The+Battle+of+Britain

After the fall of France Germany aimed to attack Britain, but to invade it Germany needs to control the English Channel so to be able to land troops in Britain without the fear of the British Navy attacking. To control the channel the Germans must have air dominance so must fight against RAF (Royal Air Force) led by Sir Hugh Dowding. The German Attempt to control the channel was called operation //Seelöwe// (Sea Lion).
 * __The Battle of Britain__**

The commander of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring, was given three //Luftflotten// (air fleets). Luftlotten 2, the largest, was based in Belgium and northern France, facing England from the east. Luftflotten 3 was stationed in Normandy ready to strike at the southwest and south coasts. Luftflotten 5, the smallest, was based in Denmark and Norway tasked to attacking targets in the north of England and Scotland. At the time RAF had good production of aircraft but had a lack of trained and experienced pilots as many of them were lost at France. After the Battle of France both sides had suffered, by July 20 RAF only had 531 aircraft available for combat while the Luftwaffe had 725 fighters and 1,280 prepped bombers.

The British did however had many advantages over the Luftwaffe, such as RADAR (Radio Direction and Ranging) which offers Britain an early warning signal against incoming German attacks they were also organized in the "chain home" system of 30 radar stations established on the coastline. The ROC (Royal Observer Corps) used basic equipment such as binoculars to confirm RADAR reports, by 1940 over 1000 ROC posts have been established. Another advantage for the RAF was that since the conflict occurred over or near Britain, British fighters could land to rearm and refuel and be back in the fight quickly while German planes must return back to mainland Europe meaning they are both easy targets and spend very limited time in combat due to fuel (since they must fly to Britain, fight and fly back). Due to this and the fact that the German bombers had longer flight range then the fighters the bombers can end up unprotected and prove easy targets.

The Battle of Britain started July 10th, 1940 with the Luftwaffe launching attacks against coastal targets, convoys and attempted to gain control of the Straits of Dover in an attempt to draw the RAF out to the channel for a full-scale battle. By the end of July the RAF had lost 150 planes while the Luftwaffe had lost 268. On August 2nd Gö ring issued //Adlertag// (Eagle Day) which was an order for the destruction of RAF fighter command, RADAR stations and operation rooms. This order was hoped that RAF fighters could be destroyed on the ground, that the British will lose their RADAR early warning system and lose their communication ability.