What type of battle was the Battle of Britain, and why was England's victory so important?
1 Answer
The Battle of Britain was a contest for air superiority over the English Channel and southern England as a necessary precondition for a German invasion attempt in 1940.
Explanation:
With the fall of France in June 1940, German's remaining enemy was Great Britain, which was largely unassailable behind the English Channel -- a great anti-tank ditch! The British Army had come out of France without its equipment and was unready for a major land battle. However, while Hitler (no seaman) thought of the Channel Crossing as some sort of giant river-crossing exercise, it was clear the Royal Navy could massacre any assault force it found at sea.
To invade England, the Luftwaffe needed to have complete air superiority over the Channel and southern England, and the only way to achieve this was to defeat the RAF. The Germans made their preparations. After the RAF refused to come-out over the English Channel it was clear the Luftwaffe needed to attack Britain's fighter defences.
From August 8th to the 24th, there were repeated attacks on British fighter bases to wear the RAF down. It was starting to work when German bombers erred and mistakenly dumped their bombs over London late one evening. The RAF's bombers immediately responded with a raid on Berlin, which prompted an infuriated Hitler to stage more air raids on London and other cities.
This new phase took some of the pressure off the battered Hurricane and Spitfire squadrons of Southern England and took the Luftwaffe's bombers to the very edge of the effective range of escorting Me-109 fighters. While the Germans believed their impression that RAF strength was waning, their massive air attack of 15 September proved they were wrong, and the Luftwaffe lost 56 aircraft that day to 25 downed RAF fighters.
The continuing resistance kept Hitler busy postponing the invasion day; and Churchill knew that with the autumn weather, a German crossing of the Channel would be impossible. Hitler's attention wandered towards the USSR instead, and Britain was free to continue the fight.
