The Battle of Britain was an aerial battle between the Nazi Luftwaffe and the British Royal Air Force, or RAF. It happened in the summer and early autumn of 1940.

            The most famous aircraft in the Battle was the Supermarine Spitfire. This was a single-engine single-seat daytime interceptor, at least during 1940. It had a 1,030 horsepower Rolls-Royce Merlin and eight 0.303 caliber Browning machine guns with 300 rounds per gun.

            The Spitfire was designed by R.J. Mitchell, who was the Chief Designer for Supermarine. It was originally rejected by the Air Ministry because it didn’t have, nor appear to have room for, eight guns. Mitchell designed an elliptical wing, the now famous shape, that could hold the guns. It entered service on the 4^th of August 1938.

            The British, during the Battle, actually had more of the Hawker Hurricane than the Spitfire. The Hurricane was a lower performance aircraft, but it was simpler, so it could be built more rapidly.

            The fighter was the main reason that the Battle of Britain was won, it having the greater number of kills. It was designed by Sidney Camm of Hawker Aircraft and first flew in 1937.

The main German fighter was the Messerchmitt Bf 109, which was also a single seat fighter. It was designed by Willie Messerchmitt, and first flew in 1935. The engine was a 1,000 hp Daimler-Benz DB 601A.

The premier German bomber was the twin-engined Heinkel He-111, it was a medium bomber and also had the DB 601A. It flew in 1934.

There was also a dive bomber, the Ju 87, which played a small part. It was a single engine fixed gear very slow aircraft that was very vulnerable to attack. Iw as introduced in 1936.

There are generally considered to be four main stages of the Battle of Britain; the Channel battles, the early attacks on the coastal airfields, the airfields are targeted, and the day attacks concentrate on British towns and cities.

The Battle of Britain started on the 9^th of July, 1940, when the Luft waffe started to attack ships and convoys travelling through the English Channel. This was when both sides found that some of their aircraft were of no use for dogfighting that would be the mainstay of the battle, such as the RAF’s Boulton Paul Defiant, a turret fighter that didn’t have any forward armament, and the Luftwaffe’s Bf 110, a twin engine fighter that wasn’t very manouverable.

The next stage started on the 12^th of August, when Ju-87s attacked the radar stations on the Channel coast, although they were only knocked out for six hours. The 13^th was the real start of the action, when the Luftwaffe opened with attacks on airfields and radar stations. The 15^th was when the Luftwaffe sent the most sorties (missions) to the Island, and they headed progressively further and further inland; this was called “The Greatest Day”. Conversely, the “Hardest Day” occurred on the 18^th of August, when both side experienced the highest number of casualties during the campaign.

Göring, the German commander in charge, made several decisions that would impact the outcome. He withdrew both the Ju-87 and the Bf-110, leaving several wings without airpower and concentrating the effort on fewer units; the Bf-110 was kept only for long range or when there was enough single engine escort. He also ordered more escorts for the bombers, hobbling the efforts of the fighters, as they had to stay nearby. Finally, he stopped the attacks on the radars, as he and his subordinates failed to see their significance to Britain’s defence.

The third stage, from the 24^th, it became a direct battle between the two air forces, with the Luftwaffe concentrating its forces on destroying the RAF airfields. The key airfields were hit repeatedly, sometimes up to four times in the next two weeks. This stage was a key point for the RAF, as while they could replace the aircraft with little problem, they were running out of pilots. This was solved by taking advantage of Britain’s Empire; a lot of pilots came from Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. There were also contributions in the form of Free Polish and Czech pilots, one squadron, 303 Fighter, a Polish squadron, had the highest number of kills for all of the units engaged on the Allied side.

The RAF also had the advantage of fighting over their own land, as this both gave them an extra push to succeed and if they bailed out, they could be back at their squadron in a matter of hours. The Luftwaffe had to deal with finite losses, as they could not get their pilots back and any that went down in the Channel faced drowning or death by exposure.

The 7^th of September had the first of the massed raids against the British cities, which were ordered by Hitler after a retaliation raid by the RAF when a few German bomber accidentally bombed London. That raid specifically targeted the East End of London, where the docks were. Subsequent ones either also targeted the East End or simply bombed indiscriminately.

This change in tactics was opposed by some in the German High Command, but were overruled. This was fortunate, as the RAF could now recover from the attacks and build up its forces again, as well as attacking the bombers when they came. The raids to London were longer than the previous ones, and the effect on the escorting fighters was disastrous, there being only ten minutes available over London; this also had the effect that the bombers were frequently left undefended by escorts right when they needed them the most.

The 17^th was the culmination of the entire Battle of Britain, when two huge raids were repulsed by the RAF, with a kill ratio of 2:1, in the favor of the RAF. Two days afterwards, Hitler ordered the deferment of the invasion plans. Daylight raids were dispensed with, and the Luftwaffe went exclusively with nighttime raids through 1941.

This was the first time that the Nazis had suffered defeat, and it shifted US opinion when it thought that defeat was inevitable. The German strategies failed, which were the destruction of the RAF and the public morale.