The Battle BeginsThe battle of Britain officially began in mid-July. 1940; although, Germany's first attack on the country was on July 10, 1940 (History Class, 2011). When Germany started their attack, they mainly focused on destroying the trade route established in the English channel by demolishing nearby coastal towns, docks, and defenses. This constant bombardment on coastal villages went on for about a month, until August 12, 1940 when Adolf Hitler decided to take-out the RAF (British Air-Force) by bombing airfields and radar bases through-out Southern England (Wikipedia, 2011). After about one week, Hitler was starting to realize the strength of the British Empire and called upon his top Generals to discuss a new strategy. They developed something called the "Blitz", which was a strategy of fast warfare that took place primarily at nightfall and in the early morning. Using this new strategy, the Luftwaffe (German Air-Force) bombed Britain 76 consecutive nights resulting in over 1 million homes destroyed and over 40,000 civilians killed; half of which were Londoners (Wikipedia, 2011).
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British Soldier scouting the skies for incoming bombers.
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The Brown area represents Hitlers empire. Yellow is whats left.
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The Strategic & Tactical SituationWhen March of 1940 came around, Adolf Hitler had already conquered most of the European continent and was hoping that-by this time- Britain would simply just give in; however, this did not happen as the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had already declared war on Germany (History Class, 2011). Hitler set the attack date to July 16, 1940, on which he would first take full control of British airspace. Germany was, however, faced with a small problem: they lost over 500 pilots in the take-over of France. Hitler needed to make the odds a little more even and Dunkirk presented the perfect opportunity to do so (Wikipedia, 2011).
Invasion PostponedDue to the unsuccessful task of conquering the British airspace, Hitler moved his focus to the Soviet Union on September 17 and therefore postponed his arranged invasion on Britain. This decision is looked upon as Hitlers major downfall (History Class, 2011).
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