to 24,000 feet into the sky! The minimal requirement for these guns were that they should be able to shoot a moving target moving at 400 mph before the gun’s elevation angle reached 70 degrees. Although these guns were deadly, they were sluggish and required four men: a loader, a gunner, a spotter and another person to replace one of them in case of injuries. Additional defenses were set up on the beaches in case of paratroop landings, or armored divisions pushing up onto the beach. However, the equipment was insufficient, there was only one machine gun every 5,000 meters, which meant that any enemy troops could just walk between the machine guns and destroy the beach towns and cities with little effort, and invade the country from there.

Basic training for civilian men included rifle training, hand to hand combat, basic aircraft maintenance and survival skills. Although many men were trained, they were not put to use. Men on the beaches just stood by every day waiting for an invasion. Roadblock duties were important were important to keep the people in the safety of the city. Furthermore, roadblocks were made to block potential tanks: the SS Panzer Tank Divisions were rumoured to be deadly. Happily, as you will see, there was never a ground assault.

Many educated women were sent to flight control rooms to coordinate planes, locating aircraft, aided by ground spotting units. Whenever a new group of planes were spotted, they would receive information by telephone. Since this was such an important job, security was tight to prevent spies from getting their hands on plans and vital information.

It was a clear day and everything was silent until the ground spotters heard the engines of planes coming. What is that silverfish arrow in the sky? what are those bird-like structures in the sky? People were simply curious until the first sound of bombs were heard miles away. Quickly, all of the people scrambled into their air raid shelters and defenses and the RAF pilots were deployed to intercept the Germans in a furious dogfight.

The RAF pilots sat nervously in their seats. They could hear the powerful engines of their Spitfires roaring in front of them. The Spitfire was an English fighter plane introduced to the RAF in 1938. It had a small cockpit positioned in the middle, the wings positioned not far from the propeller. It could only fit the pilot. Each in their own plane, their sweaty hands clenched to their ring-mounted control sticks, with the interior of the planes smelling like engine fuel and worn-out leather, they could feel thrumming  from the engine, and with their feet on the pedals, they watched vigilantly for the German wave of fighters. Soon enough, they were at 6,000 meters, the optimal combat altitude. All of a sudden, there was some static on one pilot’s radio – then came the voice of the commander through the TR1143 set transmitter. “Enemy formation dead ahead. Stay in formation until you receive orders to split apart.” Five minutes later, the first sound of enemy gunfire reached the already noisy cockpit. The nervous pilot looked back at his squadmates and he saw the first Bf 109 charge into their formation. The Bf 109 was a single propeller fighter plane, first introduced into the Luftwaffe in 1937. It had an all-metal construction and retractable gear. The nose was stubby and the cockpit (holding only one pilot as well) stuck out quite a lot.

 

Suddenly, the RAF pilot received the orders: “Split formation!”  As soon as the order was given, all of the planes tilted to one side and zoomed off into the distant clouds. Suddenly, a burst of adrenaline split through his veins and he remembered what his commander told him, a powerful sentence that would define his fate: “When you are in a formation, it keeps you alive, because it gives the enemy more people to shoot at. However when the formation splits apart, you’re on your own.” The pilot began to feel as if time was slowing down as he glared at an approaching Bf 109. He looked through the cockpit and, for a split second, he could see the German’s eyes glaring back at him as it careened past at 250 mph.

 

However, it did not matter, as all that mattered now was reaction. He vigorously pulled the control stick towards himself, lined up the crosshair and pulled the trigger. All he could hear now were the machine guns firing and the engine roaring. At the same time, the German pilot pulled his trigger; he hoped against hope that the bullets would not hit him through the glass. But it was not to be so: milliseconds later, when the first bullets penetrated his glass cockpit, the 7.92 millimeter rounds ripped through his leather seat – yet he too saw the enemy’s blood splatter all over the glass of the Bf 109, and the German aircraft began to yaw to one side and fall out. However, his heart was thumping, his face was sweating and his leg felt numb from stepping so hard on the tail control pedal. Despite all the efforts, he had a lot of targets to take down. He radioed his teammates for help but there was nothing; and that’s when he knew he was a dead man. He struggled to turn back, looking at his seat: it was covered with his blood and punched with multiple holes. His vision began to blur and his breath became heavier. Then he heard a loud BANG at the back of the plane; this set the plane on fire and the only thing he could do was watch his plane plummet towards the ground in flames… and all went dark.

 

On the other hand, the Germans were in their Bf 110s,  double-engined planes with multiple crew members, a long cockpit and a stubby round nose – but a long and thin tail. The wings were positioned towards the front. The tail had a fixed wheel. The pilot, the gunners, and the co-pilot knew that they could trust each other as soon as they were in formation. However, their smiles vanished when they caught sight of a bigger wave of RAF fighters approaching them. The British fighters had multiple Swastikas emblazoned on their tails, symbolising that they had shot down many Germans. Immediately, the Nazis fired their deadly 20mm rounds at the planes, but all missed. The RAF fighters swooped behind them and fired their guns, and most of the German planes burst into flames and crashed into the ocean within seconds.

While the British were busy destroying the fighters and heavy fighters, the Germans had deployed many Ju88 bombers to destroy the RAF bases. Junkers Ju 88s were widely used in WWII by the Germans. They were first introduced into the Luftwaffe in 1936 due to the needs of a faster, newer and more reliable bomber that they called the “Schnellbomber”, literally meaning “Fastbomber” in English. The requirements of a Fastbomber were to have the capability of reaching 310 km/h while carrying 800kg of bombs. The Junkers Ju88s were aesthetically quite similar to the Bf 110s. They had a stubby nose and a thin tail. The main difference between the Ju88s from the Bf 110s were that they had more defensive armaments and that a large portion of the Ju88s cockpit, nose and turrets were made from glass, thus making it a vulnerable target. Despite its main purpose of being a fast bomber, it was also used as a night fighter when equipped with enhanced radar and a support aircraft for naval operations. Its armament included bombs and two turrets; however, in some variations, it had offensive armaments that sometimes included two 20mm cannons on the nose.

 

The SS pilot looked down through the glass cockpit to see his target below. He and his crew were coming up on some English bases that provided the RAF with vital supplies for battle. He looked through the cockpit of the neighboring Bf 109 and gave the signal to engage the targets. The other Bf 109 pilot confirmed the order, and they were off into the air battle theater. A few minutes later, the crew heard the AAA cannons firing up at them. Fortunately, they were flying too high for the shells to hit them and the shells just exploded into a small cloud of black smoke. So far, the flight was calm until they heard a buzzing sound in the distance from behind them. As the sound grew louder, the pilot began to be more and more nervous, when seconds later, the gunner shot frantically at an approaching Hurricane. The escorting Bf 109 tried to intercept the Hurricane with a tight turn to get onto its tail but the Hurricane was too fast and it swooped on top of the Bf 109 and blew it out of the air. Back in the Ju88, the pilot tried to evade the Hurricane by attempting to do evasive manoeuvres but with the bombs weighing it down, it was almost impossible to outrun the Hurricane. The gunner gripped the handle of the turret in the gun and waited for the Hurricane to get into his field of vision. When the Hurricane finally was in the crosshair, he squeezed the trigger for a lucky hit while bullets ripped through the cabin. He kept his finger on the trigger for five seconds before the Hurricane’s nose-mounted engine burst into flames and it plummeted towards the sea. Just when he thought things were over, there was a slight burning smell in the cabin. He looked around and found out that there was a hole in one of the bombs in the plane. Before he could react, the bomb exploded, making a giant hole in the bottom of the plane, with half the left wing tearing off. The plane began to go into a vertical spin. The pilot shouted, “Brace for impact!” and moments later, the gunner found himself hurtling towards, then entering, the water. As the plane sunk towards the seabed, the pressure became unbearable until he eventually blacked out.

How did the aerial firepower balance out between the sides? The powerful Bf110s were the Luftwaffe’s heavy attack battle aircraft. They too had powerful 20mm cannons that could knock planes out of the air, able to fire many 7.92mm rounds per second. Additionally, their Bf109s were highly maneuverable with powerful MG 17 machine guns. All these planes were equipped with the most modern technology, including radar on the plane’s nose for night missions and radar positioned beneath the gun turrets which could detect enemy aircraft almost a kilometer away. On the other hand, the British only had a few types of aircraft, but they were an equal match for their German counterparts with planes such as the legendary Spitfire and the deadly Hurricane. Spitfires were agile fighters. Additionally, they were fitted with two pairs of twin Browning Machine guns and two cannons. Hurricanes were fitted with 8 7.7mm Browning Machine Guns with an incredible fire rate. Believe it or not, the British planes had nose-mounted guns that were synchronized with the propeller, thus, the bullets would shoot through the same exact space the propeller was encircling, yet would not damage the propeller.

During the battle, the RAF only lost about ⅓ the planes that the Germans lost. The British possessed well-trained pilots and fast planes; the Germans possessed superior firepower, but their planes were not fast enough to shoot down the British planes. One of the Polish pilots in the RAF described it as “easy and exciting” because their planes could easily outmatch the Luftwaffe’s heavy and sluggish “ships”. The battle between the blindingly fast Spitfires and Hurricanes and the German planes was like a fight between pigeons and hummingbirds. The hummingbirds were fast and swift, however, they did not inflict damage easily, and the pigeons could kill things in seconds, however, they were slower and less agile.

Back on the ground, the situation wasn’t easy either. Information and communication was vital. In the British defense bases, phone calls, commands and the sounds of people murmuring to each other filled the air. The rooms were crowded, with many people gathering around a table. On top of the table was a map with coordinate planes. Every time the commander shouter an update, all of them would scramble next to the table and move the mini figures that represented each fighter squadron. Each time a fighter squadron advanced, they would movie it a tile forward. But where did all the information come from?

Thanks to the radio stations stationed on the beaches, the guards could watch the skies and phone the station at any time they heard or spotted any German aircraft incoming. The men on the beaches had to stay under the scorching sun for hours. Despite the fatigue and the heat, they had no choice. When they heard the whizzing of the Bf109s and the Bf 110s, they would scramble to the phone booth and call Mission Control. Since this played a crucial part in the battle, the towers were heavily defended by barrage balloons in the air. AAA guns were usually stationed somewhere nearby. Barrage balloons were filled with explosive and gas, so when an enemy aircraft got too close, they would explode, causing severe damage.

During the final stages of the Battle, Goering ordered the last of the Luftwaffe to carry out heavy bombings in London, in an attempt to break their spirit. Despite all the efforts, the Luftwaffe was outmatched by the RAF and failed, in a crushing defeat. In autumn of 1940, the Luftwaffe officially surrendered and the Battle of Britain was over.  The result of the battle was that the Luftwaffe lost almost twice the amount that the RAF had lost, and the Nazi foothold in Britain was never achieved.

Finally, the three and a half months were over. The Germans realized that they could not have air superiority over Britain, thus, they were unable to continue the plans for the invasion of Britain. Through this battle, the Germans suffered a great defeat due to their tactics and the RAF’s superior aircraft. There were two main flaws in the German invasion tactics. First, the Bf 109s were tactical fighters, meaning that they were designed to provide immediate air support for naval operations and heavier aircraft such as bombers. In other words, the Bf 109s did not have the fuel capacity (also known as “range”) to provide support for the other aircraft, like the Ju88s. Therefore the SS fighter aircraft could not escort the bombers or heavy fighters for very long. On the other hand, the British defending their country with the RAF, could stay close to cities for refueling, rearming and repairing. Secondly, Germans design of attack was faulty. The Ju88s and other bombers did not have enough bomb capacity and were only capable of causing minor damage to the English defenses. In conclusion, the Germans were not prepared to sustain an attack over the Channel, and did not have the adequate aircraft for the operation.