70 Years Ago this week: The Battle of Britain
by Chris on Aug.16, 2010, under history, photography
- Contrails in the sky above St Paul’s Cathedral
Seventy years ago Britain was fighting for her survival against Nazi Germany. The consequence of defeat at the hands of the criminal regime running that country would have been appalling; thanks to the Royal Air Force victory in the battle over Britain it never had to be faced. Instead, the possibility of an eventual Nazi defeat remained open .
After the fall of France Hitler’s army and navy needed air superiority if they were to embark on an invasion of the British isles with any chance of success. To do that the Luftwaffe would have to eliminate their ‘most dangerous enemy’ -the RAF. So the summer of 1940 saw a ferocious airbattle of the south of England as the Germans struggled to crush the RAF and terrorise the British people into capitulation. Failing that, they would invade. Thanks to the pilots and ground crew of the RAF, radar (“RDF”) and the leadership of men like Dowding (head of fighter command) and Keith Park (commander, 11 group which took the brunt of the attack) that never happened. The outnumbered RAF inflicted unsupportable losses on the Luftwaffe bombers and fighters. The Germans then turned to the bombing of the cities, at first by day and then by night. They did enormous damage, but they didn’t break the people’s spirit. Britain hung on, undefeated.
My family lived in Southampton, and as (bad) luck would have it the Supermarine Spitfire works were at the end of the garden. While Southampton, and especially the docks, were getting regular attacks, the place where the Spitfires were made was a special target of the daylight raids. My father remembered seeing formations of Luftwaffe bombers and fighters (he remembered the characteristic ‘weaving’ flight path of the latter) coming up Southampton water and being engaged by RAF fighters. He and his mates seem to have been standing outside the shelter -bravado perhaps, in the earlier days of the battle.
My mother recalled being in the shelter during raids, and in particular she remembered the enormous racket the AA gun positioned just outside the house, was making. What they didn’t know was that a specialist precision bombing group was targeting that very spot -the Woolston Supermarine Spitfire works. They were supposed to be ‘precise’ but nothing much in 1940 bombing was that accurate, so they were lucky to survive unscathed She and her young daughter – my eldest sister – were later evacuated out of harm’s way, and my father went back to preparing for the invasion of Europe – which didn’t come until 1944. But without victory in 1940 it wouldn’t have come at all.
Below are a series of maps showing the stages of the battle, and some photographs dating from those desperate weeks in the summer of 1940.
The maps are reproduced from the excellent Battle of Britain Tactics web page, part of a site devoted to aviation. The best books on the battle that I’ve read are The Most Dangerous Enemy (Stephen Bungay) and The Battle of Britain (Richard Overy). Both well written and authoritative. If you found this of interest you might like to look at my post on D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. Churchill’s famous reaction to the Dunkirk evacuation which immediately preceded the battle can be found here.
(Keep scrolling down past any gaps in the picture sequence)
- German bombers coming in low across the English Channel
- An HE111 hit by British fire
- Modern photograph of the Spitfire
- Spitfires
- British children looking up at the battle
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September 10th, 2010 on 10:01 pm
I really enjoyed reading that a great deal. I must ask my Mum about the Battle of Britain and her memories. She lived in Glasgow and her tenement received a direct hit in March, 1941. Her brother Billy was killed. Her father was blinded and dragged out of the rubble three days later (he like to joke on the third day he rose again)presumed dead. Her heavily pregnant mother gave birth to a boy called Thomas that night who was born deaf as a result of the blast. The children who survived were sent to Eaglesham to live with relatives and a few months later swapped bits of Hess’ plane for Mars bars when he crash landed on his visit to the Duke of Hamilton.
Decades later they found out that a fifteen year old boy rescued Granny from the rubble and chivalrously gave her his coat. He later lied about his age and volunteered for Bomber Command and became a rear gunner. My then 92 year old granny was able to thank this now elderly gentleman for his kindness.
September 11th, 2010 on 6:20 pm
Many thanks for comment -really interesting. Yes: ask your Mum -there is no substitute for that kind of personal history. I also think its important to have a sense of the past -and of that war in particular -in order to be decently proud of what ‘ordinary’ people did -and do. We mustn’t leave this necessary remembering to the political right, the xenophobes and jingos.
September 17th, 2010 on 8:10 pm
All credit to the RAF but one must remember the geographical factor that probably helped Britain the most. The Channel. I doubt that Britain would of been able to handle the blitzkrieg. I have to agree with Stalin and his qoute which goes along the lines of saying ” The US gave the money Britain gave the time and Russia gave the blood.
September 19th, 2010 on 11:20 pm
The closest Great Britain has ever been to a “just war” was participating in the war against Fascism. It’s true that the war could not have been won without the collective efforts of the British, the Russians and (to a lesser extent) the Americans. The Channel and the Atlantic ocean being the main reasons that Britain and the US were not invaded by Nazi Germany.
Indeed we should not let the Right – whether they be fascist, liberal or conservative – seize and distort the war for cynical ends and thereby trivialising it. The battles that were fought during the war are important and we should not forget those who fought and why. But the conditions which led to the rise of Hitler should not be forgotten, so we do not recreate such conditions ever again.