The important radar station at Ventnor on the Isle of Wight was one of the German attack targets. It was attacked by the Germans and lost its combat effectiveness.
The weather conditions were so bad that the large-scale air raid originally planned by the German army was cancelled, and only some air force squadrons took to the air. It was not until the 15th that three German air fleets launched attacks at the same time. That afternoon, the number of aircraft raids on Britain reached 2,000.
The 5th Air Force took off 169 bombers from Aalborg, Denmark and Stavanger, Norway, to bomb Scotland and northeastern England. Since the distance of this operation exceeded the combat radius of single-seat fighter jets, the Germans
The twin-engine "Messerschmitt" BF110 fighter escorted the bomber. However, the BF110 fighter was no match for the "Spitfire" and "Hurricane" fighters and could not complete the escort mission. In the 12th and 12th British Army
Under the attack of the 13th Air Force, the German bombers suffered heavy losses. 16 bombers and 7 BF110 fighters were shot down. Since there were not enough fighter escorts, the 5th Air Force of the Luftwaffe rarely participated in the "Battle of Britain" again.
Throughout the afternoon of August 15, 100 and 150 aircraft of the 2nd and 3rd Luftwaffe of the Luftwaffe had been constantly crossing the English Channel to attack Britain. If the Luftwaffe pilots did not know that they were in a fierce battle,
Well, the events of "Black Thursday" convinced them of this. On that day, Britain lost 34 fighter jets, while Germany lost 75. Throughout the air battle, both the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe overestimated their respective victories -
This is also understandable. In an aerial dogfight, if two pilots hit an aircraft at the same time, they may both claim to have "shot down" an enemy aircraft. The huge number of enemy casualties will undoubtedly boost morale, but it is not the basis for formulating the plan.
The basis for sound planning.
Likewise, the effects of the bombing of airfields, which were spectacular from aerial photographs, were often overstated. Luftwaffe planners accepted the intelligence but believed that the actual losses suffered by the RAF were greater.
Germany believed that the RAF had only 300 fighters left on the front line, so the Luftwaffe commanders decided to use all their strength to destroy the British fighter aviation in one fell swoop.
The Germans flew a small group of bombers to Britain in an attempt to use them as bait to lure Royal Air Force fighters to attack. As Spitfires, Hurricanes and BF109s competed in the air throughout the summer, more bombers took the opportunity to attack
Attacks were carried out on important airfields such as Meren Hill, Holchurch, North Weald and West Malling. The Royal Air Force's losses began to climb. However, just when the German army was about to achieve its operational objectives, the German army turned its attack targets to British cities.
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Why did the Luftwaffe suddenly relax its pressure on the Royal Air Force? Perhaps it was because the German High Command believed that the main force of the Royal Air Force had been eliminated. Another theory is that the Royal Air Force's air raid on Berlin on August 25 angered Hitler and prompted Hitler to
A retaliatory decision was made.
In fact, the RAF air raid itself was nothing more than a retaliatory response to a stray Luftwaffe bomber that mistakenly dropped a bomb on London's East End. However, the air raid on Berlin was not an isolated incident: during the war
, the Royal Air Force has been conducting small-scale air raids on Germany. The largest one was on November 8, 1940, when the British army sent 169 twin-engine bombers to bomb Berlin, resulting in the loss of 21 aircraft. From a military perspective
, the British air raid had no effect. It was almost impossible to hit the target at night with the technology at the time. This air raid in November killed only 11 people.
Regardless of the reason, Germany's air raids on British cities began on September 7. First, London was bombed during the day. In this air raid, the German army dispatched 300 bombers and 600 escort fighters.
It was so successful that the entire London docks were in flames.
On September 15, the Luftwaffe did not carry out its usual disruptive attacks aimed at confusing the British radar and ground command systems, probably because it believed that the Royal Air Force had no combat effectiveness. However, the Royal Air Force was prepared.
The suspension of direct attacks on military airfields gave the Royal Air Force stationed in the south an opportunity to replenish its fighter strength. The air attack on London especially provided time guarantee for the fighters of the 11th Air Force to take off, allowing General Parker to take a two-squadron joint operation.
tactics, and General Leigh-Mallory's 12th Air Force even formed a larger flight formation. On September 15, the German Air Force encountered a large number of British fighter jets to intercept. By the end of the day, the German Air Force had lost 60 aircraft.
Aircraft. The total number of aircraft lost by the Luftwaffe since September 7th is 175, and all of these aircraft were shot down by the Royal Air Force, which the Germans believed to have been defeated!
The Luftwaffe began to switch to night attacks. As long as weather conditions permitted, at most it would dispatch more than 400 bombers to bomb London indiscriminately. This air attack lasted until mid-November. It was in sharp contrast to the relevant pre-war air attack theories.
What is surprising is that this kind of aerial attack, which the British people called "Blitzkrieg", did not cause panic among ordinary British people, nor did it destroy the country's fighting spirit. After entering the late winter, there was a pause in such attacks.
But it resumed after entering the New Year. In the offensive that lasted until the end of May, Luftwaffe bombers also carried out air raids on cities such as Liverpool, Birmingham, Plymouth and Bristol.
The "British Air War" was the first major setback suffered by the German army. Even when its strength was greatly weakened, the British people's firm stance against Hitler and the Nazis has never changed. It can be said that Britain was the final cause of Germany's defeat.
A major force that failed. However, the only way Britain could attack Germany at that time was through the air. Therefore, the Royal Air Force maintained night air raids on the German mainland.
The Royal Air Force's initial attack targets were important industrial and transportation facilities in Germany, but pilots found that precise navigation and precision bombing at night were almost impossible.
Therefore, the British army ordered bombers to bomb only towns. After-action reports from British pilots usually stated that German towns were on fire and caused great damage, but news reports from neutral countries from Germany painted a different picture.
In order to assess the effectiveness of the campaign, the British government asked War Cabinet Secretary Butt to carefully proofread more than 600 combat pictures and compare them with pilot reports and Bomber Command assessment reports.
The results of Bout's report were very different from those before. Many bombers did not find the correct targets at all, and some did not even find the correct towns.
On average, only one out of every three aircraft arrived within 8 kilometers of its intended target, and in the Ruhr industrial area, which is often shrouded in mist, only one in ten aircraft approached the target. On a moonless day
During night bombings, this ratio dropped to one-fifteenth.
These pitiful results cost the British 700 bombers destroyed and thousands of pilots killed or captured.
Obviously, the United Kingdom needed to take new measures. After Air Force Lieutenant General Arthur Harris was appointed commander of the Bomber Aviation Corps in 1942, the British army's bombing operations began to take a new turn, entering into active service a new high-power four-engine bomber.
It injected new vitality into the British bombing campaign.
Although aerial bombing was the only means by which Britain could directly attack the Third Reich, the British army was unusually active in the Mediterranean.
In the Mediterranean, the main threat to the British army came from the powerful Italian fleet. Mussolini declared war on Britain and France on June 10, 1940.
On July 9, the Italian fleet, which had completed the mission of escorting the supply fleet bound for Benghazi, encountered the British Mediterranean Fleet in the waters of Calabria on its way back to Italy, which was preparing to escort two fleets bound for Malta.
The two sides started a melee at 3 p.m., and the British battleship "Warspite" hit the Italian battleship "Caesar" from a distance of 23,700 meters. Among similar attacks, this can be said to be the longest distance in history.
The battle was evenly matched, and in the end no one was able to control the sea.
Two months later, on September 13, 1940, Italian troops under the command of Marshal Graziani invaded Egypt from Libya.
The Italian army engaged the British army with a tentative attack, and finally suspended the attack after occupying the fortification position near Sidi Burani, while the British army assembled at Port Matruh, about 121 kilometers east of the Italian army.
The Egyptian army was not involved in the conflict. Young nationalist officers, including Nazarene and Sadat, had secret contacts with Hitler in the hope that Germany could maintain Egypt's independence in the event of Britain's defeat.
When Britain and Italy were confronting each other in North Africa, the British Navy was also seeking to control the Mediterranean. On November 11, 1940, Admiral Cunningham led the Mediterranean Fleet to launch a surprise attack on the important Italian naval base of Taranto. The British Army 21
An old-fashioned "Sailfish" biplane took off from the aircraft carrier "Excellence" and attacked the Italian fleet with torpedoes and bombs. It sank or severely damaged 3 Italian battleships and 2 battleships at the cost of losing only 2 aircraft.
Cruiser. This attack established the Royal Navy's decisive superiority in the Mediterranean!
The German U-boat fleet roaming the depths of the Atlantic Ocean and constantly attacking British shipping vessels was the biggest threat to Britain's survival during World War II.
In 1939, Britain got half its food from overseas and imported two-thirds of the raw materials needed for its war industry. If the German navy could prevent these goods from flowing into Britain by attacking Allied merchant ships, Hitler might have won the war. However, like Napoleon,
Hitler also failed to appreciate the importance of sea power.
Hitler briefly stated his attitude towards the navy in 1936. "Navy," he said, "what do we need a navy for? I can't imagine that the success or failure of the European war will depend on a few warships."
However, as part of Germany's large-scale re-armament plan in the 1930s, Hitler still proposed the then-famous "Plan Z", which was to establish a large-scale modern surface and underwater fleet by 1944!