Dates: 10 July – 31 October 1940

Luftwaffe Total Strength: 4,074 available aircraft including 1,107 single-seat fighters, 357 two-seat fighters, 1,380 medium bombers, 428 dive-bombers, 569 reconnaissance and 233 coastal aircraft. The Luftwaffe air strength given is from the Quartermaster General 6th Battalion numbers for 29 June 1940.

Luftwaffe Total Losses: 1,918 aircraft | 2,662 airmen

RAF Total Strength: 1,963 available aircraft including 754 single-seat fighters, 149 two-seat fighters, 560 bombers and 500 coastal aircraft. The RAF fighter strength given is for 0900 1 July 1940, while bomber strength is for 11 July 1940.

RAF Total Losses: 1,012 aircraft | 537 airmen

Note: The aircrew and aircraft losses have come from the comprehensive account in The Battle of Britain: Then and Now by Winston G. Ramsey. RAF numbers are for Fighter Command. Luftwaffe numbers cover both fighters, bombers and other aircraft.

Image: A group of German officers, including Hermann Göring, look across the English Channel at the White Cliffs of Dover, in preparation for Operation Sealion, the invasion of Britain in 1940. One of the officers is looking through binoculars at the English coastline.

What Was the Battle of Britain?

“What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin.”
Winston Churchill, 18 June 1940

By the end of June 1940, most of Western Europe was under Nazi occupation. Within six weeks, the German Wehrmacht (armed forces) had swept across the Low Countries and France, forcing the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from the port and beaches of Dunkirk. Britain now stood alone, with invasion appearing imminent. The German leader, Adolf Hitler, initially hoped the isolated country would seek peace with Germany. However, the newly appointed British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was determined to fight on and rallied the British people with his powerful rhetoric and steadfast leadership. As a result, Hitler ordered his armed forces to prepare for a full-scale invasion of Britain, codenamed Unternehmen Seelöwe (“Operation Sea Lion”). A key prerequisite for the invasion was the elimination of the Royal Air Force (RAF) to ensure that the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe, possessed air superiority over the English Channel and southern England. To achieve this, Hitler turned to Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe. After the early triumphs in Poland and France, Göring believed that Britain could be brought to its knees by air power alone. He was confident that British fighter defences would be destroyed in a matter of days. On 1 July, three Luftflotten (air fleets) were deployed from Norway to Brittany with a strength of 2,186 serviceable aircraft, including 898 bombers, 708 single-engined fighters, and 202 twin-engined fighters.

RAF Fighter Command and the Dowding System

The defence of Britain relied primarily on RAF Fighter Command, led by Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding. At the outset of the battle, Fighter Command had 640 serviceable fighters, organised into four groups: No. 13 Group covered Scotland and northern England; No. 12 Group, the Midlands and East Anglia; No. 10 Group, the South West; and No. 11 Group, the most vital, was responsible for the South East and London. Each group was divided into sectors, with sector stations serving as operational control centres. This structure formed part of Dowding’s pioneering integrated air defence system, which provided a decisive advantage over a numerically superior enemy.

At the core of this system was a chain of radar stations along the British coast, giving early warning of approaching raids. Combined with observer reports and centralised command and control, this network allowed RAF fighters to be scrambled in time to intercept incoming formations.

The Channel Battles: July 1940

On 10 July, the Luftwaffe began a series of attacks on convoy shipping in the English Channel and coastal targets, marking the opening phase of the Battle of Britain. This campaign would continue for the next month and became known as the Kanalkampf (“Channel Battles”). The primary objective was to disrupt Britain’s vital overseas supply routes while simultaneously drawing RAF fighters into combat, allowing the Luftwaffe to wear down Fighter Command before launching its main offensive. German bombers and dive-bombers, escorted by fighters, repeatedly targeted merchant vessels and their naval escorts operating in the Channel. Due to the close proximity of Luftwaffe airfields in occupied France, Fighter Command often had little warning of incoming raids and struggled to intercept every attack. As a result, RAF squadrons were forced to maintain standing patrols over convoy routes, placing considerable strain on both pilots and aircraft at a time when resources were limited. Although the Channel attacks did not seriously threaten Britain’s overall supply system, they inflicted heavy losses on coastal shipping and provided the Luftwaffe with valuable combat experience. Eventually, the number of ships sunk or damaged became so great that the Admiralty suspended all further daylight convoy traffic through the English Channel, forcing merchant shipping to take longer routes around Britain’s coasts.

Operation Eagle Attack

The all-out assault to destroy the RAF was codenamed Unternehmen Adlerangriff (“Operation Eagle Attack”) and would begin on Adlertag (“Eagle Day”). This was originally scheduled for 10 August, but bad weather forced a postponement. On 12 August, the Luftwaffe launched preliminary raids on radar stations and coastal airfields used as forward landing grounds by RAF fighters. The damage was limited, with only one radar station temporarily put out of action.

The Luftwaffe was finally given the order to launch Adlertag (“Eagle Day”) on 13 August, marking the beginning of Unternehmen Adlerangriff (“Operation Eagle Attack”), the all-out assault intended to destroy RAF Fighter Command. Throughout the day, German aircraft flew approximately 1,485 sorties against RAF airfields, ports, radar installations, and aircraft factories across southern England. Although considerable damage was inflicted, the operation fell short of its objectives. Poor weather, communication failures, and inaccurate intelligence led many Luftwaffe formations to attack targets that were either of secondary importance or mistakenly believed to be Fighter Command stations. As a result, the RAF’s command and control system remained largely intact, and British fighter defences continued to operate effectively. While approximately 15 RAF fighters were destroyed on the ground and in the air, the Luftwaffe suffered the loss of 39 aircraft. The events of Adlertag demonstrated that defeating Fighter Command would be far more difficult than German planners had anticipated.

The Greatest Day and the Hardest Day

On 15 August, the Luftwaffe attempted to overwhelm Fighter Command by mounting the largest number of sorties of the campaign, with all three Luftflotten deployed for the first time in a coordinated effort. German planners believed that RAF fighter strength in northern England and Scotland was weak and that attacks launched from Norway and Denmark would encounter only limited resistance. Instead, the raiders were met by determined opposition and suffered unexpectedly heavy losses. The day became known as the “Greatest Day” after the Luftwaffe lost 76 aircraft for the loss of 35 British aircraft, making it one of the most costly setbacks of the campaign. Despite this reverse, the Luftwaffe continued to intensify its attacks against RAF airfields, sector stations, and radar installations in an effort to destroy Fighter Command. The air battles reached their peak on 18 August, the “Hardest Day,” when both sides suffered their heaviest losses of the entire battle. Although the Luftwaffe inflicted significant damage on several airfields, it failed to achieve a decisive breakthrough, while Fighter Command continued to contest control of the skies over southern England.

The Critical Phase: Attacks on Fighter Command

The pressure on Fighter Command increased dramatically between 24 August and 6 September, when the Luftwaffe concentrated its attacks on the airfields, sector stations, and supporting infrastructure of No. 11 Group, the formation responsible for defending south-east England and London. This period would later become known as the critical phase of the Battle of Britain. Repeated bombing raids caused significant damage to key sector stations, disrupted communications, and temporarily reduced the effectiveness of fighter operations. The sustained attacks forced Fighter Command to adopt emergency measures to keep the system functioning. Many RAF pilots were flying several sorties a day and were stretched to the limits of their physical and mental endurance, while pilot losses increasingly exceeded the output of the training schools. Ground crews also suffered heavy casualties, and numerous hangars, workshops, and maintenance facilities were destroyed or damaged. Despite the growing strain, the integrated air defence system devised by Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding continued to function, allowing RAF fighters to remain in the battle and inflict heavy losses on the Luftwaffe. By early September, Fighter Command was under severe pressure, but it had not been defeated.

The Blitz Begins

The battle took an unexpected turn on the night of 24/25 August, when German bombers mistakenly dropped bombs on the city of London. Believing this to be a deliberate attack, Churchill immediately ordered RAF Bomber Command to launch reprisal raids on Berlin the following night. Hitler was outraged and, on 5 September, ordered the Luftwaffe to concentrate its attacks on London and other major British cities. German intelligence believed that Fighter Command was on the verge of collapse and that an attack on the capital would draw the last remaining fighters into a decisive battle. In reality, British fighter production – under the direction of Lord Beaverbrook – had continued to rise and kept pace with losses. The shortage of trained pilots was also alleviated by transfers from other service branches and the activation of Polish, Czech, and Canadian squadrons. On 7 September, nearly 400 German bombers targeted the docks in the East End of London, killing 430 civilians and injuring 1,600. This marked the beginning of 57 consecutive nights of bombing, the opening phase of what became known as the Blitz. Initially, the British were caught off guard, but the shift in strategy gave Fighter Command a critical respite to regroup and repair its most badly damaged airfields.

Battle of Britain Day

On 15 September, now commemorated as Battle of Britain Day, the Luftwaffe launched its largest and most concentrated daylight assault on London, hoping to force a final, decisive confrontation that would destroy Fighter Command once and for all. Throughout the day, large formations of German bombers and fighters crossed the English Channel and were met by determined RAF opposition. Guided by the Dowding System, British fighters intercepted the raids repeatedly, breaking up bomber formations before they could reach their targets. The Luftwaffe suffered some of its heaviest losses of the month, while Fighter Command demonstrated that it remained an effective and resilient fighting force. The day’s events convinced German leaders that the RAF was far from collapse and that the Luftwaffe was unlikely to achieve the air superiority required for Operation Sea Lion, the planned invasion of Britain. Two days later, Hitler postponed the invasion indefinitely. Although daylight air battles continued into October, the Luftwaffe increasingly shifted its efforts toward night bombing raids against British cities in an attempt to reduce its mounting losses and continue the war against Britain by other means.

Legacy of the Battle of Britain

The failure of the Luftwaffe to destroy the RAF is widely regarded as the first major German defeat of the Second World War and marked a significant turning point in the conflict. By preventing the Luftwaffe from gaining air superiority, Fighter Command removed any realistic prospect of a German invasion of Britain. The victory ensured that Britain remained in the war as a base from which the Allies could continue the fight against Nazi Germany. Over the following years, Britain became the centre of Allied military operations in Western Europe, culminating in the D-Day landings of June 1944 and the eventual liberation of the continent. The RAF airmen who defended Britain’s skies during those critical months were immortalised by Winston Churchill with the words:

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

Frequently Asked Questions

When did the Battle of Britain take place?

The Battle of Britain was fought between 10 July and 31 October 1940. During this period, the German Luftwaffe attempted to gain air superiority over southern England and the English Channel in preparation for a planned invasion of Britain.

Why was the Battle of Britain fought?

Following the defeat of France in June 1940, Germany planned to invade Britain under Operation Sea Lion. Before an invasion could take place, the Luftwaffe needed to destroy RAF Fighter Command and gain control of the skies over southern England.

Who won the Battle of Britain?

The Battle of Britain was a British victory. RAF Fighter Command successfully prevented the Luftwaffe from achieving air superiority, forcing Adolf Hitler to postpone and eventually abandon plans to invade Britain.

Why was the Battle of Britain important?

The Battle of Britain was the first major German defeat of the Second World War. It ensured that Britain remained in the war and later became the base from which the Allies launched the liberation of Western Europe, including the D-Day landings in June 1944.

Who commanded RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain?

RAF Fighter Command was commanded by Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding. His integrated air defence system, combining radar, ground observers, and centralized fighter control, played a crucial role in Britain’s victory.

What was the Dowding System?

The Dowding System was an integrated air defence network developed before the war. It combined Chain Home radar stations, the Observer Corps, filter rooms, operations rooms, and fighter squadrons into a single coordinated system that allowed RAF fighters to intercept enemy raids efficiently.

What was Chain Home radar?

Chain Home was Britain’s early-warning radar network. Stations along the coast detected incoming German aircraft and provided Fighter Command with valuable time to scramble fighters and direct them towards enemy formations.

What was Operation Sea Lion?

Operation Sea Lion (Unternehmen Seelöwe) was Germany’s planned invasion of Britain in 1940. The operation depended on the Luftwaffe first gaining air superiority over southern England, something it ultimately failed to achieve.

How many aircraft were lost during the Battle of Britain?

The RAF lost approximately 1,012 aircraft during the battle, while the Luftwaffe lost around 1,918 aircraft. These figures include fighters, bombers, and other operational aircraft.

How many airmen were killed during the Battle of Britain?

RAF Fighter Command lost approximately 537 airmen, while Luftwaffe losses amounted to around 2,662 aircrew killed, wounded, captured, or missing during the campaign.

What was Battle of Britain Day?

Battle of Britain Day is commemorated on 15 September 1940. On that day, the Luftwaffe launched a major assault on London but suffered heavy losses. The battle demonstrated that Fighter Command remained capable of defending Britain and is widely regarded as the turning point of the campaign.

What aircraft fought in the Battle of Britain?

The RAF’s principal fighters were the Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane. The Luftwaffe relied primarily on the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter, Messerschmitt Bf 110 heavy fighter, Heinkel He 111, Dornier Do 17, Junkers Ju 88 bombers, and the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bomber.

Why did Germany lose the Battle of Britain?

Germany failed to destroy RAF Fighter Command or gain air superiority over southern England. British advantages included the Dowding System, Chain Home radar, effective fighter production, resilient airfield infrastructure, and the Luftwaffe’s decision to shift attacks from RAF airfields to London during the critical phase of the battle.