After Nazi Germany took France in July 1940, Hitler set out to deal with Britain, for which the German High Command formulated the Sea Lion Plan against Britain, with a view to landing operations against Britain. The battle was planned to land infantry in the south of England and penetrate deeper and occupy London, cutting off its contact with the outside world, thus occupying LinkedIn country in one fell swoop. But the operation needed to first annihilate British air power to ensure the smooth landing. So Luftwaffe Field Marshal Goering was ordered to annihilate the British Air Force, the earliest date of which was set for August 5, code-named "Eagle Strike". On 6 August, Goering officially set the date of the attack on 12 August, called "Eagle Day", but because of the unstable weather in the south of England, the Luftwaffe officially launched a large-scale airstrike against Britain on 13 August.
Phase I (10 July - 12 August 1940)
Prior to this, the British and German air forces had begun large-scale engagements in the airspace of the English Channel. The Luftwaffe mainly targeted convoy convoys in the region and military targets in southern British ports in an attempt to entice a large number of British fighter jets in preparation for the Sea Lion landing. Dowding, commander of the RAF fighter unit, combined fighters, radar and anti-aircraft artillery, and concentrated on the deployment of fighters, taking the form of interception from all directions to meet Germany. Both sides suffered heavy losses, the Germans paid a huge price of 367 downed aircraft, so that the British 12 airfields and 7 aircraft factories were damaged to varying degrees, 6 radar stations were once ineffective, 1 command center was bombed, 1 ammunition depot and 10 oil storage depots were destroyed, and the British lost 183 aircraft at this stage.
German HE111 bomber over London
Phase II (13 August - 23 August 1940)
Although the strategy of the Luftwaffe in the first phase was basically defeated, Hitler's ambition to take over Britain did not waver, and at the same time decided to carry out the "Great Air War of the Luftwaffe against Britain", and on August 13, Germany officially began a large-scale air raid on the British mainland. Its strategic objective was to open the air route to London and eliminate the remaining British fighters and destroy its ground facilities and aircraft factories, followed by a concentrated bombing of London. Dowding ordered as many fighters as possible to protect the aircraft factories in the south and to intercept enemy aircraft attacking ground facilities. During the 10-day battle, germany carried out 5 large-scale bombings against Britain, losing 290 aircraft. British fighters lost 114.
Luftwaffe main fighter - Bf 109
Phase III (24 August - 30 September 1940)
Just when the British Air Force was on the verge of collapse due to the continuous casualties and related facilities, the Germans suddenly changed their tactics, no longer attacking british airfields and command centers, but instead carrying out large-scale air raids on civilian areas of London, and the Battle of Britain entered the third phase.
The change was entirely due to a fortuitous event when, on 24 August, 12 stray German bombers flew to London and dropped bombs on civilian-inhabited city centres because they could not find the targets. On 25 August, the British decided to retaliate by sending 81 bombers to attack Berlin. Although the war damage caused by this air raid was minimal, it greatly shocked Germany psychologically. On the night of August 28 and the night of August 31, the British attacked Berlin twice, making ordinary Germans really feel the war. Hitler was enraged by such provocations and threatened to destroy London once and for all. In retaliation for the British airstrike on Berlin on 25 August, Goering ordered the German bombing target to be London. On 7 September 1940, a vast group of 625 bombers, 648 fighters and destroyers crossed the English Channel from different directions and altitudes to London. The British Air Force had not yet reacted, thinking that the Germans were still going to attack their front-line bases as usual, so they voluntarily gave way to London in order to concentrate on defending the coastal bases. As a result, the Bombing of London occurred, and the Germans successfully poured more than 300 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary bombs into London. On 9 September, the Germans again assembled a large number of aircraft and continued to intrude into the air raids over the London area at any cost, completely changing the strategic objectives of the campaign. On September 15, the British Air Force has dispatched more than 300 fighters from 19 squadrons to meet the large group of 200 German bombers and 600 fighters heading to London, and the fierce air battle lasted for a whole day. During the day, 56 German aircraft were shot down, another 12 crashed with serious injuries on the way back and landing, and 80 aircraft were seriously injured. The British lost only 26 fighters in the air battle, and 7 others were seriously wounded and scrapped. This major victory was also a turning point in the Battle of Britain.
The main fighter of the ROYALF - Spitfire
On 16 and 17 September, the British Air Force continued to send bombers to launch a fierce attack on German ships and troops assembled along the coast for landing, sinking and wounding nearly a hundred ships, and causing heavy human and material losses to the Germans, forcing Hitler to order the cessation of the build-up of ships along the coast on September 18. In order to minimize aircraft losses, Goering ordered that air raids on Britain began on 1 October and be changed to nighttime. On 12 October, Hitler decided to postpone projects for the Sea Lion until the spring of 1941, effectively abandoning the operational plan for landing in Britain.
Phase IV (1 October 1940 – 22 June 1941)
Although Hitler had abandoned his plan of attack on Britain, Goering was not content with such a defeat and continued to carry out night air raids on London and surrounding industrial cities, and the Battle of Britain entered the fourth phase. During this phase, the most typical battle was the November 14 air raid, code-named "Moonlight Sonata", and the German target was Coventry, a British aviation industry base. The British had already mastered the German plan in advance by deciphering the German top secret, the Enigma cipher, but in order not to let it detect that the code was deciphered, Churchill decided to do everything as usual, neither increasing Coventry's air defenses nor sending an early warning to evacuate civilians. That night, the Germans dispatched 449 bombers to drop 394 tons of high-explosive bombs and 56 tons of incendiary bombs in the center of Coventry, in addition to 127 time-lapse bombs to disrupt the British rescue operation. More than 50,000 buildings in Coventry were destroyed, 554 people were killed and 864 seriously injured, 12 factories producing aircraft parts were severely damaged, resulting in a 20% reduction in British aircraft production, and the water and electricity supply in The downtown area of Coventry was interrupted for 35 days before recovery, and the losses were extremely heavy.
The city of London after the bombing
From March 1941 onwards, as the weather improved, German air raids gradually intensified, and the Purpose of German Air Raids was only to create the illusion of attacking Britain and cover up the imminent start of operations against the Soviet Union. On the night of May 10, the Luftwaffe launched the last large-scale night air raid, a total of more than 500 aircraft were dispatched to bomb London indiscriminately, all the pilots involved in the war were instructed to drop bombs anywhere, 700 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary bombs fell on the city of London, the fire lit up most of the night sky, 1436 people were killed, more than 1800 seriously injured. With the outbreak of the Soviet-German War on 22 June, the main luftwaffe moved to the Soviet theater, and the strategic air raids on Britain finally stopped. The Battle of Britain was over.
British civilians walk through the ruined streets
In the nearly one-year Battle of Britain, more than 6,000 aircraft were flown from both sides (1,963 British and 4,074 German), 1,544 British pilots were killed, 422 wounded, and 1,744 aircraft were lost. 2,698 German pilots were killed, 967 captured, 638 missing, and 1,887 fighters (mostly bombers) were lost. Since the Luftwaffe was unable to seize air supremacy over the English Channel under superior forces, the battle plan to land in Britain could only be stillborn, and the intention of forcing the British government to surrender or cooperate with Germany could not be realized. The Luftwaffe bombers lost more than one-third of their strength, although it did not affect Germany's overall war strength, but for Germany with very limited resources, these losses were basically difficult to replenish, indirectly weakening Germany's power to launch large-scale operations. Although the British side also suffered heavy losses, through the assistance and materials of the United States, the British overseas troops were still able to stop the Italian and German plans in North Africa, and also saved the counterattack on the largest base in Europe, making Nazi Germany in an unfavorable situation of being attacked by the enemy throughout the war, indirectly laying the foreshadowing of defeat. At the same time, in terms of psychological factors, Britain temporarily blocked the sharpness of the German offensive, and also broke the record of the Luftwaffe in the early stage of the war, laying an important morale foundation for the final victory over Nazi Germany.