The Battle of Britain

1
The Battle of Britain
2
I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to
begin. Upon this battle rests the future of
Christian civilisation. Hitler knows that he will
have to break us in this island or lose the war.
If we succeed all Europe may be free and the life
of the world move forwards in to broad sunlit
uplands. But if we fail we will sink in to the
abyss of a new dark age made more protracted and
more sinister by the light of a perverted science.
3
Following the collapse of France on June18th
1940, Hitler ordered plans for an invasion of
Britain. The success of the plan would depend on
the Luftwaffes (airforce) ability to destroy the
RAF first. Air Marshall Goering promised Hitler
it could be achieved given the Luftwaffes almost
41 advantage over the RAF in aircraft.
4
Fighter Command sectors. 11 Group was the front
line in the battle and bore the brunt of enemy
attacks.
5
(No Transcript)
6
(No Transcript)
7
Radar allowed fighter controllers on the ground
to detect the numbers, direction and altitude of
enemy aircraft. Fighters could be sent to the
exact location to intercept them.
8
(No Transcript)
9
(No Transcript)
10
(No Transcript)
11
(No Transcript)
12
Read the notes on the four phases of the Battle

• How important was the outcome of this battle for
  (a) Britain (b) Germany ?
• To what extent did the following factors decide
  the battle
• (a) Leadership (b) luck ( c ) tactical errors
  (d) technology

13
Outcome of the battle

• For Britain
• Managed to prevent an invasion by German ground
  forces.
• Showed determined resistance to Nazi aggression.
• Boosted civilian morale following Norway and
  Dunkirk.
• Showed USA that Britain was still in the fight

14

• US Ambassador to Britain in 1940 was Joseph
  Kennedy (father of JFK). He telegrammed Roosevelt
  regularly after Dunkirk predicting that Britain
  would collapse in a matter of weeks and make
  peace. Battle of Britain boosted British prestige
  in the USA.

15
Outcome of the battle

• For Germany
• First strategic defeat of the war
• Britain remained undefeated / unoccupied
• Britain became a base from which to launch air
  raids in Europe and help resistance fighters on
  the continent.
• From 1942 Britain became the base for the US
  build up of forces in Europe.

16
Factors luck

• German accidental air raids on London led to
  retaliation strike on Berlin by RAF which led to
  a major change in tactics by Luftwaffe to city
  bombing from attacks on radar stations and
  airfields.

17
Factors technology

• RAF fighters were modern and fast. Spitfire was
  fractionally slower than Me109 but more agile.
  Me109 had limited range over Britain.
• Radar allowed the RAF to deploy aircraft with
  precision and avoided the need for wasteful
  patrols. The first instance in the history of
  warfare where commanders had an up to date
  picture of the battle as it unfolded in real
  time

18
(No Transcript)
19
Leadership

• Dowding and Park were brilliant RAF commanders.
• Technology allowed them to oversee the battle.
• Goering had confused aims and failed to press
  home the advantage the Luftwaffe had by
  mid-September 1940

20
Tactical errors

• The switch to city bombing took the pressure off
  Fighter Command and allowed them to regroup, rest
  and repair airfields and aircraft.
• Failure to wipe out the RAF by October made a
  postponement of Sealion inevitable as weather
  conditions in the English Channel would have made
  an amphibious assault too risky.

21
Key evaluation question Did the RAF win the
battle or did the Luftwaffe lose it ?Luftwaffe
lost it.

• RAF desperately short of pilots by September. 25
  killed / wounded / battle fatigued.
• Polish, Canadian, South African, American
  volunteer pilots made up the shortfall. Many RAF
  pilots were hastily trained with only a few hours
  experience in fast fighters.
• Germans began the battle with a 41 ratio of
  advantage over the RAF against almost identical
  aircraft and battle-hardened pilots.

22
RAF won it

• British fighter aircraft production (Lord
  Beaverbrook made Minister of aircraft production)
  ensured delivery of at least 200 aircraft a month
  by September.
• German morale affected by continued RAF
  resistance. Poor intelligence underestimated
  strength of RAF resistance.
• German losses peaked on September 15th 1940 with
  over 60 aircraft lost in one day.
• Radar gave the RAF the edge in defensive
  planning.
• RAF fighting over home ground.

23
December 29th 1940 - the second great fire of
London - provided one of the most iconic images
of the 20th century.
24
The nature and extent of civilian bombing in
Britain.

• The Blitz lasted from September 1940-May 1941.
  There were not air raids every single night.
• Most large cities in Britain were bombed
  including Belfast and Glasgow.
• London was the principle target for Luftwaffe
  attacks, receiving 53 nights of consecutive
  raids.

25
London Docks
Financial district The City.
West End
Parliament and Government offices. Whitehall
River Thames. On a clear moonlit night reflected
a superb navigational target for German bomber
crews.
26
How effective were the Luftwaffe raids ?

• Read the notes on the effectiveness of the
  German raids on British industrial targets.
• Based on that evaluation, should the Germans
  have
• (a) increased their attacks to increase pressure
  on Britain to make peace.
• (b) Pursue a different strategy altogether ?

27
Limitations of the German bombing campaign

• Germany only dropped 35,000 tons of bombs during
  the 1940-41 Blitz. This was a fraction of what
  was dropped on Germany later on (400,000 tons
  dropped on Germany in last four months of war)
• Germany lacked a heavy long range bomber in
  1940 similar to the Lancaster and B29 bombers
  used by the RAF and USAF from 1943-45.

28
(No Transcript)
29
Electronic warfare battle of the beams.
British engineers discovered these beams and
devised a method of jamming them so German
bomber crews could not follow their path.
German radio transmitters in France transmitted
two radio beams which could be made to cross over
a precise target such as an aircraft factory.
German bomber crews used these beams to navigate
to their targets.
The next five years saw a deadly electronic
arms race to win the radar battle.
30
Why wasnt poison gas used ?

• The British government had expected poison gas to
  be used on civilian targets.
• All citizens were equipped with gas masks.
• Germany had stocks of chlorine and mustard gas
  (used in WW1) and newer nerve gases such as
  Tabun. (Effectiveness of gas masks highly
  doubtful against these agents !)
• Fear of retaliation prevented their use just as
  with nuclear weapons during the Cold War era.

31
(No Transcript)
32
About 30cm in length, these magnesium incendiary
bombs were designed to start fires, overwhelm
rescue services and light a path for the second
wave of bombers to drop high explosive bombs.
33
(No Transcript)
34
The night London burned, Roosevelt delivered one
of his most famous fireside chat radio
broadcasts.
If Great Britain goes down, the Axis powers will
control the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa,
Australasia, and the high seasand they will be
in a position to bring enormous military and
naval resources against this hemisphere. It is no
exaggeration to say that all of us, in all the
Americas, would be living at the point of a guna
gun loaded with explosive bullets, economic as
well as military.
35
Reading tasks

• Read the sections from Juliet Gardiner on the
  raids on Coventry 14th/15th November 1940 and
  London 29th December 1940.
• What effects did the raids have on
• Civilian morale, housing, industrial production
  and the emergency services

36
The Baedeker Raids

• Following an RAF raid on the historic city of
  Lubeck, the Luftwaffe launched a series of
  revenge attacks on British historical /
  cultural targets.
• The targets were allegedly picked out of the
  famous Baedeker Guide books.
• Exeter, Bath, Cambridge, Canterbury and Norwich
  were all bombed in April-May 1942.
• These were small-scale raids on small target
  areas as the majority of the Luftwaffe was
  stationed on the Russian front.

37
What if.?

• If Hitler had not decided to invade the USSR in
  June 1941 he could have concentrated all his
  airpower on a sustained and massive aerial
  bombardment of the British Isles lasting for at
  least one or two years. What would have been the
  outcome ?

38
Had Germany not invaded the USSR in 1941 they
might have caused far more destruction to Britain.
39
The effectiveness of civilian bombing raids on
Britain
40
The effectiveness of civilian bombing raids on
Britain