Air War: Battle of Britain, the Blitz, bombing of Germany Flashcards
(17 cards)
Britain after the fall of France
Britain was alone and under serious risk of invasion. Britain would provide the Third Reich with extensive assets:
- Vast colonial network
- Seaports
- Superior naval resources.
And Britain was too weak to launch an offensive, especially after Dunkirk. Therefore, secret precautions were made:
- Shipping gold and foreign exchange reserves to Canada
- Beaches were mined - impede invading forces such as aircraft, tanks.
- Civil defense arragements - such as paramilitary training.
- July 1940: French navy was bombed to prevent it falling into German hands - killing 1,500 French sailors.
Operation Sea Lion
Aim: invasion of Britain, after Churchill’s blunt refusal of Hitler’s demands to surrender. Though this contradicted Hitler’s lebensraum philosophy, Hitler demanded retaliation + strategic and material benefits.
* The English Channel needed to be controlled before any invasion of the mainland.
* For the trade and supply not only for WWII but to supply the Aryan race once Hitler had conquered Europe.
Phase 1
* Preliminary Luftwaffe attacks on coastal ports and shipping (10 July 1940) - 60 bombers were quickly met by 5 squadrons of Spitfires. This was unexpected, resulting in losses: 1B v. 10 G.
Phase 2
* Fuhrer Directive No.17: Luftwaffe began to target RAF Fighter Command and radar installations through southern England in prelude to invasion.
* German intelligence indicated these areas held the bulk of British airforce, at least half. Aimed to elimate B ability to create sorties. However, most airfields were repaired within 24 hours.
Phase 3
* 7 September 1940: Blitz begins. This was a tactical mistake, reducing pressure on RAF Fighter Command and exerting the Luftwaffe further.
Battle of Britain
10 July 1940 - 31 October 1940
The Luftwaffe outnumbers British air strength 3:1 - 2,550 to 750
Adlertag 13 Aug: Germans attack Fighter Command airfields and aircraft factories (1790) but are disrupted by bad weather.
* Results: 47 G. shot down, 13 B.
Black Thursday/The Greatest Day 15 Aug, most intense fighting: Yorkshire air raid - Germans attacking north now in an attempt to evade defensive system. However:
* 2000 sorties -> 75 German planes shot down
* Defense system had spread across the midlands to the North.
The Hardest Day 18 Aug: “So much owed by so many to so few” Churchill.
* Down: 69 Luftwafffe, 68 Fighter Command.
Battle of Britain Day
15 September 1940: clear weather, this is their final, extensive attack.
* The first battle in daylight, over London
First raid:
* 275 British planes meet 145 German Messerschmitts.
Second raid:
* Britain resupplies with 475 planes coming from southern airfields.
Results: 56 German shot down, 28 RAF.
* 17 Sep: Sea Lion called off. An aquatic invasion was impossible without air control, which they had lost.
* The Blitz continues.
Why did the RAF win the Battle of Britain?
Technological Advantages
- Dowding system - 50 radar installations covered the British east cost to the north, provifing early warning against approaching aircraftt.
- Spitfire and Hurricanes flew faster, manoeuvrability though less power than Messerschmitts. RAF flew close
Geographical Advantages
- Majority of fighting over Southern Britain: ability to resupply, repair and rescue. Any German pilots shot down were captured.
- Distance German planes flew: Britain had time to intercept and prepare a sortie. Also, German planes had limited flight time over targets.
- RAF pilots were very brave - long and close sorties.
- Britain produced more fighters on a 4:1 ratio - driven by desperation of an imminent German invasion, producing highly effective fighters throughout summer 1940
Strategic Differences
- Goerring disadvantaged by unreliable intelligence from Beppo Schmitt. E.g. Adlertag was reported a success although German bombers were no match to Britain defense system. Overconfidence would be damaging to further German sorties.
- Although implemented stealth tactics were effective, Goerring changed from stealth to saturation bombing. Cannot trust reports of success.
- This was at a time when the Fighter Command was near collapse from bombing of field and control stations - allowed recovery.
- Luftwaffe had disorganised higher ups - often operating independently from the rest of militariy.
Why did the Blitz begin?
24 August 1940: German night-time bombers aiming for RAF airfields drift off course and accidentally destroy several London homes, killing civilians.
25 August 1940: The RAF bombs Berlin in retaliation. Hitler is incensed and orders attacks on London and other major British cities.
7 September 1940: Blitz begins - to destroy morale and maintain pressure on Britain. This is the first time that the airwar is conducted in daylight, over populated cities. 400 German planes v. 21 British squadrons. Bombing would continue for 57 days.
Impact of the Blitz on Britan
Saturation bombing on major cities and industrial areas in the hope of destroying infrastructure, economy and morale of Britain to the point where the British would be forced to surrender.
- 55000 tons of bombs on Britain
- Over 40,000 civilians died and 2 million houses were destroyed (60% of London damaged)
- Major infrastructural damage to roads, dockyards and train lines, House of Commons was destroyed.
- Fires from bombing of molasses, flammable target, “second great fire of London.”
- Though tried to turn the people against Churchill, he managed use it to band the British together (“Keep calm and carry on”), and bolstered British pride and encouraged British civilians to fight back with even more strength.
The Blitz was ineffective as it only hurt cities and slightly industrial hubs allowing Britain to rebuild after Hitler stopped to prepare for invading the Soviet.
Conditions in the RAF/Luftwaffe
- Division between intense boredom and intense sorties.
- Psychological stress - from high-stakes stress (life, defending Britain) to sedentary down time - waiting, ancitipation.
- Intense recruitment campaigns - from Commonwealth (e.g. ANZACs) and Polish refugees. 1/5 were not British.
- Sorties are 5-12 hours long.
- A glamorous occupation.
- Able to socialise and meet family when not flying.
In comparison:
* Based in France
* Low morale from losing
* Had to complete paperwork, account for their losses and plan strategy in their downtime.
The Dowding System
Stuffy Dowding, Cammander in Chief of Fighter Command
* 30,000 volunteers manning observation posts along the coast and tracking raids. These reports (height, direction, number of incoming planes) reached HQ in under 40 seconds.
* Filter Room plots these reports on the Sector Table - constantly updated. Strategy is then formulated to effectively defend Britain.
* Long and short range radar could detect up to 193 km - knew when the Germans crossed the English Channel.
Goerring’s Stealth Tactics
Daylight precision raids targeting British airfields, radar stations, and RAF infrastructure.
* Coordinated fighter-bomber strikes using tight bomber formations protected by Messerschmitt Bf 109s. These were hit and run, keeping RAF squadrons scrambling and overstretched.
* These were pre-emptiveon airfields in Aug 1940.
* Radar-evading low-level attacks on radar stations or command centers, designed to “blind” the RAF.
These tactics were working: by late August, RAF losses were high, and Fighter Command was on the brink.
Significance of BoB
If Germany had been successful, this would have eliminated the Western front - greater success of Russian invasion. Therefore, Britain could continue fighting in Northern Africa, which meant Hitler was forced to fight a two, and later three front war.
* Could have taken the Suez Canal, and gained control of Middle East oil fields easier.
* US would not have a base in England - necessary for D-Day.
This boosted support for Churchill and morale. A humiliating victory for Germany.
Types of bombing in Bombing over Germany
Began 15 of May 1940.
Tactical bombing: destroying specific targets - vehicles, boats, command points, factories, supplies
Strategic/Saturation bombing: Like The Blitz, attacks on enemy city and industries. E.g. RAF Lancaster bomber had a 10,000 kg “grand slam” bomb.
Impact of early attempts
Plan 5: Paralysis of the Ruhr
* From the 1937 “Western Air Plans”
* Aimed to bomb 19 power plants, 26 cokong plants to paralyse the Ruhr industries - coal and steel production.
* However, 15-16 May 1940: Only 1/4 targets were hit of the Ruhr
This was due to ineffective British technology - in navigation equipment and strategy, many planes being shot down or never finding their targets. Most significant success in this period was the German pivot to the Blitz that helped Britain win BoB.
Also a loss rate of 5.3% - significant as the campaign was only three months in.
1942-43 Bombing over Germany
Improvements (under Air Marshall “Bomber” Harris, appointed Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command in Feb 1942. He said bombing was the surest way to destroy the enemy’s war potential. the Allies would see results under his command):
* Aircraft production - 1942: 1000 bombers, including Lancasters (“grand slam”)
* Training methods improved; strategy included bomb aimers to crews, creating “pathfinder crews” who led bombing groups to targets. Escorted by spitfires for defense.
* Windows: dropping thousands of aluminium foil strips to create a blanket of invisibility for invading aircraft - German radar dependent on movement of metal.
* Aug 1942 - American Air Force joined.
16-17 May Dam Buster Raid
* Squadron 617 executed a successful night bombing of the Myrna and Eda dams. This was the first successful strategic bombing.
* This proved that precision night bombing was feasible - however 617 had highly trained personnel.
March-July 1943 Battle of the Ruhr
* 43 heavy raids
July - Aug: 4 Raids on Hamburg
* First human firestorm - 40 - 50,000 died.
* Used Window to ensure their success.
Impact of Bombing of Germany
Richard Overy suggested that the defeat of the German airforce had become an accomplished fact - removed from front line to defend home front, giving Allies and Red Army a significant advantage.
* France invasion 1944: Germany had 300 aircraft compared to 12,000 Allied.
* More than 100 civilian German cities were bombed.
* Reduction of weaponry output by 50%
* Synthetic oil production reduced by 95% (oil famine), chemical for explosives by 75%
* Human and material cost - refugees strained rationing, hospitals tried to deal with 750,000 casualties.
* Railway system weakened.
* This had the largest impact on morale for the Germans - civilian cities were bombed (no strategic purpose)
* Reliance on slave labour and stockpiles to continue the war -
Systemic bombing continued through 1944-45
1944: Big Week 8-15 February
- ~1000 bombs a day on Germany targets.
1945: 1.18 million tonnes of bombs were dropped. Though these sorties were looser with a mixture of blanket and target bombing, the destruction of oil supplies would be fatal.
Bombing of Dresden 1945 - showed how defenceless Germany had become - 150,000 civilians died. Most of the city was rubble, and surviving citizens fled the advancing Red Army.
Slave labour
Run by Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments and War Production
* Such as Dorma Missile factory
* 7% death rate
* They working in semi-darkness - Germany was under blackout tactics to disguise densely populated areas.
* Speer order improvements: external housing complexes, rations -> likely to maintain rations.
