In the summer and autumn of 1940 the German Luftwaffe tried to win control of the air over southern England. Its aim was to force Britain to terms or to make an invasion, Operation Sea Lion, possible. Against it stood RAF Fighter Command under Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding. His system linked the Chain Home radar stations and the Observer Corps through filter and operations rooms to sector stations that directed Hurricane and Spitfire squadrons by radio. Kesselring's Luftflotte 2 attacked from the Pas-de-Calais and Belgium, and Sperrle's Luftflotte 3 from Normandy and Brittany; they first went for Channel convoys, then for radar stations and airfields, then for No. 11 Group's sector stations, and from 7 September for London. Fighter Command was never destroyed, and by mid-September German losses were too heavy to sustain. Hitler postponed the invasion on 17 September, and the battle shaded into the night Blitz. This map shows eight key days and phases at theater scale. Airfields and radar stations are fixed points from Ordnance Survey grid references. Formations and routes are schematic, drawn from the official history and published accounts. Loss figures differ between sources and are given with their attributions; both sides' claims at the time ran far above the losses later found in the records.
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The British count the battle from 10 July 1940. Through July the Luftwaffe's Kanalkampf, the 'Channel battle', struck at coastal convoys and ports. The aim was to close the Strait of Dover and draw Fighter Command into combat. On 10 July convoy Bread (CW 3) left the Thames: 25 small coastal steamers sailing west under naval escort. A German reconnaissance Dornier shadowed it past North Foreland. At about 13:50 radar plotted about 27 Do 17s of KG 2 crossing the French coast west of Calais with Bf 110 and Bf 109 escorts. More than 100 aircraft were in the fight by one count. Hurricanes of Nos. 32, 56 and 111 Squadrons and Spitfires of Nos. 64 and 74 Squadrons met them off Folkestone and Dungeness. Only one ship, the small Dutch steamer Bill S, was sunk. German crews claimed a cruiser and four merchant ships. Collier's official history counts, for 10 July to 12 August, 148 Fighter Command aircraft lost in daylight combat against 286 German aircraft. Aircraft sank about 30,000 tons of shipping in the Channel over the same period.
Adlerangriff, the 'Eagle Attack', was meant to destroy Fighter Command before any invasion. On 12 August, just after 09:30, four sections of Erprobungsgruppe 210 bombed the Chain Home radar stations at Dover, Rye, Pevensey and Dunkirk in Kent. Pevensey lost power for several hours, but the stations were soon working again, and the Luftwaffe wrongly believed them destroyed. At midday about 15 Ju 88s of KG 51 bombed Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, which was off the air for three days. The rest of KG 51 hit Portsmouth, and its commander, Oberst Johann-Volkmar Fisser, was shot down and killed. Manston, Lympne and Hawkinge were also bombed. 'Eagle Day' itself, 13 August, began in confusion. Fink's 74 Do 17s of KG 2 bombed Eastchurch, a Coastal Command station, after their escort turned back on a postponement order. In the afternoon Stukas wrecked Detling, Ju 88s of LG 1 reached Southampton and Andover, and No. 609 Squadron mauled the Ju 87s of II./StG 2 over Lyme Bay. The Luftwaffe flew about 1,485 sorties without hitting a single Fighter Command airfield. Collier gives German losses as 45 aircraft and Fighter Command's as 13 aircraft and seven pilots; another tally gives 39 and 15.
On 15 August the Luftwaffe flew about 1,786 sorties, its largest effort of the battle so far. For the only time, Luftflotte 5 joined in from Norway and Denmark. German intelligence believed the north had been stripped of fighters. About 65 He 111s of KG 26 from Stavanger, escorted by about 35 Bf 110s of I./ZG 76, were picked up by radar far out to sea. Shortly after midday No. 72 Squadron's Spitfires met them off the Farne Islands. No. 13 Group's squadrons and the Tyneside guns then broke up the raid, and most bombs fell in the sea or at random; some killed civilians around Sunderland. About 50 unescorted Ju 88s of KG 30 from Aalborg bombed Driffield. Collier records KG 26 losing 8 bombers and its escort 7 fighters, and KG 30 losing 8, for no Fighter Command aircraft. Luftflotte 5 never again attacked by day. In the south, Stukas put Lympne out of action for two days, KG 3 bombed Rochester, and Erprobungsgruppe 210 hit Martlesham Heath and then Croydon by mistake for Kenley; some 80 people there were killed or badly hurt. Collier gives the day's losses as 75 German and 34 British aircraft.
Postwar study of both sides' records singles out 18 August as the hardest-fought day of the battle. Around 13:00 KG 76 made a coordinated attack on Kenley. Its high-level Do 17s and Ju 88s were delayed by cloud and arrived late. Nine Do 17s of its 9th Staffel flew in at very low level from Cormeilles-en-Vexin over Beachy Head, where the Observer Corps reported them. Between about 13:22 and 13:27 they bombed Kenley from roof height. They met Bofors and Lewis guns, the station's parachute-and-cable rockets, and Hurricanes of No. 111 Squadron. Only two of the nine returned to their base; one crashed near Biggin Hill. Kenley lost hangars and aircraft and for a time could take only two squadrons. He 111s of KG 1 bombed Biggin Hill. In the afternoon 109 Ju 87s of StG 77 and StG 3, escorted by 157 Bf 109s, struck Gosport, Ford, Thorney Island and the Poling radar station. Hurricanes and Spitfires caught them, and about 17 Stukas went down. After this the Ju 87 was largely withdrawn from the battle. Losses are counted differently. Collier gives 71 German and 27 British. Alfred Price, counting aircraft destroyed on the ground, gives 69 German and 68 British, 31 of the British lost in the air.
From 24 August Kesselring's Luftflotte 2 turned on No. 11 Group's sector stations. Each station's operations room controlled the fighters of its sector. Collier records Hornchurch and North Weald bombed on 24 August and Debden badly damaged on 26 August. On 30 and 31 August Biggin Hill was hit again and again by small, low-flying forces. Workshops, hangars and mains were wrecked, the operations block burned, and 65 people were killed or wounded. Two of its three squadrons had to be controlled from other sectors. Three WAAFs there, Sgt. Joan Mortimer, Cpl. Elspeth Henderson and Sgt. Helen Turner, received the Military Medal. On 31 August, Fighter Command's worst day, some 60 Do 17s of KG 2 bombed Hornchurch as No. 54 Squadron was taking off, and Debden took more than 100 bombs. On 3 September KG 2 bombed North Weald. Park's sector stations held, but Collier gives Fighter Command losses of 161 aircraft between 31 August and 6 September against 189 German. Park later wrote that knocking out the operations rooms or telephone links would have left London's defense in a perilous state. Positions show the main raids, not their tracks.
On 7 September Göring took personal command of the offensive. He watched from Cap Blanc-Nez as his formations gathered. German leaders believed Fighter Command was nearly finished, and Hitler had ordered reprisals for RAF raids on Berlin. The attack switched from the airfields to London. At about 16:25 the first of more than 300 bombers, escorted by some 600 fighters, crossed the coast and flew up the Thames Estuary. No. 11 Group's controllers expected more raids on the sector stations and placed their squadrons to cover them, so many interceptions came late. Bombs fell on Thameshaven, Woolwich Arsenal, the Royal Docks, the Surrey Commercial Docks, West Ham and Beckton gasworks. The fires guided a second, night attack that came in from about 20:20 and lasted until about 04:30. Collier records 21 of 23 squadrons engaged and Fighter Command losing 28 aircraft shot down, with 17 pilots killed or badly wounded. He puts German losses at more than 40. About 450 civilians were killed that day and night, by one count 448, and many more were injured. It was the start of the Blitz, and London was bombed on 57 consecutive nights.
At 11:04 Dover radar reported German aircraft massing over the Calais-Boulogne area. Churchill was watching in No. 11 Group's operations room at Uxbridge. About 25 Do 17s of KG 76 with a large escort crossed at Folkestone at about 11:36, aiming at the railway lines at Battersea. Park's squadrons attacked them in pairs all the way in. Over London they met the Duxford 'Big Wing' of Nos. 19, 242, 302, 310 and 611 Squadrons from No. 12 Group under Sqn. Ldr. Douglas Bader. A Dornier fell on the forecourt of Victoria station. The second raid crossed near Dungeness shortly after 14:00: about 114 Do 17s and He 111s in five columns, with a total force of about 475 aircraft. Asked what reserves remained, Park told Churchill, by Churchill's account, 'There are none.' Cloud hid the docks, and bombs fell across West Ham and other boroughs. Another raid went for Portland. Alfred Price counts 56 German aircraft lost against 28 RAF fighters, 12 of whose pilots were killed. Fighter Command claimed 185, the Big Wing alone 52, of which Price could confirm only a handful. The Germans claimed 77. Collier gives 60 German and 26 British losses.
Two days after 15 September, Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion 'until further notice'. He still left the door open for an October landing, but winter weather was closing in. The Luftwaffe's big daylight bomber raids gave way to high-flying Bf 109 fighter-bomber sweeps, which were hard to catch, and the main effort shifted to the night bombing of London and industrial cities. Collier records that the Luftwaffe lost 328 aircraft destroyed or badly damaged in October, about 200 of them to the daylight defenses, while Fighter Command lost 100 pilots killed and 65 wounded that month. The British date the battle's end to 31 October; the Blitz went on into May 1941. Totals for the battle depend on the source. One summary gives 1,918 German aircraft and 2,662 airmen lost, against 1,012 RAF aircraft and 537 airmen. The Bentley Priory Museum counts 2,937 Allied aircrew who qualified as 'the Few', of whom 544 were killed and 422 wounded. Claims on both sides were far higher than the losses later found in the records.
At Battle of Britain: The escort fighter, limited by range over London.
The Luftwaffe's main fighter was a match for the Spitfire, but its short range tied it to the bombers it escorted and left only minutes of fighting time over London.
At Battle of Britain: He 111s and Do 17s carried the daylight raids and the night Blitz.
The Luftwaffe's twin-engined bombers carried the daylight raids on airfields and London and, from September, the night Blitz. Lightly armed, they depended on fighter escort in daylight.
At Battle of Britain: Spitfire squadrons, often set against the escorts.
Fast and agile, the Spitfire was the RAF's best fighter in 1940 and, with the Hurricane, met the Luftwaffe's raids. Dowding and Park tried, where they could, to set Spitfires against the escorting Bf 109s.
At Battle of Britain: Most of Fighter Command's squadrons flew Hurricanes.
Sturdier and easier to repair than the Spitfire, the Hurricane equipped most Fighter Command squadrons in 1940 and was credited with most of the RAF's victories, usually against the bombers.
Free for everyone every year on its anniversary: September 15.
Collier's official history (HMSO 1957), the RAF's Air Power Review (Price), IWM and daily timelines give the raids, squadrons and losses.
Airfields, headquarters and Chain Home stations are fixed from grid references and published coordinates; German airfields from published coordinates.
Raid routes and formation positions are schematic at theater scale.
Losses and claims differ between the sides and later research; both are given.
Battle of Britain, 10 July - 31 October 1940. Key source: the British official history, Basil Collier, The Defence of the United Kingdom (HMSO, 1957), via HyperWar: ch. X, the preliminary phase (convoy attacks; 148 Fighter Command and 286 German aircraft lost, 10 July-12 August), ch. XII, 13-23 August (daily losses for 13, 15, 16 and 18 August; Luftflotte 5's raids; Poling and Kenley), ch. XIII, 24 August-6 September (the sector stations; Biggin Hill; Park's instructions), Appendix XIV (daily sorties and losses, 24 August-6 September) and ch. XV, 7 September-31 October (7 and 15 September, Sea Lion's postponement, October losses).
15 September: Dr Alfred Price, drawing on his Battle of Britain Day, 15 September 1940, in the RAF's Air Power Review (56 German aircraft lost against 28 RAF fighters; 185 claimed, 77 claimed by the Germans; the Big Wing's 52 claims); Military History Matters, 'Battle of Britain Day - what happened hour by hour'; Battle of Britain Memorial Trust timeline, 15 September and 17 September.
Key days: Imperial War Museums, '9 important dates in the Battle of Britain'; the Battle of Britain Historical Timeline (battleofbritain1940.com), daily entries for 10 July, 12 August, 13 August, 15 August, 31 August, 3 September, 7 September and its summary of the battle (totals of 1,918 German and 1,012 RAF aircraft); RAF Boulmer, 'The defeat of Luftflotte 5 in the North East'; Kenley Revival, 'The Hardest Day - 9th Staffel, KG76, low level raid on Kenley'; Historic England, list entry 1021242 (Kenley fighter pens, 18 August damage); Battle of Britain Beacon, 'The Hardest Day' (69 German and 68 British aircraft, after Alfred Price, The Hardest Day); the Stuka targets and numbers for 18 August follow the summary of Price in MigFlug; Bentley Priory Museum, the Few (2,937 aircrew; 544 killed, 422 wounded).
Fixed points: British airfields and Chain Home stations are converted from the Ordnance Survey grid references in Wikipedia's List of Battle of Britain airfields and Chain Home station table; Bentley Priory and the Victoria Do 17 site from TracesOfWar; Uxbridge, Driffield, Calais-Marck, Clairmarais, Cormeilles-en-Vexin, Beauvais-Tille, Cap Blanc-Nez and the Royal Victoria Dock from Wikipedia; Saint-Omer and Caen-Carpiquet from aerodrome databases. Luftwaffe units and their bases follow Wikipedia's Luftwaffe order of battle, August 1940 (after de Zeng et al., Bungay's The Most Dangerous Enemy and Balke). Formation positions and routes are schematic. Times are British Summer Time as given in the sources. Photographs: Imperial War Museums and Ministry of Information images on Wikimedia Commons.
