Luftwaffe's Failure to Win the Battle of Britain - Essay Example

? An Account for the Luftwaffe's Failure to Win the Battle of Britain  The battle of Britain was all about the German Air Force’s (Luftwaffe) attempt to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF) and their ultimate failure was one of the turning points of World War 2, and it started after the fall of Poland and France, leaving only Britain to fight against the unstoppable German war machine. Britain planned for German invasion called operation sea lion and this plan was to establish German air superiority over southern England and the English Channel, and aimed at attacking RAF and anything attached to it (Turner, 2010, p.38) resulting to the first world’s strategic bombing campaign and battle in the air, the battle of Britain. During the opening phase of the battle of Britain, the German planned to gain air superiority and this resulted to an attack by the Luftwaffe on the RAF fighter airfields named Eagle Day (Wyatt, 1940). Luftwaffe decided to attack British domestic shipping in the English Channel to draw out the RAF and suppress their fighting strength and even though the Germans made daily strikes against ship convoys, after sometime, Luftwaffe lost about 248 fighters and bombers to RAF’s 148 fighters lost and this encouraged RAF to fight on and win the battle (Wyatt, 1940). This essay presents an account for the for the Luftwaffe’s failure to win the battle of Britain.   About twenty years ago, Europe lay at Hitler’s feet and Britain faced its darkest hour as it was outnumbered and friendless as the German force continued its advance and this made them to see their defeat as being inevitable and their victory became legendary. RAF focused on shooting down all German planes from northern as well as eastern France (Clayton & Craig, 2011, p.18). RAF had the high-performance Hawker Hurricane and Super marine Spitfire fighters whereas the Luftwaffe's principal fighter planes were the Messerschmitt Bf109, the Messerschmitt Bf110, and numerous bombers Wyatt, 1940). The Luftwaffe failed to win the battle because they failed to destroy the air defences of Britain to enable them launch an invasion- Operation Sea Lion, and they as well failed to bomb Britain into surrender since RAF had a well-established and effective spitfire and hurricanes controlled by advanced radar system and this prevented Luftwaffe from emerging victorious. Luftwaffe focused on using air campaign to threaten Britain and this campaign was aimed weakening RAF in order to make Britain vulnerable to attack from the air, and to fulfil the basic precondition of invasion by establishing air superiority over the invasion of the South East England (Bungay, 2010, p.27). At the beginning of the battle, Luftwaffe focused on attacking shipping in the English Channel as well as coastal towns but later on, Goering changed his focus to completely destroy RAF, by attacking airfields and their radar bases. When the battle commenced RAF had less than 500 aircraft that were not capable of reaching German territory and therefore, the British preparations was based on avoiding defeat and conquest (Overy,2010, p.6-7). Many factors can explain the Luftwaffe’s failure to win the battle of Britain and many scholars have contributed largely in providing an explanation of the air battle and how the air campaign was developed. Firstly, German planes were constructed and designed for short distance tactical tricks and local air superiority, they lacked heavy bombers (Wyatt, 1940), and they lacked quality fighters with the fuel endurance to act as escorts to the bombers they had. Germany lacked long-range bombers and was not able to field its first strategic bomber during the battle (Correll, 2008). On the contrary, Britain had a much more experienced and better equipped fighting force and generally, RAF was strong and massively outnumbered German forces. Accordingly, more and better British fighters were available and ready to help RAF during the battle (Hough and Richards, 2007, p.11). Moreover, during the battle, over 140 excellently rained polish air force veterans joined the British and these polish pilots significantly contributed to the British victory and this greatly contributed to their failure in the battle of Britain (Wyatt, 1940). Secondly and most importantly, Luftwaffe failed to win the battle of Britain because their opponents, Britain, had a very well developed Radar system and coordination method which helped them in early warning and attack by the German forces (Wyatt, 1940). The Radar networks covered the southern and eastern coast which enabled them to see their enemies from far making the RAF to prepare thoroughly and be ready to attack the Luftwaffe before they even get across the coastline (Correll, 2008). These early warning helped the British to send their planes to the exact location where the Germans were attacking from and this made Luftwaffe  to fail as they could not even launch a surprise attack based on the fact that the British always knew where they were attacking from. However, upon the realization of the value of the radar sites, “the Luftwaffe tried to destroy them, but did so by aiming bombs at the radar towers, which were easy to replace and almost impossible to hit” (Correll, 2008). Additionally, Luftwaffe did not win the battle of the Britain due to the sophisticated and powerful machines that the Britain possessed. For instance, the spitfire was the most competitive fighter in the British inventory. Super marine Spitfire was fast and highly manoeuvrable and was based on a radical, over-wing design and this was the only British fighter that could confront Bf 109 of Luftwaffe equally or even better. In addition, Hurricane was the most important British aircraft during the battle and was constructed of wood and fabric that covered a strong metal tube framework. This made it possible to be repaired quickly on the ground even if damaged severely, and it was easily flown and maintained and so during the battle, it was used to attack the German bombers. The production of these two fighters, that is, hurricane and spitfire, was very important in this battle because without them there could have been no battle (Turner,2010, p.8) and these are the fighters that helped British to emerge victorious over the Germans. German air force used Stuka dive bomber and the Bf 109 fighter during the battle (Correll, 2008) and they also had the Bf 110 which had good speed and range but it was not agile enough to deal with RAF fighters (Correll, 2008). Stuka was the weapon that Luftwaffe High Command loved (Bungay,2010, p.36). Another reason why Luftwaffe failed to win the battle of Britain was based on unity. There was total unity of the people of the Britain to win the battle and this was something that was not even in the minds of the Germans. The British pilots were on the front line during the battle and other people worked extremely hard in the factories in order to keep the planes rolling off the production lines and release them to help in the battle. In addition, Britain forces won the battle because they were fighting over friendly territory. Furthermore, a change of strategy might me one of the reasons why Luftwaffe failed to win the battle. Goering, the head of the Luftwaffe, decided to change the Luftwaffe Strategy by first ruling against further strikes on the Radar system claiming that it was ineffective (Wyatt, 1940). Secondly, Stukas was removed to be one of the fighters in the battle arguing that they were too vulnerable to attack, and the Bf 110s were also moved from their fighter role to strictly dive bomber role and have Bf 109 fighter escorts. More so, they adopted a top priority RAF fighter and so German forces were convinced that this was an effective strategy to help Germany win the battle of Britain. Following Hitler's orders, Luftwaffe switched tactics focusing on destroying London and other major cities. On the other hand, Britain responded by striking on Berlin (Wyatt, 1940).All in all, both sides experienced almost equal losses at the end of the battle with the British left with a lot of pain after the bombing of London. In conclusion, the battle of Britain occurred as a result of Luftwaffe’s attempt to gain air superiority over the RAF and during this battle, the Luftwaffe's fighter planes were Bf109 and Bf110 plus numerous bombers such as the Dornier 17, the Junkers Ju88, the Heinkel 111, and Stuka whereas RAF used high performance Hawker Hurricane and Super marine Spitfire fighters. The battle for Britain mainly involved two parties, that is, the Luftwaffe and the RAF and Luftwaffe failed to win this battle because it lacked heavy bombers, their planes were designed for short distance tactical tricks and lacked quality fighters. More so, their opponents had a very effective radar system that exposed them where they were to attack from. RAF used the radar system during the battle to detect their enemies from a distance but most importantly, Britain had a more experienced and better equipped fighting force and this prevented Germans from winning the battle. RAF used spitfire and hurricane, which were very effective in attacking the Luftwaffe because these fighters were superior and effective as opposed to Luftwaffe fighters like Bf 109. Furthermore, the change of attacking strategy by the Germans also contributed to their defeat. References Bungay, S, 2010, The most dangerous enemy: an illustrated history of the Battle of Britain, Minneapolis, Zenith Press. Clayton, T., & Craig, P, 2011, Finest Hour, London, Hodder. Correll, J, 2008, How the Luftwaffe Lost the Battle of Britain, Air Force Magazine. Vol. 91, No. 8 [Online] Viewed from: http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2008/August%202008/0808battle.aspx Hough, R., & Richards, D., 2007, The Battle of Britain: the jubilee history, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, Pen & Sword Aviation. Overy, R. J., 2010, The Battle of Britain: myth and reality, London, Penguin. Turner, J. F., 2010, the Battle of Britain, Barnsley, Pen & Sword Aviation. Wyatt, R. 1940, Great Air Battles: the Battle of Britain, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 4 November 2013] Read More