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I wants you. I surrender pls don’t cut off my moustachio June 1940: France surrenders to Germany after six weeks of German blitzkrieg. A

I wants you too. Fite me irl However, Britain wasn’t going to go down without a serious fight. A

Thesis The Third Reich’s Operation Sea Lion attempted to force a British surrender; due to poor execution, however, the Operation quickly wound down into the aerial war of attrition known as the Battle of Britain. Though smaller in size, the Royal Air Force used its faster fighters and radar to fight the endless German bomber groups to a near-stalemate. Hitler’s emotional decision-making allowed the Royal Air Force to regroup and inflict heavy losses on the Luftwaffe, eventually leading to the cancellation of Operation Sea Lion. The successful defense of Britain was the first time that Adolf Hitler’s seemingly invincible advance had been brought to a halt, boosting Allied morale everywhere while forcing Hitler to lose his one-front Blitzkrieg advantage. Tl;dr Germany bomb Britain, Britain won’t die, Hitler gives up and Allies happy. A

How will Hitler try to invade Britain? Trick question: He doesn’t even plan on trying.  Blitzkrieg doesn’t work when you have a channel between you and the enemy  Use the Luftwaffe to reduce Britain to rubble  Use U-boats to starve Britain into submission T

Operation Sea Lion  In case this doesn’t work:  Use the Luftwaffe to knock out air bases  Knock out naval bases to stop the Royal Navy from hindering landing  Invade using occupied France and Belgium as launchpads  Landing points around Southern England T

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The German Side  Adolf Hitler, Fuhrer of Germany  Originally wanted to make peace with Britain  Later decided to conquer and destroy them  Led by Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering  Supreme Marshal of the German Luftwaffe  Many failures; eventually fell out of Hitler’s favor  Executed for war crimes at the Nuremburg Trials  General Adolf Galland  Commander of the German Fighting Arm  One of the best pilots in the Luftwaffe M

Luftwaffe Organization  Luftflotte 2: based in Belgium  Commanded by Feldmarschall Albert Kesselring  1206 aircraft (over half were fighters)  Luftflotte 3: based in France  Commanded by General Hugo Sperrle  1042 aircraft  Luftflotte 5: based in Norway  Commanded by Feldmarschall Hans-Jurgen Stumpff  155 defensive aircraft M

Luftwaffe Aircraft  Heavy and medium bombers  Heinkel He 111  Dornier Do 17  Junkers Ju 88  Escorted by fighters and fighter-bombers:  Messerschmitt Bf 109E  Messerschmitt Bf 110C  Junkers Ju-87 Stuka M

The British Side  Prime Minister Winston Churchill: helped prepare Britain for war  Evacuated children from the cities to the countryside  Set up early warning and alarm systems  Fantastic orator who kept popular morale high I

 Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding: in charge of major strategy and decision making for Britain  Commander-in-Chief of the RAF Fighter Command  Maxwell Aitken: Minister of Aircraft Production  Increased the production and repair of aircraft I

The Royal Air Force Four RAF fighter groups, each commanded by an Air Vice Marshal  10 Group: Southwestern United Kingdom  11 Group: Southeastern United Kingdom  Commanded by AVM Keith Park  12 Group: Midlands  Commanded by AVM Trafford Leigh-Mallory  13 Group: northern England and Scotland Total of 754 single-seat fighters defending the United Kingdom I

British Advantages  2x higher factory output of aircraft  More highly trained and skilled pilots  Radar, developed by Robert Watson-Watt, provided Britain with a key early warning system to coordinate fighter defenses  Fighting over British soil meant that RAF pilots could eject and survive, while German airmen were captured upon landing. T

British Advantages (cont.)  The cornerstone of the British defenses was their small, fast, highly maneuverable single- seat fighters like the Supermarine Spitfire Mk I and the Hawker Hurricane Mk I.  Germany was fighting an offensive war, using slower bombers that could be easily shredded by the Spitfire’s 20mm cannons. T

Kanalkampf  First phase of the Battle of Britain  July 10 – Mid-August, 1940  Bombed British domestic shipping in the English Channel  Lured out the RAF from their bases to be attacked by Luftwaffe fighters  Britain winning by numbers (248 vs 148 aircraft), but war of attrition clearly impossible for Britain to win J

Aldertag  August 13, 1940; translates to “Eagle Day”  Germans heavily bombed British airfields and the Radar Defense System (RDS); appeared highly successful but failure in reality  Britain quickly restores all but one of its radar installations, giving UK early warning again  Air bases hit belonged to different branch of RAF; fighters relatively unscathed  All this time, Germans continue to lose aircraft J

Hitler’s Mistake  German plane bombs London  Against German orders  Enrages Britain because civilians targeted  Allies bomb Berlin in retaliation  Goering ‘insulted’: “If a raid of Berlin ever happens, you can call me Meyer.”  Hitler enraged, immediately orders a concentrated bombing campaign of London instead  Allowed RAF to regroup and recover A

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Timeline of the Battle J

Casualties M

Why This “Battle” Mattered  Gave hope for victory to the occupied Europeans  Fed partisan resistance against German occupation forces  Convinced many members of the American public to support assisting Britain  Helped secure passage of the 1941 Lend- Lease Act  Luftwaffe never recovered from the loss  Forced Germany to spread its resources in three different directions: West, South, and East  No longer a quick Blitzkrieg victory for Germany This was the first time that Adolf Hitler’s world takeover was stopped. J

Lesson Learned:  It’s not the size of your air force that matters, it’s how you use it. A

Works Cited  “Great Air Battles: The Battle of Britain.” Great Air Battles: The Battle of Britain. Polish Academic Information Center, University at Buffalo, Web. 14 May poland.buffalo.edu/britain/airbattle.html. poland.buffalo.edu/britain/airbattle.html  Keegan, John. “Chapter 4.” The Second World War. New York: Viking, N. pag. Print.  “Leaders and Commanders.” Leaders and Commanders. Battle of Britain Historical Society, n.d. Web. 14 May  Miller, Donald L., and Henry Steele Commager. The Story of World War II. New York: Simon & Schuster, Print.  Tucker, Spencer, and Priscilla Mary. Roberts. "Britain, Battle of." Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, N. pag. Print. I