The Battle of Britain begins as the German Luftwaffe targets British airspace

Following the capitulation of France, Adolf Hitler ordered Operation Sea Lion, the planned amphibious invasion of Great Britain. To make a cross-Channel invasion viable, the Luftwaffe, commanded by Hermann Göring, launched an intensive aerial campaign on July 10, 1940, to destroy the Royal Air Force (RAF) Fighter Command and secure air superiority over southern England.

The conflict pitted German bombers and Messerschmitt fighters against RAF Spitfires and Hurricanes coordinated by Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding's revolutionary Dowding System. This early-warning network integrated radar technology with observer posts to vector fighters efficiently to incoming raids. When the Luftwaffe shifted targets in September from airfields to bombing London and other cities in the Blitz, RAF airfield infrastructure was granted vital relief to recover.

By late October 1940, suffering unsustainable aircraft losses, Germany postponed Operation Sea Lion indefinitely. The battle marked the first major military defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

Why it matters

The Battle of Britain was the first major battle fought entirely in the air. By frustrating Germany's conquest of the British Isles, it preserved Great Britain as an independent Allied bastion, which eventually served as the necessary staging ground for the liberation of Western Europe in 1944.

Interesting fact

Over 20 percent of Fighter Command pilots who flew in the Battle of Britain were from overseas, including airmen from Poland, New Zealand, Canada, Czechoslovakia, and South Africa.