THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN

Simone Stubblefield

Steven Wright

Doug Perez

Lone Britannia

• Most of Continental Europe had fallen, Britain’s army evacuated Dunkirk

• Britain’s Navy was scattered across globe.

• Britain’s air force outnumbered ten to one

• 1 Machine Gun for every 1,500 yards of beach

• 1 tank for 1,000 miles.

Why Britain?

• Once Britain had fallen, Hitler would have complete control over Europe.

• With the combined Force of Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, Hitler could attack the east coast of the United States.

German Invasion Plan Phase 1• Knock RAF and it’s basses; get control of air

and sea lands across the channel.• Destroy communication and Transport lines

with bombers. Above all, get command of the air.

German Invasion Plan Phase 2

• Pulverize coast line with dive-bombers. • Drop parachute troops to take over airfields and

establish beachheads.

German Invasion Plan Phase 3

• Operation Sea Lion. Under protection of Fighter planes, German panzers travel across channel on high speed barges.

• Send Spearheads to conqueror Britain.

• Women would put up Barrage Balloons, Run the railroads, ferry the planes, and carry the dispatches,

Britain Prepares• People of Britain worked up to 70 hours a week

to manufacture weapons. • Butchers, Lawyers, Policemen and other citizens

formed a civilian army, Britain's home guard.

The Legendary Spitfire• An icon of the air war throughout the world• Incorporated many new air technologies• This was Britain’s main line of defense in the

battle

The Hawker Hurricane

• Build as a ground support fighter

• Considered the “work-horse” of the air force, accounting for the most RAF victories during the Battle of Britain

Radar Plays a Major Role

• Developed earlier, radar played a large part in the Battle of Britain

• Radar could pick up enemy positions, numbers, and altitude

• This gave the RAF a huge advantage, because they could coordination much easier

The Dowding System

• Britain divided into Groups and sectors

• Information from all sectors would be channeled to Fighter Command, where fighters could to dispatched

• Success came from the communication and ground control

The Dowding System

Enigma Codes

• This was the code used for transmitting secret German messages

• The machine was captured and code cracked

• British had some idea of German intensions throughout the battle

The Battle Begins• On 9 July, 1940, the battle

begun• The beginning of the battle

was marked by the first raid on shipping in the British channel

• This battle was the decide the fate of England, and the world

Phase 1 - Kanalkampf

• Comprised of a series of raids of British shipping and docks

• These battles tended to favor the Germans• German’s were rather successful at destroying

British ships - the British had to stop convoys through the channel

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Phase 2 - Adlerangriff• Lasted from 11 August to 23 August• In this stage the Germans tried to knock out

coastal British airfields and air defenses• These were largely unsuccessful, and

resulted in large German losses

Phase 3 - Inland Airfields

• Lasted from 24 August to 7 September

• Was the most intense part of the battle

• Day-raids were made on airfields in southern England

• Losses were heavy on both sides

• The Luftwaffe was winning this

Phase 4 - Raids on British Cities

• On 7 September, Hitler Luftwaffe to bomb cities

• This was a relief for RAF, who could not take more airfield attacks

• Day raids were repulsed by the RAF• Luftwaffe switched the night raiding - threat of

Invasion was gone

The Bombing of London

• The hardest hit city was London

• German bomb attacks were indiscriminate

• Germans dropped so many fire bombs they caused the largest fire in recorded history

London in Flames

The Battle Continues

• Battle of Britain ended on 31 October, 1940, when German plans for an invasion were scrapped

• Although there was no threat of invasion, German city raids continued until May 1941

RAF Tactics• Used “divide and

conquer” strategy on bomber formations

• Dowding prefer to have his fighter live another day rather than frontally attack Germans

• British strategy relied much on the Dowding system

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Luftwaffe Tactics• Tactics were designed to knock out planes• “Free sweeps” to knock out patrols• Decoy forces with many fighters were lured

British• Most fighters were used as escorts, not free-

roamers

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The After Math

• British lost 906 aircraft and had almost 60,000 casualities

• Germans lost almost 2,700 aircraft

• Showed that air-power alone could not win battles

• Allowed Britain to survive and eventually spring Operation Overlord

Why the Germans Lost

• Lost mainly because of Dowding’s strategies used against the Luftwaffe

• Misjudgments at high levels

• Nazis met an equally determined free people

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by

so many to so few”

-Winston Churchill

Sources

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_britain

• http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=226140

• http://www.raf.mod.uk/bob1940/bobhome.html

• http://www.battle-of-britain.com/

The End

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