Battle of Britain

The Battle of Britain was a 57 day German attempt to cripple the Royal Air Force.  The Germans bombed the British isles mercilessly while trying to wrest control of the sky from the British. The British however had a couple of advantages.
1) Radar- Radar allowed the British to know when German attacks were coming and scramble fighters to intercept. The Germans could not launch an air raid without Being met by swarms of Hawker Hurricanes and Spitfires.
2)Home-field advantage- The British pilots flying who got shot down could be recovered and put in another plane. The importance of having trained pilots cant be stressed enough. Retraining pilots took time and cost money. The German pilots shot down could not be recovered.
3)Distance- Because the German pilots had to fly across the channel they only had about 30 minute of combat time before having to return to base.
All of these culminated in British victory that saved the Isles from invasion.

Casualties and losses:
1,542 aircrew killed
422 aircrew wounded
1,744 aircraft destroyed
2,585 aircrew killed and missing, 925 captured, 735 wounded
1,977 aircraft destroyed, 1,634 in combat and 343 non-combat
Around 90,000 civilian casualties, 40,000 of them fatal.

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