Transcript The Battle of Britain - MrsVosburg

The Battle of Britain
June 18th – October 31st , 1940
By: Shannon LaPoint
Who Was There?

Great Britain

Germany

The RAF

The Luftwaffe

The head of the RAF was
Hugh Dowding

The head of the Luftwaffe was
Herman Goring
At the Start of the War

Britain had 1,660 aircrafts.




Germany had 4,000 aircrafts.
800 spitfires.
1,400 bombers.
800 hurricanes.
800 single engine
But only 600 of those were
serviceable before the night of
this battle.
The RAF also lacked
experienced pilots because
most of them had been killed in
the war of France and had not
been replaced.
fighter planes.
300 dive bombers.
240 twin engine
fighter planes.
2,500 planes were serviceable.
th
st
June 18 – October 31

The RAF was split into 3 major
groups.

No. 11 – defend London

No. 12 – defend eastern
counties and midlands

No. 13- defend Scotland
and northeast England


The RAF's main fighter planes
were Spitfires and Hurricanes.
The RAF's plans were supplied
with RADAR which played a big
roll in German defeat.
The Luftwaffe mainly fought over
southern England.
The Luftwaffe had 2,800 aircraft’s
stationed in France, Belgium,
Holland and Norway after the
fall of France.
Germany relied mainly on
Messcherschmitt fighters and
Junker Dive Bombers.
They used a new style of war fare
called the Blitzkrieg.
What was the Battle of Britain?


After the fall of France, Hitler went after Great Britain in what is known as
the Battle of Britain, a four month battle for air superiority.
All Hitler needed was control of the English Channel so that the British
Navy could not attack German barges, but getting the Channel, they
would need control of the air.

There were two things the British had that the Germans did not.
RADAR, which gave them early warning of approaching German

planes.

The Royal Observers Corps (ROC), which used binoculars to
do the same job as RADAR but only from the ground

By the end of July, the RAF had lost 150 aircrafts while the Luftwaffe had
lost 268.

By August the Luftwaffe started attacking Fighter Command stations
and RADAR stations.
The idea being that the RAF could be destroyed from the ground.



Bad weather stopped the Luftwaffe from daily raids in August.
From August 23rd to September 6th , the Luftwaffe started bombing
cities and civilians during the night.
The RAF was badly hit with 6 out of 7 main fighter bases being

destroyed.
By now the Luftwaffe was losing even more planes then the RAF

was – 1000 German losses to 550 RAF losses.

The change to bombing cities gave Fighter Command time to
recover from its losses and pilots to recover from exhaustion.

Soon Goering ordered an end to raids on RADAR bases, as they
were “unimportant.”


On September 15th , the battles last major engagement, the Luftwaffe
lost 60 planes while the RAF lost 28.
September 17th , Hitler postponed the invasion of Britain through night
time bombings.


But the Blitzkrieg continued.
London and other places were all hit badly with these raids.
Works Cited Page
Barker, Ralph. The RAF At War. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life, 1982. Print.
"The Battle of Britain." History Learning Site. Web. 28 Jan. 2011.
<http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battleofbritain.html>.
"Battle of Britain." Spartacus Educational - Home Page. Web. 28 Jan. 2011.
<http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWbritainB.htm>.
The Luftwaffe. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life, 1982. Print.
"RAF - Page Not Found." RAF - RAF Homepage. 16 Feb. 2005. Web. 28 Jan.
2011. <http://www.raf.mod.uk/bob1940/bacjground.html>.
Rice, Earle. Strategic Battles in Europe. San Diego, CA: Lucent, 2000. Print.