Battle of Britain

6 October 1940 Even under the best of circumstances, fighter operations of the 1940 would be a highly challenging business. Complexity of aircraft built for speed and operated at the extremes of their performance envelope translated to difficulties in maintaining high serviceability rate, but also to a relatively high rate of accidents. As the Battle [...]

30 September Monday, 30 September saw the last major daylight attack against London. Before noon, the Germans sent two large formations of between 200 and 300 aircraft towards London. Both raids were intercepted by large numbers of RAF fighters. Heavy fighting took place over Kent and both attacks were turned back before they could reach [...]

Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

7 September 1940. The London Blitz began in the afternoon of 7 September with the first mass daylight air raid on the docks area.

Read the rest of this entry »

5 September 1940 As the first week of September was nearing its end, Fighter Command, which had been constantly mauled for three weeks, reached its all-time low. Since 24 August, the two German Luftflotten in France had focused their assault almost entirely upon No. 11 Group’s airfields. Even though the daily scores of destroyed aircraft [...]

24 August – 6 September 1940 Phase two of Adlerangriff did not immediately follow the first because of additional concentration of German fighter forces into the Pas de Calais, in an effort to strengthen the fighter protection of the bombing raids. Fighter escort presented an compelling dilemma for the Germans. On the one hand, the [...]

19 August 1940 Luftwaffe activities between the Adlertag and 18 August, which marked the end of the first phase of their assault, followed essentially the same pattern. While attacks were directed against Fighter Command sector airfields and supporting bases, usually only limited damage was inflicted with most facilities back in service within a few hours. [...]

18 August 1940 During the five days of the offensive which had started on the Eagle Day, the Germans were probing for gaps in the British defences – constantly experimenting with different modes of attack, altitude, times, strength and approaches to their targets. On 18 August, the German Valhalla surged back over England in great [...]

15 August 1940 This day was remarkable in many respects. Five major operations were fought. The activity ranged over a front of 500 miles from Plymouth to the Tyne. The fighting continued all day and included, in the North, one particular victory which had a lasting result. As the day dawned clear across the western [...]

13 August 1940 Unternehmen Adlerangriff (Operation Eagle Attack), originally planned for 10 August, had to be postponed full three days because of the bad weather. Meanwhile, the German activity continued, resulting in a damage to several Chain Home radar stations, convoys and airfields in Kent. Despite ever-progressing attrition and wear of aircraft and crews, the [...]