Winston Churchill and the Battle of Britain

One of the most important battles ever fought took place in the skies over southern England in the summer and autumn of 1940. After the successful Blitzkrieg invasion of much of western Europe, the fall of France, and the forced evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk in early June 1940, the next step in Hitler’s grand plan was the conquest of Britain.

And to make that happen, Hitler knew that he must first control the skies. So he sent the combat-experienced Luftwaffe, the German Air Force, to the skies of Britain. The air battle pitted the powerful German Luftwaffe against the British Royal Air Force in a duel for air supremacy over southern England, a vital preparation for the planned Nazi land invasion. This fight for control of the skies was called the Battle of Britain and raged from July to the end of October 1940. The Luftwaffe was the largest air force in the world at that time, and it expected to defeat and subdue the RAF quickly, but Hitler hadn’t counted on the determination and fighting spirit of the British nation and its forces.