Battle of Britain Day
Battle of Britain Day is the day on which a large-scale aerial battle in the Battle of Britain took place.
On Sunday 15 September 1940, the Luftwaffe launched its largest and most concentrated attack against London in the hope of drawing out the RAF into a battle of annihilation. Around 1,500 aircraft took part in the air battles, which lasted until dusk. The action was the climax of the Battle of Britain.
RAF Fighter Command defeated the German raids; the Luftwaffe formations were dispersed by a large cloud base and failed to inflict severe damage on the city of London. In the aftermath of the raid, Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion. Having been defeated in daylight, the Luftwaffe turned its attention to the Blitz night campaign, which lasted until May 1941.
Background
In June 1940, the Wehrmacht had conquered most of Western Europe and Scandinavia. At that time, the only major power standing in the way of a German-dominated Europe was the British Empire and the Commonwealth. After having several peace offers rejected by the UK, Adolf Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to destroy the RAF in order to gain air superiority or air supremacy as a prelude to launching Operation Sea Lion, an amphibious assault by the Wehrmacht onto the British mainland.The Battle of Britain began on 10 July 1940, when the first Luftwaffe bomber fleets began attacking convoys and Royal Navy forces in English ports and the Channel. The results were positive and the Germans succeeded in forcing the British to abandon the channel convoy route and to redirect shipping to ports in north-eastern Britain. With this achieved the Luftwaffe began the second phase of its air offensive, attacking RAF airfields and supporting structures on the British mainland. The codename of the offensive was Unternehmen Adlerangriff. On 12 August, it flew its first missions in this regard. On 13 August, the Luftwaffe carried out its largest attack to date on the mainland. Christened Adlertag , the attack was a failure. Nevertheless, the raids continued, at great cost to both sides. The impact of the German offensive on RAF airfields and Fighter Command is disputed. Some historians believe that the attacks were not having much effect and that the Germans were losing the attrition battle, while others believe the RAF was faltering.
Either way, Hitler was dissatisfied with the lack of progress being made. Prompted by an RAF raid on Berlin in late August 1940, he ordered the Luftwaffe to concentrate its attacks upon London. It was thought the move would draw RAF Fighter Command up into a large, decisive battle. Initially, the change in strategy caught the British off-guard. The first daylight attack of this type occurred on 7 September and caused extensive damage and civilian casualties. Some of shipping was damaged in the Thames Estuary and 1,600 civilians were killed or injured. Still, Hitler was critical of the Luftwaffe and its failure to destroy Fighter Command quickly. He dismissed over-optimistic reports from the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe, particularly the Chief of the Luftwaffe general staff Hans Jeschonnek, who asserted the RAF was on its last legs. Confident the RAF was nearly defeated, Jeschonnek requested terror bombing to be enacted as a final blow. Hitler refused, and only allowed attacks on industry, communications and public utility targets.
Over the next few days, bad weather prevented more large attacks. On 9 and 11 September, only smaller raids were carried out. The respite gave Hugh Dowding, AOC Fighter Command, the chance to prepare and reinforce his forces. The British, possibly through the use of Ultra intelligence, recognised the German change in strategy and duly prepared for further attacks on the capital. Ultra's contribution to the preparations for 15 September is disputed, as intelligence from Ultra at this stage in the war tended to be fragmented, and as the Germans launched attacks whenever there was clear weather, it would not have been difficult for RAF Fighter Command to have predicted an attack on 15 September, which was to be a clear day.
German strategy
On the afternoon of 14 September, Hitler and his command held a conference at the Reich Chancellery in Berlin to discuss the future direction of the war. Göring was not present; he was inspecting Luftwaffe units in Belgium. Erhard Milch replaced him. Hitler praised the attacks which had caused heavy damage to the RAF and London. He blamed the failure to achieve more decisive results on the weather. Nevertheless, it was clear to Hitler that victory had still not been attained by the Luftwaffe. Under those circumstances, Operation Sea Lion could not take place. Großadmiral Erich Raeder, commander-in-chief of the Kriegsmarine, agreed. He argued that Sea Lion should only be carried out as a last resort regardless of gaining air superiority.Hitler wanted to maintain the threat of invasion by continuing air attacks on military targets in the British capital. Hans Jeschonnek still pushed for attacks on civilian morale. He argued that military and civilian industries were located too far apart to achieve a collapse of morale by attacking the former. Instead, he pressed for attacks against residential areas. Hitler refused. He ordered that only military targets in London were to be attacked.
The Luftwaffe intimated that a period of good weather was now due over France, Belgium and southern Britain. They prepared for an attack along the lines set by Hitler. Staff officers of cat=no 2 based in Brussels began planning for a two-pronged offensive on 15 September.
The targets were purely military. The first target selected was the Battersea railway station on the West London Extension Railway in Battersea district. The tracks were 12 abreast in some places and linked London to the heavy industries of the West Midlands and other industrial cities on the north and south-east of Britain. The conglomeration of lines included rail-over-rail bridges which were vulnerable to air attack. This was what air planners referred to as "choke points", which if cut could erode enemy communication efficiency.
The second target, for the larger second attack during the afternoon would be the dock areas of the Thames Estuary including the warehouse of the East End of London, Surrey Commercial Docks, south of the river, and Royal Docks.
Hitler was satisfied. The reasoning of the Luftwaffe seemed sound. Should the bombing achieve its aim, it offered considerable strategic value. The strike against London meant that most of the fighting on 15 September would take place between Luftflotte 2 under Albert Kesselring and Keith Park's No. 11 Group RAF.
Intelligence
The strategy could only be valid if intelligence assessments were correct. To German intelligence, it seemed as if the RAF might be on the verge of collapse. The attacks on London, thus far, seemed to confirm the assumption. None of the Luftwaffe bomber formations had encountered the well organised, effective and ferocious defence that had characterised the battles in August 1940. If the German intelligence was correct, then by striking against vital choke points in London that the RAF would be forced to defend, the Luftwaffe had the opportunity to destroy the remaining RAF fighter forces. Not only would the attacks allow for the attainment of air superiority, they would eliminate a vital rail network, destroy shipping and supplies brought in from North America, and affect civilian morale by demonstrating London's vulnerability to air power.The policy of attacking London after the successful 7 September raid quickly became counter-productive, and in this matter the Luftwaffe suffered from serious misjudgement resulting from their intelligence service. The crews had been told the RAF was down to its last reserves and that one more assault would clinch victory. This was incorrect, which meant bomber crews would be in for a shock on 15 September. The RAF had been given much needed rest after intense operations by the shift in German strategy. British radar, having been virtually untouched, was still able to follow the slow German build-ups over France long before the first German aircraft reached British airspace. It would give the rested Fighter Command units plenty of warning. Moreover, by choosing to attack London, it exposed the bombers to greater danger by forcing them to fly greater distances in hostile air space. German crews would be forced to fight all the way to London and back. As it happened, all the German bomber units were at least intercepted on 15 September, and were then scattered as they withdrew.
British strategy
and Squadron Leader Douglas Bader came to play significant roles in the September fighting. Bader commanded 242 Squadron flying Hurricanes in Leigh-Mallory's 12 Group, which defended the vital industrial targets in the West Midlands. A source of frustration to Leigh-Mallory was the way in which his squadrons were used. During Luftwaffe attacks on south-east England 12 Group units were tasked with protecting 11 Group sector stations north of the Thames Estuary, while Leigh-Mallory believed his units should be in action south of the Thames. Mallory also criticised the way Park and Dowding were conducting the battle. The popular image of outnumbered Spitfires and Hurricanes meeting an enemy with huge numerical strength preyed upon his mind. He favoured a reverse of the image.Bader was bored and frustrated at being left out of the major actions in the south. To Bader, it did not make sense for 12 Group to apparently sit idle while 11 Group suffered heavy losses and fought at a numerical disadvantage. Bader advocated scrambling 12 Group fighters as soon as German aircraft were detected forming up over France or Belgium. He asserted 12 Group was quick enough to reach over the Thames Estuary before the enemy reached the area. He planned to use large forces to engage the enemy. Should this succeed, 11 Group, following up attacks, might have found broken enemy formations whose crews had lost the determination to press on to their targets. Bader implied that this might reduce the losses of fighter pilots in 11 Group. After the war, Bader insisted that both he and Leigh-Mallory wanted the Big Wing tactic enacted in 12 Group only. They both believed, according to Bader, that it was impractical to use 11 Group as the command was located too close to the enemy and would not have enough time to assemble.
Dowding saw 12 Group as the protector of the Midlands and a reserve for 11 Group. Mallory and Bader wanted to ignore both the defence of the Midlands and keeping a reserve in order to commit 12 Group to battle. In essence, they proposed the opposite of Dowding and resolved to commit the reserves before the front-line units. While this method might have spared 11 Group, it had its problems. Although Mallory and Bader wanted to stop the enemy before it hit RAF airfields, the amount of time it took to position large formations for interception meant that the Big Wing often failed to achieve this. Instead, they engaged the enemy as he withdrew. Prompted by a supporting comment from Leigh-Mallory, to the effect that it did not matter when an interception was made, as long as it accounted for a large number of enemy aircraft, Bader announced that he would rather destroy 50 German bombers after hitting their targets than 10 before. The argument was strong; crippling losses would act as a deterrent, so that damage sustained on an occasion when the Germans did get through would have to be offset against later occasions when they did not even care to try.
The counter-arguments were much stronger. The assumption that the Germans would be put off by losses was wrong; it would have taken severe losses for the OKL to change its mind on target selection. The targets were also vital. The airfields themselves supported the squadrons in the field, while the loss of the vital sector-stations could well have crippled the defence system. Thus the possibility of allowing the bulk of the German bombers to reach their target unscathed was unacceptable. The idea that the Big Wing could inflict heavier losses than had been achieved up until then was based on an overestimate of the numbers of aircraft shot down by the Big Wing. Leigh-Mallory and Bader, together with their supporter Sholto Douglas, the deputy Chief of Air Staff, had based their opinions on claims made by RAF units in battle. However, particularly when a large number of aircraft were engaged, it was possible for the same aircraft to be claimed by more than one pilot. As a result, the RAF claimed 100 or more German aircraft shot down in one day on five occasions, while analysis of Luftwaffe losses has shown that there were only four occasions on which the Luftwaffe lost more than 50 aircraft, and never did they lose 100 or more in a day. Nevertheless, while it is not known whether Mallory and Bader were aware that the claims of the RAF and Big Wings were exaggerated, they certainly tried to use them as a potent tool with which to remove Park and Dowding from command and pursue the Big Wing tactic.