BATTLE OF BRITAIN

LUFTWAFFE

VS.

JUNE 1940

ROYAL AIRFORCE (RAF)

The Battle of Britian was waged between the Royal Airforce and the Luftwaffe.  The objectives of the Luftwaffe was to destroy the RAF, so operation Sealion the Invasion of Britain would be able to pass smootly.  In June 1940 after the end of Hitler's triumphant victory in the Battle of France, RAF fighter command had already taken a heavy toll after sending many of the home defensive fighter squadrons to the aid of France.  The Luftwaffe had the most advanted Airforce in the world with its total of 9,200 combat aircraft in 1939 to the British 3,860.  During the Battle of Britian, Britian produced about 100 pilots a month and a AVG. of 300-500 fighters.  At the time the British had 3,000 pilots, 2,500 of which were british and the others were made up of pilots from Poland to South Africa.  Also they had 10s of Thousands of ground crew manning Anti-Aircraft guns (AA) and search lights.  The Germans had 90,000 of these.  The British also had 6 million Fire watchers to watch for fires in factories and buildings after German bombings.  There were also 6,000 Professional Firemen and 60,000 Auxiliary Fire fighters whiched helped the firemen during major German Bombing raids in which there could be up to as many as 500 major fires in a city at 1 time. Other workers included 10 Air raid wardens per SQ. mile of London,  Auxiliary Police corps, Post office engineers, and the WAAF. Contiued, go to INDEX page!
SQUADRONS: British Squadrons had about 10-15 fighters in each and the Germans had a system of Jagdgeschwader (JG) or Fighter wing .  The Germans had about 5 different Air fleets (Luftflotte) which held about 5 JG's, 6 Kampfgeschwader (KG) -Bomber wing, 3 Lehrgeschwader (LG)-teaching/experiment wing doing combat flying , 2 Zerostorergeschwader (ZG)-destoryer wing (twin engined BF 110 fighters), and 1 Stukageschwader (StG)-dive-bombing wing.  This was a typical Air Fleet.
Search and Rescue: Search and rescue for downed pilots was very important because in the latter half of the Battle pilots on both sides were really needed to be returned back to combat.  The British used small PT boats to search for pilots in the channal, the Germans used resuce stations and float planes and 100 ft long vessel's.  The RAF was ordered to shoot down the Float planes which outraged the Germans and they later put defensive guns on the planes.
Aircraft Builders: Germans- Professer Hugo Junkers, some of his planes were the JU 87 and JU 88.  Willy Messerschmitt designed the Me 109 which was the ruler of the skies in the early part of WWII. British- Reginald Mitchell, he won the 1931 Schneider Cup with his S6B seaplane, he developed the Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire but he died before he could see his plane come off the production line.
Armaments of Fighters: The German Fighters used a Oerlikon MG-FF 20mm cannon, the fighters held 60 rounds for these cannons, that doesnt sound like much but a well placed round in a figher or bomber could cause it to explode at all time. The main guns in these fighers were the Rheinmetall-Borsig MG17 (7.92mm)  it held 1,000 rounds in the aircraft but many of these rounds were needed to knock out a enemy aircraft.  The British used a American Browning 7.7mm (.303in) the aircraft could hold 300 of these rounds in each gun and about 2,400 total.  But since the rounds were rifle caliber they could use all of these rounds on 1 bomber and not knock it down.
AIRCRAFT: The British front line fighers were the Supermarine Spitfire MK 1. and the Hawker Hurricane 1 the Hurricane was marked inferior because of its slow acceleration rate in combat.  The 2nd line aircraft included the Boulton Paul Defiant 1, this aircraft was special because it had a 4 gun turrent in the back and no guns in the front.  It supprised some Luftwaffe pilots in France but that was it, it was shoot down in heavy numbers, it was only good at night fighting and against bomber formations.  The Gloster Gladiator II was a 1930 model biplane with some success then but not against the Luftwaffe the were hightly outclassed.  Bristol Blenheim IF was a fighter-bomber and night fighter it had 6 defensive guns and was used as a long range heavy figher which was good against recon aircraft but was wipped out by German fighters.  The German Front line held the Messerschmitt BF 109 E which dominated the skies in 1940, it evolved from the Messerschmitt BF 108.  The 2nd line held the Messerschmitt BF 110C fighter-bomber which had a long range and had 1 gun turrent in the back and many guns in the nose which could devistate a RAF figher in seconds but because of its low turning rate it was easy pray for British Fighters. Junkers Ju 87 B was a light dive bomber and was used as a tank killer, but because it was easily destroyed it was moved to night fighting where it didnt do any better. Junkers Ju 88 A medium bomber was the only satisfactory bomber it was almost comparable with the RAF Mosquito,  the German Bomber fleet took heavy loss's because it didnt have alot of defensive guns and wasnt fast.  The other German Blunder was Hitler decided to produce 2 engine bombers instead of 1 and they had medium range, with a 4 engine bomber you could lose and engine but still fly in and drop your bombs. Other German Medium bombers included the Heinkel He 111 and the Dornier Do 17 Z.
Invasion Forces: Britian about 20 infantry divisions and reserve inferior Tank divisons.  Wehrmacht forces were about 15 divisons in the 1st wave and another 10 divisons in the 2nd wave and 2 paratrooper divisons and about 5 Panzer divisons.
ACES OF THE SKY: Britain- Ian Gleed which held about 800 hrs in the sky before he was KIA, Johnny Kent- a canadian, he joined the 303 Polish squadron. Germany- Heinz Bar he achieved a unbelieveble 220 victories at the end of the war.  Wilhelm Balthasar- flown the most sorties in Spain and scored 23 kills in the Battle of France. He was killed in action in 1941.
Airforce Leaders: Britian- Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, Germany- Reichmarschall HermannGoering.                    BIBLOGRAPHY ON INDEX PAGE!       
CONTINUED!!!GO TO INDEX

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