Everyone with an interest in history already knows the basics of the Battle of Britain in 1940. That is, they SHOULD know them but evidently many don't. I hate to clutter up a review with figures but the results of this recent poll are astounding. From The Daily Mail:
"Adolf Hitler was Germany's football team manager, according to youngsters aged nine to 15. A study of 2,000 children which tested them on their knowledge of facts of both world wars found that 40 per cent of them did not know that Remembrance Day falls on November 11.
Some of the more disturbing results were that one in six children believed Auschwitz was a World War Two theme park. Only half knew D-Day was the invasion of Normandy - a quarter believing it was 'Dooms Day' and one quarter thought a nuclear bomb was dropped on Pearl Harbour which spurred America's involvement." This episode of a well-done documentary series will be more informative for some of us than for others.
Essentially, in 1940, Germany had occupied most of Western Europe, leaving only Britain to fight on alone. In order to mount an invasion of England, Hitler had to have air superiority. The Luftwaffe first bombed the coastal radar stations, and then the RAF bases themselves.
The Luftwaffe outnumbered the RAF but mostly in bombers, which were slow and underarmed and easy prey for British Hurricanes. The fighter escort was more often engaged by the Spitfire, a roughly even technical match.
The German pilots were experienced and used better tactics but their time over the target was limited to about twenty minutes of combat, leaving the bombers to slog their way to the target alone. (The USAF faced virtually the same problem over Europe in 1943.) The loss rate was about two to one in favor of the Brits, but they'd been caught less prepared for war than the Germans and lost enough pilots that they brought in flyers with less training.
One of the survivors tells us that he'd had only twenty hours of flying time in the Hurricane before seeing combat, and a friend of his was so raw that he attacked a German bomber again and again while pressing the firing button, not realizing that his safety was on. "My, they're silent, these guns." I don't know if I believe that tale or not. Maybe.
What may have contributed as much as anything else to Hitler's calling off the invasion, began as a mistake. A German bomber pilot accidentally released his bombs over London. The RAF launched a retaliatory raid over Berlin, enraging Hitler, who decided at that point that the city of London should be the main target. Thus began the Blitz. The damage to the city was considerable. Fifteen years after the war's end, I still saw whole blocks of charred warehouses by the river. But what hurt London saved the RAF because the air fields were no longer molested.
Hitler never did invade Britain. He never even solidified any plans for doing so. Nobody knows why he was as half-hearted about it as he was. For Hitler, the war was always in large part personal. Maybe he hoped that Britain would simply sue for peace so that he could get on with his war against his real enemy, the hated Communists.
Now, kids, I'm afraid you must watch this documentary all the way through. If you don't, you must stand in the corner for twenty-four hours.
"Adolf Hitler was Germany's football team manager, according to youngsters aged nine to 15. A study of 2,000 children which tested them on their knowledge of facts of both world wars found that 40 per cent of them did not know that Remembrance Day falls on November 11.
Some of the more disturbing results were that one in six children believed Auschwitz was a World War Two theme park. Only half knew D-Day was the invasion of Normandy - a quarter believing it was 'Dooms Day' and one quarter thought a nuclear bomb was dropped on Pearl Harbour which spurred America's involvement." This episode of a well-done documentary series will be more informative for some of us than for others.
Essentially, in 1940, Germany had occupied most of Western Europe, leaving only Britain to fight on alone. In order to mount an invasion of England, Hitler had to have air superiority. The Luftwaffe first bombed the coastal radar stations, and then the RAF bases themselves.
The Luftwaffe outnumbered the RAF but mostly in bombers, which were slow and underarmed and easy prey for British Hurricanes. The fighter escort was more often engaged by the Spitfire, a roughly even technical match.
The German pilots were experienced and used better tactics but their time over the target was limited to about twenty minutes of combat, leaving the bombers to slog their way to the target alone. (The USAF faced virtually the same problem over Europe in 1943.) The loss rate was about two to one in favor of the Brits, but they'd been caught less prepared for war than the Germans and lost enough pilots that they brought in flyers with less training.
One of the survivors tells us that he'd had only twenty hours of flying time in the Hurricane before seeing combat, and a friend of his was so raw that he attacked a German bomber again and again while pressing the firing button, not realizing that his safety was on. "My, they're silent, these guns." I don't know if I believe that tale or not. Maybe.
What may have contributed as much as anything else to Hitler's calling off the invasion, began as a mistake. A German bomber pilot accidentally released his bombs over London. The RAF launched a retaliatory raid over Berlin, enraging Hitler, who decided at that point that the city of London should be the main target. Thus began the Blitz. The damage to the city was considerable. Fifteen years after the war's end, I still saw whole blocks of charred warehouses by the river. But what hurt London saved the RAF because the air fields were no longer molested.
Hitler never did invade Britain. He never even solidified any plans for doing so. Nobody knows why he was as half-hearted about it as he was. For Hitler, the war was always in large part personal. Maybe he hoped that Britain would simply sue for peace so that he could get on with his war against his real enemy, the hated Communists.
Now, kids, I'm afraid you must watch this documentary all the way through. If you don't, you must stand in the corner for twenty-four hours.
