Battle of Britain

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Stories of the Battle of Britain 1940 – Chain Home

August 19, 2010 in 1940, Battle of Britain, history by Editor

12 August, 1940 By the beginning of August, concentration of Luftwaffe forces in France had been fully accomplished, creating prerequisites for the next phase of the German offensive – an all-out attack on British aerial defences. On August 1, Hitler issued Directive No.17, ordering the Luftwaffe to use all its forces to destroy the RAF. [...]

Stories of the Battle of Britain 1940 – A Pilot’s Career

August 12, 2010 in 1940, Battle of Britain, history, people by Editor

4 August 1940 In the late afternoon of 4 August 1940, Polish pilot Witold Urbanowicz arrived by car in front of the officers’ mess in Tangmere, Sussex. A uniformed chauffeur circled the vehicle, then opened the door on his side. Stepping out of the car, Urbanowicz scrutinized the target of his new posting. The mess building [...]

Stories of the Battle of Britain 1940 – Where are Replacements to be Found?

August 4, 2010 in 1940, Battle of Britain, history, people by Editor

3 August 1940 During the first phase of the air battle in July, Dowding’s Fighter Command, although desperately short of pilots, had beaten the tide. By 3 August 1940, Dowding had 708 aircraft and 1,434 pilots, as against 587 aircraft and 1,253 pilots on 30 June. Time, however, was not working in his favour. Dowding [...]

Stories of the Battle of Britain 1940 – Aces Meet

July 25, 2010 in 1940, Battle of Britain, Spitfire Mk. I, history, people by Editor

24 July 1940 Margate was a seaside town which for over a century had attracted crowds of Londoners by its wide beaches and amusement facilities. In the morning of 24 July 1940, the weather was still cloudy with patches of rain, but the veil of fog which during previous days had covered the gray shallow waters of the Thames Estuary was finally dispersed by light wind. This day, Margate seaside promenade would provide [...]

Stories of the Battle of Britain 1940 – Death of the Defiant

July 23, 2010 in 1940, Battle of Britain, Defiant, history by Editor

19 June 1940 In the early afternoon hours of 19 June, No. 141 Squadron was sent out from Hawkinge to intercept a formation of German Bf 110s which were reported to dive-bomb shipping over the Channel. Unusually for this very wet July, the day was bright and perfectly clear, with no clouds in sight and [...]

Stories of the Battle of Britain 1940 – “Sparta had Weapons”

July 22, 2010 in 1940, Battle of Britain, history by Editor

22 July 1940 One of the legends of the Battle of Britain is that of the Home Guard – “Dads’ Army”, a force of volunteers which played crucial role in keeping the country’s morale and vigilance in the times of crisis. The story of the Home Guard started on the evening of 14 May 1940, [...]

Stories of the Battle of Britain 1940 – The Czechs

July 16, 2010 in 1940, Battle of Britain, Hurricane, history by Editor

12-16 July 1940 At Duxford, the largest and best equipped RAF station in No. 12 Group, the Czechs arrived. A new fighter squadron was to be formed entirely with foreign personnel. The Royal Air Force needed as many trained aircrew as it could muster. No. 310 (Czechoslovak) Squadron, as the new unit was to be [...]

Stories of the Battle of Britain 1940 – “I’ve Never Seen Anything So Good as This”

July 14, 2010 in 1940, Battle of Britain, history, people by Editor

13-14 June On these days, one could sit all day on top of the medieval walls of the Dover Castle and watch the steam ships slowly passing through the Straits of Dover. It was said that on a clear day, a sharp-eyed spectator armed with binoculars could read the clock on a belfry in Calais. [...]

Stories of the Battle of Britain 1940 – Has it Started Yet?

July 12, 2010 in 1940, Battle of Britain, history by Editor

10-11 July 1940 10 July 1940 is today recognized as the date when the Battle of Britain officially began. Or did it? Looking through yesterday’s press news commemorating its 70th Anniversary, I was amused to see the variety of interpretations of what actually happened on that day. “On this day in 1940, the Germans begin the [...]

Amazing Battle of Britain Tribute by Local Farmer

July 12, 2010 in Art & Memorabilia, Battle of Britain, contemporary, miscellaneous, news by Editor

Farmers Graham and Jane Wadsworth from Raines Hall Farm, Sedgwick near Kendal, Cumbria, will go into history by an amazing personal tribute to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain.  On his 10-acre corn field, Graham carved a maze of a giant Spitfire chasing a German Messerschmitt Bf 109.  The huge but remarkably well-designed [...]

Stories of the Battle of Britain – A Hole in the Sleeve

July 6, 2010 in 1940, Battle of Britain, Spitfire Mk. I, Variants & Technology, history by Editor

5 July 1940. About the rise of heavily-armed fighters and the difficult development of a cannon-armed Spitfire.

Stories of the Battle of Britain 1940 – The Tomato Raid

July 1, 2010 in 1940, Battle of Britain, history by Editor

28 June – 3 July 1940 On the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey,  warm breeze was announcing the usual onset of summer.  The potato season finished early that year and many of the farmers were busy trimming the thick hedgerows along the roads in preparation for the year’s first Visite de Branchage – wayside [...]

Our BoB series becomes “Stories of the Battle of Britain”

July 1, 2010 in Battle of Britain, Editor's Blog, webmaster by Editor

Apart from writing and researching for my Battle of Britain series, I keep working with many step-by-step improvements of the site. Part of this work is renaming my post-blog of the events of 1940 to “Stories of the Battle of Britain“. I feel that this title conveys what I’m trying to achieve with the series: a [...]

Stories of the Battle of Britain 1940 – Constant-Speed Propellers

June 29, 2010 in 1940, Battle of Britain, Reference, Spitfire Mk. I, Variants & Technology by Editor

24 June, 1940 Compared with the old Supermarine assembly plant in Eastleigh, the white office building of de Havilland Aircraft Company in Hatfield was a showpiece of modern functionalism. Spreading low behind a well-maintained lawn, the well-proportioned two-storey pavilion reflected the renewed prosperity and confidence of the 1930s. The style was “streamlined”, with curved corner [...]

Stories of the Battle of Britain 1940 – Football and the Battle of Britain

June 29, 2010 in 1940, Battle of Britain, Editor's Blog, contemporary, miscellaneous by Editor

27 June 2010 So England was dumped out of the World Cup 2010 in humiliating fashion, having lost 1-4 to Germany.  Let’s break the chronology of my BoB post-blog for a bit of digression. As bitterly disappointing as its outcome was, the yesterday’s football (soccer to our American visitors) match serves as a powerful reminder [...]

Stories of the Battle of Britain 1940 – The Great Escapes

June 23, 2010 in 1940, Battle of Britain, history, people by Editor

19-23 June 1940 British evacuation from the continent was finally complete and, overall, a success: some 144,000 returned to UK. Left behind in France were aviators and air force personnel of the subdued nations – Poles, Czechs, Belgians, Dutch. Up until the Armistice they were considered as friends and potential combatants alongside the French Army. Now [...]

Stories of the Battle of Britain 1940 – Prelude to the Blitz

June 22, 2010 in 1940, Battle of Britain, Spitfire Mk. I, history by Editor

19 June 1940 19 June was the day when, for the first time since the beginning of German offensive in the West, Luftwaffe bombers appeared in force over Britain. During the Phoney War, the auxiliary Spitfire fighter squadrons based in Scotland saw more action than any other units within Fighter Command, either in the UK [...]

Stories of the Battle of Britain 1940 – “We’re in the finals!”

June 18, 2010 in 1940, Battle of Britain, history by Editor

18 June 1940 The French had surrendered. The newly appointed French Prime Minister Philippe Pétain had broadcast that “with a broken heart” he requested Armistice on the previous night. In London there was considerable excitement over the news, and people everywhere were heard discussing it. Novelist George Orwell noted that there was such a rush [...]

Stories of the Battle of Britain 1940 – Lancastria

June 18, 2010 in 1940, Battle of Britain, history by Editor

17 June 1940 At about seven o’clock in the morning of 17 June, the ground personnel of No. 73 Squadron embarked on a boat in Saint Nazaire harbour. The area was crowded with British troops – the remnants of the British Expeditionary Force in France. This force still counted tens of thousands of men, including [...]

This Week in the Battle of Britain 1940 – The Last Hurricanes in France

June 17, 2010 in 1940, Battle of Britain, history by Editor

14-18 June 1940 After the order of final withdrawal, Dowding’s last remaining units in France, Nos. 1, 73 and 501 Squadrons together with other surviving RAF contingent were heading for home. It is perhaps not widely known that the RAF continued to operate from French bases for a considerable period after the evacuation of the main [...]

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