Why Did Britain Win the Battle of Britain?

The Battle of Britain was an air battle between the German Luftwaffe and the British RAF. It took place in August 1940 in the South of Britain. Germany set about conquering the whole of Europe, from Belgium, eventually through to Britain. Germany managed to conquer Belgium, Holland and France with the new Blitzkrieg tactic, which involved non-stop bombing, then Para-troopers and tanks went in, supported by the Luftwaffe. This tactic worked well as it was quick and precise. However, this tactic could only work if tanks and troops could be deployed, so would not work on islands, such as Britain. I think that the main reason for Britain winning the battle of Britain was that RAF and its pilots.

I think this because the battle of Britain was an air battle. No actual fighting took place on British Soil. The pilots of the RAF had a huge job of protecting themselves and the British population, in the towns and cities. The British pilots were always stationed on the airfields in small scramble huts, these were huts which housed pilots, to keep them close to their aircraft and always ready in case the signal to ‘scramble’ came. Their task was to stop the bombing raids that came repeatedly, over from France, Holland and Germany. However, the RAF also had to face the bomber escorts, the Messerschmitt ME109. The RAF’s Spitfire was an easy match for the ME109 as it was faster and alot more manoeuvrable, but the Hurricane was slower, but could sustain more damage than the spitfire. The Luftwaffe’s first escort tactic was to fly high above the bombers, and when the RAF came to attack the bombers, the ME109’s would dive down using speed and surprise. The Luftwaffe first set about bombing Britain’s shipping ports, to try and starve Britain of essential supplies (a similar technique was used at the end of WW1 against Germany). However, when this did not make much difference, they changed tactics to bomb the air fields. But before they could do so, the Radar stations needed to be destroyed. This part of the plan failed as 3 out of 4 stations were fixed. Ignoring this setback Goering then went on with ‘The Attack Of The Eagles’ which was to repeatedly bomb the RAF airfields, factories and supply lines. This did not completely ruin the RAF, as the whole operation was controlled by a central Flight Command, which then sent the signal to different sub-stations, which then passed them on to the other air fields. However, these repeated waves of attacks made the Pilots completely exhausted, where they would not be able to fly because of exhaustion. The limited time between waves also meant that some aircraft could not be refuelled or rearmed properly, so the pilots would each have enough ammo for only about 15 seconds of continuous firing. Also, with experienced Pilots being shot down, less experienced Pilots had to be drafted in, the Pilot training course went from 6 months to only 2 weeks.