In the summer of 1940 the skies above southern England became a battlefield.
The Battle of Britain is on Göring is pouring his air force across in waves to try and break our spirit.
For three long months the Luftwaffe and the RAF went toe to toe in a battle for air supremacy with Britain's survival the last hope for occupied Europe. Pilots sat at the controls of aircraft that would become legends of aviation history on both sides. So today we're gonna take a look at 8 iconic aircraft of the Battle of Britain, we're not gonna rank them, but you can in the comments below.
Let's start with something obvious the Spitfire. The brainchild of Reginald Mitchell, the Spitfire entered service in August 1938, but it became an icon. The first Spitfires were delivered to no. 19 squadron at what is now an IWM site at RAF Duxford. An all-metal airframe
made the Spitfire light and strong, it was fast too and responsive. Crucially though it was a good match for the Luftwaffe's Messerschmitt BF 109, which we'll come to a bit later on. By September 1940 Spitfires were in service with 18 RAF squadrons and over the course of the Battle of Britain they shot down a total of 529 enemy aircraft for the loss of just 230 of their own. But despite the Spitfire's reputation, that doesn't make it the most successful RAF fighter in the Battle of Britain.
That crown belongs to the Hurricane. Where the spitfire was pace and elegance the hurricane was rugged, tough and steady. Its design, a wood and metal framework with the back covered in fabric, was actually a relic of previous biplanes and was pretty out of date when the battle started. But its old-fashioned design made it far easier to maintain and repair than the Spitfire. Where possible Hurricanes were directed against German bombers, leaving the Spitfires to deal with the fighter escorts. By September 1940, 33 squadrons were equipped with Hurricanes making it the most numerous aircraft in RAF fighter command. The Hurricane accounted for 656 German aircraft during the Battle of Britain making it by far the RAF's most successful fighter.
Together, the Hurricane and the Spitfire were the twin bastions of RAF fighter command's defense in 1940. Jeffrey Page was one of the few pilots to fly both aircraft, so who better to sum up the difference between them?
Jeffrey Page: "I tend to give an example of the bulldog and the greyhound, the Hurricane being the bulldog and the greyhound being the Spitfire. One is a tough, working animal and the other one's a sleek fast dog, but I think their characteristics were comparable to the dog world."
At the opposite end of the spectrum was the Bolton Paul Defiant, a two-seat fighter with a four-gun power-operated turret. Sluggish, outmoded and with no forward-firing armament, the Defiant proved highly vulnerable to enemy fighters during battles over Dunkirk in France. In July and August 1940, fighter command rashly sent two Defiant squadrons into action. The result was catastrophic, an aerial massacre and guaranteed that the Defiant would play no further role as a day fighter in the Battle of Britain. But
what about the opposing side?
In 1940, the Messerschmitt BF 109 was arguably the best fighter in the world. Designed as an ambush predator to attack from height, the BF 109 had even the spitfire for diving and altitude. But its range was limited, it couldn't get much further than London and it had only about seven seconds worth of cannon ammunition. At the start of the Battle of Britain the Luftwaffe had 1,100 109s, by the end, some 650 had been lost.
The Messerschmitt BF 110 was a two-seater, long-range heavy escort fighter or Zerstörer- destroyer. They were fast and well-armed, but they lacked manoeuvrability, a key weakness against those nimble fighters of RAF fighter command. The Bf-110 turned out to be more effective flying low-level attacks against factories and airfields, but the Germans failed to see this potential and only ever trained one Luftwaffe unit in this dual fighter bomber role.
Speaking of bombers, the skies weren't the only hunting grounds for the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. they also needed to destroy fighter command's operations on the ground and for that they needed to send bombers. But the Luftwaffe's bomber force in 1940 was a bit of a mixed bag.
First up the Heinkel HE 111. It was designed in the mid-1930s, but it was obsolescent by the time of the Battle of Britain. It was slow, poorly armed and its bomb-load was insufficient for a strategic bombing campaign. It was acutely vulnerable then to RAF fighters,
but structurally it was seriously tough. The Heinkel could soak up huge amounts of punishment dished out by RAF fighters and would often return to base riddled with hundreds of bullet holes.
Next up the Junkers JU 88 which was probably Germany's most modern bomber in 1940. Originally designed as a fast medium bomber, its design suffered from interference from above. Ernst Udet, deputy to the Luftwaffe head Hermann Göring, demanded that the JU 88 be capable of dive-bombing. But this extra weight reduced the aircraft's performance. It was vulnerable then to RAF fighters during the Battle of Britain, but matured over the course of the war into one of the Luftwaffe's most versatile aircraft.
And finally the Junkers JU 87, the Stuka. Designed to deliver pinpoint bombing attacks in a near-vertical dive, the Stuka achieved much notoriety during the blitzkrieg victoriesof 1939 and 1940. But while in Poland and France the Luftwaffe had had air superiority, the skies over Britain were a different story. After a few initial successes, the Stuka suffered heavily against RAF fighters. On their worst day, the 18th of august 1940, 12 JU 87s were shot down and many more were damaged or written off. Such heavy losses then meant the Stuka was gradually withdrawn over the course of the battle.
So there you have it, that's 8 iconic aircraft from the Battle of Britain. Let us know your ranking or if we missed any aircraft that you love in the comments below.
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