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Seller: lasvegasormonaco ✉️ (5,037) 99.7%, Location: Manchester, Take a look at my other items, GB, Ships to: WORLDWIDE, Item: 267245573951 Battle of Britain Small Book WW2 WWII History Air Force Planes Germany War Photo. Harris, Sheldon H. (2002). Croydon Airport. Westminster Abbey. Armadale Castle. Capel-le-Ferne, Kent. Bungay 2000, p. 32. Other campaigns. The Luftwaffe deployed 5,638 aircraft for the campaign. The Battle of Britian August - October 1940 This is a Replica Battle of Britain Booklet originally issued by the Ministry of Information in 1941. It gives an Air Ministry Account of the Great Days from 8th August – 31st October 1940. ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few’, Winston Churchill. This fascinating account of The Battle of Britain is brimming with detailed information and photographs about the R.A.F.’s heroic defence of Britain during this bleak period in WWII. A superb educational resource for pupils studying Modern History. Likewise a factual read for WWII Enthusiasts. A fabulous slice of wartime nostalgia, a facsimile edition of the propaganda booklet issued following victory in the Battle of Britain. First published in 1941, It is the first book to embed in the public imagination the heroics of ‘The Few’ Delve into the gripping narrative of 'The Battle of Britain', a mini paperback that captures the essence of a pivotal moment in history. Published by the Air Ministry, this piece offers a unique insight into the events of World War 2, intended for both enthusiasts of historical fiction and factual accounts alike. The book is a facsimile edition, ensuring the preservation of its vintage charm and the authenticity of its portrayal of the era. Crafted in English, the text is accessible to a wide audience, inviting readers to explore the heroic tales and strategic manoeuvres of the British defence. It is a slender addition to any collection, yet its significance is undiminished, making it a compelling read for anyone interested in military history, the character family of WW2, or simply the historical and mythological subjects that define our past.Provides insights into the experiences of the RAF during World War II. It focuses on the British service in the air force and the challenges faced during the London Blitz. With a theme of militaria, this collectable book from the United Kingdom offers a unique perspective on the history of the RAF and its role in the war. Dimensions 20 x 14 cm with 36 Pages This book is a valuable collectable item for enthusiasts interested in World War II history. A good booklet about wartime life 70 years ago. Aan interesting and informative read for WWII enthusiasts. Why not add it with others in our range to make a memory lane display in a care home or day centre for older people. Would make an Excellent Gift or Collectable Keepsake souvenir of the Battle of Britain Like all my auctions bidding starts at 1p Sorry about the poor quality photos. They dont do the booklet justice which looks a lot better in real life Click Here to Check out my other WW2 Items I have over 10 years of Ebay Selling Experience - So Why Not Treat Yourself? I have got married recently and need to raise funds to meet the costs also we are planning to move into a house together I always combined postage on multiple items Instant Feedback Automatically Left Immediately after Receiving Payment All Items Sent out within 24 hours of Receiving Payment. Overseas Bidders Please Note Surface Mail Delivery Times > Western Europe takes up to 2 weeks, Eastern Europe up to 5 weeks, North America up to 6 weeks, South America, Africa and Asia up to 8 weeks and Australasia up to 12 weeks Thanks for Looking and Best of Luck with the Bidding!! Also if bidding from overseas and you want your item tracked please select the International Signed for Postage Option For that Interesting Conversational Piece, A Birthday Present, Christmas Gift, A Comical Item to Cheer Someone Up or That Unique Perfect Gift for the Person Who has Everything....You Know Where to Look for a Bargain! XXXX - DO NOT CLICK HERE - XXXX Click Here to Add me to Your List of Favourite Sellers If You Have any Questions Please Message me through ebay and I Will Reply ASAP "A Thing of Beauty is a Joy for ever" So go ahead and treat yourself! With my free returns there is no risk! 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Miami, Ho Chi Minh City, Madrid, Tianjin, Kuala Lumpur, Toronto, Milan, Shenyang, Dallas, Fort Worth, Boston, Belo Horizonte, Khartoum, Riyadh, Singapore, Washington, Detroit, Barcelona,, Houston, Athens, Berlin, Sydney, Atlanta, Guadalajara, San Francisco, Oakland, Montreal, Monterey, Melbourne, Ankara, Recife, Phoenix/Mesa, Durban, Porto Alegre, Dalian, Jeddah, Seattle, Cape Town, San Diego, Fortaleza, Curitiba, Rome, Naples, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Tel Aviv, Birmingham, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Manchester, San Juan, Katowice, Tashkent, Fukuoka, Baku, Sumqayit, St. Louis, Baltimore, Sapporo, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Taichung, Warsaw, Denver, Cologne, Bonn, Hamburg, Dubai, Pretoria, Vancouver, Beirut, Budapest, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Campinas, Harare, Brasilia, Kuwait, Munich, Portland, Brussels, Vienna, San Jose, Damman , Copenhagen, Brisbane, Riverside, San Bernardino, Cincinnati and Accra Battle of Britain Article Talk Read Edit View history Tools From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For other uses, see Battle of Britain (disambiguation). Battle of Britain Part of the Western Front of World War II A German Luftwaffe Heinkel He 111 bomber flying over Wapping and the Isle of Dogs in the East End of London at the start of the Luftwaffe's evening raids of 7 September 1940. Date 10 July – 31 October 1940[nb 1] (3 months and 3 weeks) Location British airspace, English Channel Result British victory Belligerents United Kingdom Canada Poland Germany Italy Commanders and leaders Hugh Dowding Keith Park Trafford Leigh-Mallory Quintin Brand Richard Saul Hermann Göring Albert Kesselring Hugo Sperrle Hans-Jürgen Stumpff Rino Fougier[2] Units involved Royal Air Force[nb 2] Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Royal Canadian Air Force[nb 3] Luftwaffe Corpo Aereo Italiano Strength 1,963 aircraft[nb 4] 2,550 aircraft[nb 5][nb 6] Casualties and losses 1,542 killed[nb 7] 422 wounded[9] 1,744 aircraft destroyed[nb 8] 2,585 killed 735 wounded 925 captured[11] 1,977 aircraft destroyed[nb 9] 23,002 civilians killed 32,138 civilians wounded[12] vte Campaigns of World War II Europe Poland Polish resistancePhoney WarFinland Winter WarKareliaLaplandDenmark and NorwayWestern Front 1940Resistance1944–1945Alps 1940 1944BritainBalkans Serbian PartisansGreek resistanceEastern Front ChechnyaItaly SicilyItalian Resistence Asia-Pacific ChinaPacific Ocean South West PacificFranco-Thai WarSouth-East AsiaBurma and IndiaJapanManchuria and Northern Korea pre-war border conflictsAustralia Mediterranean and Middle East North Africa Libya-EgyptMorocco-AlgeriaTunisiaEast AfricaMediterranean SeaAdriaticMaltaIraqSyria–LebanonIranDodecaneseSouthern France Other campaigns AmericasAntarcticaAtlanticArcticAir Warfare Strategic bombingFrench West AfricaIndian Ocean Madagascar Coups UruguayNorwayBaltic NationsYugoslaviaRomania 1941IraqItalyArgentinaGermanyCroatiaRomania 1944BulgariaHungaryFrench IndochinaJapanMatsue vte Western Front of World War II Phoney War River ForthSaarThe Heligoland BightWikinger Luxembourg Schuster Line The Netherlands MaastrichtMillThe HagueRotterdamZeelandThe GrebbebergAfsluitdijkRotterdam Blitz Belgium Fort Ében-ÉmaelHannutDavidGemblouxLa LysYpres–Comines Canal France SedanMontcornetSaumurArrasBoulogneCalaisDunkirk DynamoAbbevilleLillePaula1st Alps Haddock Force Britain Occupation of the Channel IslandsKanalkampfAdlertagThe Hardest DayBattle of Britain DaySea Lion 1941–1943 CerberusDonnerkeilBaedeker BlitzCommando Raids St Nazaire RaidDieppe Raid 1944–1945 Baby BlitzOverlordChastityDragoonSiegfried LineNetherlandsMarket GardenHürtgen ForestAachenQueenScheldtBulgeNordwind2nd AlpsColmar PocketAtlantic Pockets Germany BlackcockVeritableGrenadeBlockbusterLumberjack RemagenCologneGiselaUndertonePlunder VarsityPaderbornRuhrTF BaumFrankfurtWürzburgKasselHeilbronnNurembergHamburg Strategic campaigns The BlitzDefence of the ReichStrategic Bombing CampaignRaids on the Atlantic WallBattle of Atlantic The Battle of Britain (German: Luftschlacht um England, lit. 'air battle for England') was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe. It was the first major military campaign fought entirely by air forces.[13] The British officially recognise the battle's duration as being from 10 July until 31 October 1940, which overlaps the period of large-scale night attacks known as the Blitz, that lasted from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941.[14] German historians do not follow this subdivision and regard the battle as a single campaign lasting from July 1940 to May 1941, including the Blitz.[15] The primary objective of the German forces was to compel Britain to agree to a negotiated peace settlement. In July 1940, the air and sea blockade began, with the Luftwaffe mainly targeting coastal-shipping convoys, as well as ports and shipping centres such as Portsmouth. On 1 August, the Luftwaffe was directed to achieve air superiority over the RAF, with the aim of incapacitating RAF Fighter Command; 12 days later, it shifted the attacks to RAF airfields and infrastructure. As the battle progressed, the Luftwaffe also targeted factories involved in aircraft production and strategic infrastructure. Eventually, it employed terror bombing on areas of political significance and on civilians.[nb 10] The Germans had rapidly overwhelmed France and the Low Countries in the Battle of France, leaving Britain to face the threat of invasion by sea. The German high command recognised the difficulties of a seaborne attack while the Royal Navy controlled the English Channel and the North Sea. On 16 July, Hitler ordered the preparation of Operation Sea Lion as a potential amphibious and airborne assault on Britain, to follow once the Luftwaffe had air superiority over the Channel. In September, RAF Bomber Command night raids disrupted the German preparation of converted barges, and the Luftwaffe's failure to overwhelm the RAF forced Hitler to postpone and eventually cancel Operation Sea Lion. The Luftwaffe proved unable to sustain daylight raids, but their continued night-bombing operations on Britain became known as the Blitz. Germany's failure to destroy Britain's air defences and force it out of the war was the first major German defeat in the Second World War. The Battle of Britain takes its name from the speech given by Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the House of Commons on 18 June: "What General Weygand called the 'Battle of France' is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin."[17] Background Strategic bombing during World War I introduced air attacks intended to panic civilian targets and led in 1918 to the merger of the British army and navy air services into the Royal Air Force (RAF).[18] Its first Chief of the Air Staff, Hugh Trenchard, was among the military strategists in the 1920s, like Giulio Douhet, who saw air warfare as a new way to overcome the bloody stalemate of trench warfare. Interception was expected to be nearly impossible, with fighter planes no faster than bombers. Their slogan was that the bomber will always get through, and that the only defence was a deterrent bomber force capable of matching retaliation. Predictions were made that a bomber offensive would quickly cause thousands of deaths and civilian hysteria leading to capitulation. However, widespread pacifism following the horrors of the First World War contributed to a reluctance to provide resources.[19] Developing air strategies Germany was forbidden a military air force by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, and therefore air crew were trained by means of civilian and sport flying. Following a 1923 memorandum, the Deutsche Luft Hansa airline developed designs for aircraft such as the Junkers Ju 52, which could carry passengers and freight, but also be readily adapted into a bomber. In 1926, the secret Lipetsk fighter-pilot school began training Germans in the Soviet Union.[20] Erhard Milch organised rapid expansion, and following the 1933 Nazi seizure of power, his subordinate Robert Knauss formulated a deterrence theory incorporating Douhet's ideas and Tirpitz's "risk theory". This proposed a fleet of heavy bombers to deter a preventive attack by France and Poland before Germany could fully rearm.[21] A 1933–34 war game indicated a need for fighters and anti-aircraft protection as well as bombers. On 1 March 1935, the Luftwaffe was formally announced, with Walther Wever as Chief of Staff. The 1935 Luftwaffe doctrine for "Conduct of Air War" (Luftkriegführung) set air power within the overall military strategy, with critical tasks of attaining (local and temporary) air superiority and providing battlefield support for army and naval forces. Strategic bombing of industries and transport could be decisive longer-term options, dependent on opportunity or preparations by the army and navy. It could be used to overcome a stalemate, or used when only destruction of the enemy's economy would be conclusive.[22][23] The list excluded bombing civilians to destroy homes or undermine morale, as that was considered a waste of strategic effort, but the doctrine allowed revenge attacks if German civilians were bombed. A revised edition was issued in 1940, and the continuing central principle of Luftwaffe doctrine was that destruction of enemy armed forces was of primary importance.[24] The RAF responded to Luftwaffe developments with its 1934 Expansion Plan A rearmament scheme, and in 1936 it was restructured into Bomber Command, Coastal Command, Training Command and Fighter Command. The last was under Hugh Dowding, who opposed the doctrine that bombers were unstoppable: the invention of radar at that time could allow early detection, and prototype monoplane fighters were significantly faster. Priorities were disputed, but in December 1937, the Minister in charge of Defence Coordination, Sir Thomas Inskip, sided with Dowding that "The role of our air force is not an early knock-out blow" but rather was "to prevent the Germans from knocking us out" and fighter squadrons were just as necessary as bomber squadrons.[25][26] The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) gave the Luftwaffe Condor Legion the opportunity to test air fighting tactics with their new aeroplanes. Wolfram von Richthofen became an exponent of air power providing ground support to other services.[27] The difficulty of accurately hitting targets prompted Ernst Udet to require that all new bombers had to be dive bombers, and led to the development of the Knickebein system for night time navigation. Priority was given to producing large numbers of smaller aeroplanes, and plans for a long-range, four-engined strategic bomber were cancelled.[18][28] First stages of the Second World War Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister, in 1941 The early stages of the Second World War saw successful German invasions on the continent, aided decisively by the air power of the Luftwaffe, which was able to establish tactical air superiority with great effectiveness. The speed with which German forces defeated most of the defending armies in Norway in early 1940 created a significant political crisis in Britain. In early May 1940, the Norway Debate questioned the fitness for office of the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. On 10 May, the same day Winston Churchill became British Prime Minister, the Germans initiated the Battle of France with an aggressive invasion of French territory. RAF Fighter Command was desperately short of trained pilots and aircraft. Churchill sent fighter squadrons, the Air Component of the British Expeditionary Force, to support operations in France,[29] where the RAF suffered heavy losses. This was despite the objections of its commander Hugh Dowding that the diversion of his forces would leave home defences under-strength.[30] After the evacuation of British and French soldiers from Dunkirk and the French surrender on 22 June 1940, Hitler mainly focused his energies on the possibility of invading the Soviet Union.[31] He believed that the British, defeated on the continent and without European allies, would quickly come to terms.[32] The Germans were so convinced of an imminent armistice that they began constructing street decorations for the homecoming parades of victorious troops.[33] Although the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, and certain elements of the British public favoured a negotiated peace with an ascendant Germany, Churchill and a majority of his Cabinet refused to consider an armistice.[34] Instead, Churchill used his skilful rhetoric to harden public opinion against capitulation and prepare the British for a long war.[citation needed] The Battle of Britain has the unusual distinction that it gained its name before being fought. The name is derived from the This was their finest hour speech delivered by Winston Churchill in the House of Commons on 18 June, more than three weeks prior to the generally accepted date for the start of the battle: ... What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of a perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour".[17][35][36] — Winston Churchill German aims and directives Adolf Hitler in 1933 From the outset of his rise to power, Adolf Hitler expressed admiration for Britain, and throughout the Battle period he sought neutrality or a peace treaty with Britain.[37] In a secret conference on 23 May 1939, Hitler set out his rather contradictory strategy that an attack on Poland was essential and "will only be successful if the Western Powers keep out of it. If this is impossible, then it will be better to attack in the West and to settle Poland at the same time" with a surprise attack. "If Holland and Belgium are successfully occupied and held, and if France is also defeated, the fundamental conditions for a successful war against England will have been secured. England can then be blockaded from Western France at close quarters by the Air Force, while the Navy with its submarines extend the range of the blockade."[38][39] When war commenced, Hitler and the OKW (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht or "High Command of the Armed Forces") issued a series of directives ordering, planning and stating strategic objectives. "Directive No. 1 for the Conduct of the War", dated 31 August 1939, instructed the invasion of Poland on 1 September as planned. Potentially, Luftwaffe "operations against England" were to: dislocate English imports, the armaments industry, and the transport of troops to France. Any favourable opportunity of an effective attack on concentrated units of the English Navy, particularly on battleships or aircraft carriers, will be exploited. The decision regarding attacks on London is reserved to me. Attacks on the English homeland are to be prepared, bearing in mind that inconclusive results with insufficient forces are to be avoided in all circumstances.[40][41] Both France and the UK declared war on Germany; on 9 October, Hitler's "Directive No. 6" planned the offensive to defeat these allies and "win as much territory as possible in the Netherlands, Belgium, and northern France to serve as a base for the successful prosecution of the air and sea war against England".[42] On 29 November, OKW "Directive No. 9 – Instructions For Warfare Against The Economy Of The Enemy" stated that once this coastline had been secured, the Luftwaffe together with the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) was to blockade UK ports with sea mines. They were to attack shipping and warships and make air attacks on shore installations and industrial production. This directive remained in force in the first phase of the Battle of Britain.[43][44] It was reinforced on 24 May during the Battle of France by "Directive No. 13", which authorised the Luftwaffe "to attack the English homeland in the fullest manner, as soon as sufficient forces are available. This attack will be opened by an annihilating reprisal for English attacks on the Ruhr Basin."[45] By the end of June 1940, Germany had defeated Britain's allies on the continent, and on 30 June the OKW Chief of Staff, Alfred Jodl, issued his review of options to increase pressure on Britain to agree to a negotiated peace. The first priority was to eliminate the RAF and gain air supremacy. Intensified air attacks against shipping and the economy could affect food supplies and civilian morale in the long term. Reprisal attacks of terror bombing had the potential to cause quicker capitulation, but the effect on morale was uncertain. On the same day, the Luftwaffe Commander-in-Chief, Hermann Göring issued his operational directive: to destroy the RAF, thus protecting German industry, and also to block overseas supplies to Britain.[46][47] The German Supreme Command argued over the practicality of these options. In "Directive No. 16 – On preparations for a landing operation against England" on 16 July,[48] Hitler required readiness by mid-August for the possibility of an invasion he called Operation Sea Lion, unless the British agreed to negotiations. The Luftwaffe reported that it would be ready to launch its major attack early in August. The Kriegsmarine Commander-in-Chief, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, continued to highlight the impracticality of these plans and said sea invasion could not take place before early 1941. Hitler now argued that Britain was holding out in hope of assistance from Russia, and the Soviet Union was to be invaded by mid 1941.[49] Göring met his air fleet commanders, and on 24 July issued "Tasks and Goals" of firstly gaining air supremacy, secondly protecting invasion forces and attacking the Royal Navy's ships. Thirdly, they were to blockade imports, bombing harbours and stores of supplies.[50] Hitler's "Directive No. 17 – For the conduct of air and sea warfare against England" issued on 1 August attempted to keep all the options open. The Luftwaffe's Adlertag campaign was to start around 5 August, subject to weather, with the aim of gaining air superiority over southern England as a necessary precondition of invasion, to give credibility to the threat and give Hitler the option of ordering the invasion. The intention was to incapacitate the RAF so much that the UK would feel open to air attack, and would begin peace negotiations. It was also to isolate the UK and damage war production, beginning an effective blockade.[51] Following severe Luftwaffe losses, Hitler agreed at a 14 September OKW conference that the air campaign was to intensify regardless of invasion plans. On 16 September, Göring gave the order for this change in strategy,[52] to the first independent strategic bombing campaign.[53] Negotiated peace or neutrality Hitler's 1925 book Mein Kampf mostly set out his hatreds: he only admired ordinary German World War I soldiers and Britain, which he saw as an ally against communism. In 1935 Hermann Göring welcomed news that Britain, as a potential ally, was rearming. In 1936 he promised assistance to defend the British Empire, asking only a free hand in Eastern Europe, and repeated this to Lord Halifax in 1937. That year, von Ribbentrop met Churchill with a similar proposal; when rebuffed, he told Churchill that interference with German domination would mean war. To Hitler's great annoyance, all his diplomacy failed to stop Britain from declaring war when he invaded Poland. During the fall of France, he repeatedly discussed peace efforts with his generals.[37] When Churchill came to power, there was still wide support for Halifax, who as Foreign Secretary openly argued for peace negotiations in the tradition of British diplomacy, to secure British independence without war. On 20 May, Halifax secretly requested a Swedish businessman to make contact with Göring to open negotiations. Shortly afterwards, in the May 1940 War Cabinet Crisis, Halifax argued for negotiations involving the Italians, but this was rejected by Churchill with majority support. An approach made through the Swedish ambassador on 22 June was reported to Hitler, making peace negotiations seem feasible. Throughout July, as the battle started, the Germans made wider attempts to find a diplomatic solution.[54] On 2 July, the day the armed forces were asked to start preliminary planning for an invasion, Hitler got von Ribbentrop to draft a speech offering peace negotiations. On 19 July Hitler made this speech to the German Parliament in Berlin, appealing "to reason and common sense", and said he could "see no reason why this war should go on".[55] His sombre conclusion was received in silence, but he did not suggest negotiations and this was perceived as being effectively an ultimatum by the British government, which rejected the offer.[56][57] Halifax kept trying to arrange peace until he was sent to Washington in December as ambassador,[58] and in January 1941 Hitler expressed continued interest in negotiating peace with Britain.[59] Blockade and siege A May 1939 planning exercise by Luftflotte 3 found that the Luftwaffe lacked the means to do much damage to Britain's war economy beyond laying naval mines.[60] Joseph Schmid, in charge of Luftwaffe intelligence, presented a report on 22 November 1939, stating that, "Of all Germany's possible enemies, Britain is the most dangerous."[61] This "Proposal for the Conduct of Air Warfare" argued for a counter to the British blockade and said "Key is to paralyse the British trade".[43] Instead of the Wehrmacht attacking the French, the Luftwaffe with naval assistance was to block imports to Britain and attack seaports. "Should the enemy resort to terror measures – for example, to attack our towns in western Germany" they could retaliate by bombing industrial centres and London. Parts of this appeared on 29 November in "Directive No. 9" as future actions once the coast had been conquered.[44] On 24 May 1940 "Directive No. 13" authorised attacks on the blockade targets, as well as retaliation for RAF bombing of industrial targets in the Ruhr.[45] After the defeat of France, the OKW felt they had won the war, and some more pressure would persuade Britain to give in. On 30 June, the OKW Chief of Staff Alfred Jodl issued his paper setting out options: the first was to increase attacks on shipping, economic targets and the RAF: air attacks and food shortages were expected to break morale and lead to capitulation. Destruction of the RAF was the first priority, and invasion would be a last resort. Göring's operational directive issued the same day ordered the destruction of the RAF to clear the way for attacks cutting off seaborne supplies to Britain. It made no mention of invasion.[47][62] Invasion plans In November 1939, the OKW reviewed the potential for an air- and seaborne invasion of Britain: the Kriegsmarine was faced with the threat the Royal Navy's larger Home Fleet posed to a crossing of the English Channel, and together with the German Army viewed control of airspace as a necessary precondition. The German navy thought air superiority alone was insufficient; the German naval staff had already produced a study (in 1939) on the possibility of an invasion of Britain and concluded that it also required naval superiority.[63] The Luftwaffe said invasion could only be "the final act in an already victorious war."[64] Hitler first discussed the idea of an invasion at a 21 May 1940 meeting with Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, who stressed the difficulties and his own preference for a blockade. OKW Chief of Staff Jodl's 30 June report described invasion as a last resort once the British economy had been damaged and the Luftwaffe had full air superiority. On 2 July, OKW requested preliminary plans.[65][57] In Britain, Churchill described "the great invasion scare" as "serving a very useful purpose" by "keeping every man and woman tuned to a high pitch of readiness".[66] Historian Len Deighton stated that on 10 July Churchill advised the War Cabinet that invasion could be ignored, as it "would be a most hazardous and suicidal operation".[67] On 11 July, Hitler agreed with Raeder that invasion would be a last resort, and the Luftwaffe advised that gaining air superiority would take 14 to 28 days. Hitler met his army chiefs, von Brauchitsch and Halder, at the Berchtesgaden on 13 July where they presented detailed plans on the assumption that the navy would provide safe transport.[68] Von Brauchitsch and Halder were surprised that Hitler took no interest in the invasion plans, unlike his usual attitude toward military operations,[69] but on 16 July he issued Directive No. 16, ordering preparations for Operation Sea Lion.[70] The navy insisted on a narrow beachhead and an extended period for landing troops; the army rejected these plans: the Luftwaffe could begin an air attack in August. Hitler held a meeting of his army and navy chiefs on 31 July. The navy said 22 September was the earliest possible date and proposed postponement until the following year, but Hitler preferred September. He then told von Brauchitsch and Halder that he would decide on the landing operation eight to fourteen days after the air attack began. On 1 August, he issued Directive No. 17 for intensified air and sea warfare, to begin with Adlertag on or after 5 August, subject to weather, keeping options open for negotiated peace or blockade and siege.[71] Independent air attack Under the continuing influence of the 1935 "Conduct of the Air War" doctrine, the main focus of the Luftwaffe command (including Göring) was in concentrating attacks to destroy enemy armed forces on the battlefield, and "blitzkrieg" close air support of the army succeeded brilliantly. They reserved strategic bombing for a stalemate situation or revenge attacks, but doubted if this could be decisive on its own and regarded bombing civilians to destroy homes or undermine morale as a waste of strategic effort.[72][73] The defeat of France in June 1940 introduced the prospect for the first time of independent air action against Britain. A July Fliegercorps I paper asserted that Germany was by definition an air power: "Its chief weapon against England is the Air Force, then the Navy, followed by the landing forces and the Army." In 1940, the Luftwaffe would undertake a "strategic offensive ... on its own and independent of the other services", according to an April 1944 German account of their military mission. Göring was convinced that strategic bombing could win objectives that were beyond the army and navy, and gain political advantages in the Third Reich for the Luftwaffe and himself.[74] He expected air warfare to decisively force Britain to negotiate, as all in the OKW hoped, and the Luftwaffe took little interest in planning to support an invasion.[75][47] Opposing forces Main article: Aircraft of the Battle of Britain Further information: RAF Fighter Command Order of Battle 1940, Luftwaffe Order of Battle August 1940, and List of officially accredited Battle of Britain squadrons The Luftwaffe faced a more capable opponent than any it had previously met: a sizeable, highly coordinated, well-supplied, modern air force. Fighters Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3 The Luftwaffe's Messerschmitt Bf 109E and Bf 110C fought against the RAF's workhorse Hurricane Mk I and the less numerous Spitfire Mk I; Hurricanes outnumbered Spitfires in RAF Fighter Command by about 2:1 when war broke out.[76] The Bf 109E had a better climb rate and was up to 40 mph faster in level flight than the Rotol (constant speed propeller) equipped Hurricane Mk I, depending on altitude.[77] The speed and climb disparity with the original non-Rotol Hurricane was even greater. By mid-1940, all RAF Spitfire and Hurricane fighter squadrons converted to 100 octane aviation fuel,[78] which allowed their Merlin engines to generate significantly more power and an approximately 30 mph increase in speed at low altitudes[79][80] through the use of an Emergency Boost Override.[81][82][83] In September 1940, the more powerful Mk IIa series 1 Hurricanes started entering service in small numbers.[84] This version was capable of a maximum speed of 342 mph (550 km/h), some 20 mph more than the original (non-Rotol) Mk I, though it was still 15 to 20 mph slower than a Bf 109 (depending on altitude).[85] X4382, a late production Spitfire Mk I of 602 Squadron flown by P/O Osgood Hanbury, Westhampnett, September 1940 The performance of the Spitfire over Dunkirk came as a surprise to the Jagdwaffe, although the German pilots retained a strong belief that the 109 was the superior fighter.[86] The British fighters were equipped with eight Browning .303 (7.7mm) machine guns firing bullets, while most Bf 109Es had two 20mm cannons firing explosive shells, supplemented by two 7.92mm machine guns.[nb 11] The 20mm cannons were much more effective than the .303; during the Battle it was not unknown for damaged German bombers to limp home with up to two hundred .303 hits.[87] At some altitudes, the Bf 109 could outclimb the British fighter. It could also engage in vertical-plane negative-g manoeuvres without the engine cutting out because its DB 601 engine used fuel injection; this allowed the 109 to dive away from attackers more readily than the carburettor-equipped Merlin. On the other hand, the Bf 109E had the disadvantage of a much larger turning circle than its two foes.[88] In general, though, as Alfred Price noted in The Spitfire Story: ... the differences between the Spitfire and the Me 109 in performance and handling were only marginal, and in a combat they were almost always surmounted by tactical considerations of which side had seen the other first, which had the advantage of sun, altitude, numbers, pilot ability, tactical situation, tactical co-ordination, amount of fuel remaining, etc.[89] The Bf 109E was also used as a Jabo (jagdbomber, fighter-bomber) – the E-4/B and E-7 models could carry a 250 kg bomb underneath the fuselage, the later model arriving during the battle. The Bf 109, unlike the Stuka, could fight on equal terms with RAF fighters after releasing its ordnance.[90][91] At the start of the battle, the twin-engined Messerschmitt Bf 110C long-range Zerstörer ("Destroyer") was also expected to engage in air-to-air combat while escorting the Luftwaffe bomber fleet. Although the 110 was faster than the Hurricane and almost as fast as the Spitfire, its lack of manoeuvrability and acceleration meant that it was a failure as a long-range escort fighter. On 13 and 15 August, thirteen and thirty aircraft were lost, the equivalent of an entire Gruppe, and the type's worst losses during the campaign.[92] This trend continued with a further eight and fifteen lost on 16 and 17 August.[93] The most successful role of the Bf 110 during the battle was as a Schnellbomber (fast bomber). The Bf 110 usually used a shallow dive to bomb the target and escape at high speed.[94][95] One unit, Erprobungsgruppe 210 – initially formed as the service test unit (Erprobungskommando) for the emerging successor to the 110, the Me 210 – proved that the Bf 110 could still be used to good effect in attacking small or "pinpoint" targets.[94] The RAF's Boulton Paul Defiant had some initial success over Dunkirk because of its resemblance to the Hurricane; Luftwaffe fighters attacking from the rear were surprised by its unusual gun turret, which could fire to the rear.[96] During the Battle of Britain, it proved hopelessly outclassed. The Defiant, designed to attack bombers without fighter escort, lacked any form of forward-firing armament, and the heavy turret and second crewman meant it could not outrun or outmanoeuvre either the Bf 109 or Bf 110. By the end of August, after disastrous losses, the aircraft was withdrawn from daylight service.[97][98] Bombers Heinkel He 111 bombers during the Battle of Britain The Luftwaffe's primary bombers were the Heinkel He 111, Dornier Do 17, and Junkers Ju 88 for level bombing at medium to high altitudes, and the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka for dive-bombing. The He 111 was used in greater numbers than the others during the conflict, and was better known, partly due to its distinctive wing shape. Each level bomber also had a few reconnaissance versions accompanying them that were used during the battle.[99] Although it had been successful in previous Luftwaffe engagements, the Stuka suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Britain, particularly on 18 August, due to its slow speed and vulnerability to fighter interception after dive-bombing a target. As the losses went up Stuka units, with limited payload and range in addition to their vulnerability, were largely removed from operations over England and diverted to concentrate on shipping, until eventually re-deployed to the Eastern Front in 1941. For some raids they were called back, such as on 13 September to attack Tangmere airfield.[100][101][102] The remaining three bomber types differed in their capabilities; the Dornier Do 17 was both the slowest and had the smallest bomb load; the Ju 88 was the fastest once its mainly external bomb load was dropped; and the He 111 carried the largest, internal, bomb load.[99] All three bomber types suffered heavy losses from the home-based British fighters, but the Ju 88 had significantly lower loss rates due to its greater speed and its ability to dive out of trouble (it was originally designed as a dive bomber). The German bombers required constant protection by the Luftwaffe's insufficiently numerous fighter force. Bf 109Es were ordered to support more than 300–400 bombers on any given day.[103] Later in the conflict, when night bombing became more frequent, all three were used. Due to its smaller bomb load, the lighter Do 17 was used less than the He 111 and Ju 88 for this purpose. On the British side, three bomber types were mostly used on night operations against targets such as factories, invasion ports and railway centres; the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, the Handley-Page Hampden and the Vickers Wellington were classified as heavy bombers by the RAF, although the Hampden was a medium bomber comparable to the He 111. The twin-engined Bristol Blenheim and the obsolescent single-engined Fairey Battle were both light bombers; the Blenheim was the most numerous of the aircraft equipping RAF Bomber Command, and was used in attacks against shipping, ports, airfields and factories on the continent by day and by night. The Fairey Battle squadrons, which had suffered heavy losses in daylight attacks during the Battle of France, were brought up to strength with reserve aircraft and continued to operate at night in attacks against the invasion ports, until the Battle was withdrawn from UK front-line service in October 1940.[104][106] Pilots South African Adolph "Sailor" Malan led No. 74 Squadron RAF and was, at the time, the RAF's leading ace Before the war, the RAF's processes for selecting potential candidates were opened to men of all social classes through the creation in 1936 of the RAF Volunteer Reserve, which "... was designed to appeal, to ... young men ... without any class distinctions ..."[107] The older squadrons of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force did retain some of their upper-class exclusiveness,[108] but their numbers were soon swamped by the newcomers of the RAFVR; by 1 September 1939, 6,646 pilots had been trained through the RAFVR.[109] By mid-1940, there were about 9,000 pilots in the RAF to man about 5,000 aircraft, most of which were bombers.[citation needed] Fighter Command was never short of pilots, but the problem of finding sufficient numbers of fully trained fighter pilots became acute by mid-August 1940.[110] With aircraft production running at 300 planes each week, only 200 pilots were trained in the same period. In addition, more pilots were allocated to squadrons than there were aircraft, as this allowed squadrons to maintain operational strength despite casualties and still provide for pilot leave.[111] Another factor was that only about 30% of the 9,000 pilots were assigned to operational squadrons; 20% of the pilots were involved in conducting pilot training, and a further 20% were undergoing further instruction, like those offered in Canada and in Southern Rhodesia to the Commonwealth trainees, although already qualified. The rest were assigned to staff positions, since RAF policy dictated that only pilots could make many staff and operational command decisions, even in engineering matters. At the height of the fighting, and despite Churchill's insistence, only 30 pilots were released to the front line from administrative duties.[112][nb 12] For these reasons, and the permanent loss of 435 pilots during the Battle of France alone[30] along with many more wounded, and others lost in Norway, the RAF had fewer experienced pilots at the start of the Battle of Britain than the Luftwaffe. It was the lack of trained pilots in the fighting squadrons, rather than the lack of aircraft, that became the greatest concern for Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding, commander of Fighter Command. Drawing from regular RAF forces, the Auxiliary Air Force and the Volunteer Reserve, the British were able to muster some 1,103 fighter pilots on 1 July. Replacement pilots, with little flight training and often no gunnery training, suffered high casualty rates, exacerbating the problem.[113] The Luftwaffe, on the other hand, were able to muster a large number (1,450) of experienced fighter pilots.[112] Drawing from a cadre of Spanish Civil War veterans, these pilots already had comprehensive courses in aerial gunnery and instructions in tactics suited for fighter-versus-fighter combat.[114] Training manuals discouraged heroism, stressing the importance of attacking only when the odds were in the pilot's favour. Despite the high levels of experience, German fighter formations did not provide a sufficient reserve of pilots to allow for losses and leave,[111] and the Luftwaffe was unable to produce enough pilots to prevent a decline in operational strength as the battle progressed. International participation Allies Main article: Non-British personnel in the RAF during the Battle of Britain 126 German aircraft or "Adolfs" were claimed by Polish pilots of 303 Squadron during the Battle of Britain. About 20% of pilots who took part in the battle were from non-British countries. The Royal Air Force roll of honour for the Battle of Britain recognises 595 non-British pilots (out of 2,936) as flying at least one authorised operational sortie with an eligible unit of the RAF or Fleet Air Arm between 10 July and 31 October 1940.[8][115] These included 145 Poles, 127 New Zealanders, 112 Canadians, 88 Czechoslovaks, 10 Irish, 32 Australians, 28 Belgians, 25 South Africans, 13 French, 9 Americans, 3 Southern Rhodesians and individuals from Jamaica, Barbados and Newfoundland.[116] "Altogether in the fighter battles, the bombing raids, and the various patrols flown between 10 July and 31 October 1940 by the Royal Air Force, 1495 aircrew were killed, of whom 449 were fighter pilots, 718 aircrew from Bomber Command, and 280 from Coastal Command. Among those killed were 47 airmen from Canada, 24 from Australia, 17 from South Africa, 30 from Poland[nb 13], 20 from Czechoslovakia and six from Belgium. Forty-seven New Zealanders lost their lives, including 15 fighter pilots, 24 bomber and eight coastal aircrew. The names of these Allied and Commonwealth airmen are inscribed in a memorial book that rests in the Battle of Britain Chapel in Westminster Abbey. In the chapel is a stained glass window which contains the badges of the fighter squadrons which operated during the battle and the flags of the nations to which the pilots and aircrew belonged.[117] These pilots, some of whom had to flee their home countries because of German invasions, fought with distinction. The No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron was the highest-scoring fighter squadron of the Battle of Britain, even though it joined the fray two months after the battle had begun.[118][119][120][121] "Had it not been for the magnificent material contributed by the Polish squadrons and their unsurpassed gallantry," wrote Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding, head of RAF Fighter Command, "I hesitate to say that the outcome of the Battle would have been the same."[122] Axis Main article: Corpo Aereo Italiano At the urging of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, an element of the Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) called the Italian Air Corps (Corpo Aereo Italiano or CAI) took part in the later stages of the Battle of Britain. It first saw action on 24 October 1940 when a force of Fiat BR.20 medium bombers attacked the port at Harwich. The CAI achieved limited success during this and subsequent raids. The unit was redeployed in January 1941, having claimed to have shot down at least nine British aircraft. This was inaccurate and their actual successes were much lower.[123][124] Luftwaffe strategy Hermann Göring, the commander of the Luftwaffe The indecision of OKL over what to do was reflected in shifts in Luftwaffe strategy. The doctrine of concentrated close air support of the army at the battlefront succeeded against Poland, Denmark and Norway, the Low Countries and France but incurred significant losses. The Luftwaffe had to build or repair bases in the conquered territories, and rebuild their strength. In June 1940 they began regular armed reconnaissance flights and sporadic Störangriffe, nuisance raids of one or a few bombers by day and night. These gave crews practice in navigation and avoiding air defences and set off air raid alarms which disturbed civilian morale. Similar nuisance raids continued throughout the battle, into late 1940. Scattered naval mine-laying sorties began at the outset and increased gradually over the battle period.[125][126] Göring's operational directive of 30 June ordered the destruction of the RAF, including the aircraft industry, to end RAF bombing raids on Germany and facilitating attacks on ports and storage in the Luftwaffe blockade of Britain.[47] Attacks on Channel shipping in the Kanalkampf began on 4 July, and were formalised on 11 July in an order by Hans Jeschonnek which added the arms industry as a target.[127][128] On 16 July, Directive No. 16 ordered preparations for Operation Sea Lion and on the next day the Luftwaffe was ordered to stand by in full readiness. Göring met his air fleet commanders and on 24 July issued orders for gaining air supremacy, protecting the army and navy if the invasion went ahead and attacking Royal Navy ships and continuing the blockade. Once the RAF had been defeated, Luftwaffe bombers were to move forward beyond London without the need for fighter escort, destroying military and economic targets.[50] At a meeting on 1 August the command reviewed plans produced by each Fliegerkorps with differing proposals for targets including whether to bomb airfields but failed to decide a priority. Intelligence reports gave Göring the impression that the RAF was almost defeated, so that raids would attract British fighters for the Luftwaffe to shoot down.[129] On 6 August he finalised plans for Adlertag (Eagle Day) with Kesselring, Sperrle and Stumpff; the destruction of RAF Fighter Command in the south of England was to take four days, with lightly escorted small bomber raids leaving the main fighter force free to attack RAF fighters. Bombing of military and economic targets was then to systematically extend up to the Midlands until daylight attacks could proceed unhindered over the whole of Britain.[130][131] Bombing of London was to be held back while these night time "destroyer" attacks proceeded over other urban areas, then, in the culmination of the campaign, a major attack on the capital was intended to cause a crisis, with refugees fleeing London just as Operation Sea Lion was to begin.[132] With hopes fading for the possibility of invasion, on 4 September Hitler authorised a main focus on day and night attacks on tactical targets, with London as the main target, which became known as the Blitz. With increasing difficulty in defending bombers in day raids, the Luftwaffe shifted to a strategic bombing campaign of night raids aiming to overcome British resistance by damaging infrastructure and food stocks, though intentional terror bombing of civilians was not sanctioned.[133] Regrouping of Luftwaffe in Luftflotten Hugo Sperrle, the commander of Luftflotte 3 The Luftwaffe regrouped after the Battle of France into three Luftflotten (Air Fleets) opposite Britain's southern and eastern coasts. Luftflotte 2 (Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring), was responsible for the bombing of south-east England and the London area. Luftflotte 3 (Generalfeldmarschall Hugo Sperrle) concentrated on the West Country, Wales, the Midlands and north-west England. Luftflotte 5 (Generaloberst Hans-Jürgen Stumpff) from his headquarters in Norway, attacked the north of England and Scotland. As the battle progressed, command responsibility shifted, with Luftflotte 3 taking more responsibility for the night bombing and the main daylight operations fell upon Luftflotte 2. Initial Luftwaffe estimates were that it would take four days to defeat RAF Fighter Command in southern England. This would be followed by a four-week offensive during which the bombers and long-range fighters would destroy all military installations throughout the country and wreck the British aircraft industry. The campaign was planned to begin with attacks on airfields near the coast, gradually moving inland to attack the ring of sector airfields defending London. Later reassessments gave the Luftwaffe five weeks, from 8 August to 15 September, to establish temporary air superiority over England.[134] Fighter Command had to be destroyed, either on the ground or in the air, yet the Luftwaffe had to preserve its strength to be able to support the invasion; the Luftwaffe had to maintain a high "kill ratio" over the RAF fighters. The only alternative to the goal of air superiority was a terror bombing campaign aimed at the civilian population but this was considered a last resort and it was forbidden by Hitler.[134] The Luftwaffe kept broadly to this scheme but its commanders had differences of opinion on strategy. Sperrle wanted to eradicate the air defence infrastructure by bombing it. Kesselring championed attacking London directly, either to bombard the British government into submission or to draw RAF fighters into a decisive battle. Göring did nothing to resolve this disagreement between his commanders and gave only vague directives during the initial stages of the battle, apparently unable to decide upon which strategy to pursue.[127] Tactics Fighter formations Luftwaffe formations employed a loose section of two (called Rotte [pack]), based on a leader (Rottenführer) followed at a distance of about 200 m (220 yd) by his wingman, Rottenhund pack dog or Katschmarek, the turning radius of a Bf 109, enabling both aircraft to turn together at high speed.[114][135] The Katschmarek flew slightly higher and was trained always to stay with his leader. With more room between them, both could spend less time maintaining formation and more time looking around and covering each other's blind spots. Attacking aircraft could be sandwiched between the two 109s.[136] The formation was developed from principles formulated by the First World War ace Oswald Boelcke in 1916. In 1934 the Finnish Air Force adopted similar formations, called partio (patrol; two aircraft) and parvi (two patrols; four aircraft), for similar reasons, though Luftwaffe pilots during the Spanish Civil War (led by Günther Lützow and Werner Mölders, among others) are generally given credit.[137] The Rotte allowed the Rottenführer to concentrate on shooting down aircraft but few wingmen had the chance, leading to some resentment in the lower ranks where it was felt that the high scores came at their expense.[138] Two Rotten combined as a Schwarm, where all the pilots could watch what was happening around them. Each Schwarm in a Staffel flew at staggered heights and with about 200 m (220 yd) between them, making the formation difficult to spot at longer ranges and allowing for a great deal of flexibility.[114] By using a tight "cross-over" turn, a Schwarm could quickly change direction.[136] The Bf 110s adopted the same Schwarm formation as the 109s but were seldom able to use this to the same advantage. The Bf 110's most successful method of attack was the "bounce" from above. When attacked, Zerstörergruppen increasingly resorted to forming large defensive circles, where each Bf 110 guarded the tail of the aircraft ahead of it. Göring ordered that they be renamed "offensive circles" in a vain bid to improve rapidly declining morale.[139] These conspicuous formations were often successful in attracting RAF fighters that were sometimes "bounced" by high-flying Bf 109s. This led to the often repeated misconception that the Bf 110s were escorted by Bf 109s. Higher-level dispositions Pattern of vapour trails left by British and German aircraft after a dogfight Luftwaffe tactics were influenced by their fighters. The Bf 110 proved too vulnerable against the nimble single-engined RAF fighters and the bulk of fighter escort duties devolved to the Bf 109. Fighter tactics were then complicated by bomber crews who demanded closer protection. After the hard-fought battles of 15 and 18 August, Göring met his unit leaders. The need for the fighters to meet up on time with the bombers was stressed. It was also decided that one bomber Gruppe could only be properly protected by several Gruppen of 109s. Göring stipulated that as many fighters as possible were to be left free for Freie Jagd ("Free Hunts": a free-roving fighter sweep preceded a raid to try to sweep defenders out of the raid's path). The Ju 87 units, which had suffered heavy casualties, were only to be used under favourable circumstances.[140] In early September, due to increasing complaints from the bomber crews about RAF fighters seemingly able to get through the escort screen, Göring ordered an increase in close escort duties. This decision shackled many of the Bf 109s to the bombers and, although they were more successful at protecting the bombers, casualties amongst the fighters mounted, primarily because they were forced to fly and manoeuvre at reduced speeds.[141] The Luftwaffe varied its tactics to break Fighter Command. It launched many Freie Jagd to draw up RAF fighters. RAF fighter controllers were often able to detect these and position squadrons to avoid them, keeping to Dowding's plan to preserve fighter strength for the bomber formations. The Luftwaffe also tried using small formations of bombers as bait, covering them with large numbers of escorts. This was more successful, but escort duty kept the fighters tied to the slower bombers making them more vulnerable. By September, standard tactics for raids had become an amalgam of techniques. A Freie Jagd would precede the main attack formations. The bombers would fly in at altitudes between 5,000 and 6,000 m (16,000 and 20,000 ft), closely escorted by fighters. Escorts were divided into two parts (usually Gruppen), some operating close to the bombers and others a few hundred yards away and a little above. If the formation was attacked from the starboard, the starboard section engaged the attackers, the top section moving to starboard and the port section to the top position. If the attack came from the port side the system was reversed. British fighters coming from the rear were engaged by the rear section and the two outside sections similarly moving to the rear. If the threat came from above, the top section went into action while the side sections gained height to be able to follow RAF fighters down as they broke away. If attacked, all sections flew in defensive circles. These tactics were skilfully evolved and carried out and were difficult to counter.[142] Adolf Galland, the successful leader of III./JG 26, became Geschwaderkommodore of JG 26 on 22 August. Adolf Galland noted: We had the impression that, whatever we did, we were bound to be wrong. Fighter protection for bombers created many problems which had to be solved in action. Bomber pilots preferred close screening in which their formation was surrounded by pairs of fighters pursuing a zigzag course. Obviously, the visible presence of the protective fighters gave the bomber pilots a greater sense of security. However, this was a faulty conclusion, because a fighter can only carry out this purely defensive task by taking the initiative in the offensive. He must never wait until attacked because he then loses the chance of acting. We fighter pilots certainly preferred the free chase during the approach and over the target area. This gives the greatest relief and the best protection for the bomber force.[143] The biggest disadvantage faced by Bf 109 pilots was that without the benefit of long-range drop tanks (which were introduced in limited numbers in the late stages of the battle), usually of 300 L (66 imp gal; 79 US gal) capacity, the 109s had an endurance of just over an hour and, for the 109E, a 600 km (370 mi) range. Once over Britain, a 109 pilot had to keep an eye on a red "low fuel" light on the instrument panel: once this was illuminated, he was forced to turn back and head for France. With the prospect of two long flights over water and knowing their range was substantially reduced when escorting bombers or during combat, the Jagdflieger coined the term Kanalkrankheit or "Channel sickness".[144] Intelligence The Luftwaffe was ill-served by its lack of military intelligence about the British defences.[145] The German intelligence services were fractured and plagued by rivalry; their performance was "amateurish".[146] By 1940, there were few German agents operating in Great Britain and a handful of attempts to insert spies into the country were foiled.[147] As a result of intercepted radio transmissions, the Germans began to realise that the RAF fighters were being controlled from ground facilities; in July and August 1939, for example, the airship Graf Zeppelin, which was packed with equipment for listening in on RAF radio and RDF transmissions, flew around the coasts of Britain. Although the Luftwaffe correctly interpreted these new ground control procedures, they were incorrectly assessed as being rigid and ineffectual. A British radar system was well known to the Luftwaffe from intelligence gathered before the war, but the highly developed "Dowding system" linked with fighter control had been a well-kept secret.[148][149] Even when good information existed, such as a November 1939 Abwehr assessment of Fighter Command strengths and capabilities by Abteilung V, it was ignored if it did not match conventional preconceptions. On 16 July 1940, Abteilung V, commanded by Oberstleutnant "Beppo" Schmid, produced a report on the RAF and on Britain's defensive capabilities which was adopted by the frontline commanders as a basis for their operational plans. One of the most conspicuous failures of the report was the lack of information on the RAF's RDF network and control systems capabilities; it was assumed that the system was rigid and inflexible, with the RAF fighters being "tied" to their home bases.[150][151] An optimistic (and, as it turned out, erroneous) conclusion reached was: D. Supply Situation... At present the British aircraft industry produces about 180 to 300 first line fighters and 140 first line bombers a month. In view of the present conditions relating to production (the appearance of raw material difficulties, the disruption or breakdown of production at factories owing to air attacks, the increased vulnerability to air attack owing to the fundamental reorganisation of the aircraft industry now in progress), it is believed that for the time being output will decrease rather than increase. In the event of an intensification of air warfare it is expected that the present strength of the RAF will fall, and this decline will be aggravated by the continued decrease in production.[151] Because of this statement, reinforced by another more detailed report, issued on 10 August, there was a mindset in the ranks of the Luftwaffe that the RAF would run out of frontline fighters.[150] The Luftwaffe believed it was weakening Fighter Command at three times the actual attrition rate.[152] Many times, the leadership believed Fighter Command's strength had collapsed, only to discover that the RAF were able to send up defensive formations at will. Throughout the battle, the Luftwaffe had to use numerous reconnaissance sorties to make up for poor intelligence. Reconnaissance aircraft (initially mostly Dornier Do 17s, but increasingly Bf 110s) proved easy prey for British fighters, as it was seldom possible for them to be escorted by Bf 109s. Thus, the Luftwaffe operated "blind" for much of the battle, unsure of its enemy's true strengths, capabilities, and deployments. Many of the Fighter Command airfields were never attacked, while raids against supposed fighter airfields fell instead on bomber or coastal defence stations. The results of bombing and air fighting were consistently exaggerated, due to inaccurate claims, over-enthusiastic reports and the difficulty of confirmation over enemy territory. In the euphoric atmosphere of perceived victory, the Luftwaffe leadership became increasingly disconnected from reality. This lack of leadership and solid intelligence meant the Germans did not adopt a consistent strategy, even when the RAF had its back to the wall. Moreover, there was never a systematic focus on one type of target (such as airbases, radar stations, or aircraft factories); consequently, the already haphazard effort was further diluted.[153] Navigational aids While the British were using radar for air defence more effectively than the Germans realised, the Luftwaffe attempted to press its own offensive with advanced radio navigation systems of which the British were initially not aware. One of these was Knickebein ("bent leg"); this system was used at night and for raids where precision was required. It was rarely used during the Battle of Britain.[154] Air-sea rescue The Luftwaffe was much better prepared for the task of air-sea rescue than the RAF, specifically tasking the Seenotdienst unit, equipped with about 30 Heinkel He 59 floatplanes, with picking up downed aircrew from the North Sea, English Channel and the Dover Straits. In addition, Luftwaffe aircraft were equipped with life rafts and the aircrew were provided with sachets of a chemical called fluorescein which, on reacting with water, created a large, easy-to-see, bright green patch.[155][156] In accordance with the Geneva Convention, the He 59s were unarmed and painted white with civilian registration markings and red crosses. Nevertheless, RAF aircraft attacked these aircraft, as some were escorted by Bf 109s.[157] After single He 59s were forced to land on the sea by RAF fighters on 1 and 9 July,[157][158] a controversial order was issued to the RAF on 13 July; this stated that from 20 July, Seenotdienst aircraft were to be shot down. One of the reasons given by Churchill was: We did not recognise this means of rescuing enemy pilots so they could come and bomb our civil population again ... all German air ambulances were forced down or shot down by our fighters on definite orders approved by the War Cabinet.[159] The British also believed that their crews would report on convoys,[156] the Air Ministry issuing a communiqué to the German government on 14 July that Britain was unable, however, to grant immunity to such aircraft flying over areas in which operations are in progress on land or at sea, or approaching British or Allied territory, or territory in British occupation, or British or Allied ships. Ambulance aircraft which do not comply with the above will do so at their own risk and peril.[160] The white He 59s were soon repainted in camouflage colours and armed with defensive machine guns. Although another four He 59s were shot down by RAF aircraft,[161] the Seenotdienst continued to pick up downed Luftwaffe and Allied aircrew throughout the battle, earning praise from Adolf Galland for their bravery.[162] RAF strategy Commander-in-Chief, Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding Commander-in-Chief, Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding 10 Group Commander, Sir Quintin Brand 10 Group Commander, Sir Quintin Brand 11 Group Commander, Keith Park 11 Group Commander, Keith Park 12 Group Commander, Trafford Leigh-Mallory 12 Group Commander, Trafford Leigh-Mallory 13 Group Commander, Richard Saul 13 Group Commander, Richard Saul The Dowding system RAF and Luftwaffe bases, group and Luftflotte boundaries, and range of Luftwaffe Bf 109 fighters. Southern part of British radar coverage: radar in North of Scotland not shown. Main article: Dowding system During early tests of the Chain Home system, the slow flow of information from the CH radars and observers to the aircraft often caused them to miss their "bandits". The solution, today known as the "Dowding system", was to create a set of reporting chains to move information from the various observation points to the pilots in their fighters. It was named after its chief architect, "Stuffy" Dowding.[163] Reports from CH radars and the Observer Corps were sent directly to Fighter Command Headquarters (FCHQ) at Bentley Priory where they were "filtered" to combine multiple reports of the same formations into single tracks. Telephone operators would then forward only the information of interest to the Group headquarters, where the map would be re-created. This process was repeated to produce another version of the map at the Sector level, covering a much smaller area. Looking over their maps, Group level commanders could select squadrons to attack particular targets. From that point, the Sector operators would give commands to the fighters to arrange an interception, as well as return them to base. Sector stations also controlled the anti-aircraft batteries in their area; an army officer sat beside each fighter controller and directed the gun crews when to open and cease fire.[164] The Dowding system dramatically improved the speed and accuracy of the information that flowed to the pilots. During the early war period, it was expected that an average interception mission might have a 30% chance of ever seeing their target. During the battle, the Dowding system maintained an average rate over 75%, with several examples of 100% rates – every fighter dispatched found and intercepted its target. In contrast, Luftwaffe fighters attempting to intercept raids had to randomly seek their targets and often returned home having never seen enemy aircraft. The result is what is now known as an example of "force multiplication"; RAF fighters were as effective as two or more Luftwaffe fighters, greatly offsetting, or overturning, the disparity in actual numbers.[citation needed] Intelligence While Luftwaffe intelligence reports underestimated British fighter forces and aircraft production, the British intelligence estimates went the other way: they overestimated German aircraft production, numbers and range of aircraft available, and numbers of Luftwaffe pilots. In action, the Luftwaffe believed from their pilot claims and the impression given by aerial reconnaissance that the RAF was close to defeat, and the British made strenuous efforts to overcome the perceived advantages held by their opponents.[165] It is unclear how much the British intercepts of the Enigma cipher, used for high-security German radio communications, affected the battle. Ultra, the information obtained from Enigma intercepts, gave the highest echelons of the British command a view of German intentions. According to F. W. Winterbotham, who was the senior Air Staff representative in the Secret Intelligence Service,[166] Ultra helped establish the strength and composition of the Luftwaffe's formations, the aims of the commanders[167] and provided early warning of some raids.[168] In early August it was decided that a small unit would be set up at FCHQ, which would process the flow of information from Bletchley and provide Dowding only with the most essential Ultra material; thus the Air Ministry did not have to send a continual flow of information to FCHQ, preserving secrecy, and Dowding was not inundated with non-essential information. Keith Park and his controllers were also told about Ultra.[169] In a further attempt to camouflage the existence of Ultra, Dowding created a unit named No. 421 (Reconnaissance) Flight RAF. This unit (which later became No. 91 Squadron RAF), was equipped with Hurricanes and Spitfires and sent out aircraft to search for and report Luftwaffe formations approaching England.[170] In addition, the radio listening service (known as Y Service), monitoring the patterns of Luftwaffe radio traffic contributed considerably to the early warning of raids. Tactics X4474, a late production Mk I Spitfire of 19 Squadron, September 1940. During the battle 19 Squadron was part of the Duxford Wing. Fighter formations In the late 1930s, Fighter Command expected to face only bombers over Britain, not single-engined fighters. A series of "Fighting Area Tactics" were formulated and rigidly adhered to, involving a series of manoeuvres designed to concentrate a squadron's firepower to bring down bombers. RAF fighters flew in tight, v-shaped sections ("vics") of three aircraft, with four such "sections" in tight formation. Only the squadron leader at the front was free to watch for the enemy; the other pilots had to concentrate on keeping station.[171] Training also emphasised by-the-book attacks by sections breaking away in sequence. Fighter Command recognised the weaknesses of this structure early in the battle, but it was felt too risky to change tactics during the battle because replacement pilots – often with only minimal flying time – could not be readily retrained,[172] and inexperienced pilots needed firm leadership in the air only rigid formations could provide.[173] German pilots dubbed the RAF formations Idiotenreihen ("rows of idiots") because they left squadrons vulnerable to attack.[113][174] Front line RAF pilots were acutely aware of the inherent deficiencies of their own tactics. A compromise was adopted whereby squadron formations used much looser formations with one or two "weavers" flying independently above and behind to provide increased observation and rear protection; these tended to be the least experienced men and were often the first to be shot down without the other pilots even noticing that they were under attack.[113][175] During the battle, 74 Squadron under Squadron Leader Adolph "Sailor" Malan adopted a variation of the German formation called the "fours in line astern", which was a vast improvement on the old three aircraft "vic". Malan's formation was later generally used by Fighter Command.[176] Squadron- and higher-level deployment The weight of the battle fell upon 11 Group. Keith Park's tactics were to dispatch individual squadrons to intercept raids. The intention was to subject incoming bombers to continual attacks by relatively small numbers of fighters and try to break up the tight German formations. Once formations had fallen apart, stragglers could be picked off one by one. Where multiple squadrons reached a raid the procedure was for the slower Hurricanes to tackle the bombers while the more agile Spitfires held up the fighter escort. This ideal was not always achieved, resulting in occasions when Spitfires and Hurricanes reversed roles.[177] Park also issued instructions to his units to engage in frontal attacks against the bombers, which were more vulnerable to such attacks. Again, in the environment of fast-moving, three-dimensional air battles, few RAF fighter units were able to attack the bombers from head-on.[177] Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots during the Battle of Britain, with a Hawker Hurricane Mk I P3522 in the backdrop During the battle, some commanders, notably Leigh-Mallory, proposed squadrons be formed into "Big Wings," consisting of at least three squadrons, to attack the enemy en masse, a method pioneered by Douglas Bader. Proponents of this tactic claimed interceptions in large numbers caused greater enemy losses while reducing their own casualties. Opponents pointed out the big wings would take too long to form up, and the strategy ran a greater risk of fighters being caught on the ground refuelling. The big wing idea also caused pilots to overclaim their kills, due to the confusion of a more intense battle zone. This led to the belief big wings were far more effective than they actually were.[178] The issue caused intense friction between Park and Leigh-Mallory, as 12 Group was tasked with protecting 11 Group's airfields whilst Park's squadrons intercepted incoming raids. The delay in forming up Big Wings meant the formations often did not arrive at all or until after German bombers had hit 11 Group's airfields.[179] Dowding, to highlight the problem of the Big Wing's performance, submitted a report compiled by Park to the Air Ministry on 15 November. In the report, he highlighted that during the period of 11 September – 31 October, the extensive use of the Big Wing had resulted in just 10 interceptions and one German aircraft destroyed, but his report was ignored.[180] Post-war analysis agrees Dowding and Park's approach was best for 11 Group. Dowding's removal from his post in November 1940 has been blamed on this struggle between Park and Leigh-Mallory's daylight strategy. The intensive raids and destruction wrought during the Blitz damaged both Dowding and Park in particular, for the failure to produce an effective night-fighter defence system, something for which the influential Leigh-Mallory had long criticised them.[181] Bomber and Coastal Command contributions A Bristol Blenheim Mk IV of 21 Squadron Bomber Command and Coastal Command aircraft flew offensive sorties against targets in Germany and France during the battle. An hour after the declaration of war, Bomber Command launched raids on warships and naval ports by day, and in night raids dropped leaflets as it was considered illegal to bomb targets which could affect civilians. After the initial disasters of the war, with Vickers Wellington bombers shot down in large numbers attacking Wilhelmshaven and the slaughter of the Fairey Battle squadrons sent to France, it became clear that they would have to operate mainly at night to avoid incurring very high losses.[182] Churchill came to power on 10 May 1940, and the War Cabinet on 12 May agreed that German actions justified "unrestricted warfare", and on 14 May they authorised an attack on the night of 14/15 May against oil and rail targets in Germany. At the urging of Clement Attlee, the Cabinet on 15 May authorised a full bombing strategy against "suitable military objectives", even where there could be civilian casualties. That evening, a night time bomber campaign began against the German oil industry, communications, and forests/crops, mainly in the Ruhr area. The RAF lacked accurate night navigation and carried small bomb loads.[183] As the threat mounted, Bomber Command changed targeting priority on 3 June 1940 to attack the German aircraft industry. On 4 July, the Air Ministry gave Bomber Command orders to attack ports and shipping. By September, the build-up of invasion barges in the Channel ports had become a top priority target.[184] On 7 September, the government issued a warning that the invasion could be expected within the next few days and, that night, Bomber Command attacked the Channel ports and supply dumps. On 13 September, they carried out another large raid on the Channel ports, sinking 80 large barges in the port of Ostend.[185] 84 barges were sunk in Dunkirk after another raid on 17 September and by 19 September, almost 200 barges had been sunk.[184] The loss of these barges may have contributed to Hitler's decision to postpone Operation Sea Lion indefinitely.[184] The success of these raids was in part because the Germans had few Freya radar stations set up in France, so that air defences of the French harbours were not nearly as good as the air defences over Germany; Bomber Command had directed some 60% of its strength against the Channel ports. The Bristol Blenheim units also raided German-occupied airfields throughout July to December 1940, both during daylight hours and at night. Although most of these raids were unproductive, there were some successes; on 1 August, five out of twelve Blenheims sent to attack Haamstede and Evere (Brussels) were able to destroy or heavily damage three Bf 109s of II./JG 27 and apparently kill a Staffelkapitän identified as a Hauptmann Albrecht von Ankum-Frank.[nb 14] Two other 109s were claimed by Blenheim gunners.[187][nb 15] Another successful raid on Haamstede was made by a single Blenheim on 7 August which destroyed one 109 of 4./JG 54, heavily damaged another and caused lighter damage to four more.[188] German invasion barges waiting at Boulogne Harbour, France during the Battle of Britain There were some missions that produced an almost 100% casualty rate amongst the Blenheims; one such operation was mounted on 13 August 1940 against a Luftwaffe airfield near Aalborg in north-eastern Denmark by 12 aircraft of 82 Squadron. One Blenheim returned early (the pilot was later charged and due to appear before a court martial, but was killed on another operation); the other eleven, which reached Denmark, were shot down, five by flak and six by Bf 109s. Of the 33 crewmen who took part in the attack, 20 were killed and 13 captured.[189] As well as the bombing operations, Blenheim-equipped units had been formed to carry out long-range strategic reconnaissance missions over Germany and German-occupied territories. In this role, the Blenheims again proved to be too slow and vulnerable against Luftwaffe fighters, and they took constant casualties.[190][page needed] Coastal Command directed its attention towards the protection of British shipping, and the destruction of enemy shipping. As invasion became more likely, it participated in the strikes on French harbours and airfields, laying mines, and mounting numerous reconnaissance missions over the enemy-held coast. In all, some 9,180 sorties were flown by bombers from July to October 1940. Although this was much less than the 80,000 sorties flown by fighters, bomber crews suffered about half the total casualties borne by their fighter colleagues. The bomber contribution was, therefore, much more dangerous on a loss-per-sortie comparison.[191] Bomber, reconnaissance, and antisubmarine patrol operations continued throughout these months with little respite and none of the publicity accorded to Fighter Command. In his famous 20 August speech about "The Few", praising Fighter Command, Churchill also made a point of mentioning Bomber Command's contribution, adding that bombers were even then striking back at Germany; this part of the speech is often overlooked, even today.[192][193] The Battle of Britain Chapel in Westminster Abbey lists in a roll of honour, 718 Bomber Command crew members, and 280 from Coastal Command who were killed between 10 July and 31 October.[194] Bomber and Coastal Command attacks against invasion barge concentrations in Channel ports were widely reported by the British media during September and October 1940.[195] In what became known as 'the Battle of the Barges' RAF attacks were claimed in British propaganda to have sunk large numbers of barges, and to have created widespread chaos and disruption to German invasion preparations. Given the volume of British propaganda interest in these bomber attacks during September and earlier October, it is striking how quickly this was overlooked once the Battle of Britain had been concluded. Even by mid-war, the bomber pilots' efforts had been largely eclipsed by a continuing focus on the Few, this a result of the Air Ministry's continuing valorisation of the ″fighter boys″, beginning with the March 1941 Battle of Britain propaganda pamphlet.[196] Air-sea rescue Main article: Royal Air Force Marine Branch One of the biggest oversights of the entire system was the lack of adequate air-sea rescue organisation. The RAF had started organising a system in 1940 with High Speed Launches (HSLs) based on flying boat bases and at some overseas locations, but it was still believed that the amount of cross-Channel traffic meant that there was no need for a rescue service to cover these areas. Downed pilots and aircrew, it was hoped, would be picked up by any boats or ships which happened to be passing by. Otherwise, the local life boat would be alerted, assuming someone had seen the pilot going into the water.[197] RAF aircrew were issued with a life jacket, nicknamed the "Mae West," but in 1940 it still required manual inflation, which was almost impossible for someone who was injured or in shock. The waters of the English Channel and Dover Straits are cold, even in the middle of summer, and clothing issued to RAF aircrew did little to insulate them against these freezing conditions.[145] The RAF also imitated the German practice of issuing fluorescein.[156] A conference in 1939 had placed air-sea rescue under Coastal Command. Because pilots had been lost at sea during the "Channel Battle", on 22 August, control of RAF rescue launches was passed to the local naval authorities and 12 Lysanders were given to Fighter Command to help look for pilots at sea. In all, some 200 pilots and aircrew were lost at sea during the battle. No proper air-sea rescue service was formed until 1941.[145] Phases of the battle German Heinkel He 111 bombers over the English Channel 1940 The battle covered a shifting geographical area, and there have been differing opinions on significant dates: when the Air Ministry proposed 8 August as the start, Dowding responded that operations "merged into one another almost insensibly", and proposed 10 July as the onset of increased attacks.[198] With the caution that phases drifted into each other and dates are not firm, the Royal Air Force Museum states that five main phases can be identified:[199] 26 June – 16 July: Störangriffe ("nuisance raids"), scattered small scale probing attacks both day and night, armed reconnaissance and mine-laying sorties. From 4 July, daylight Kanalkampf ("the Channel battles") against shipping. 17 July – 12 August: daylight Kanalkampf attacks on shipping intensify through this period, increased attacks on ports and coastal airfields, night raids on RAF and aircraft manufacturing. 13 August – 6 September: Adlerangriff ("Eagle Attack"), the main assault; attempt to destroy the RAF in southern England, including massive daylight attacks on RAF airfields, followed from 19 August by heavy night bombing of ports and industrial cities, including suburbs of London. 7 September – 2 October: the Blitz commences, main focus day and night attacks on London. 3–31 October: large scale night bombing raids, mostly on London; daylight attacks now confined to small scale fighter-bomber Störangriffe raids luring RAF fighters into dogfights. Small scale raids Following Germany's rapid territorial gains in the Battle of France, the Luftwaffe had to reorganise its forces, set up bases along the coast, and rebuild after heavy losses. It began small scale bombing raids on Britain on the night of 5/6 June, and continued sporadic attacks throughout June and July.[200] The first large-scale attack was at night, on 18/19 June, when small raids scattered between Yorkshire and Kent involved in total 100 bombers.[201] These Störangriffe ("nuisance raids") which involved only a few aeroplanes, sometimes just one, were used to train bomber crews in both day and night attacks, to test defences and try out methods, with most flights at night. They found that, rather than carrying small numbers of large high explosive bombs, it was more effective to use more small bombs, similarly incendiaries had to cover a large area to set effective fires. These training flights continued through August and into the first week of September.[202] Against this, the raids also gave the British time to assess the German tactics, and invaluable time for the RAF fighters and anti-aircraft defences to prepare and gain practice.[203] Interior of RAF Fighter Command's Sector 'G' Operations Room at Duxford, 1940 The attacks were widespread: over the night of 30 June alarms were set off in 20 counties by just 20 bombers, then next day the first daylight raids were carried out during 1 July, on both Hull in Yorkshire and Wick, Caithness. On 3 July most flights were reconnaissance sorties, but 15 civilians were killed when bombs hit Guildford in Surrey.[204] Numerous small Störangriffe raids, both day and night, were made daily through August, September and into the winter, with aims including bringing RAF fighters up to battle, destruction of specific military and economic targets, and setting off air-raid warnings to affect civilian morale: four major air-raids in August involved hundreds of bombers; in the same month 1,062 small raids were made, spread across the whole of Britain.[205] Channel battles The Kanalkampf comprised a series of running fights over convoys in the English Channel. It was launched partly because Kesselring and Sperrle were not sure about what else to do, and partly because it gave German aircrews some training and a chance to probe the British defences.[127] Dowding could provide only minimal shipping protection, and these battles off the coast tended to favour the Germans, whose bomber escorts had the advantage of altitude and outnumbered the RAF fighters. From 9 July reconnaissance probing by Dornier Do 17 bombers put a severe strain on RAF pilots and machines, with high RAF losses to Bf 109s. When nine 141 Squadron Defiants went into action on 19 July six were lost to Bf 109s before a squadron of Hurricanes intervened. On 25 July a coal convoy and escorting destroyers suffered such heavy losses to attacks by Stuka dive bombers that the Admiralty decided convoys should travel at night: the RAF shot down 16 raiders but lost 7 aircraft. By 8 August 18 coal ships and 4 destroyers had been sunk, but the Navy was determined to send a convoy of 20 ships through rather than move the coal by railway. After repeated Stuka attacks that day, six ships were badly damaged, four were sunk and only four reached their destination. The RAF lost 19 fighters and shot down 31 German aircraft. The Navy now cancelled all further convoys through the Channel and the cargo was sent by rail. Even so, these early combat encounters provided both sides with experience.[206] Main assault The main attack upon the RAF's defences was code-named Adlerangriff ("Eagle Attack"). Intelligence reports gave Göring the impression that the RAF was almost defeated, and raids would attract British fighters for the Luftwaffe to shoot down.[129] The strategy agreed on 6 August was to destroy RAF Fighter Command across the south of England in four days, then bombing of military and economic targets was to systematically extend up to the Midlands until daylight attacks could proceed unhindered over the whole of Britain, culminating in a major bombing attack on London.[130][207] Assault on RAF: radar and airfields East Coast Chain Home radar operators. Poor weather delayed Adlertag ("Eagle Day") until 13 August 1940. On 12 August, the first attempt was made to blind the Dowding system, when aircraft from the specialist fighter-bomber unit Erprobungsgruppe 210 attacked four radar stations. Three were briefly taken off the air but were back working within six hours.[208] The raids appeared to show that British radars were difficult to knock out. The failure to mount follow-up attacks allowed the RAF to get the stations back on the air, and the Luftwaffe neglected strikes on the supporting infrastructure, such as phone lines and power stations, which could have rendered the radars useless, even if the lattice-work towers themselves, which were very difficult to destroy, remained intact.[153] Adlertag opened with a series of attacks, led again by Erpro 210,[208] on coastal airfields used as forward landing grounds for the RAF fighters, as well as 'satellite airfields'[nb 16] including Manston and Hawkinge.[208] As the week drew on, the airfield attacks moved further inland, and repeated raids were made on the radar chain. 15 August was "The Greatest Day" when the Luftwaffe mounted the largest number of sorties of the campaign. Luftflotte 5 attacked the north of England. Raiding forces from Denmark and Norway, which believed Fighter Command strength to be concentrated in the south, ran into resistance which was unexpectedly strong. Inadequately escorted by Bf 110s, Bf109s having insufficient range to escort raids from Norway, bombers were shot down in large numbers. North East England was attacked by 65 Heinkel 111s escorted by 34 Messerschmitt 110s, and RAF Great Driffield was attacked by 50 unescorted Junkers 88s. Out of 115 bombers and 35 fighters sent, 75 planes were destroyed and many others were damaged beyond repair. Furthermore, due to early engagement by RAF fighters, many of the bombers dropped their payloads ineffectively early.[209] As a result of these casualties, Luftflotte 5 did not appear in strength again in the campaign. Czechoslovak fighter pilots of No. 310 Squadron RAF at RAF Duxford in 1940 18 August, which had the greatest number of casualties to both sides, has been dubbed "The Hardest Day". Following this grinding battle, exhaustion and the weather reduced operations for most of a week, allowing the Luftwaffe to review their performance. "The Hardest Day" had sounded the end for the Ju 87 in the campaign.[210] This veteran of Blitzkrieg was too vulnerable to fighters to operate over Britain. Göring withdrew the Stuka from the fighting to preserve the Stuka force, removing the main Luftwaffe precision-bombing weapon and shifting the burden of pinpoint attacks onto the already-stretched Erpro 210. The Bf 110 proved too clumsy for dogfighting with single-engined fighters, and its participation was scaled back. It would be used only when range required it or when sufficient single-engined escort could not be provided for the bombers. Pilots of No. 19 Squadron RAF relax in the crew room at RAF Fowlmere, 1940 Göring made yet another important decision: to order more bomber escorts at the expense of free-hunting sweeps. To achieve this, the weight of the attack now fell on Luftflotte 2, and the bulk of the Bf 109s in Luftflotte 3 were transferred to Kesselring's command, reinforcing the fighter bases in the Pas-de-Calais. Stripped of its fighters, Luftflotte 3 would concentrate on the night bombing campaign. Göring, expressing disappointment with the fighter performance thus far in the campaign, also made sweeping changes in the command structure of the fighter units, replacing many Geschwaderkommodore with younger, more aggressive pilots such as Adolf Galland and Werner Mölders.[211] Finally, Göring stopped the attacks on the radar chain. These were seen as unsuccessful, and neither the Reichsmarschall nor his subordinates realised how vital the Chain Home stations were to the defence systems. It was known that radar provided some early warning of raids, but the belief among German fighter pilots was that anything bringing up the "Tommies" to fight was to be encouraged.[citation needed] Raids on British cities On the afternoon of 15 August, Hauptmann Walter Rubensdörffer leading Erprobungsgruppe 210 mistakenly bombed Croydon airfield (on the outskirts of London) instead of the intended target, RAF Kenley.[212] German intelligence reports made the Luftwaffe optimistic that the RAF, thought to be dependent on local air control, was struggling with supply problems and pilot losses. After a raid on Biggin Hill on 18 August, Luftwaffe aircrew said they had been unopposed, the airfield was "completely destroyed", and asked, "Is England already finished?" In accordance with the strategy agreed on 6 August, defeat of the RAF was to be followed by bombing military and economic targets, systematically extending up to the Midlands.[213] Göring ordered attacks on aircraft factories on 19 August 1940.[185] Sixty raids on the night of 19/20 August targeted the aircraft industry and harbours, and bombs fell on suburban areas around London: Croydon, Wimbledon and the Maldens.[214] Night raids were made on 21/22 August on Aberdeen, Bristol and South Wales. That morning, bombs were dropped on Harrow and Wealdstone, on the outskirts of London. Overnight on 22/23 August, the output of an aircraft factory at Filton near Bristol was drastically affected by a raid in which Ju 88 bombers dropped over 16 long tons (16 t) of high explosive bombs. On the night of 23/24 August over 200 bombers attacked the Fort Dunlop tyre factory in Birmingham, with a significant effect on production. A bombing campaign began on 24 August with the largest raid so far, killing 100 in Portsmouth, and that night, several areas of London were bombed; the East End was set ablaze and bombs landed on central London. Some historians believe that these bombs were dropped accidentally by a group of Heinkel He 111s which had failed to find their target; this account has been contested.[215] More night raids were made around London on 24/25 August, when bombs fell on Croydon, Banstead, Lewisham, Uxbridge, Harrow and Hayes. London was on red alert over the night of 28/29 August, with bombs reported in Finchley, St Pancras, Wembley, Wood Green, Southgate, Old Kent Road, Mill Hill, Ilford, Chigwell and Hendon.[131] Attacks on airfields from 24 August Polish 303 Squadron pilots, 1940. Left to right: P/O Ferić, Flt Lt Kent, F/O Grzeszczak, P/O Radomski, P/O Zumbach, P/O Łokuciewski, F/O Henneberg, Sgt. Rogowski, Sgt. Szaposznikow. Göring's directive issued on 23 August 1940 ordered ceaseless attacks on the aircraft industry and on RAF ground organisation to force the RAF to use its fighters, continuing the tactic of luring them up to be destroyed, and added that focussed attacks were to be made on RAF airfields.[215] From 24 August onwards, the battle was a fight between Kesselring's Luftflotte 2 and Park's 11 Group. The Luftwaffe concentrated all their strength on knocking out Fighter Command and made repeated attacks on the airfields. Of the 33 heavy attacks in the following two weeks, 24 were against airfields. The key sector stations were hit repeatedly: Biggin Hill and Hornchurch four times each; Debden and North Weald twice each. Croydon, Gravesend, Rochford, Hawkinge and Manston were also attacked in strength. Coastal Command's Eastchurch was bombed at least seven times because it was believed to be a Fighter Command aerodrome. At times these raids caused some damage to the sector stations, threatening the integrity of the Dowding system. To offset some losses, some 58 Fleet Air Arm fighter pilot volunteers were seconded to RAF squadrons, and a similar number of former Fairey Battle pilots were used. Most replacements from Operational Training Units (OTUs) had as little as nine hours flying time and no gunnery or air-to-air combat training. At this point, the multinational nature of Fighter Command came to the fore. Many squadrons and personnel from the air forces of the Dominions were already attached to the RAF, including top-level commanders – Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders, Rhodesians and South Africans. Other nationalities were also represented, including Free French, Belgian and a Jewish pilot from the British mandate of Palestine. They were bolstered by the arrival of fresh Czechoslovak and Polish squadrons. These had been held back by Dowding, who thought non-English speaking aircrew would have trouble working within his control system, but Polish and Czech fliers proved to be especially effective. The pre-war Polish Air Force had lengthy and extensive training, and high standards; with Poland conquered and under brutal German occupation, the pilots of No. 303 (Polish) Squadron, which became the highest-scoring Allied unit,[120] were experienced and strongly motivated. Josef František, a Czech regular airman who had flown from the occupation of his own country to join the Polish and then French air forces before arriving in Britain, flew as a guest of 303 Squadron and was ultimately credited with the highest "RAF score" in the Battle of Britain.[216] The RAF had the advantage of fighting over home territory. Pilots who bailed out after being shot down could be back at their airfields within hours, and aircraft low on fuel or ammunition could be immediately re-equipped.[217] One RAF pilot interviewed in late 1940 had been shot down five times during the Battle of Britain, but was able to crash-land in Britain or bail out each time.[218] For Luftwaffe aircrews, a bailout or crash landing in England meant capture – in the critical August period, almost as many Luftwaffe pilots were taken prisoner as were killed[219] – while parachuting into the English Channel often meant drowning. Morale began to suffer, and Kanalkrankheit ("Channel sickness") – a form of combat fatigue – began to appear among the German pilots. Their replacement problem became worse than the British. Assessment of attempt to destroy the RAF The effect of the German attacks on airfields is unclear. According to Stephen Bungay, Dowding, in a letter to Hugh Trenchard[220] accompanying Park's report on the period 8 August – 10 September 1940, states that the Luftwaffe "achieved very little" in the last week of August and the first week of September. The only Sector Station to be shut down operationally was Biggin Hill, and it was non-operational for just two hours. Dowding admitted that 11 Group's efficiency was impaired but, despite serious damage to some airfields, only two out of 13 heavily attacked airfields were down for more than a few hours. The German refocus on London was not critical.[221] Retired Air Vice-Marshal Peter Dye, head of the RAF Museum, discussed the logistics of the battle in 2000[222] and 2010,[223] dealing specifically with the single-seat fighters. He said that not only was British aircraft production replacing aircraft, but replacement pilots were keeping pace with losses. The number of pilots in RAF Fighter Command increased during July, August and September. The figures indicate the number of pilots available never decreased: from July, 1,200 were available; from 1 August, 1,400; in September, over 1,400; in October, nearly 1,600; by 1 November, 1,800. Throughout the battle, the RAF had more fighter pilots available than the Luftwaffe.[222][223] Although the RAF's reserves of single-seat fighters fell during July, the wastage was made up for by an efficient Civilian Repair Organisation (CRO), which by December had repaired and put back into service some 4,955 aircraft,[224] and by aircraft held at Air Servicing Unit (ASU) airfields.[225] Pilots of No. 66 Squadron at Gravesend, September 1940 Richard Overy agrees with Dye and Bungay. Overy says that only one airfield was temporarily put out of action and "only" 103 pilots were lost. British fighter production, not counting repaired aircraft, produced 496 new aircraft in July, 467 in August, and 467 in September, covering the losses of August and September. Overy indicates the number of serviceable and total strength returns reveal an increase in fighters from 3 August to 7 September, 1,061 on strength and 708 serviceable to 1,161 on strength and 746 serviceable.[226] Moreover, Overy points out that the number of RAF fighter pilots grew by one-third between June and August 1940. Personnel records show a constant supply of around 1,400 pilots in the crucial weeks of the battle. In the second half of September it reached 1,500. The shortfall of pilots was never above 10%. The Germans never had more than between 1,100 and 1,200 pilots, a deficiency of up to one-third. "If Fighter Command were 'the few', the German fighter pilots were fewer".[227] Other scholars assert that this period was the most dangerous of all. In The Narrow Margin, published in 1961, historians Derek Wood and Derek Dempster believed that the two weeks from 24 August to 6 September represented a real danger. According to them, from 24 August to 6 September 295 fighters had been totally destroyed and 171 badly damaged, against a total output of 269 new and repaired Spitfires and Hurricanes. They say that 103 pilots were killed or missing and 128 were wounded, a total wastage of 120 pilots per week out of a fighting strength of just under 1,000, and that during August no more than 260 fighter pilots were turned out by OTUs, while casualties were just over 300. A full squadron establishment was 26 pilots, whereas the average in August was 16. In their assessment, the RAF was losing the battle.[228] Denis Richards, in his 1953 contribution to the official British account History of the Second World War, agreed that lack of pilots, especially experienced ones, was the RAF's greatest problem. He states that between 8 and 18 August 154 RAF pilots were killed, severely wounded, or missing, while only 63 new pilots were trained. Availability of aircraft was also a serious issue. While its reserves during the Battle of Britain never declined to a half dozen planes as some later claimed, Richards describes 24 August to 6 September as the critical period because during these two weeks Germany destroyed far more aircraft through its attacks on 11 Group's southeast bases than Britain was producing. Three more weeks of such a pace would indeed have exhausted aircraft reserves. Germany had also suffered heavy losses of pilots and aircraft, hence its shift to night-time attacks in September. On 7 September RAF aircraft losses fell below British production and remained so until the end of the war.[229] Day and night attacks on London: start of the Blitz Main articles: The Blitz and Battle of Britain Day Calais, September 1940. Göring giving a speech to pilots about the change in tactics: to bomb London instead of the airfields Hitler's "Directive No. 17 – For the conduct of air and sea warfare against England" issued on 1 August 1940, reserved to himself the right to decide on terror attacks as measures of reprisal.[51] Hitler issued a directive that London was not to be bombed save on his sole instruction.[230] In preparation, detailed target plans under the code name Operation Loge for raids on communications, power stations, armaments works and docks in the Port of London were distributed to the Fliegerkorps in July. The port areas were crowded next to residential housing and civilian casualties would be expected, but this would combine military and economic targets with indirect effects on morale. The strategy agreed on 6 August was for raids on military and economic targets in towns and cities to culminate in a major attack on London.[231] In mid-August, raids were made on targets on the outskirts of London.[215] Luftwaffe doctrine included the possibility of retaliatory attacks on cities, and since 11 May small-scale night raids by RAF Bomber Command had frequently bombed residential areas. The Germans assumed this was deliberate, and as the raids increased in frequency and scale the population grew impatient for measures of revenge.[231] On 25 August 1940, 81 bombers of Bomber Command were sent out to raid industrial and commercial targets in Berlin. Clouds prevented accurate identification and the bombs fell across the city, causing some casualties among the civilian population as well as damage to residential areas.[232] Continuing RAF raids on Berlin led to Hitler withdrawing his directive on 30 August,[233] and giving the go-ahead to the planned bombing offensive.[231] On 3 September Göring planned to bomb London daily, with General Albert Kesselring's enthusiastic support, having received reports the average strength of RAF squadrons was down to five or seven fighters out of twelve and their airfields in the area were out of action. Hitler issued a directive on 5 September to attack cities including London.[234][235] In a widely publicised speech delivered on 4 September 1940, Hitler condemned the bombing of Berlin and presented the planned attacks on London as reprisals. The first daylight raid was titled Vergeltungsangriff (revenge attack).[236] Smoke rising from fires in the London docks, following bombing on 7 September On 7 September, a massive series of raids involving nearly four hundred bombers and more than six hundred fighters targeted docks in the East End of London, day and night. The RAF anticipated attacks on airfields, and 11 Group rose to meet them, in greater numbers than the Luftwaffe expected. The first official deployment of 12 Group's Leigh-Mallory's Big Wing took twenty minutes to form up, missing its intended target, but encountering another formation of bombers while still climbing. They returned, apologetic about their limited success, and blamed the delay on being scrambled too late.[237][238] The German press jubilantly announced that "one great cloud of smoke stretches tonight from the middle of London to the mouth of the Thames." Reports reflected the briefings given to crews before the raids – "Everyone knew about the last cowardly attacks on German cities, and thought about wives, mothers and children. And then came that word 'Vengeance!'" Pilots reported seeing ruined airfields as they flew towards London, appearances which gave intelligence reports the impression of devastated defences. Göring maintained that the RAF was close to defeat, making invasion feasible.[239] Fighter Command had been at its lowest ebb, short of men and machines, and the break from airfield attacks allowed them to recover. 11 Group had considerable success in breaking up daytime raids. 12 Group repeatedly disobeyed orders and failed to meet requests to protect 11 Group airfields, but their experiments with increasingly large Big Wings had some success. The Luftwaffe began to abandon their morning raids, with attacks on London starting late in the afternoon for fifty-seven consecutive nights.[240] Members of the London Auxiliary Firefighting Service The most damaging aspect to the Luftwaffe of targeting London was the increased distance. The Bf 109E escorts had a limited fuel capacity, giving them only a 660 km (410-mile) maximum range solely on internal fuel,[241] and when they arrived had only 10 minutes of flying time before turning for home, leaving the bombers undefended. Its eventual stablemate, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190A, was flying only in prototype form in mid-1940; the first 28 Fw 190s were not delivered until November 1940. The Fw 190A-1 had a maximum range of 940 km (584 miles) on internal fuel, 40% greater than the Bf 109E.[242] The Messerschmitt Bf 109E-7 corrected this deficiency by adding a ventral centre-line ordnance rack to take either an SC 250 bomb or a standard 300-litre Luftwaffe drop tank to double the range to 1,325 km (820 mi). The ordnance rack was not retrofitted to earlier Bf 109Es until October 1940. On 14 September, Hitler chaired a meeting with the OKW staff. Göring was in France directing the decisive battle, so Erhard Milch deputised for him.[243] Hitler asked "Should we call it off altogether?" General Hans Jeschonnek, Luftwaffe Chief of Staff, begged for a last chance to defeat the RAF and for permission to launch attacks on civilian residential areas to cause mass panic. Hitler refused the latter, perhaps unaware of how much damage had already been done to civilian targets. He reserved for himself the power to unleash the terror weapon. Instead, political will was to be broken by destroying the material infrastructure, the weapons industry, and stocks of fuel and food. On 15 September, two massive waves of German attacks were decisively repulsed by the RAF by deploying every aircraft in 11 Group. Sixty German and twenty-six RAF aircraft were shot down. The action was the climax of the Battle of Britain.[244] Two days after this German defeat Hitler postponed preparations for the invasion of Britain. Henceforth, in the face of mounting losses in men, aircraft and the lack of adequate replacements, the Luftwaffe completed their gradual shift from daylight bomber raids and continued with nighttime bombing. 15 September is commemorated as Battle of Britain Day. Night time Blitz, fighter-bomber day raids Main articles: The Blitz and Fighter-bomber attacks on the United Kingdom during World War II Observer Corps spotter scans the skies of London. At the 14 September OKW conference, Hitler acknowledged that the Luftwaffe had still not gained the air superiority needed for the Operation Sea Lion invasion. In agreement with Raeder's written recommendation, Hitler said the campaign was to intensify regardless of invasion plans: "The decisive thing is the ceaseless continuation of air attacks." Jeschonnek proposed attacking residential areas to cause "mass panic", but Hitler turned this down: he reserved to himself the option of terror bombing. British morale was to be broken by destroying infrastructure, armaments manufacturing, fuel and food stocks. On 16 September, Göring gave the order for this change in strategy.[52] This new phase was to be the first independent strategic bombing campaign, in hopes of a political success forcing the British to give up.[53] Hitler hoped it might result in "eight million going mad" (referring to the population of London in 1940), which would "cause a catastrophe" for the British. In those circumstances, Hitler said, "even a small invasion might go a long way". Hitler was against cancelling the invasion as "the cancellation would reach the ears of the enemy and strengthen his resolve".[nb 17][nb 18] On 19 September, Hitler ordered a reduction in work on Operation Sea Lion.[246] He doubted if strategic bombing could achieve its aims, but ending the air war would be an open admission of defeat. He had to maintain the appearance of concentration on defeating Britain, to conceal from Joseph Stalin his covert aim to invade the Soviet Union.[247] Throughout the battle, most Luftwaffe bombing raids had been at night.[248] They increasingly suffered unsustainable losses in daylight raids, and the last massive daytime attacks were on 15 September. A raid of 70 bombers on 18 September also suffered badly, and day raids were gradually phased out leaving the main attacks at night. Fighter Command still lacked any effective capacity to intercept night-time raiders. The night fighters, mostly Blenheims and Beaufighters, at this time lacked airborne radar and so could not find the bombers. Anti-aircraft guns were diverted to London's defences, but had a much-reduced success rate against night attacks.[249] A still from camera gun footage taken from a Supermarine Spitfire Mark I of No. 609 Squadron RAF attacking a Heinkel HE 111 From mid September, Luftwaffe daylight bombing was gradually taken over by Bf 109 fighters, adapted to take one 250 kg bomb. Small groups of fighter-bombers would carry out Störangriffe raids escorted by large escort formations of about 200 to 300 combat fighters. They flew at altitudes over 20,000 feet (6,100 m) where the Bf 109 had an advantage over RAF fighters, except the Spitfire.[nb 19][nb 20][252] The raids disturbed civilians, and continued the war of attrition against Fighter Command. The raids were intended to carry out precision bombing on military or economic targets, but it was hard to achieve sufficient accuracy with the single bomb. Sometimes, when attacked, the fighter-bombers had to jettison the bomb to function as fighters. The RAF was at a disadvantage and changed defensive tactics by introducing standing patrols of Spitfires at high altitude to monitor incoming raids. On a sighting, other patrols at lower altitude would fly up to join the battle.[253][247] A Junkers Ju 88 returning from a raid on London was shot down in Kent on 27 September resulting in the Battle of Graveney Marsh, the last action between British and foreign military forces on British mainland soil.[254] German bombing of Britain reached its peak in October and November 1940. In post-war interrogation, Wilhelm Keitel described the aims as economic blockade, in conjunction with submarine warfare, and attrition of Britain's military and economic resources. The Luftwaffe wanted to achieve victory on its own and was reluctant to cooperate with the navy. Their strategy for the blockade was to destroy ports and storage facilities in towns and cities. Priorities were based on the pattern of trade and distribution, so for these months, London was the main target. In November their attention turned to other ports and industrial targets around Britain.[255] Hitler postponed the Sealion invasion on 13 October "until the spring of 1941". It was not until Hitler's Directive 21 was issued, on 18 December 1940, that the threat to Britain of invasion finally ended.[185] Royal family During the battle, and for the rest of the war, an important factor in keeping public morale high was the continued presence in London of King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth. When war broke out in 1939, the King and Queen decided to stay in London and not flee to Canada, as had been suggested.[nb 21] George VI and Elizabeth officially stayed in Buckingham Palace throughout the war, although they often spent weekends at Windsor Castle to visit their daughters, Elizabeth (the future queen) and Margaret.[256] Buckingham Palace was damaged by bombs which landed in the grounds on 10 September and, on 13 September, more serious damage was caused by two bombs which destroyed the Royal Chapel. The royal couple were in a small sitting room about 80 yards from where the bombs exploded.[257][258] On 24 September, in recognition of the bravery of civilians, King George VI inaugurated the award of the George Cross. Attrition statistics Gun camera film shows tracer ammunition from a Supermarine Spitfire Mark I of 609 Squadron hitting a Heinkel He 111 on its starboard quarter See also: Confirmation and overclaiming of aerial victories Overall, by 2 November, the RAF fielded 1,796 pilots, an increase of over 40% from July 1940's count of 1,259 pilots.[259] Based on German sources (from a Luftwaffe intelligence officer Otto Bechtle attached to KG 2 in February 1944) translated by the Air Historical Branch, Stephen Bungay asserts German fighter and bomber "strength" declined without recovery, and that from August–December 1940, the German fighter and bomber strength declined by 30 and 25 per cent.[6] In contrast, Williamson Murray argues (using translations by the Air Historical Branch) that 1,380 German bombers were on strength on 29 June 1940,[4][260] 1,420 bombers on 28 September,[261] 1,423 level bombers on 2 November[262] and 1,393 bombers on 30 November 1940.[262] In July–September the number of Luftwaffe pilots available fell by 136, but the number of operational pilots had shrunk by 171 by September. The training organisation of the Luftwaffe was failing to replace losses. German fighter pilots, in contrast to popular perception, were not afforded training or rest rotations, unlike their British counterparts.[111] The first week of September accounted for 25% of Fighter Command's and 24% of the Luftwaffe's overall losses.[263] Between the dates 26 August – 6 September, on only one day (1 September) did the Germans destroy more aircraft than they lost. Losses were 325 German and 248 British.[264] Luftwaffe losses for August numbered 774 aircraft to all causes, representing 18.5% of all combat aircraft at the beginning of the month.[265] Fighter Command's losses in August were 426 fighters destroyed,[266] amounting to 40 per cent of 1,061 fighters available on 3 August.[267] In addition, 99 German bombers and 27 other types were destroyed between 1 and 29 August.[268] From July to September, the Luftwaffe's loss records indicate the loss of 1,636 aircraft, 1,184 to enemy action.[260] This represented 47% of the initial strength of single-engined fighters, 66% of twin-engined fighters, and 45% of bombers. This indicates the Germans were running out of aircrew as well as aircraft.[244] Throughout the battle, the Germans greatly underestimated the size of the RAF and the scale of British aircraft production. Across the Channel, the Air Intelligence division of the Air Ministry consistently overestimated the size of the German air enemy and the productive capacity of the German aviation industry. As the battle was fought, both sides exaggerated the losses inflicted on the other by an equally large margin. The intelligence picture formed before the battle encouraged the Luftwaffe to believe that such losses pushed Fighter Command to the very edge of defeat, while the exaggerated picture of German air strength persuaded the RAF that the threat it faced was larger and more dangerous than was the case.[269] This led the British to the conclusion that another fortnight of attacks on airfields might force Fighter Command to withdraw their squadrons from the south of England. The German misconception, on the other hand, encouraged first complacency, then strategic misjudgement. The shift of targets from air bases to industry and communications was taken because it was assumed that Fighter Command was virtually eliminated.[270] Between 24 August and 4 September, German serviceability rates, which were acceptable at Stuka units, were running at 75% with Bf 109s, 70% with bombers and 65% with Bf 110s, indicating a shortage of spare parts. All units were well below established strength. The attrition was beginning to affect the fighters in particular.[271] By 14 September, the Luftwaffe's Bf 109 Geschwader possessed only 67% of their operational crews against authorised aircraft. For Bf 110 units it was 46 per cent; and for bombers it was 59 per cent. A week later the figures had dropped to 64 per cent, 52% and 52 per cent.[244] Serviceability rates in Fighter Command's fighter squadrons, between 24 August and 7 September, were listed as: 64.8% on 24 August; 64.7% on 31 August and 64.25% on 7 September 1940.[267] Due to the failure of the Luftwaffe to establish air supremacy, a conference assembled on 14 September at Hitler's headquarters. Hitler concluded that air superiority had not yet been established and "promised to review the situation on 17 September for possible landings on 27 September or 8 October. Three days later, when the evidence was clear that the German Air Force had greatly exaggerated the extent of their successes against the RAF, Hitler postponed Sea Lion indefinitely."[272] Propaganda Propaganda was an important element of the air war which began to develop over Britain from 18 June 1940 onwards, when the Luftwaffe began small, probing daylight raids to test RAF defences. One of many examples of these small-scale raids was the destruction of a school at Polruan in Cornwall, by a single raider. Into early July, the British media's focus on the air battles increased steadily, the press, magazines, BBC radio and newsreels daily conveying the contents of Air Ministry communiques.[273] The German OKW communiques matched Britain's efforts in claiming the upper hand.[274] Central to the propaganda war on both sides of the Channel were aircraft claims, which are discussed under 'Attrition statistics' (above). These daily claims were important both for sustaining British home front morale and persuading America to support Britain, and were produced by the Air Ministry's Air Intelligence branch. Under pressure from American journalists and broadcasters to prove that the RAF's claims were genuine, RAF intelligence compared pilots' claims with actual aircraft wrecks and those seen to crash into the sea. It was soon realised that there was a discrepancy between the two, but the Air Ministry decided not to reveal this.[275] In fact, it was not until May 1947 that the actual figures were released to the public, by which time it was no longer important. Many people refused to believe the revised figures, including Douglas Bader.[276] The place of the Battle of Britain in British popular memory partly stems from the Air Ministry's successful propaganda campaign from July to October 1940, and its praise of the defending fighter pilots from March 1941 onwards. The 3d pamphlet The Battle of Britain sold in huge numbers internationally, leading even Goebbels to admire its propaganda value. Focusing only upon the fighter pilots, with no mention of RAF bomber attacks against invasion barges, the Battle of Britain was soon established as a major victory for Fighter Command. This inspired feature films, books, magazines, works of art, poetry, radio plays and MOI short films. The Air Ministry also developed the Battle of Britain Sunday commemoration, supported a Battle of Britain clasp for issue to the pilots in 1945 and, from 1945, Battle of Britain Week. The Battle of Britain window in Westminster Abbey was also encouraged by the Air Ministry, with Trenchard and Dowding, now lords, on its committee. By July 1947 when the window was unveiled, the Battle of Britain had already attained central prominence as Fighter Command's most notable victory, the fighter pilots credited with preventing invasion in 1940. Although given widespread media coverage in September and October 1940, RAF Bomber and Coastal Command raids against invasion barge concentrations were less well-remembered. Aftermath The Battle of Britain marked the first major defeat of Germany's military forces, with air superiority seen as the key to victory.[277] Pre-war theories had led to exaggerated fears of strategic bombing, and UK public opinion was buoyed by coming through the ordeal.[278] For the RAF, Fighter Command had achieved a great victory in successfully carrying out Sir Thomas Inskip's 1937 air policy of preventing the Germans from knocking Britain out of the war. The battle also significantly shifted American opinion. During the battle, many Americans accepted the view promoted by Joseph Kennedy, the American ambassador in London, who believed that the United Kingdom could not survive. Roosevelt wanted a second opinion, and sent William "Wild Bill" Donovan on a brief visit to the UK; he became convinced the UK would survive and should be supported in every possible way.[279][280] Before the end of the year, American journalist Ralph Ingersoll, after returning from Britain, published a book concluding that "Adolf Hitler met his first defeat in eight years" in what might "go down in history as a battle as important as Waterloo or Gettysburg". The turning point was when the Germans reduced the intensity of daylight attacks after 15 September. According to Ingersoll, "[a] majority of responsible British officers who fought through this battle believe that if Hitler and Göring had had the courage and the resources to lose 200 planes a day for the next five days, nothing could have saved London"; instead, "[the Luftwaffe's] morale in combat is definitely broken, and the RAF has been gaining in strength each week."[281] Both sides in the battle made exaggerated claims of numbers of enemy aircraft shot down. In general, claims were two to three times the actual numbers. Postwar analysis of records has shown that between July and September, the RAF claimed 2,698 kills, while the Luftwaffe fighters claimed 3,198 RAF aircraft shot down.[citation needed] Total losses, and start and end dates for recorded losses, vary for both sides. Luftwaffe losses from 10 July to 30 October 1940 total 1,977 aircraft, including 243 twin- and 569 single-engined fighters, 822 bombers and 343 non-combat types.[11] In the same period, RAF Fighter Command aircraft losses number 1,087, including 53 twin-engined fighters.[citation needed] To the RAF figure should be added 376 Bomber Command and 148 Coastal Command aircraft lost conducting bombing, mining, and reconnaissance operations in defence of the country.[6] Stephen Bungay describes Dowding and Park's strategy of choosing when to engage the enemy whilst maintaining a coherent force as vindicated; their leadership, and the subsequent debates about strategy and tactics, had created enmity among RAF senior commanders and both were sacked from their posts in the immediate aftermath of the battle.[282] All things considered, the RAF proved to be a robust and capable organisation that was to use all the modern resources available to it to the maximum advantage.[283] Richard Evans writes: Irrespective of whether Hitler was really set on this course, he simply lacked the resources to establish the air superiority that was the sine qua non [prerequisite] of a successful crossing of the English Channel. A third of the initial strength of the German air force, the Luftwaffe, had been lost in the western campaign in the spring. The Germans lacked the trained pilots, the effective fighter aircraft, and the heavy bombers that would have been needed.[284][nb 22] The Germans launched some spectacular attacks against important British industries, but they could not destroy the British industrial potential, and made little systematic effort to do so. Hindsight does not disguise that the threat to Fighter Command was very real, and for the participants it seemed as if there was a narrow margin between victory and defeat. Nevertheless, even if the German attacks on the 11 Group airfields which guarded southeast England and the approaches to London had continued, the RAF could have withdrawn to the Midlands out of German fighter range and continued the battle from there.[286] The victory was as much psychological as physical. Writes Alfred Price: The truth of the matter, borne out by the events of 18 August, is more prosaic: neither by attacking the airfields nor by attacking London, was the Luftwaffe likely to destroy Fighter Command. Given the size of the British fighter force and the general high quality of its equipment, training and morale, the Luftwaffe could have achieved no more than a Pyrrhic victory. During the action on 18 August, it had cost the Luftwaffe five trained aircrew killed, wounded or taken prisoner, for each British fighter pilot killed or wounded; the ratio was similar on other days in the battle. And this ratio of 5:1 was very close to that between the number of German aircrew involved in the battle and those in Fighter Command. In other words, the two sides were suffering almost the same losses in trained aircrew, in proportion to their overall strengths. In the Battle of Britain, for the first time during the Second World War, the German war machine had set itself a major task which it patently failed to achieve, and so demonstrated that it was not invincible. In stiffening the resolve of those determined to resist Hitler the battle was an important turning point in the conflict.[287] Some historians are more cautious in assessing the significance of Germany's failure to knock Britain out of the war. Bungay writes, "Victory in the air achieved a modest strategic goal, for it did not bring Britain any closer to victory in the war, but merely avoided her defeat."[288] Overy says, "The Battle of Britain did not seriously weaken Germany and her allies, nor did it much reduce the scale of the threat facing Britain (and the Commonwealth) in 1940/41 until German and Japanese aggression brought the Soviet Union and the United States into the conflict."[289] The British victory in the Battle of Britain was achieved at a heavy cost. Total British civilian losses from July to December 1940 were 23,002 dead and 32,138 wounded, with one of the largest single raids on 19 December 1940, in which almost 3,000 civilians died. With the culmination of the concentrated daylight raids, Britain was able to rebuild its military forces and establish itself as an Allied stronghold, later serving as a base from which the liberation of Western Europe was launched.[290] Battle of Britain Day Main article: Battle of Britain Day Second World War poster containing the famous lines by Winston Churchill Winston Churchill summed up the battle with the words, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few".[291] Pilots who fought in the battle have been known as The Few ever since, at times being specially commemorated on 15 September, "Battle of Britain Day". On this day in 1940, the Luftwaffe embarked on their largest bombing attack yet, forcing the engagement of the entirety of the RAF in defence of London and the South East, which resulted in a decisive British victory that proved to mark a turning point in Britain's favour.[292][293] Within the Commonwealth, Battle of Britain Day has been observed more usually on the third Sunday in September, and even on the 2nd Thursday in September in some areas in the British Channel Islands. Memorials and museums Plans for the Battle of Britain window in Westminster Abbey were begun during wartime, the committee chaired by Lords Trenchard and Dowding. Public donations paid for the window itself, which replaced a window destroyed during the campaign, this officially opened by King George VI on 10 July 1947. Although not actually an 'official' memorial to the Battle of Britain in the sense that government paid for it, the window and chapel have since been viewed as such. During the late 1950s and 1960, various proposals were advanced for a national monument to the Battle of Britain, this also the focus of several letters in The Times. In 1960 the Conservative government decided against a further monument, taking the view that the credit should be shared more broadly than Fighter Command alone, and there was little public appetite for one. All subsequent memorials are the result of private subscription and initiative, as discussed below.[294] There are numerous memorials to the battle. The most important ones are the Battle of Britain Monument in London and the Battle of Britain Memorial at Capel-le-Ferne in Kent. As well as Westminster Abbey, St James's Church, Paddington also has a memorial window to the battle, replacing a window destroyed during it. There is also a memorial at the former Croydon Airport, one of the RAF bases during the battle, and a memorial to the pilots at Armadale Castle on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, which is topped by a raven sculpture. The Polish pilots who served in the battle are among the names on the Polish War Memorial in west London. There are also two museums to the battle: one at Hawkinge in Kent and one at Stanmore in London, at the former RAF Bentley Priory.[295] In 2015 the RAF created an online 'Battle of Britain 75th Anniversary Commemorative Mosaic' composed of pictures of "the few" – the pilots and aircrew who fought in the battle – and "the many" – 'the often unsung others whose contribution during the Battle of Britain was also vital to the RAF's victory in the skies above Britain', submitted by participants and their families.[296] Memorials to the Battle of Britain Victoria Embankment, London Victoria Embankment, London Capel-le-Ferne, Kent Capel-le-Ferne, Kent Armadale Castle Armadale Castle Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey St James's Church, Paddington St James's Church, Paddington Croydon Airport Croydon Airport Monument of Polish Pilots, Northolt Monument of Polish Pilots, Northolt In popular culture This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles. (September 2024) Film and television depictions The battle was the subject of the film Battle of Britain (1969), starring Laurence Olivier as Hugh Dowding and Trevor Howard as Keith Park.[297] It also starred Michael Caine, Christopher Plummer and Robert Shaw as squadron leaders.[297] Former participants of the battle served as technical advisers, including Adolf Galland and Robert Stanford Tuck. In the 2001 film Pearl Harbor, American participation in the Battle of Britain was exaggerated, as none of the "Eagle Squadrons" of American volunteers saw action in Europe before 1941.[298] As of 2003, a Hollywood film named The Few was in preparation for release in 2008, based on the story of real-life US pilot Billy Fiske, who ignored his country's neutrality rules and volunteered for the RAF. Bill Bond, who conceived the Battle of Britain Monument in London, described a Variety magazine outline of the film's historical content[299] as "Totally wrong. The whole bloody lot."[300] First Light (BBC drama 2010).[301] In 2010, actor Julian Glover played a 101-year-old Polish veteran RAF pilot in the short film Battle for Britain.[302] The 2018 war film Hurricane depicted the experiences of a group of Polish pilots of No. 303 Squadron RAF in the Battle of Britain.[303] Documentaries The 1941 Allied propaganda film Churchill's Island was the winner of the first Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject.[304][305] It was also included in an episode of the 2019 series Greatest Events of WWII in Colour.[306] See also Aviation portal flag United Kingdom portal List of Battle of Britain airfields List of Battle of Britain squadrons List of RAF aircrew in the Battle of Britain Non-British personnel in the RAF during the Battle of Britain Operation Banquet, a British plan to use every available aircraft against a German invasion Operation Lucid, a British plan to use fire ships to attack invasion barges Coventry Blitz Evacuations of civilians in Britain during World War II Polish Air Forces in France and Great Britain The Darkest Hour The Few Post-war memorials Battle of Britain Class steam locomotives of the Southern Railway Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Battle of Britain Memorial, Capel-le-Ferne Battle of Britain Monument, London Kent Battle of Britain Museum Polish War Memorial Spirit of the Few Monument Radio direction finding Notes The British date the battle from 11 July to 31 October 1940, which represented one of the most intense period of daylight bombing.[1] German historians usually place the beginning of the battle in July 1940 and end it mid-May 1941, with the withdrawal of the bomber units in support for Operation Barbarossa, the campaign against the Soviet Union, which began on 22 June 1941.[1] The Polish, Czech and most other national contingents were incorporated into the RAF. The Polish Air Force was not given sovereignty until June 1944.[3] Although under RAF operational control, RCAF pilots in the BoB were technically flying for the RCAF. Although Canada sent their squadrons to Britain, countries like Australia and New Zealand did not. 754 single-seat fighters, 149 two-seat fighters, 560 bombers and 500 coastal aircraft. The RAF fighter strength given is for 09:00 1 July 1940, while bomber strength is for 11 July 1940.[4] Figures taken from Quartermaster General 6th Battalion returns on 10 August 1940. According to these, the Luftwaffe deployed 3,358 aircraft against Britain, of which 2,550 were serviceable. The force was made up of 934 single-seat fighters, 289 two-seat fighters, 1,482 medium bombers, 327 dive-bombers, 195 reconnaissance and 93 coastal aircraft, including unserviceable aircraft. The number of serviceable aircraft amounted to 805 single-seat fighters, 224 two-seat fighters, 998 medium bombers, 261 dive-bombers, 151 reconnaissance and 80 coastal aircraft.[5] The Luftwaffe possessed 4,074 aircraft, but not all of these were deployed against Britain. The force was made up of 1,107 single-seat fighters, 357 two-seat fighters, 1,380 medium bombers, 428 dive-bombers, and 569 reconnaissance and 233 coastal aircraft, including unserviceable aircraft. The Luftwaffe air strength given is from the Quartermaster General 6th Battalion numbers for 29 June 1940.[4] 544 aircrew (RAF Fighter Command), 718 (RAF Bomber Command), 280 (RAF Coastal Command) killed[6][7][8] 1,220 fighters (753 Hurricane, 467 Spitfire)[10] 376 bombers, 148 aircraft (RAF Coastal Command)[6] 812 fighters (per type: 569 Bf 109, 243 Bf 110) 822 bombers (per type: 65 Ju 87, 271 Ju 88, 184 Do 17, 223 He 111, 29 He 59, 24 He 159, 34 others) 343 non-combat (per type: 76 Bf 109, 29 Bf 110, 25 Ju 87, 54 Ju 88, 31 Do 17, 66 He 111, 7 He 59, 7 He 159, 48 others)[11] The strategic bombing commenced after the Germans bombed London on 14 September 1940, followed by the RAF bombing of Berlin and of German air force bases in France. Adolf Hitler withdrew his directive not to bomb population centres and ordered attacks on British cities.[16] Bf 109E-3 and E-4s had this armament, while the E-1, which was still used in large numbers, was armed with four 7.92mm machine guns. The pilots occupying these administrative positions included such officers as Dowding, Park and Leigh-Mallory and the numbers actually fit to serve in front line fighter squadrons are open to question. Polish units in the composition of the RAF taking part in the Battle of Britain, first in composition, and then alongside the RAF fought four Polish squadrons: two bomber (300 and 301), 2 Hunting (302 and 303) and 81 Polish pilots in British squadrons, a total of 144 Polish pilots (killed 29 ), representing 5% of all the pilots of the RAF taking part in the battle. Poles shot down about 170 German aircraft, damaged 36, representing about 12% of the losses of the Luftwaffe. Squadron 303 was the best unit air, taking part in the Battle of Britain – reported shot down 126 Luftwaffe planes. Albrecht von Ankum-Frank was killed on 2 August 1940 in a crash landing at Leeuwarden Airfield.[186] This account is from Warner 2005, p. 253 Another source, Ramsay 1989, p. 555, lists no aircrew casualties and three 109s in total destroyed or damaged. "Satellite" airfields were mostly fully equipped but did not have the sector control room which allowed "Sector" airfields such as Biggin Hill to monitor and control RAF fighter formations. RAF units from Sector airfields often flew into a satellite airfield for operations during the day, returning to their home airfield in the evenings. Irving 1974, pp. 118–119: Irving's sources were General Franz Halder and the OKW War Diary for 14 September 1940. Keitel's notes, ND 803-PS, record the same. Bungay refers to the 14 September meeting with Milch and Jeschonnek. Hitler wanted to keep up the "moral" pressure on the British Government, in the hope it would crack. Bungay indicates that Hitler had changed his mind from the day before, refusing to call off the invasion for the time being.[245] Jeffrey Quill wrote of his combat experience whilst flying with No. 65 Squadron: Nearly all our engagements with Me 109s took place at around 20,000 – 25,000 ft. The Spitfire had the edge over them in speed and climb, and particularly in turning circle. (...) One engagement with several Me 109s at about 25,000 ft over the Channel sticks in my memory...I was now convinced that the Spitfire Mk I could readily out-turn the 109, certainly in the 20,000 ft region and probably at all heights.[250] Bf 109 leaking valves, supercharger faults/failure.[251] This proposal has since been confused, or conflated, with a possible flight by HMG in exile. The exact percentage was 28. The Luftwaffe deployed 5,638 aircraft for the campaign. 1,428 were destroyed and a further 488 were damaged, but were repairable.[285] References Foreman 1989, p. 8 Haining 2005, p. 68 Peszke 1980, p. 134 Bungay 2000, p. 107 Wood & Dempster 2003, p. 318 Bungay 2000, p. 368 Ramsay 1989, pp. 251–297 "Battle of Britain RAF and FAA Roll of Honour". RAF. Archived from the original on 17 May 2015. Retrieved 14 July 2008. Wood & Dempster 2003, p. 309 Overy 2001, p. 161 Hans Ring, "Die Luftschlacht über England 1940", Luftfahrt international Ausgabe 12, 1980. p. 580. Clodfelter, Micheal (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015, 4th ed. McFarland. p. 440. ISBN 978-0786474707. "92 Squadron – Geoffrey Wellum." Battle of Britain Memorial Flight via raf.mod.uk.. Retrieved: 17 November 2010, archived 2 March 2009. "Introduction to the Phases of the Battle – History of the Battle of Britain – Exhibitions & Displays – Research". 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Die Jagdfliegerverbände der Deutschen Luftwaffe 1934 bis 1945—Teil 4/I—Einsatz am Kanal und über England—26.6.1940 bis 21.6.1941 [The Fighter Units of the German Air Force 1934 to 1945—Part 4/I—Action at the Channel and over England—26 June 1940 to 21 June 1941] (in German). Eutin, Germany: Struve-Druck. ISBN 978-3-923457-63-2. Raeder, Erich. Erich Rader, Grand Admiral. New York: Da Capo Press; United States Naval Institute, 2001. ISBN 0-306-80962-1. Shirer, William (1990) [1964], The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, London: Ballantine, ISBN 978-0-449-21977-5 Smith, Howard Kingsbury (1942). Last Train from Berlin. A. A. Knopf. Stedman, Robert F. (2012). Jagdflieger: Luftwaffe Fighter Pilot 1939–45. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1780969831. Wagner, Ray; Nowarra, Heinz (1971). German Combat Planes: A Comprehensive Survey and History of the Development of German Military Aircraft from 1914 to 194. New York: Doubleday & Company. Watteau, Pierre (June 2000). "Courrier des Lecteurs" [Readers' Letters]. Avions: Toute l'Aéronautique et son histoire (in French) (87): 3. ISSN 1243-8650. Autobiographies and biographies Brew, Steve. A Ruddy Awful Waste: Eric Lock DSO, DFC & Bar; The Brief Life of a Battle of Britain Fighter Ace. London: Fighting High, 2016. Collier, Basil. Leader of the Few: the Authorised Biography of Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding of Bentley Priory. London: Jarrolds, 1957. Deere, Alan Christopher (1974), Nine Lives, London: Hodder Paperbacks Ltd for Coronet Books, ISBN 978-0-340-01441-7 Duncan Smith, W. G. G. (2002). Spitfire into Battle. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-0719554841. Franks, Norman, Wings of Freedom: Twelve Battle of Britain Pilots. London: William Kimber, 1980. ISBN 0-7183-0197-8. Galland, Adolf (2005). The First and the Last: Germany's Fighter Force in the Second World War. Cerberus. ISBN 978-1841450209. Halpenny, Bruce, Fight for the Sky: Stories of Wartime Fighter Pilots. Cambridge, UK: Patrick Stephens, 1986. ISBN 0-85059-749-8. Halpenny, Bruce, Fighter Pilots in World War II: True Stories of Frontline Air Combat (paperback). Barnsley, UK: Pen and Sword Books Ltd, 2004. ISBN 1-84415-065-8. Orange, Vincent (2001). Park: The Biography of Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park, GCB, KBE, MC, DFC, DCL. Grub Street Publishers. ISBN 978-1-909166-72-1. Aircraft Ansell, Mark (2005). Boulton Paul Defiant: Technical Details and History of the Famous British Night Fighter. Redbourn, Herts, UK: Mushroom Model Publications. pp. 712–714. ISBN 978-83-89450-19-7.. de Zeng, Henry L., Doug G. Stankey and Eddie J. Creek, Bomber Units of the Luftwaffe 1933–1945: A Reference Source, Volume 2. Hersham, Surrey, UK: Ian Allan Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-1-903223-87-1. Feist, Uwe (1993). The Fighting Me 109. London: Arms and Armour Press. ISBN 978-1-85409-209-0.. Goss, Chris, Dornier 17: In Focus. Surrey, UK: Red Kite Books, 2005. ISBN 0-9546201-4-3. Green, William (1962). Famous Fighters of the Second World War. London: Macdonald and Jane's Publishers Ltd. Green, William (1980) [First edition, 1970]. Warplanes of the Third Reich. London: Macdonald and Jane's Publishers Ltd. ISBN 978-0-356-02382-3. Harvey-Bailey, Alec (1995). Merlin in Perspective: The Combat Years. Derby, UK: Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust. ISBN 978-1-8729-2206-5.. Holmes, Tony (1998). Hurricane Aces 1939–1940 (Aircraft of the Aces). Botley, Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85532-597-5. Holmes, Tony (2007), Spitfire vs Bf 109: Battle of Britain, Oxford: Osprey, ISBN 978-1-84603-190-8 Huntley, Ian D., Fairey Battle, Aviation Guide 1. Bedford, UK: SAM Publications, 2004. ISBN 0-9533465-9-5. Jones, Robert C. (1970). Camouflage and Markings Number 8: Boulton Paul Defiant, RAF Northern Europe 1936–45. London: Ducimus Book Limited. Lloyd, Sir Ian; Pugh, Peter (2004). Hives and the Merlin. Cambridge: Icon Books. ISBN 978-1840466447. Mason, Francis K., Hawker Aircraft since 1920. London: Putnam, 1991. ISBN 0-85177-839-9. McKinstry, Leo (2010). Hurricane: Victor of the Battle of Britain. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-1848543942. Molson, Kenneth M. et al., Canada's National Aviation Museum: Its History and Collections. Ottawa: National Aviation Museum, 1988. ISBN 978-0-660-12001-0. Moyes, Philip, J. R., "The Fairey Battle." Aircraft in Profile, Volume 2 (nos. 25–48). Windsor, Berkshire, UK: Profile Publications, 1971. ISBN 0-85383-011-8 Parry, Simon W., Intruders over Britain: The Story of the Luftwaffe's Night Intruder Force, the Fernnachtjager. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 1989. ISBN 0-904811-07-7. Price, Alfred (1996), Spitfire Mark I/II Aces 1939–41 (Aircraft of the Aces 12), London: Osprey Books, ISBN 978-1-85532-627-9 Price, Alfred (2002), The Spitfire Story: Revised second edition, Enderby, Leicester, UK: Silverdale Books, ISBN 978-1-85605-702-8 Sarkar, Dilip (2011). How the Spitfire Won the Battle of Britain. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1-4456-0981-2. Scutts, Jerry, Messerschmitt Bf 109: The Operational Record. Sarasota, Florida: Crestline Publishers, 1996. ISBN 978-0-7603-0262-0. Ward, John (2004). Hitler's Stuka Squadrons: The JU 87 at War 1936–1945. MBI Publishing Company LLC. ISBN 978-0760319918. Warner, G (2005), The Bristol Blenheim: A Complete History (2nd ed.), London: Crécy Publishing, ISBN 978-0-85979-101-4 Weal, John (1999), Messerschmitt Bf 110 'Zerstōrer' Aces of World War 2, Botley, Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, ISBN 978-1-85532-753-5 Additional references Books Addison, Paul and Jeremy Crang. The Burning Blue: A New History of the Battle of Britain. London: Pimlico, 2000. ISBN 0-7126-6475-0. Bergström, Christer. Barbarossa – The Air Battle: July–December 1941. London: Chevron/Ian Allan, 2007. ISBN 978-1-85780-270-2. Bergström, Christer. The Battle of Britain – An Epic Battle Revisited. Eskilstuna: Vaktel Books/Casemate, 2010. ISBN 978-1612003474. Bishop, Patrick. Fighter Boys: The Battle of Britain, 1940. New York: Viking, 2003 (hardcover, ISBN 0-670-03230-1); Penguin Books, 2004. ISBN 0-14-200466-9. As Fighter Boys: Saving Britain 1940. London: Harper Perennial, 2004. ISBN 0-00-653204-7. Brittain, Vera. England's Hour. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005 (paperback, ISBN 0-8264-8031-4); Obscure Press (paperback, ISBN 1-84664-834-3). Campion, Garry (2008), The Good Fight: Battle of Britain Wartime Propaganda and The Few (First ed.), Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-0-230-27996-4. Campion, Garry (2015), The Battle of Britain, 1945–1965: The Air Ministry and the Few, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-0230284548 Cooper, Matthew. The German Air Force 1933–1945: An Anatomy of Failure. New York: Jane's Publishing Incorporated, 1981. ISBN 0-531-03733-9. Craig, Phil and Tim Clayton. Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. ISBN 0-684-86930-6 (hardcover); 2006, ISBN 0-684-86931-4 (paperback). Cumming, Anthony J. The Royal Navy and The Battle of Britain. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-59114-160-0. Fiedler, Arkady. 303 Squadron: The Legendary Battle of Britain Fighter Squadron. Los Angeles: Aquila Polonica, 2010. ISBN 978-1-60772-004-1. Fisher, David E. A Summer Bright and Terrible: Winston Churchill, Lord Dowding, Radar and the Impossible Triumph of the Battle of Britain. Emeryville, CA: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2005. (hardcover, ISBN 1-59376-047-7); 2006, ISBN 1-59376-116-3 (paperback). Foreman, John (1989), Battle of Britain: The Forgotten Months, November And December 1940, Wythenshawe, Lancashire, UK: Crécy, ISBN 978-1-871187-02-1 Gaskin, Margaret. Blitz: The Story of 29 December 1940. New York: Harcourt, 2006. ISBN 0-15-101404-3. Gretzyngier, Robert; Matusiak, Wojtek (1998). Polish Aces of World War 2. London: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-85532-726-9.. Haining, Peter (2005). The Chianti Raiders: The Extraordinary Story of the Italian Air Force in the Battle of Britain. Pavilion Books. ISBN 978-1-86105-829-4. Haining, Peter. Where the Eagle Landed: The Mystery of the German Invasion of Britain, 1940. London: Robson Books, 2004. ISBN 1-86105-750-4. Halpenny, Bruce Barrymore. Action Stations: Military Airfields of Greater London v. 8. Cambridge, UK: Patrick Stephens, 1984. ISBN 0-85039-885-1. Harding, Thomas. "It's baloney, say RAF aces". The Telegraph, 24 August 2006. Retrieved: 3 March 2007. Hough, Richard. The Battle of Britain: The Greatest Air Battle of World War II. New York: W.W. Norton, 1989. ISBN 0-393-02766-X (hardcover); 2005, ISBN 0-393-30734-4(paperback). James, T.C.G. The Battle of Britain (Air Defence of Great Britain; vol. 2). London/New York: Frank Cass Publishers, 2000. ISBN 0-7146-5123-0(hardcover); ISBN 0-7146-8149-0 (paperback, ). James, T.C.G. Growth of Fighter Command, 1936–1940 (Air Defence of Great Britain; vol. 1). London; New York: Frank Cass Publishers, 2000. ISBN 0-7146-5118-4. James, T.C.G. Night Air Defence During the Blitz. London/New York: Frank Cass Publishers, 2003. ISBN 0-7146-5166-4. McGlashan, Kenneth B. with Owen P. Zupp. Down to Earth: A Fighter Pilot Recounts His Experiences of Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, Dieppe, D-Day and Beyond. London: Grub Street Publishing, 2007. ISBN 1-904943-84-5. March, Edgar J. British Destroyers; a History of Development 1892–1953. London: Seely Service & Co. Limited, 1966. Olson, Lynne; Cloud, Stanley (2003). A Question of Honor: The Kościuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II. New York: Knopf. ISBN 978-0-375-41197-7.. NB: This book is also published under the following title: For Your Freedom and Ours: The Kościuszko Squadron – Forgotten Heroes of World War II. Mason, Francis K. "Battle over Britain". McWhirter Twins Ltd. 1969 {A day by day accounting of RaF and Luftwaffe losses} Prien, Jochen and Peter Rodeike.Messerschmitt Bf 109 F, G, and K: An Illustrated Study. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, 1995. ISBN 0-88740-424-3. Ray, John Philip (2003). The Battle of Britain: Dowding and the First Victory, 1940. Cassell. ISBN 978-0304356775. Ray, John Philip. The Battle of Britain: New Perspectives: Behind the Scenes of the Great Air War. London: Arms & Armour Press, 1994 (hardcover, ISBN 1-85409-229-4); London: Orion Publishing, 1996 (paperback, ISBN 1-85409-345-2). Rongers, Eppo H. De oorlog in mei '40, Utrecht/Antwerpen: Uitgeverij Het Spectrum N.V., 1969, No ISBN Townsend, Peter. Duel of Eagles (new edition). London: Phoenix, 2000. ISBN 1-84212-211-8. Wellum, Geoffrey. First Light: The Story of the Boy Who Became a Man in the War-Torn Skies Above Britain. New York: Viking Books, 2002. ISBN 0-670-91248-4 (hardcover); Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons, 2003. ISBN 0-471-42627-X (hardcover); London: Penguin Books, 2003. ISBN 0-14-100814-8 (paperback). Zaloga, Steven J.; Hook, Richard (1982). The Polish Army 1939–45. London: Osprey. ISBN 978-0-85045-417-8.. General The Battle of Britain Historical Timeline Day by Day blog charting the progress of the Battle by ex RAF veteran Battle Of Britain Historical Society Archived 29 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine video: Battle of Britain on YouTube, (52 min.) complete film documentary by Frank Capra made for U.S. Army The Battle of Britain "In Photos" Royal Air Force history Battle of Britain Memorial BBC History Overview of Battle Historical recording BBC: Churchill's "This Was Their Finest Hour" speech Archived 27 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine Radio New Zealand 'Sounds Historical' ANZAC Day, 25 April 2008: Historical recording of Sir Keith Park describing the Battle of Britain. (Scroll down to 10:50 am). Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding on the Battle of Britain (despatch to the Secretary of State, August 1941) Archived 28 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine Royal Engineers Museum: Royal Engineers during the Second World War (airfield repair) Shoreham Aircraft Museum Tangmere Military Aviation Museum Kent Battle of Britain Museum ADLG Visits RAF Uxbridge Battle of Britain Operations Room British Invasion Defences The Falco and Regia Aeronautica in the Battle of Britain History of North Weald Airfield The Royal Mint Memorial website New Zealanders in the Battle of Britain (NZHistory.net.nz) Archived 3 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine New Zealanders in the Battle of Britain (official history) Battle for Britain, short film starring Julian Glover[usurped] Interactive map showing Battle of Britain airfields and squadrons by date https://web.archive.org/web/20161220201254/http://garry-campion.com/ vte Air Defence of Great Britain during the Second World War Overview Royal Air ForceRoyal Canadian Air ForceStrategic bombingNight fighterBig Wing formation People RAF Hugh DowdingCharles PortalCyril NewallTrafford Leigh-MalloryKeith ParkSholto Douglas Army Frederick Pile Scientists R. V. JonesRobert Watson-Watt Organisation Commands RAF Fighter CommandRAF Balloon CommandRAF Coastal CommandAnti-Aircraft CommandRAF Bomber Command Groups No. 9 Group RAFNo. 10 Group RAFNo. 11 Group RAFNo. 12 Group RAFNo. 13 Group RAFNo. 14 Group RAF AA Corps I AA CorpsII AA CorpsIII AA Corps AA Divisions 1 AA Division2 AA Division3 AA Division4 AA Division5 AA Division6 AA Division7 AA Division8 AA Division9 AA Division10 AA Division11 AA Division12 AA Division Other units Battle of Britain airfieldsEagle SquadronsRoyal Observer CorpsWomen's Auxiliary Air Force Campaigns and operations Battle of BritainThe BlitzBaedeker raidsOperation SteinbockOperation CrossbowOperation DiverOperation Gisela Aircraft BeaufighterDefiantHurricaneMeteorMosquitoSpitfireTempestTyphoon Technology Barrage balloonBattle of the BeamsRadar (Chain Home)German V weapons Related topics Air Raid PrecautionsRAF strategic bombing offensiveUnited States Army Air Forces vte British Empire battles of the Second World War Africa East AfricaInvasion of British SomalilandCapture of Italian SomalilandRecapture of British SomalilandItalian guerrilla war in Ethiopia North AfricaFirst Battle of El AlameinSecond Battle of El AlameinItalian invasion of EgyptOperation CompassRun for TunisSiege of GiarabubSiege of TobrukCapture of TobrukOperation BrevityOperation SkorpionOperation SonnenblumeOccupation of Libya Southern AfricaBattle of Madagascar West AfricaBattle of DakarOperation Postmaster Europe ArcticBattle of the Barents SeaEvacuation of NorwayOccupation of IcelandEvacuation of SpitsbergenFaroe Islands occupation BalkansReinforcement of GreeceBattle of Crete (RethymnoThermopylaeVevi) MediterraneanConvoy AN 14Attack on Mers-el-KébirBattle of CalabriaCampobasso ConvoyBattle of Cape BonBattle of Cape MatapanBattle of Cape PasseroBattle of Cape SpadaBattle of Cape SpartiventoCigno ConvoyDuisburg ConvoyEspero ConvoyBattle of the Ligurian SeaBattle of Skerki BankBattle of the Strait of Otranto (1940)Battle of TarantoTarigo ConvoyBattle off ZuwarahOperation AbstentionOperation AgreementOperation AlbumenOperation ExcessOperation GrogOperation HarpoonOperation PedestalOperation ScyllaOperation VigorousOperation WhiteRaid on AlexandriaRaid on Souda BaySiege of Malta Battle of Grand HarbourMalta convoys Western EuropeBattle of the Heligoland BightBEFBattle of France (Arras)Battle of BelgiumBattle of the NetherlandsDunkirk evacuationBattle of BritainThe BlitzDieppe RaidChannel DashOperation GiselaOperation SteinbockOperation DiverEvacuation of GibraltarJuno BeachGold BeachSword BeachOperation WindsorClearing the Channel CoastOperation Market Garden (Battle of Arnhem, Battle of Nijmegen)Battle of the ScheldtOperation BlackcockBattle of the ReichswaldSt Nazaire RaidLiberation of BelgiumLiberation of the Netherlands Far East Hong KongBattle of Kowloon and New TerritoriesBattle of Hong Kong Island MalayJapanese invasion of MalayaBattle of JitraDefence of Johore SingaporeFall of Singapore BurmaJapanese invasion of BurmaArakan Campaign 1942–43Recapture of Burma IndiaInvasion of IndiaOperation U-GoBattle of ImphalBattle of Kohima Indian OceanIndian Ocean disasterIndian Ocean retreatCocos Islands mutinyIndian Ocean raidBattle of CeylonEvacuation of British SomalilandJapanese occupation of the Andaman IslandsIndian Ocean raid (1944)Indian Ocean strikeBattle of the Malacca StraitBombing of SumatraBombardment of Andaman IslandsBombardment of Northern Malaya Middle East IraqInvasion of IraqBattle of FallujahSiege of HabbaniyaBattle of BasraCapture of Baghdad IranInvasion of KhuzestanInvasion of Central Iran Syria–LebanonInvasion of LebanonCapture of BeirutInvasion of SyriaCapture of Damascus Americas AtlanticBattle of the River PlateBattle of the Gulf of St. LawrenceBattle of the Denmark StraitNewfoundland Escort ForceMid-Ocean Escort ForceWestern Local Escort ForceWestern Approaches Escort Force vte World War II OutlineBattles OperationsLeaders AlliedAxisCommandersCasualtiesConferences General Topics Air warfare of World War II In EuropeBlitzkriegComparative military ranksCryptographyDeclarations of warDiplomacyGovernments in exileHome front AustralianUnited KingdomUnited StatesLend-LeaseManhattan Project British contributionMilitary awardsMilitary equipmentMilitary productionNaval historyNazi plunderOppositionTechnology Allied cooperationMulberry harbourTotal warStrategic bombingPuppet statesWomenArt and World War IIMusic in World War IIWeather events during World War II Theaters Asia and Pacific ChinaSouth-East AsiaPacificNorth and Central PacificSouth-West PacificIndian OceanEurope Western FrontEastern FrontMediterranean and Middle East North AfricaEast AfricaItalyWest AfricaAtlantic timelineAmericas Aftermath Chinese Civil WarCold WarDecolonizationDivision of KoreaFirst Indochina WarExpulsion of GermansGreek Civil WarIndonesian National RevolutionKeelhaulMarshall PlanOccupation of GermanyOccupation of JapanOsoaviakhimPaperclipSoviet occupations BalticHungaryPolandRomaniaTerritorial changes of GermanyTreaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to GermanyUnited Nations War crimes Allied war crimes Soviet war crimesBritish war crimesUnited States war crimesGerman war crimes forced labourWehrmacht war crimesThe Holocaust AftermathResponseNuremberg trialsItalian war crimesJapanese war crimes Nanjing MassacreUnit 731ProsecutionCroatian war crimes Genocide of SerbsPersecution of JewsRomanian war crimesSexual violence German military brothelsCamp brothelsRape during the occupation of Germany / Japan / PolandRape during the liberation of France / SerbiaSook ChingComfort womenRape of ManilaMarocchinate Participants Allies AlgeriaAustraliaBelgiumBrazilBulgaria (from September 1944)CanadaChinaCubaCzechoslovakiaDenmarkEthiopiaEswatini (formerly Swaziland)Finland (from September 1944)FranceFree FranceGreeceIndiaItaly (from September 1943)LiberiaLuxembourgMexicoNetherlandsNewfoundlandNew ZealandNorwayPhilippinesPolandRomania (from August 1944)Sierra LeoneSouth AfricaSouthern RhodesiaSoviet UnionTuvaUnited Kingdom British EmpireUnited States Puerto RicoYugoslavia Axis Albania protectorateBulgaria (until September 1944)State of BurmaRepublic of China (Wang Jingwei)Independent State of CroatiaFinland (until September 1944)German ReichHungaryAzad HindIraqItaly (until September 1943) Italian Social RepublicEmpire of JapanManchukuoMengjiangPhilippinesRomania (until August 1944)Slovak RepublicThailandVichy France GuangzhouwanFrench IndochinaFrench MadagascarSyria–LebanonFrench North AfricaFrench West AfricaCollaboration Neutral AfghanistanAndorraBhutanIrelandLiechtensteinMonacoPortugalSan MarinoSaudi ArabiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTibetTurkeyVatican CityYemen Resistance AlbaniaAustriaBelgiumBulgariaCzech landsDenmarkDutch East IndiesEstoniaEthiopiaFranceGermanyGreeceHong KongItalyJapanJewsKorea Korean Liberation ArmyKorean Volunteer ArmyLatviaLithuaniaLuxembourgMalayaNetherlandsNortheast ChinaNorwayPhilippinesPolandRomaniaThailandSoviet UnionSlovakiaWestern UkraineVietnam Quốc dân ĐảngViet MinhYugoslavia POWs Finnish prisoners in the Soviet UnionGerman prisoners Soviet Union AzerbaijanUnited StatesUnited KingdomItalian prisoners in the Soviet UnionJapanese prisoners Soviet UnionGerman atrocities against Polish POWsSoviet prisoners Finlandatrocities by GermansPolish prisoners in the Soviet UnionRomanian prisoners in the Soviet Union Timeline Prelude Africa Second Italo-Ethiopian WarAsia Second Sino-Japanese WarBattles of Khalkhin GolEurope Remilitarisation of the RhinelandAnschlussMunich AgreementOccupation of CzechoslovakiaOperation HimmlerItalian invasion of Albania 1939 Invasion of PolandBattle of the AtlanticPhoney WarFirst Battle of ChangshaBattle of South GuangxiWinter War1939–1940 Winter Offensive 1940 Norwegian campaignGerman invasion of DenmarkBattle of Zaoyang–YichangGerman invasion of LuxembourgGerman invasion of the NetherlandsGerman invasion of BelgiumBattle of FranceDunkirk evacuationBattle of BritainBattle of the MediterraneanNorth AfricaWest AfricaBritish SomalilandHundred Regiments OffensiveBaltic statesEastern RomaniaJapanese invasion of French IndochinaItalian invasion of GreeceCompass 1941 Battle of South HenanBattle of ShanggaoInvasion of YugoslaviaGerman invasion of Greece Battle of CreteAnglo-Iraqi WarBattle of South ShanxiSyria–Lebanon campaignEast African campaignInvasion of the Soviet Union Summer WarFinland (Silver Fox)LithuaniaBattle of KievAnglo-Soviet invasion of IranSecond Battle of ChangshaSiege of LeningradBattle of MoscowBombing of GorkySiege of SevastopolAttack on Pearl HarborJapanese invasion of ThailandFall of Hong KongFall of the PhilippinesBattle of GuamBattle of Wake IslandMalayan campaignBattle of BorneoJapanese invasion of BurmaThird Battle of ChangshaGreek famine of 1941–1944 1942 Fall of SingaporeBattle of the Java SeaSt Nazaire RaidBattle of Christmas IslandBattle of the Coral SeaBattle of MadagascarZhejiang-Jiangxi campaignBattle of GazalaBattle of Dutch HarborBattle of MidwayAleutian Islands campaign KiskaAttuBlueFirst Battle of El AlameinBattle of StalingradKokoda Track campaignRzhevJubileeSecond Battle of El AlameinGuadalcanal campaignTorchChinese famine of 1942–1943 1943 Black MayTunisian campaignBattle of West HubeiBattle of AttuBombing of GorkyBattle of KurskAllied invasion of SicilySmolenskSolomon Islands campaignCottageBattle of the DnieperAllied invasion of Italy Armistice of CassibileBurmaNorthern Burma and Western YunnanChangdeSecond Battle of KievGilbert and Marshall Islands campaign TarawaMakinBengal famine of 1943 1944 TempestMonte Cassino / AnzioKorsun–CherkassyNarvaU-GoImphalIchi-GoKohimaOverlordNeptuneMariana and PalauBagrationWestern UkraineSecond Battle of GuamTannenberg LineWarsaw UprisingEastern RomaniaLiberation of ParisDragoonGothic LineBelgrade offensiveBattle of San MarinoLaplandMarket GardenEstoniaCrossbowPointblankVietnamese famine of 1944–1945Philippines (1944–1945)LeyteSyrmian FrontHungary BudapestBurma (1944–1945)Ardennes BodenplatteDutch famine of 1944–1945 1945 Vistula–OderBattle of ManilaBattle of Iwo JimaIndochinaVienna offensiveProject HulaWestern invasion of GermanyBratislava–Brno offensiveBattle of OkinawaSecond Guangxi campaignWest HunanItaly (Spring 1945)Battle of BerlinPrague offensiveSurrender of Germany documentBorneoTaipeiNaval bombardment of JapanManchuriaAtomic bombings DebateSouth SakhalinKuril Islands ShumshuSurrender of Japan Potsdam DeclarationdocumentEnd of World War II in Asia World portalBibliographyCategory vte Royal Air Force Ministry of Defence Formations and units Units CommandsGroupsWingsSquadronsFlightsConversion unitsOperational Training unitsSchools / Training unitsFerry unitsGlider unitsMisc units Stations ActiveFormerSatellite Landing Grounds Regiment WingsSquadronsFlights Branches and components Air Force BoardRAF RegimentRAF Chaplains BranchRAF IntelligenceRAF Legal BranchRAF Medical ServicesPrincess Mary's RAF Nursing ServiceRAF PoliceRAF ground tradesRAF Music ServicesRAF Search and Rescue ForceRAF Mountain Rescue ServiceRAF Marine BranchRAF Air CadetsOperations Reserve forces Royal Auxiliary Air ForceRAF Volunteer Reserve Equipment List of RAF aircraft currentfutureList of RAF missilesList of equipment of the RAF Regiment Personnel Officer ranksOther ranksList of notable personnelList of serving senior officersPersonnel numbers Appointments Chief of Air StaffAssistant Chief of the Air StaffAir Member for PersonnelAir SecretaryAir Member for MaterielCommandant-General of the RAF RegimentWarrant Officer of the RAF Symbols and uniform BadgeEnsignHeraldic badgesRoundelsSquadron standards and battle honoursUniform Associated civil organisations Air Training CorpsCombined Cadet Force (RAF section)RAF AssociationRAF Centre of Aviation MedicineRAF Benevolent FundRAF Football AssociationRAF Museum historytimelinefuture commons Portal: flag United Kingdom Battle of Britain at Wikipedia's sister projects: Media from Commons Authority control databases Edit this at Wikidata National United StatesFranceBnF dataCzech RepublicIsrael Other NARA Categories: Battle of Britain1940 in the United Kingdom1940 in EnglandConflicts in 1940World War II aerial operations and battles of the Western European TheatreWorld War II strategic bombingUnited Kingdom home front during World War IIAerial operations and battles of World War II involving the United KingdomAerial operations and battles of World War II involving GermanyBattles and operations of World War II involving the United KingdomBattles of World War II involving ItalyBattles of World War II involving CanadaAerial operations and battles of World War II involving CanadaMilitary history of Canada during World War IIWorld War II operations and battles of the Western European Theatre World War II Article Talk Read View source View history 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Click here for more information. Page semi-protected From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see WWII (disambiguation), The Second World War (disambiguation), and World War II (disambiguation). World War II in the From top to bottom, left to right: German Stuka dive bombers on the Eastern Front, 1943 British Matilda II tanks during the North African campaign, 1941 U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki in Japan, 1945 Soviet troops at the Battle of Stalingrad, 1943 Soviet soldier raising a flag over the Reichstag after the Battle of Berlin, 1945 U.S. warships in Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines, 1945 Date 1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945[a] (6 years, 1 day) Location Global Result Allied victory Participants Allies Axis Commanders and leaders Main Allied leaders: Soviet Union Joseph Stalin United States Franklin D. Roosevelt United Kingdom Winston Churchill Republic of China (1912–1949) Chiang Kai-shek Main Axis leaders: Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler Empire of Japan Hirohito Fascist Italy Benito Mussolini Casualties and losses Military dead: Over 16,000,000 Civilian dead: Over 45,000,000 Total dead: Over 61,000,000 (1937–1945) ...further details Military dead: Over 8,000,000 Civilian dead: Over 4,000,000 Total dead: Over 12,000,000 (1937–1945) ...further details vte Campaigns of World War II Europe Poland Polish resistance Phoney War Finland Winter War Karelia Lapland Denmark and Norway Western Front 1940 Resistance 1944–1945 Alps 1940 1944 Britain Balkans Serbian Partisans Greek resistance Eastern Front Chechnya Italy Sicily Asia-Pacific China Pacific Ocean South West Pacific Franco-Thai War South-East Asia Burma and India Japan Manchuria and Northern Korea pre-war border conflicts Australia Mediterranean and Middle East North Africa Libya-Egypt Morocco-Algeria Tunisia East Africa Mediterranean Sea Adriatic Malta Iraq Syria–Lebanon Iran Dodecanese Southern France Other campaigns Americas Antarctica Atlantic Arctic Air Warfare Strategic bombing French West Africa Indian Ocean Madagascar Coups Uruguay Norway Baltic Nations Yugoslavia Romania 1941 Iraq Italy Argentina Germany Croatia Romania 1944 Bulgaria Hungary French Indochina Japan Matsue World War II Navigation CampaignsCountriesEquipment TimelineOutlineListsHistoriography CategoryBibliography vte World War II[b] or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, resulting in 70 to 85 million deaths, more than half of which were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes. The causes of World War II included unresolved tensions in the aftermath of World War I and the rises of fascism in Europe and militarism in Japan. Key events preceding the war included Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931, the Spanish Civil War, the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, and Germany's annexations of Austria and the Sudetenland. World War II is generally considered to have begun on 1 September 1939, when Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland, leading the United Kingdom and France to declare war on Germany. Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. In 1940, the Soviets annexed the Baltic states and parts of Finland and Romania. After the fall of France in June 1940, the war continued mainly between Germany and the British Empire, with fighting in the Balkans, Mediterranean, and Middle East, the aerial Battle of Britain and the Blitz, and naval Battle of the Atlantic. Through campaigns and treaties, Germany gained control of much of continental Europe and formed the Axis alliance with Italy, Japan, and other countries. In June 1941, Germany led an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the Eastern Front and initially making large territorial gains. In December 1941, Japan attacked American and British territories in Asia and the Pacific, including at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, leading the United States to enter the war against Japan and Germany. Japan conquered much of coastal China and Southeast Asia, but its advances in the Pacific were halted in June 1942 at the Battle of Midway. In late 1942, Axis forces were defeated in North Africa and at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union, and in 1943 their continued defeats on the Eastern Front, an Allied invasion of Italy, and Allied offensives in the Pacific forced them into retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded France at Normandy as the Soviet Union recaptured its pre-war territory and the U.S. crippled Japan's navy and captured key Pacific islands. The war in Europe concluded with the liberation of German-occupied territories; invasions of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, which culminated in the fall of Berlin to Soviet troops; and Germany's unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945. On 6 and 9 August, the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Faced with an imminent Allied invasion, the prospect of further atomic bombings, and a Soviet declaration of war and invasion of Manchuria, Japan announced its unconditional surrender on 15 August, and signed a surrender document on 2 September 1945. World War II transformed the political, economic, and social structures of the world, and established the foundation of international relations for the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st century. The United Nations was created to foster international cooperation and prevent future conflicts, with the victorious great powers—China, France, the Soviet Union, the UK, and the U.S.—becoming the permanent members of its security council. The Soviet Union and U.S. emerged as rival global superpowers, setting the stage for the half-century Cold War. In the wake of Europe's devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia. Many countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery and expansion. Start and end dates See also: List of timelines of World War II Timelines of World War II Chronological Prelude Events (in Asiain Europe) Aftermath 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 Aftermath By topic Causes (Diplomacy) Declarations of war BattlesOperations By theatre Battle of Europe air operations Eastern FrontManhattan Project United Kingdom home front Surrender of the Axis armies vte World War II began in Europe on 1 September 1939[1][2] with the German invasion of Poland and the United Kingdom and France's declaration of war on Germany two days later on 3 September 1939. Dates for the beginning of the Pacific War include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937,[3][4] or the earlier Japanese invasion of Manchuria, on 19 September 1931.[5][6] Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who stated that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously, and the two wars became World War II in 1941.[7] Other proposed starting dates for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935.[8] The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939.[9] Others view the Spanish Civil War as the start or prelude to World War II.[10][11] The exact date of the war's end also is not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 15 August 1945 (V-J Day), rather than with the formal surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945, which officially ended the war in Asia. A peace treaty between Japan and the Allies was signed in 1951.[12] A 1990 treaty regarding Germany's future allowed the reunification of East and West Germany to take place and resolved most post–World War II issues.[13] No formal peace treaty between Japan and the Soviet Union was ever signed,[14] although the state of war between the two countries was terminated by the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956, which also restored full diplomatic relations between them.[15] Background Main article: Causes of World War II Aftermath of World War I The League of Nations assembly, held in Geneva, Switzerland (1930) World War I had radically altered the political European map with the defeat of the Central Powers—including Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire—and the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, which led to the founding of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the victorious Allies of World War I, such as France, Belgium, Italy, Romania, and Greece, gained territory, and new nation-states were created out of the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires.[16] To prevent a future world war, the League of Nations was established in 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference. The organisation's primary goals were to prevent armed conflict through collective security, military, and naval disarmament, as well as settling international disputes through peaceful negotiations and arbitration.[17] Despite strong pacifist sentiment after World War I,[18] irredentist and revanchist nationalism had emerged in several European states. These sentiments were especially marked in Germany because of the significant territorial, colonial, and financial losses imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. Under the treaty, Germany lost around 13 percent of its home territory and all its overseas possessions, while German annexation of other states was prohibited, reparations were imposed, and limits were placed on the size and capability of the country's armed forces.[19] Germany and Italy The German Empire was dissolved in the German revolution of 1918–1919, and a democratic government, later known as the Weimar Republic, was created. The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and hardline opponents on both the political right and left. Italy, as an Entente ally, had made some post-war territorial gains; however, Italian nationalists were angered that the promises made by the United Kingdom and France to secure Italian entrance into the war were not fulfilled in the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the Fascist movement led by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy with a nationalist, totalitarian, and class collaborationist agenda that abolished representative democracy, repressed socialist, left-wing, and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive expansionist foreign policy aimed at making Italy a world power, promising the creation of a "New Roman Empire".[20] Adolf Hitler at a German Nazi political rally in Nuremberg, August 1933 Adolf Hitler, after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government in 1923, eventually became the chancellor of Germany in 1933 when President Paul von Hindenburg and the Reichstag appointed him. Following Hindenburg's death in 1934, Hitler proclaimed himself Führer of Germany and abolished democracy, espousing a radical, racially motivated revision of the world order, and soon began a massive rearmament campaign.[21] France, seeking to secure its alliance with Italy, allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia, which Italy desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the Territory of the Saar Basin was legally reunited with Germany, and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament programme, and introduced conscription.[22] European treaties The United Kingdom, France and Italy formed the Stresa Front in April 1935 in order to contain Germany, a key step towards military globalisation; however, that June, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany, easing prior restrictions. The Soviet Union, concerned by Germany's goals of capturing vast areas of Eastern Europe, drafted a treaty of mutual assistance with France. Before taking effect, though, the Franco-Soviet pact was required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which rendered it essentially toothless.[23] The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August of the same year.[24] Hitler defied the Versailles and Locarno Treaties by remilitarising the Rhineland in March 1936, encountering little opposition due to the policy of appeasement.[25] In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed the Rome–Berlin Axis. A month later, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Italy joined the following year.[26] Asia The Kuomintang party in China launched a unification campaign against regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allies[27] and new regional warlords. In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Empire of Japan, which had long sought influence in China[28] as the first step of what its government saw as the country's right to rule Asia, staged the Mukden incident as a pretext to invade Manchuria and establish the puppet state of Manchukuo.[29] China appealed to the League of Nations to stop the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after being condemned for its incursion into Manchuria. The two nations then fought several battles, in Shanghai, Rehe and Hebei, until the Tanggu Truce was signed in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and Chahar and Suiyuan.[30] After the 1936 Xi'an Incident, the Kuomintang and CCP forces agreed on a ceasefire to present a united front to oppose Japan.[31] Pre-war events Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935) Main article: Second Italo-Ethiopian War Benito Mussolini inspecting troops during the Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935 The Second Italo-Ethiopian War was a brief colonial war that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war began with the invasion of the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia) by the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy (Regno d'Italia), which was launched from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea.[32] The war resulted in the military occupation of Ethiopia and its annexation into the newly created colony of Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana); in addition it exposed the weakness of the League of Nations as a force to preserve peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia were member nations, but the League did little when the former clearly violated Article X of the League's Covenant.[33] The United Kingdom and France supported imposing sanctions on Italy for the invasion, but the sanctions were not fully enforced and failed to end the Italian invasion.[34] Italy subsequently dropped its objections to Germany's goal of absorbing Austria.[35] Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) Main article: Spanish Civil War When civil war broke out in Spain, Hitler and Mussolini lent military support to the Nationalist rebels, led by General Francisco Franco. Italy supported the Nationalists to a greater extent than the Nazis: Mussolini sent more than 70,000 ground troops, 6,000 aviation personnel, and 720 aircraft to Spain.[36] The Soviet Union supported the existing government of the Spanish Republic. More than 30,000 foreign volunteers, known as the International Brigades, also fought against the Nationalists. Both Germany and the Soviet Union used this proxy war as an opportunity to test in combat their most advanced weapons and tactics. The Nationalists won the civil war in April 1939; Franco, now dictator, remained officially neutral during World War II but generally favoured the Axis.[37] His greatest collaboration with Germany was the sending of volunteers to fight on the Eastern Front.[38] Japanese invasion of China (1937) Main article: Second Sino-Japanese War Imperial Japanese Army soldiers during the Battle of Shanghai, 1937 In July 1937, Japan captured the former Chinese imperial capital of Peking after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge incident, which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China.[39] The Soviets quickly signed a non-aggression pact with China to lend materiel support, effectively ending China's prior cooperation with Germany. From September to November, the Japanese attacked Taiyuan, engaged the Kuomintang Army around Xinkou,[40] and fought Communist forces in Pingxingguan.[41][42] Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to defend Shanghai, but after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanking in December 1937. After the fall of Nanking, tens or hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were murdered by the Japanese.[43][44] In March 1938, Nationalist Chinese forces won their first major victory at Taierzhuang, but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by the Japanese in May.[45] In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding the Yellow River; this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defences at Wuhan, but the city was taken by October.[46] Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve; instead, the Chinese government relocated inland to Chongqing and continued the war.[47][48] Soviet–Japanese border conflicts Main article: Soviet–Japanese border conflicts In the mid-to-late 1930s, Japanese forces in Manchukuo had sporadic border clashes with the Soviet Union and Mongolia. The Japanese doctrine of Hokushin-ron, which emphasised Japan's expansion northward, was favoured by the Imperial Army during this time. This policy would prove difficult to maintain in light of the Japanese defeat at Khalkin Gol in 1939, the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War[49] and ally Nazi Germany pursuing neutrality with the Soviets. Japan and the Soviet Union eventually signed a Neutrality Pact in April 1941, and Japan adopted the doctrine of Nanshin-ron, promoted by the Navy, which took its focus southward and eventually led to war with the United States and the Western Allies.[50][51] European occupations and agreements Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, and Ciano pictured just before signing the Munich Agreement, 29 September 1938 In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming more aggressive. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, again provoking little response from other European powers.[52] Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia with a predominantly ethnic German population. Soon the United Kingdom and France followed the appeasement policy of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and conceded this territory to Germany in the Munich Agreement, which was made against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands.[53] Soon afterwards, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to cede additional territory to Hungary, and Poland annexed the Trans-Olza region of Czechoslovakia.[54] Although all of Germany's stated demands had been satisfied by the agreement, privately Hitler was furious that British interference had prevented him from seizing all of Czechoslovakia in one operation. In subsequent speeches Hitler attacked British and Jewish "war-mongers" and in January 1939 secretly ordered a major build-up of the German navy to challenge British naval supremacy. In March 1939, Germany invaded the remainder of Czechoslovakia and subsequently split it into the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a pro-German client state, the Slovak Republic.[55] Hitler also delivered an ultimatum to Lithuania on 20 March 1939, forcing the concession of the Klaipėda Region, formerly the German Memelland.[56] German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop (right) and the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, after signing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, 23 August 1939 Greatly alarmed and with Hitler making further demands on the Free City of Danzig, the United Kingdom and France guaranteed their support for Polish independence; when Italy conquered Albania in April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to the Kingdoms of Romania and Greece.[57] Shortly after the Franco-British pledge to Poland, Germany and Italy formalised their own alliance with the Pact of Steel.[58] Hitler accused the United Kingdom and Poland of trying to "encircle" Germany and renounced the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish declaration of non-aggression.[59] The situation became a crisis in late August as German troops continued to mobilise against the Polish border. On 23 August the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Germany,[60] after tripartite negotiations for a military alliance between France, the United Kingdom, and Soviet Union had stalled.[61] This pact had a secret protocol that defined German and Soviet "spheres of influence" (western Poland and Lithuania for Germany; eastern Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Bessarabia for the Soviet Union), and raised the question of continuing Polish independence.[62] The pact neutralised the possibility of Soviet opposition to a campaign against Poland and assured that Germany would not have to face the prospect of a two-front war, as it had in World War I. Immediately afterwards, Hitler ordered the attack to proceed on 26 August, but upon hearing that the United Kingdom had concluded a formal mutual assistance pact with Poland and that Italy would maintain neutrality, he decided to delay it.[63] In response to British requests for direct negotiations to avoid war, Germany made demands on Poland, which served as a pretext to worsen relations.[64] On 29 August, Hitler demanded that a Polish plenipotentiary immediately travel to Berlin to negotiate the handover of Danzig, and to allow a plebiscite in the Polish Corridor in which the German minority would vote on secession.[64] The Poles refused to comply with the German demands, and on the night of 30–31 August in a confrontational meeting with the British ambassador Nevile Henderson, Ribbentrop declared that Germany considered its claims rejected.[65] Course of the war For a chronological guide, see List of timelines of World War II. See also: Diplomatic history of World War II and World War II by country War breaks out in Europe (1939–1940) Main article: European theatre of World War II Soldiers of the Danzig Schutzpolizei tearing down the border crossing into Poland, 1 September 1939 On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland after having staged several false flag border incidents as a pretext to initiate the invasion.[66] The first German attack of the war came against the Polish defences at Westerplatte.[67] The United Kingdom responded with an ultimatum for Germany to cease military operations, and on 3 September, after the ultimatum was ignored, Britain and France declared war on Germany.[68] During the Phoney War period, the alliance provided no direct military support to Poland, outside of a cautious French probe into the Saarland.[69] The Western Allies also began a naval blockade of Germany, which aimed to damage the country's economy and war effort.[70] Germany responded by ordering U-boat warfare against Allied merchant and warships, which would later escalate into the Battle of the Atlantic.[71] On 8 September, German troops reached the suburbs of Warsaw. The Polish counter-offensive to the west halted the German advance for several days, but it was outflanked and encircled by the Wehrmacht. Remnants of the Polish army broke through to besieged Warsaw. On 17 September 1939, two days after signing a cease-fire with Japan, the Soviet Union invaded Poland[72] under the supposed pretext that the Polish state had ceased to exist.[73] On 27 September, the Warsaw garrison surrendered to the Germans, and the last large operational unit of the Polish Army surrendered on 6 October. Despite the military defeat, Poland never surrendered; instead, it formed the Polish government-in-exile and a clandestine state apparatus remained in occupied Poland.[74] A significant part of Polish military personnel evacuated to Romania and Latvia; many of them later fought against the Axis in other theatres of the war.[75] Germany annexed western Poland and occupied central Poland; the Soviet Union annexed eastern Poland; small shares of Polish territory were transferred to Lithuania and Slovakia. On 6 October, Hitler made a public peace overture to the United Kingdom and France but said that the future of Poland was to be determined exclusively by Germany and the Soviet Union. The proposal was rejected[65] and Hitler ordered an immediate offensive against France,[76] which was postponed until the spring of 1940 due to bad weather.[77][78][79] Mannerheim Line and Karelian Isthmus on the last day of the Winter War, 13 March 1940 After the outbreak of war in Poland, Stalin threatened Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania with military invasion, forcing the three Baltic countries to sign pacts allowing the creation of Soviet military bases in these countries; in October 1939, significant Soviet military contingents were moved there.[80][81][82] Finland refused to sign a similar pact and rejected ceding part of its territory to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union invaded Finland in November 1939,[83] and was subsequently expelled from the League of Nations for this crime of aggression.[84] Despite overwhelming numerical superiority, Soviet military success during the Winter War was modest,[85] and the Finno-Soviet war ended in March 1940 with some Finnish concessions of territory.[86] In June 1940, the Soviet Union occupied the entire territories of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania,[81] as well as the Romanian regions of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertsa region. In August 1940, Hitler imposed the Second Vienna Award on Romania which led to the transfer of Northern Transylvania to Hungary.[87] In September 1940, Bulgaria demanded Southern Dobruja from Romania with German and Italian support, leading to the Treaty of Craiova.[88] The loss of one-third of Romania's 1939 territory caused a coup against King Carol II, turning Romania into a fascist dictatorship under Marshal Ion Antonescu, with a course set towards the Axis in the hopes of a German guarantee.[89] Meanwhile, German-Soviet political relations and economic co-operation[90][91] gradually stalled,[92][93] and both states began preparations for war.[94] Western Europe (1940–1941) Main article: Western Front (World War II) German advance into Belgium and Northern France, 10 May – 4 June 1940, sweeping past the Maginot Line (shown in dark red) In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect shipments of iron ore from Sweden, which the Allies were attempting to cut off.[95] Denmark capitulated after six hours, and despite Allied support, Norway was conquered within two months.[96] British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the resignation of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who was replaced by Winston Churchill on 10 May 1940.[97] On the same day, Germany launched an offensive against France. To circumvent the strong Maginot Line fortifications on the Franco-German border, Germany directed its attack at the neutral nations of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.[98] The Germans carried out a flanking manoeuvre through the Ardennes region,[99] which was mistakenly perceived by the Allies as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles.[100][101] By successfully implementing new Blitzkrieg tactics, the Wehrmacht rapidly advanced to the Channel and cut off the Allied forces in Belgium, trapping the bulk of the Allied armies in a cauldron on the Franco-Belgian border near Lille. The United Kingdom was able to evacuate a significant number of Allied troops from the continent by early June, although they had to abandon almost all their equipment.[102] On 10 June, Italy invaded France, declaring war on both France and the United Kingdom.[103] The Germans turned south against the weakened French army, and Paris fell to them on 14 June. Eight days later France signed an armistice with Germany; it was divided into German and Italian occupation zones,[104] and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime, which, though officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. France kept its fleet, which the United Kingdom attacked on 3 July in an attempt to prevent its seizure by Germany.[105] The air Battle of Britain[106] began in early July with Luftwaffe attacks on shipping and harbours.[107] The German campaign for air superiority started in August but its failure to defeat RAF Fighter Command forced the indefinite postponement of the proposed German invasion of Britain. The German strategic bombing offensive intensified with night attacks on London and other cities in the Blitz, but largely ended in May 1941[108] after failing to significantly disrupt the British war effort.[107] Using newly captured French ports, the German Navy enjoyed success against an over-extended Royal Navy, using U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic.[109] The British Home Fleet scored a significant victory on 27 May 1941 by sinking the German battleship Bismarck.[110] In November 1939, the United States was assisting China and the Western Allies, and had amended the Neutrality Act to allow "cash and carry" purchases by the Allies.[111] In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the United States Navy was significantly increased. In September the United States further agreed to a trade of American destroyers for British bases.[112] Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention in the conflict well into 1941.[113] In December 1940, Roosevelt accused Hitler of planning world conquest and ruled out any negotiations as useless, calling for the United States to become an "arsenal of democracy" and promoting Lend-Lease programmes of military and humanitarian aid to support the British war effort; Lend-Lease was later extended to the other Allies, including the Soviet Union after it was invaded by Germany.[114] The United States started strategic planning to prepare for a full-scale offensive against Germany.[115] At the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact formally united Japan, Italy, and Germany as the Axis powers. The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country—with the exception of the Soviet Union—that attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three.[116] The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania joined.[117] Romania and Hungary later made major contributions to the Axis war against the Soviet Union, in Romania's case partially to recapture territory ceded to the Soviet Union.[118] Mediterranean (1940–1941) Main article: Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II In early June 1940, the Italian Regia Aeronautica attacked and besieged Malta, a British possession. From late summer to early autumn, Italy conquered British Somaliland and made an incursion into British-held Egypt. In October, Italy attacked Greece, but the attack was repulsed with heavy Italian casualties; the campaign ended within months with minor territorial changes.[119] To assist Italy and prevent Britain from gaining a foothold, Germany prepared to invade the Balkans, which would threaten Romanian oil fields and strike against British dominance of the Mediterranean.[120] German Panzer III of the Afrika Korps advancing across the North African desert, April 1941 In December 1940, British Empire forces began counter-offensives against Italian forces in Egypt and Italian East Africa.[121] The offensives were successful; by early February 1941, Italy had lost control of eastern Libya, and large numbers of Italian troops had been taken prisoner. The Italian Navy also suffered significant defeats, with the Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission after a carrier attack at Taranto, and neutralising several more warships at the Battle of Cape Matapan.[122] Italian defeats prompted Germany to deploy an expeditionary force to North Africa; at the end of March 1941, Rommel's Afrika Korps launched an offensive which drove back Commonwealth forces.[123] In less than a month, Axis forces advanced to western Egypt and besieged the port of Tobruk.[124] By late March 1941, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact; however, the Yugoslav government was overthrown two days later by pro-British nationalists. Germany and Italy responded with simultaneous invasions of both Yugoslavia and Greece, commencing on 6 April 1941; both nations were forced to surrender within the month.[125] The airborne invasion of the Greek island of Crete at the end of May completed the German conquest of the Balkans.[126] Partisan warfare subsequently broke out against the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, which continued until the end of the war.[127] In the Middle East in May, Commonwealth forces quashed an uprising in Iraq which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled Syria.[128] Between June and July, British-led forces invaded and occupied the French possessions of Syria and Lebanon, assisted by the Free French.[129] Axis attack on the Soviet Union (1941) Main article: Eastern Front (World War II) European theatre of World War II animation map, 1939–1945 – Red: Western Allies and the Soviet Union after 1941; Green: Soviet Union before 1941; Blue: Axis powers With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations for war. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany, and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing resource-rich European possessions in Southeast Asia, the two powers signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941.[130] By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on the Soviet border.[131] Hitler believed that the United Kingdom's refusal to end the war was based on the hope that the United States and the Soviet Union would enter the war against Germany sooner or later.[132] On 31 July 1940, Hitler decided that the Soviet Union should be eliminated and aimed for the conquest of Ukraine, the Baltic states and Byelorussia.[133] However, other senior German officials like Ribbentrop saw an opportunity to create a Euro-Asian bloc against the British Empire by inviting the Soviet Union into the Tripartite Pact.[134] In November 1940, negotiations took place to determine if the Soviet Union would join the pact. The Soviets showed some interest but asked for concessions from Finland, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Japan that Germany considered unacceptable. On 18 December 1940, Hitler issued the directive to prepare for an invasion of the Soviet Union.[135] On 22 June 1941, Germany, supported by Italy and Romania, invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, with Germany accusing the Soviets of plotting against them; they were joined shortly by Finland and Hungary.[136] The primary targets of this surprise offensive[137] were the Baltic region, Moscow and Ukraine, with the ultimate goal of ending the 1941 campaign near the Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line—from the Caspian to the White Seas. Hitler's objectives were to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminate Communism, generate Lebensraum ("living space")[138] by dispossessing the native population,[139] and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed to defeat Germany's remaining rivals.[140] Although the Red Army was preparing for strategic counter-offensives before the war,[141] Operation Barbarossa forced the Soviet supreme command to adopt strategic defence. During the summer, the Axis made significant gains into Soviet territory, inflicting immense losses in both personnel and materiel. By mid-August, however, the German Army High Command decided to suspend the offensive of a considerably depleted Army Group Centre, and to divert the 2nd Panzer Group to reinforce troops advancing towards central Ukraine and Leningrad.[142] The Kiev offensive was overwhelmingly successful, resulting in encirclement and elimination of four Soviet armies, and made possible further advance into Crimea and industrially-developed Eastern Ukraine (the First Battle of Kharkov).[143] Russian civilians leaving destroyed houses after a German bombardment during the siege of Leningrad (Saint Petersburg), 10 December 1942 The diversion of three-quarters of the Axis troops and the majority of their air forces from France and the central Mediterranean to the Eastern Front[144] prompted the United Kingdom to reconsider its grand strategy.[145] In July, the UK and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance against Germany[146] and in August, the United Kingdom and the United States jointly issued the Atlantic Charter, which outlined British and American goals for the post-war world.[147] In late August the British and Soviets invaded neutral Iran to secure the Persian Corridor, Iran's oil fields, and preempt any Axis advances through Iran toward the Baku oil fields or India.[148] By October, Axis powers had achieved operational objectives in Ukraine and the Baltic region, with only the sieges of Leningrad[149] and Sevastopol continuing.[150] A major offensive against Moscow was renewed; after two months of fierce battles in increasingly harsh weather, the German army almost reached the outer suburbs of Moscow, where the exhausted troops[151] were forced to suspend the offensive.[152] Large territorial gains were made by Axis forces, but their campaign had failed to achieve its main objectives: two key cities remained in Soviet hands, the Soviet capability to resist was not broken, and the Soviet Union retained a considerable part of its military potential. The blitzkrieg phase of the war in Europe had ended.[153] By early December, freshly mobilised reserves[154] allowed the Soviets to achieve numerical parity with Axis troops.[155] This, as well as intelligence data which established that a minimal number of Soviet troops in the East would be sufficient to deter any attack by the Japanese Kwantung Army,[156] allowed the Soviets to begin a massive counter-offensive that started on 5 December all along the front and pushed German troops 100–250 kilometres (62–155 mi) west.[157] War breaks out in the Pacific (1941) Main article: Pacific War Japanese soldiers entering Hong Kong, 8 December 1941 Following the Japanese false flag Mukden incident in 1931, the Japanese shelling of the American gunboat USS Panay in 1937, and the 1937–1938 Nanjing Massacre, Japanese-American relations deteriorated. In 1939, the United States notified Japan that it would not be extending its trade treaty and American public opinion opposing Japanese expansionism led to a series of economic sanctions—the Export Control Acts—which banned U.S. exports of chemicals, minerals and military parts to Japan, and increased economic pressure on the Japanese regime.[114][158][159] During 1939 Japan launched its first attack against Changsha, but was repulsed by late September.[160] Despite several offensives by both sides, by 1940 the war between China and Japan was at a stalemate. To increase pressure on China by blocking supply routes, and to better position Japanese forces in the event of a war with the Western powers, Japan invaded and occupied northern Indochina in September 1940.[161] Chinese nationalist forces launched a large-scale counter-offensive in early 1940. In August, Chinese communists launched an offensive in Central China; in retaliation, Japan instituted harsh measures in occupied areas to reduce human and material resources for the communists.[162] Continued antipathy between Chinese communist and nationalist forces culminated in armed clashes in January 1941, effectively ending their co-operation.[163] In March, the Japanese 11th army attacked the headquarters of the Chinese 19th army but was repulsed during Battle of Shanggao.[164] In September, Japan attempted to take the city of Changsha again and clashed with Chinese nationalist forces.[165] German successes in Europe prompted Japan to increase pressure on European governments in Southeast Asia. The Dutch government agreed to provide Japan with oil supplies from the Dutch East Indies, but negotiations for additional access to their resources ended in failure in June 1941.[166] In July 1941 Japan sent troops to southern Indochina, thus threatening British and Dutch possessions in the Far East. The United States, the United Kingdom, and other Western governments reacted to this move with a freeze on Japanese assets and a total oil embargo.[167][168] At the same time, Japan was planning an invasion of the Soviet Far East, intending to take advantage of the German invasion in the west, but abandoned the operation after the sanctions.[169] Since early 1941, the United States and Japan had been engaged in negotiations in an attempt to improve their strained relations and end the war in China. During these negotiations, Japan advanced a number of proposals which were dismissed by the Americans as inadequate.[170] At the same time the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands engaged in secret discussions for the joint defence of their territories, in the event of a Japanese attack against any of them.[171] Roosevelt reinforced the Philippines (an American protectorate scheduled for independence in 1946) and warned Japan that the United States would react to Japanese attacks against any "neighboring countries".[171] The USS Arizona was a total loss in the Japanese surprise air attack on the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Sunday 7 December 1941 Frustrated at the lack of progress and feeling the pinch of the American–British–Dutch sanctions, Japan prepared for war. Emperor Hirohito, after initial hesitation about Japan's chances of victory,[172] began to favour Japan's entry into the war.[173] As a result, Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe resigned.[174][175] Hirohito refused the recommendation to appoint Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni in his place, choosing War Minister Hideki Tojo instead.[176] On 3 November, Nagano explained in detail the plan of the attack on Pearl Harbor to the Emperor.[177] On 5 November, Hirohito approved in imperial conference the operations plan for the war.[178] On 20 November, the new government presented an interim proposal as its final offer. It called for the end of American aid to China and for lifting the embargo on the supply of oil and other resources to Japan. In exchange, Japan promised not to launch any attacks in Southeast Asia and to withdraw its forces from southern Indochina.[170] The American counter-proposal of 26 November required that Japan evacuate all of China without conditions and conclude non-aggression pacts with all Pacific powers.[179] That meant Japan was essentially forced to choose between abandoning its ambitions in China, or seizing the natural resources it needed in the Dutch East Indies by force;[180][181] the Japanese military did not consider the former an option, and many officers considered the oil embargo an unspoken declaration of war.[182] Japan planned to seize European colonies in Asia to create a large defensive perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific. The Japanese would then be free to exploit the resources of Southeast Asia while exhausting the over-stretched Allies by fighting a defensive war.[183][184] To prevent American intervention while securing the perimeter, it was further planned to neutralise the United States Pacific Fleet and the American military presence in the Philippines from the outset.[185] On 7 December 1941 (8 December in Asian time zones), Japan attacked British and American holdings with near-simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific.[186] These included an attack on the American fleets at Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, as well as invasions of Guam, Wake Island, Malaya,[186] Thailand, and Hong Kong.[187] These attacks led the United States, United Kingdom, China, Australia, and several other states to formally declare war on Japan, whereas the Soviet Union, being heavily involved in large-scale hostilities with European Axis countries, maintained its neutrality agreement with Japan.[188] Germany, followed by the other Axis states, declared war on the United States[189] in solidarity with Japan, citing as justification the American attacks on German war vessels that had been ordered by Roosevelt.[136][190] Axis advance stalls (1942–1943) On 1 January 1942, the Allied Big Four[191]—the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and 22 smaller or exiled governments issued the Declaration by United Nations, thereby affirming the Atlantic Charter[192] and agreeing not to sign a separate peace with the Axis powers.[193] During 1942, Allied officials debated on the appropriate grand strategy to pursue. All agreed that defeating Germany was the primary objective. The Americans favoured a straightforward, large-scale attack on Germany through France. The Soviets demanded a second front. The British argued that military operations should target peripheral areas to wear out German strength, leading to increasing demoralisation, and bolstering resistance forces; Germany itself would be subject to a heavy bombing campaign. An offensive against Germany would then be launched primarily by Allied armour, without using large-scale armies.[194] Eventually, the British persuaded the Americans that a landing in France was infeasible in 1942 and they should instead focus on driving the Axis out of North Africa.[195] At the Casablanca Conference in early 1943, the Allies reiterated the statements issued in the 1942 Declaration and demanded the unconditional surrender of their enemies. The British and Americans agreed to continue to press the initiative in the Mediterranean by invading Sicily to fully secure the Mediterranean supply routes.[196] Although the British argued for further operations in the Balkans to bring Turkey into the war, in May 1943, the Americans extracted a British commitment to limit Allied operations in the Mediterranean to an invasion of the Italian mainland, and to invade France in 1944.[197] Pacific (1942–1943) Map of Japanese military advances through mid-1942 By the end of April 1942, Japan and its ally Thailand had almost conquered Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, Singapore, and Rabaul, inflicting severe losses on Allied troops and taking a large number of prisoners.[198] Despite stubborn resistance by Filipino and U.S. forces, the Philippine Commonwealth was eventually captured in May 1942, forcing its government into exile.[199] On 16 April, in Burma, 7,000 British soldiers were encircled by the Japanese 33rd Division during the Battle of Yenangyaung and rescued by the Chinese 38th Division.[200] Japanese forces also achieved naval victories in the South China Sea, Java Sea, and Indian Ocean,[201] and bombed the Allied naval base at Darwin, Australia. In January 1942, the only Allied success against Japan was a Chinese victory at Changsha.[202] These easy victories over the unprepared U.S. and European opponents left Japan overconfident, and overextended.[203] In early May 1942, Japan initiated operations to capture Port Moresby by amphibious assault and thus sever communications and supply lines between the United States and Australia. The planned invasion was thwarted when an Allied task force, centred on two American fleet carriers, fought Japanese naval forces to a draw in the Battle of the Coral Sea.[204] Japan's next plan, motivated by the earlier Doolittle Raid, was to seize Midway Atoll and lure American carriers into battle to be eliminated; as a diversion, Japan would also send forces to occupy the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.[205] In mid-May, Japan started the Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign in China, with the goal of inflicting retribution on the Chinese who aided the surviving American airmen in the Doolittle Raid by destroying Chinese air bases and fighting against the Chinese 23rd and 32nd Army Groups.[206][207] In early June, Japan put its operations into action, but the Americans had broken Japanese naval codes in late May and were fully aware of the plans and order of battle, and used this knowledge to achieve a decisive victory at Midway over the Imperial Japanese Navy.[208] With its capacity for aggressive action greatly diminished as a result of the Midway battle, Japan attempted to capture Port Moresby by an overland campaign in the Territory of Papua.[209] The Americans planned a counterattack against Japanese positions in the southern Solomon Islands, primarily Guadalcanal, as a first step towards capturing Rabaul, the main Japanese base in Southeast Asia.[210] Both plans started in July, but by mid-September, the Battle for Guadalcanal took priority for the Japanese, and troops in New Guinea were ordered to withdraw from the Port Moresby area to the northern part of the island, where they faced Australian and United States troops in the Battle of Buna–Gona.[211] Guadalcanal soon became a focal point for both sides with heavy commitments of troops and ships in the battle for Guadalcanal. By the start of 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the island and withdrew their troops.[212] In Burma, Commonwealth forces mounted two operations. The first was a disastrous offensive into the Arakan region in late 1942 that forced a retreat back to India by May 1943.[213] The second was the insertion of irregular forces behind Japanese frontlines in February which, by the end of April, had achieved mixed results.[214] Eastern Front (1942–1943) Red Army soldiers on the counterattack during the Battle of Stalingrad, February 1943 Despite considerable losses, in early 1942 Germany and its allies stopped a major Soviet offensive in central and southern Russia, keeping most territorial gains they had achieved during the previous year.[215] In May, the Germans defeated Soviet offensives in the Kerch Peninsula and at Kharkov,[216] and then in June 1942 launched their main summer offensive against southern Russia, to seize the oil fields of the Caucasus and occupy the Kuban steppe, while maintaining positions on the northern and central areas of the front. The Germans split Army Group South into two groups: Army Group A advanced to the lower Don River and struck south-east to the Caucasus, while Army Group B headed towards the Volga River. The Soviets decided to make their stand at Stalingrad on the Volga.[217] By mid-November, the Germans had nearly taken Stalingrad in bitter street fighting. The Soviets began their second winter counter-offensive, starting with an encirclement of German forces at Stalingrad,[218] and an assault on the Rzhev salient near Moscow, though the latter failed disastrously.[219] By early February 1943, the German Army had taken tremendous losses; German troops at Stalingrad had been defeated,[220] and the front-line had been pushed back beyond its position before the summer offensive. In mid-February, after the Soviet push had tapered off, the Germans launched another attack on Kharkov, creating a salient in their front line around the Soviet city of Kursk.[221] Western Europe/Atlantic and Mediterranean (1942–1943) American Eighth Air Force Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombing raid on the Focke-Wulf factory in Germany, 9 October 1943 Exploiting poor American naval command decisions, the German navy ravaged Allied shipping off the American Atlantic coast.[222] By November 1941, Commonwealth forces had launched a counter-offensive in North Africa, Operation Crusader, and reclaimed all the gains the Germans and Italians had made.[223] The Germans also launched a North African offensive in January, pushing the British back to positions at the Gazala line by early February,[224] followed by a temporary lull in combat which Germany used to prepare for their upcoming offensives.[225] Concerns that the Japanese might use bases in Vichy-held Madagascar caused the British to invade the island in early May 1942.[226] An Axis offensive in Libya forced an Allied retreat deep inside Egypt until Axis forces were stopped at El Alamein.[227] On the Continent, raids of Allied commandos on strategic targets, culminating in the failed Dieppe Raid,[228] demonstrated the Western Allies' inability to launch an invasion of continental Europe without much better preparation, equipment, and operational security.[229] In August 1942, the Allies succeeded in repelling a second attack against El Alamein[230] and, at a high cost, managed to deliver desperately needed supplies to the besieged Malta.[231] A few months later, the Allies commenced an attack of their own in Egypt, dislodging the Axis forces and beginning a drive west across Libya.[232] This attack was followed up shortly after by Anglo-American landings in French North Africa, which resulted in the region joining the Allies.[233] Hitler responded to the French colony's defection by ordering the occupation of Vichy France;[233] although Vichy forces did not resist this violation of the armistice, they managed to scuttle their fleet to prevent its capture by German forces.[233][234] Axis forces in Africa withdrew into Tunisia, which was conquered by the Allies in May 1943.[233][235] In June 1943, the British and Americans began a strategic bombing campaign against Germany with a goal to disrupt the war economy, reduce morale, and "de-house" the civilian population.[236] The firebombing of Hamburg was among the first attacks in this campaign, inflicting significant casualties and considerable losses on infrastructure of this important industrial centre.[237] Allies gain momentum (1943–1944) U.S. Navy SBD-5 scout plane flying patrol over USS Washington and USS Lexington during the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, 1943 After the Guadalcanal campaign, the Allies initiated several operations against Japan in the Pacific. In May 1943, Canadian and U.S. forces were sent to eliminate Japanese forces from the Aleutians.[238] Soon after, the United States, with support from Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islander forces, began major ground, sea and air operations to isolate Rabaul by capturing surrounding islands, and breach the Japanese Central Pacific perimeter at the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.[239] By the end of March 1944, the Allies had completed both of these objectives and had also neutralised the major Japanese base at Truk in the Caroline Islands. In April, the Allies launched an operation to retake Western New Guinea.[240] In the Soviet Union, both the Germans and the Soviets spent the spring and early summer of 1943 preparing for large offensives in central Russia. On 5 July 1943, Germany attacked Soviet forces around the Kursk Bulge. Within a week, German forces had exhausted themselves against the Soviets' well-constructed defences,[241] and for the first time in the war, Hitler cancelled an operation before it had achieved tactical or operational success.[242] This decision was partially affected by the Western Allies' invasion of Sicily launched on 9 July, which, combined with previous Italian failures, resulted in the ousting and arrest of Mussolini later that month.[243] On 12 July 1943, the Soviets launched their own counter-offensives, thereby dispelling any chance of German victory or even stalemate in the east. The Soviet victory at Kursk marked the end of German superiority,[244] giving the Soviet Union the initiative on the Eastern Front.[245][246] The Germans tried to stabilise their eastern front along the hastily fortified Panther–Wotan line, but the Soviets broke through it at Smolensk and the Lower Dnieper Offensive.[247] On 3 September 1943, the Western Allies invaded the Italian mainland, following Italy's armistice with the Allies and the ensuing German occupation of Italy.[248] Germany, with the help of fascists, responded to the armistice by disarming Italian forces that were in many places without superior orders, seizing military control of Italian areas,[249] and creating a series of defensive lines.[250] German special forces then rescued Mussolini, who then soon established a new client state in German-occupied Italy named the Italian Social Republic,[251] causing an Italian civil war. The Western Allies fought through several lines until reaching the main German defensive line in mid-November.[252] Red Army troops in a counter-offensive on German positions at the Battle of Kursk, July 1943 German operations in the Atlantic also suffered. By May 1943, as Allied counter-measures became increasingly effective, the resulting sizeable German submarine losses forced a temporary halt of the German Atlantic naval campaign.[253] In November 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met with Chiang Kai-shek in Cairo and then with Joseph Stalin in Tehran.[254] The former conference determined the post-war return of Japanese territory[255] and the military planning for the Burma campaign,[256] while the latter included agreement that the Western Allies would invade Europe in 1944 and that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan within three months of Germany's defeat.[257] From November 1943, during the seven-week Battle of Changde, the Chinese awaited allied relief as they forced Japan to fight a costly war of attrition.[258][259][260] In January 1944, the Allies launched a series of attacks in Italy against the line at Monte Cassino and tried to outflank it with landings at Anzio.[261] On 27 January 1944, Soviet troops launched a major offensive that expelled German forces from the Leningrad region, thereby ending the most lethal siege in history.[262] The following Soviet offensive was halted on the pre-war Estonian border by the German Army Group North aided by Estonians hoping to re-establish national independence. This delay slowed subsequent Soviet operations in the Baltic Sea region.[263] By late May 1944, the Soviets had liberated Crimea, largely expelled Axis forces from Ukraine, and made incursions into Romania, which were repulsed by the Axis troops.[264] The Allied offensives in Italy had succeeded and, at the expense of allowing several German divisions to retreat, Rome was captured on 4 June.[265] The Allies had mixed success in mainland Asia. In March 1944, the Japanese launched the first of two invasions, an operation against Allied positions in Assam, India,[266] and soon besieged Commonwealth positions at Imphal and Kohima.[267] In May 1944, British and Indian forces mounted a counter-offensive that drove Japanese troops back to Burma by July,[267] and Chinese forces that had invaded northern Burma in late 1943 besieged Japanese troops in Myitkyina.[268] The second Japanese invasion of China aimed to destroy China's main fighting forces, secure railways between Japanese-held territory and capture Allied airfields.[269] By June, the Japanese had conquered the province of Henan and begun a new attack on Changsha.[270] Allies close in (1944) American troops approaching Omaha Beach during the invasion of Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944 On 6 June 1944 (commonly known as D-Day), after three years of Soviet pressure,[271] the Western Allies invaded northern France. After reassigning several Allied divisions from Italy, they also attacked southern France.[272] These landings were successful and led to the defeat of the German Army units in France. Paris was liberated on 25 August by the local resistance assisted by the Free French Forces, both led by General Charles de Gaulle,[273] and the Western Allies continued to push back German forces in western Europe during the latter part of the year. An attempt to advance into northern Germany spearheaded by a major airborne operation in the Netherlands failed.[274] After that, the Western Allies slowly pushed into Germany, but failed to cross the Ruhr river. In Italy, the Allied advance slowed due to the last major German defensive line.[275] On 22 June, the Soviets launched a strategic offensive in Belarus ("Operation Bagration") that nearly destroyed the German Army Group Centre.[276] Soon after that, another Soviet strategic offensive forced German troops from Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland. The Soviets formed the Polish Committee of National Liberation to control territory in Poland and combat the Polish Armia Krajowa; the Soviet Red Army remained in the Praga district on the other side of the Vistula and watched passively as the Germans quelled the Warsaw Uprising initiated by the Armia Krajowa.[277] The national uprising in Slovakia was also quelled by the Germans.[278] The Soviet Red Army's strategic offensive in eastern Romania cut off and destroyed the considerable German troops there and triggered a successful coup d'état in Romania and in Bulgaria, followed by those countries' shift to the Allied side.[279] General Douglas MacArthur returns to the Philippines during the Battle of Leyte, 20 October 1944 In September 1944, Soviet troops advanced into Yugoslavia and forced the rapid withdrawal of German Army Groups E and F in Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia to rescue them from being cut off.[280] By this point, the communist-led Partisans under Marshal Josip Broz Tito, who had led an increasingly successful guerrilla campaign against the occupation since 1941, controlled much of the territory of Yugoslavia and engaged in delaying efforts against German forces further south. In northern Serbia, the Soviet Red Army, with limited support from Bulgarian forces, assisted the Partisans in a joint liberation of the capital city of Belgrade on 20 October. A few days later, the Soviets launched a massive assault against German-occupied Hungary that lasted until the fall of Budapest in February 1945.[281] Unlike impressive Soviet victories in the Balkans, bitter Finnish resistance to the Soviet offensive in the Karelian Isthmus denied the Soviets occupation of Finland and led to a Soviet-Finnish armistice on relatively mild conditions,[282] although Finland was forced to fight their former German allies.[283] By the start of July 1944, Commonwealth forces in Southeast Asia had repelled the Japanese sieges in Assam, pushing the Japanese back to the Chindwin River[284] while the Chinese captured Myitkyina. In September 1944, Chinese forces captured Mount Song and reopened the Burma Road.[285] In China, the Japanese had more successes, having finally captured Changsha in mid-June and the city of Hengyang by early August.[286] Soon after, they invaded the province of Guangxi, winning major engagements against Chinese forces at Guilin and Liuzhou by the end of November[287] and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by mid-December.[288] In the Pacific, U.S. forces continued to push back the Japanese perimeter. In mid-June 1944, they began their offensive against the Mariana and Palau islands and decisively defeated Japanese forces in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. These defeats led to the resignation of the Japanese Prime Minister, Hideki Tojo, and provided the United States with air bases to launch intensive heavy bomber attacks on the Japanese home islands. In late October, American forces invaded the Filipino island of Leyte; soon after, Allied naval forces scored another large victory in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history.[289] Axis collapse and Allied victory (1944–1945) Yalta Conference held in February 1945, with Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin On 16 December 1944, Germany made a last attempt to split the Allies on the Western Front by using most of its remaining reserves to launch a massive counter-offensive in the Ardennes and along the French-German border, hoping to encircle large portions of Western Allied troops and prompt a political settlement after capturing their primary supply port at Antwerp. By 16 January 1945, this offensive had been repulsed with no strategic objectives fulfilled.[290] In Italy, the Western Allies remained stalemated at the German defensive line. In mid-January 1945, the Red Army attacked in Poland, pushing from the Vistula to the Oder river in Germany, and overran East Prussia.[291] On 4 February Soviet, British, and U.S. leaders met for the Yalta Conference. They agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany, and on when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.[292] In February, the Soviets entered Silesia and Pomerania, while the Western Allies entered western Germany and closed to the Rhine river. By March, the Western Allies crossed the Rhine north and south of the Ruhr, encircling the German Army Group B.[293] In early March, in an attempt to protect its last oil reserves in Hungary and retake Budapest, Germany launched its last major offensive against Soviet troops near Lake Balaton. Within two weeks, the offensive had been repulsed, the Soviets advanced to Vienna, and captured the city. In early April, Soviet troops captured Königsberg, while the Western Allies finally pushed forward in Italy and swept across western Germany capturing Hamburg and Nuremberg. American and Soviet forces met at the Elbe river on 25 April, leaving unoccupied pockets in southern Germany and around Berlin. Soviet troops stormed and captured Berlin in late April.[294] In Italy, German forces surrendered on 29 April, while the Italian Social Republic capitulated two days later. On 30 April, the Reichstag was captured, signalling the military defeat of Nazi Germany.[295] Major changes in leadership occurred on both sides during this period. On 12 April, President Roosevelt died and was succeeded by his vice president, Harry S. Truman.[296] Benito Mussolini was killed by Italian partisans on 28 April.[297] On 30 April, Hitler committed suicide in his headquarters, and was succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz (as President of the Reich) and Joseph Goebbels (as Chancellor of the Reich); Goebbels also committed suicide on the following day and was replaced by Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, in what would later be known as the Flensburg Government. Total and unconditional surrender in Europe was signed on 7 and 8 May, to be effective by the end of 8 May.[298] German Army Group Centre resisted in Prague until 11 May.[299] On 23 May all remaining members of the German government were arrested by the Allied Forces in Flensburg, while on 5 June all German political and military institutions were transferred under the control of the Allies through the Berlin Declaration.[300] In the Pacific theatre, American forces accompanied by the forces of the Philippine Commonwealth advanced in the Philippines, clearing Leyte by the end of April 1945. They landed on Luzon in January 1945 and recaptured Manila in March. Fighting continued on Luzon, Mindanao, and other islands of the Philippines until the end of the war.[301] Meanwhile, the United States Army Air Forces launched a massive firebombing campaign of strategic cities in Japan in an effort to destroy Japanese war industry and civilian morale. A devastating bombing raid on Tokyo of 9–10 March was the deadliest conventional bombing raid in history.[302] Japanese foreign affairs minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on board USS Missouri, 2 September 1945 In May 1945, Australian troops landed in Borneo, overrunning the oilfields there. British, American, and Chinese forces defeated the Japanese in northern Burma in March, and the British pushed on to reach Rangoon by 3 May.[303] Chinese forces started a counterattack in the Battle of West Hunan that occurred between 6 April and 7 June 1945. American naval and amphibious forces also moved towards Japan, taking Iwo Jima by March, and Okinawa by the end of June.[304] At the same time, a naval blockade by submarines was strangling Japan's economy and drastically reducing its ability to supply overseas forces.[305][306] On 11 July, Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany. They confirmed earlier agreements about Germany,[307] and the American, British and Chinese governments reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender of Japan, specifically stating that "the alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction".[308] During this conference, the United Kingdom held its general election, and Clement Attlee replaced Churchill as Prime Minister.[309] The call for unconditional surrender was rejected by the Japanese government, which believed it would be capable of negotiating for more favourable surrender terms.[310] In early August, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Between the two bombings, the Soviets, pursuant to the Yalta agreement, declared war on Japan, invaded Japanese-held Manchuria and quickly defeated the Kwantung Army, which was the largest Japanese fighting force.[311] These two events persuaded previously adamant Imperial Army leaders to accept surrender terms.[312] The Red Army also captured the southern part of Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. On the night of 9–10 August 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced his decision to accept the terms demanded by the Allies in the Potsdam Declaration.[313] On 15 August, the Emperor communicated this decision to the Japanese people through a speech broadcast on the radio (Gyokuon-hōsō, literally "broadcast in the Emperor's voice").[314] On 15 August 1945, Japan surrendered, with the surrender documents finally signed at Tokyo Bay on the deck of the American battleship USS Missouri on 2 September 1945, ending the war.[315] Aftermath Main articles: Aftermath of World War II and Consequences of Nazism Defendants at the Nuremberg trials, where the Allied forces prosecuted prominent members of the political, military, judicial, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany for crimes against humanity The Allies established occupation administrations in Austria and Germany, both initially divided between western and eastern occupation zones controlled by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, respectively. However, their paths soon diverged. In Germany, the western and eastern occupation zones controlled by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union officially ended in 1949, with the respective zones becoming separate countries, West Germany and East Germany.[316] In Austria, however, occupation continued until 1955, when a joint settlement between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union permitted the reunification of Austria as a democratic state officially non-aligned with any political bloc (although in practice having better relations with the Western Allies). A denazification program in Germany led to the prosecution of Nazi war criminals in the Nuremberg trials and the removal of ex-Nazis from power, although this policy moved towards amnesty and re-integration of ex-Nazis into West German society.[317] Germany lost a quarter of its pre-war (1937) territory. Among the eastern territories, Silesia, Neumark and most of Pomerania were taken over by Poland,[318] and East Prussia was divided between Poland and the Soviet Union, followed by the expulsion to Germany of the nine million Germans from these provinces,[319][320] as well as three million Germans from the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. By the 1950s, one-fifth of West Germans were refugees from the east. The Soviet Union also took over the Polish provinces east of the Curzon Line,[321] from which two million Poles were expelled.[320][322] North-east Romania,[323][324] parts of eastern Finland,[325] and the Baltic states were annexed into the Soviet Union.[326][327] Italy lost its monarchy, colonial empire and some European territories.[328] In an effort to maintain world peace,[329] the Allies formed the United Nations,[330] which officially came into existence on 24 October 1945,[331] and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 as a common standard for all member nations.[332] The great powers that were the victors of the war—France, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States—became the permanent members of the UN's Security Council.[333] The five permanent members remain so to the present, although there have been two seat changes, between the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China in 1971, and between the Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Federation, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over.[334] Post-war border changes in Central Europe and creation of the Communist Eastern Bloc Besides Germany, the rest of Europe was also divided into Western and Soviet spheres of influence.[335] Most eastern and central European countries fell into the Soviet sphere, which led to establishment of Communist-led regimes, with full or partial support of the Soviet occupation authorities. As a result, East Germany,[336] Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Albania[337] became Soviet satellite states. Communist Yugoslavia conducted a fully independent policy, causing tension with the Soviet Union.[338] A Communist uprising in Greece was put down with Anglo-American support and the country remained aligned with the West.[339] Post-war division of the world was formalised by two international military alliances, the United States-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.[340] The long period of political tensions and military competition between them—the Cold War—would be accompanied by an unprecedented arms race and number of proxy wars throughout the world.[341] In Asia, the United States led the occupation of Japan and administered Japan's former islands in the Western Pacific, while the Soviets annexed South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.[342] Korea, formerly under Japanese colonial rule, was divided and occupied by the Soviet Union in the North and the United States in the South between 1945 and 1948. Separate republics emerged on both sides of the 38th parallel in 1948, each claiming to be the legitimate government for all of Korea, which led ultimately to the Korean War.[343] In China, nationalist and communist forces resumed the civil war in June 1946. Communist forces were victorious and established the People's Republic of China on the mainland, while nationalist forces retreated to Taiwan in 1949.[344] In the Middle East, the Arab rejection of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and the creation of Israel marked the escalation of the Arab–Israeli conflict. While European powers attempted to retain some or all of their colonial empires, their losses of prestige and resources during the war rendered this unsuccessful, leading to decolonisation.[345][346] The global economy suffered heavily from the war, although participating nations were affected differently. The United States emerged much richer than any other nation, leading to a baby boom, and by 1950 its gross domestic product per person was much higher than that of any of the other powers, and it dominated the world economy.[347] The Allied occupational authorities pursued a policy of industrial disarmament in Western Germany from 1945 to 1948.[348] Due to international trade interdependencies, this policy led to an economic stagnation in Europe and delayed European recovery from the war for several years.[349][350] At the Bretton Woods Conference in July 1944, the Allied nations drew up an economic framework for the post-war world. The agreement created the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), which later became part of the World Bank Group. The Bretton Woods system lasted until 1973.[351] Recovery began with the mid-1948 currency reform in Western Germany, and was sped up by the liberalisation of European economic policy that the U.S. Marshall Plan economic aid (1948–1951) both directly and indirectly caused.[352][353] The post-1948 West German recovery has been called the German economic miracle.[354] Italy also experienced an economic boom[355] and the French economy rebounded.[356] By contrast, the United Kingdom was in a state of economic ruin,[357] and although receiving a quarter of the total Marshall Plan assistance, more than any other European country,[358] it continued in relative economic decline for decades.[359] The Soviet Union, despite enormous human and material losses, also experienced rapid increase in production in the immediate post-war era,[360] having seized and transferred most of Germany's industrial plants and exacted war reparations from its satellite states.[c][361] Japan recovered much later.[362] China returned to its pre-war industrial production by 1952.[363] Impact Main article: Historiography of World War II Casualties and war crimes Main article: World War II casualties Further information: War crimes in World War II World War II deaths Estimates for the total number of casualties in the war vary, because many deaths went unrecorded.[364] Most suggest that some 60 million people died in the war, including about 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians.[365][366][367] The Soviet Union alone lost around 27 million people during the war,[368] including 8.7 million military and 19 million civilian deaths.[369] A quarter of the total people in the Soviet Union were wounded or killed.[370] Germany sustained 5.3 million military losses, mostly on the Eastern Front and during the final battles in Germany.[371] An estimated 11[372] to 17 million[373] civilians died as a direct or as an indirect result of Hitler's racist policies, including mass killing of around 6 million Jews, along with Roma, homosexuals, at least 1.9 million ethnic Poles[374][375] and millions of other Slavs (including Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians), and other ethnic and minority groups.[376][373] Between 1941 and 1945, more than 200,000 ethnic Serbs, along with Roma and Jews, were persecuted and murdered by the Axis-aligned Croatian Ustaše in Yugoslavia.[377] Concurrently, Muslims and Croats were persecuted and killed by Serb nationalist Chetniks,[378] with an estimated 50,000–68,000 victims (of which 41,000 were civilians).[379] Also, more than 100,000 Poles were massacred by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the Volhynia massacres, between 1943 and 1945.[380] At the same time, about 10,000–15,000 Ukrainians were killed by the Polish Home Army and other Polish units, in reprisal attacks.[381] Bodies of Chinese civilians killed by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Nanjing Massacre in December 1937 In Asia and the Pacific, the number of people killed by Japanese troops remains contested. According to R.J. Rummel, the Japanese killed between 3 million and more than 10 million people, with the most probable case of almost 6,000,000 people.[382] According to the British historian M. R. D. Foot, civilian deaths are between 10 million and 20 million, whereas Chinese military casualties (killed and wounded) are estimated to be over five million.[383] Other estimates say that up to 30 million people, most of them civilians, were killed.[384][385] The most infamous Japanese atrocity was the Nanjing Massacre, in which fifty to three hundred thousand Chinese civilians were raped and murdered.[386] Mitsuyoshi Himeta reported that 2.7 million casualties occurred during the Three Alls policy. General Yasuji Okamura implemented the policy in Hebei and Shandong.[387] Axis forces employed biological and chemical weapons. The Imperial Japanese Army used a variety of such weapons during its invasion and occupation of China (see Unit 731)[388][389] and in early conflicts against the Soviets.[390] Both the Germans and the Japanese tested such weapons against civilians,[391] and sometimes on prisoners of war.[392] The Soviet Union was responsible for the Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish officers,[393] and the imprisonment or execution of hundreds of thousands of political prisoners by the NKVD secret police, along with mass civilian deportations to Siberia, in the Baltic states and eastern Poland annexed by the Red Army.[394] Soviet soldiers committed mass rapes in occupied territories, especially in Germany.[395][396] The exact number of German women and girls raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation is uncertain, but historians estimate their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as two million,[397] while figures for women raped by German soldiers in the Soviet Union go as far as ten million.[398][399] The mass bombing of cities in Europe and Asia has often been called a war crime, although no positive or specific customary international humanitarian law with respect to aerial warfare existed before or during World War II.[400] The USAAF bombed a total of 67 Japanese cities, killing 393,000 civilians, including the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and destroying 65% of built-up areas.[401] Genocide, concentration camps, and slave labour Main articles: The Holocaust, Nazi concentration camps, Extermination camp, Forced labour under German rule during World War II, Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany, Nazi human experimentation, Soviet war crimes § World War II, and Japanese war crimes Schutzstaffel (SS) female camp guards removing prisoners' bodies from lorries and carrying them to a mass grave, inside the German Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, 1945 Nazi Germany, under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, was responsible for murdering about 6 million Jews in what is now known as the Holocaust. They also murdered an additional 4 million others who were deemed "unworthy of life" (including the disabled and mentally ill, Soviet prisoners of war, Romani, homosexuals, Freemasons, and Jehovah's Witnesses) as part of a program of deliberate extermination, in effect becoming a "genocidal state".[402] Soviet POWs were kept in especially unbearable conditions, and 3.6 million Soviet POWs out of 5.7 million died in Nazi camps during the war.[403][404] In addition to concentration camps, death camps were created in Nazi Germany to exterminate people on an industrial scale. Nazi Germany extensively used forced labourers; about 12 million Europeans from German-occupied countries were abducted and used as a slave work force in German industry, agriculture and war economy.[405] Prisoner identity photograph of a Polish girl taken by the German SS in Auschwitz.[406] Approximately 230,000 children were held prisoner and used in forced labour and Nazi medical experiments The Soviet Gulag became a de facto system of deadly camps during 1942–43, when wartime privation and hunger caused numerous deaths of inmates,[407] including foreign citizens of Poland and other countries occupied in 1939–40 by the Soviet Union, as well as Axis POWs.[408] By the end of the war, most Soviet POWs liberated from Nazi camps and many repatriated civilians were detained in special filtration camps where they were subjected to NKVD evaluation, and 226,127 were sent to the Gulag as real or perceived Nazi collaborators.[409] Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, many of which were used as labour camps, also had high death rates. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East found the death rate of Western prisoners was 27 percent (for American POWs, 37 percent),[410] seven times that of POWs under the Germans and Italians.[411] While 37,583 prisoners from the UK, 28,500 from the Netherlands, and 14,473 from the United States were released after the surrender of Japan, the number of Chinese released was only 56.[412] At least five million Chinese civilians from northern China and Manchukuo were enslaved between 1935 and 1941 by the East Asia Development Board, or Kōain, for work in mines and war industries. After 1942, the number reached 10 million.[413] In Java, between 4 and 10 million rōmusha (Japanese: "manual labourers"), were forced to work by the Japanese military. About 270,000 of these Javanese labourers were sent to other Japanese-held areas in Southeast Asia, and only 52,000 were repatriated to Java.[414] Occupation Main articles: German-occupied Europe, Resistance during World War II, Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, Collaboration with Imperial Japan, and Nazi plunder Polish civilians wearing blindfolds photographed just before being massacred by German soldiers in Palmiry forest, 1940 In Europe, occupation came under two forms. In Western, Northern, and Central Europe (France, Norway, Denmark, the Low Countries, and the annexed portions of Czechoslovakia) Germany established economic policies through which it collected roughly 69.5 billion reichsmarks (27.8 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of the war; this figure does not include the plunder of industrial products, military equipment, raw materials and other goods.[415] Thus, the income from occupied nations was over 40 percent of the income Germany collected from taxation, a figure which increased to nearly 40 percent of total German income as the war went on.[416] Soviet partisans hanged by the German army. The Russian Academy of Sciences reported in 1995 that civilian victims in the Soviet Union at German hands totalled 13.7 million dead, twenty percent of the 68 million people in the occupied Soviet Union In the East, the intended gains of Lebensraum were never attained as fluctuating front-lines and Soviet scorched earth policies denied resources to the German invaders.[417] Unlike in the West, the Nazi racial policy encouraged extreme brutality against what it considered to be the "inferior people" of Slavic descent; most German advances were thus followed by mass atrocities and war crimes.[418] The Nazis killed an estimated 2.77 million ethnic Poles during the war in addition to Polish-Jewish victims of the Holocaust.[419][better source needed] Although resistance groups formed in most occupied territories, they did not significantly hamper German operations in either the East[420] or the West[421] until late 1943. In Asia, Japan termed nations under its occupation as being part of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, essentially a Japanese hegemony which it claimed was for purposes of liberating colonised peoples.[422] Although Japanese forces were sometimes welcomed as liberators from European domination, Japanese war crimes frequently turned local public opinion against them.[423] During Japan's initial conquest, it captured 4,000,000 barrels (640,000 m3) of oil (~550,000 tonnes) left behind by retreating Allied forces; and by 1943, was able to get production in the Dutch East Indies up to 50 million barrels (7,900,000 m3) of oil (~6.8 million tonnes), 76 percent of its 1940 output rate.[423] Home fronts and production Main articles: Military production during World War II and Home front during World War II Allies to Axis GDP ratio throughout the war In the 1930s Britain and the United States of America together controlled almost 75% of world mineral output—essential for projecting military power.[424] In Europe, before the outbreak of the war, the Allies had significant advantages in both population and economics. In 1938, the Western Allies (United Kingdom, France, Poland and the British Dominions) had a 30 percent larger population and a 30 percent higher gross domestic product than the European Axis powers (Germany and Italy); including colonies, the Allies had more than a 5:1 advantage in population and a nearly 2:1 advantage in GDP.[425] In Asia at the same time, China had roughly six times the population of Japan but only an 89 percent higher GDP; this reduces to three times the population and only a 38 percent higher GDP if Japanese colonies are included.[425] The United States produced about two-thirds of all munitions used by the Allies in World War II, including warships, transports, warplanes, artillery, tanks, trucks, and ammunition.[426] Although the Allies' economic and population advantages were largely mitigated during the initial rapid blitzkrieg attacks of Germany and Japan, they became the decisive factor by 1942, after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies and the war evolved into one of attrition.[427] While the Allies' ability to out-produce the Axis was partly due to more access to natural resources, other factors, such as Germany and Japan's reluctance to employ women in the labour force,[428] Allied strategic bombing,[429] and Germany's late shift to a war economy[430] contributed significantly. Additionally, neither Germany nor Japan planned to fight a protracted war, and had not equipped themselves to do so.[431] To improve their production, Germany and Japan used millions of slave labourers;[432] Germany enslaved about 12 million people, mostly from Eastern Europe,[405] while Japan used more than 18 million people in Far East Asia.[413][414] Advances in technology and its application Main article: Technology during World War II A V-2 rocket launched from a fixed site in Peenemünde, 21 June 1943 Aircraft were used for reconnaissance, as fighters, bombers, and ground-support, and each role developed considerably. Innovations included airlift (the capability to quickly move limited high-priority supplies, equipment, and personnel);[433] and strategic bombing (the bombing of enemy industrial and population centres to destroy the enemy's ability to wage war).[434] Anti-aircraft weaponry also advanced, including defences such as radar and surface-to-air artillery, in particular the introduction of the proximity fuze. The use of the jet aircraft was pioneered and led to jets becoming standard in air forces worldwide.[435] Advances were made in nearly every aspect of naval warfare, most notably with aircraft carriers and submarines. Although aeronautical warfare had relatively little success at the start of the war, actions at Taranto, Pearl Harbor, and the Coral Sea established the carrier as the dominant capital ship (in place of the battleship).[436][437][438] In the Atlantic, escort carriers became a vital part of Allied convoys, increasing the effective protection radius and helping to close the Mid-Atlantic gap.[439] Carriers were also more economical than battleships due to the relatively low cost of aircraft[440] and because they are not required to be as heavily armoured.[441] Submarines, which had proved to be an effective weapon during the First World War,[442] were expected by all combatants to be important in the second. The British focused development on anti-submarine weaponry and tactics, such as sonar and convoys, while Germany focused on improving its offensive capability, with designs such as the Type VII submarine and wolfpack tactics.[443][better source needed] Gradually, improving Allied technologies such as the Leigh Light, Hedgehog, Squid, and homing torpedoes proved effective against German submarines.[444] Nuclear Gadget being raised to the top of the detonation "shot tower", at Alamogordo Bombing Range; Trinity nuclear test, New Mexico, July 1945 Land warfare changed from the static frontlines of trench warfare of World War I, which had relied on improved artillery that outmatched the speed of both infantry and cavalry, to increased mobility and combined arms. The tank, which had been used predominantly for infantry support in the First World War, had evolved into the primary weapon.[445] In the late 1930s, tank design was considerably more advanced than it had been during World War I,[446] and advances continued throughout the war with increases in speed, armour and firepower.[447][448] At the start of the war, most commanders thought enemy tanks should be met by tanks with superior specifications.[449] This idea was challenged by the poor performance of the relatively light early tank guns against armour, and German doctrine of avoiding tank-versus-tank combat. This, along with Germany's use of combined arms, were among the key elements of their highly successful blitzkrieg tactics across Poland and France.[445] Many means of destroying tanks, including indirect artillery, anti-tank guns (both towed and self-propelled), mines, short-ranged infantry antitank weapons, and other tanks were used.[449] Even with large-scale mechanisation, infantry remained the backbone of all forces,[450] and throughout the war, most infantry were equipped similarly to World War I.[451] The portable machine gun spread, a notable example being the German MG 34, and various submachine guns which were suited to close combat in urban and jungle settings.[451] The assault rifle, a late war development incorporating many features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the standard post-war infantry weapon for most armed forces.[452] Most major belligerents attempted to solve the problems of complexity and security involved in using large codebooks for cryptography by designing ciphering machines, the most well-known being the German Enigma machine.[453] Development of SIGINT (signals intelligence) and cryptanalysis enabled the countering process of decryption. Notable examples were the Allied decryption of Japanese naval codes[454] and British Ultra, a pioneering method for decoding Enigma that benefited from information given to the United Kingdom by the Polish Cipher Bureau, which had been decoding early versions of Enigma before the war.[455] Another component of military intelligence was deception, which the Allies used to great effect in operations such as Mincemeat and Bodyguard.[454][456] Other technological and engineering feats achieved during, or as a result of, the war include the world's first programmable computers (Z3, Colossus, and ENIAC), guided missiles and modern rockets, the Manhattan Project's development of nuclear weapons, operations research, the development of artificial harbours, and oil pipelines under the English Channel.[457] Penicillin was first developed, mass-produced, and used during the war.[458] See also Opposition to World War II World War III Notes While various other dates have been proposed as the date on which World War II began or ended, this is the period most frequently cited. Often abbreviated as WWII or WW2 Reparations were exacted from East Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria using Soviet-dominated joint enterprises. The Soviet Union also instituted trading arrangements deliberately designed to favour the country. Moscow controlled the Communist parties that ruled the satellite states, and they followed orders from the Kremlin. Historian Mark Kramer concludes: "The net outflow of resources from eastern Europe to the Soviet Union was approximately $15 billion to $20 billion in the first decade after World War II, an amount roughly equal to the total aid provided by the United States to western Europe under the Marshall Plan." References See also: Bibliography of World War II Weinberg 2005, p. 6. Wells, Anne Sharp (2014) Historical Dictionary of World War II: The War against Germany and Italy. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 7. Ferris, John; Mawdsley, Evan (2015). The Cambridge History of the Second World War, Volume I: Fighting the War. 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Containing Coexistence: America, Russia, and the "Finnish Solution". Kent, OH: Kent State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8733-8558-9. Harris, Sheldon H. (2002). Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932–1945, and the American Cover-u

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