50 Fun Facts About Battle of Britain

Britain officially dates the battle from 10 July 1940 until which date?

German historians reject that cut-off and treat the battle and the Blitz as one campaign running to May 1941.

On Battle of Britain Day, how many German aircraft were shot down against 26 RAF losses?

Two massive waves were repulsed by every aircraft in 11 Group; two days later Hitler postponed the invasion.

Churchill's speech that gave the battle its name was delivered on which date in 1940?

The battle is unusual in being named more than three weeks before the accepted date on which it began.

What was the codename for the planned German invasion of Britain?

Directive No. 16 of 16 July ordered preparations; Grand Admiral Raeder kept insisting a crossing could not happen before 1941.

Who commanded RAF Fighter Command throughout the battle?

He had opposed the 1930s doctrine that the bomber would always get through, betting on radar and fast monoplane fighters instead.

Who was Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe?

His 30 June directive ordered the destruction of the RAF and never mentioned an invasion at all.

Adlertag, the planned opening day of the Luftwaffe's main assault, translates as what?

Göring finalised the plan on 6 August with Kesselring, Sperrle and Stumpff: Fighter Command was to be destroyed in four days.

Poor weather delayed Adlertag until which date?

The day before, Erprobungsgruppe 210 had hit four radar stations; three were back on air within six hours.

Which date is commemorated as Battle of Britain Day?

It marks the day the Luftwaffe's largest daylight attack was decisively beaten back over London and the South East.

Which day, with the greatest casualties on both sides, was dubbed 'The Hardest Day'?

It effectively ended the Stuka's part in the campaign; Göring withdrew the dive bomber to preserve the force.

On what date did the Blitz begin, with nearly 400 bombers hitting London's East End docks?

The RAF had expected airfield attacks; 12 Group's first official Big Wing took twenty minutes to form up and missed its target.

When war broke out, Hurricanes outnumbered Spitfires by about what ratio?

By mid-1940 both types had converted to 100 octane fuel, adding about 30 mph at low altitude.

How many .303 Browning machine guns did the Spitfire and Hurricane each carry?

Damaged German bombers sometimes limped home with up to 200 .303 hits; the Bf 109's 20 mm cannon shells did far more damage.

Why could the Bf 109 dive away under negative g when Merlin-powered fighters could not?

The Merlin's carburettor starved under negative g, so RAF pilots had to half-roll before diving after a 109.

The twin-engined Bf 110 was designated Zerstörer, meaning what?

It was a failure as a long-range escort; on 13 and 15 August it lost 13 and 30 aircraft, the equivalent of a whole Gruppe.

Which turret-armed RAF fighter without forward guns was pulled from day fighting?

It had fooled German pilots over Dunkirk because it looked like a Hurricane from behind; the trick did not last.

The Ju 87 dive bomber, withdrawn after heavy losses, is better known by what name?

It was too slow and vulnerable after pulling out of a dive, and was mostly diverted to shipping before going to the Eastern Front.

Which Luftwaffe bomber, with a distinctive wing shape, was used in the greatest numbers?

The Ju 88 was the fastest and suffered lower losses; the Do 17 was slowest with the smallest bomb load.

Which unit was the highest-scoring fighter squadron of the battle?

It joined the fight two months late; Dowding said he hesitated to say the outcome would have been the same without the Poles.

Which Czech airman with 303 Squadron was credited with the battle's highest RAF score?

He had flown with the Polish and French air forces before reaching Britain and flew as a guest of the Polish squadron.

How many of the 2,936 aircrew on the RAF roll of honour for the battle were non-British?

About one in five: 145 Poles, 127 New Zealanders, 112 Canadians and 88 Czechoslovaks led the list.

Which nation supplied the most non-British pilots, 145 in all?

New Zealand came second with 127; the list also included 9 Americans and individuals from Jamaica, Barbados and Newfoundland.

Which port did Fiat BR.20 bombers of the Italian Air Corps attack in their first raid?

Mussolini's Corpo Aereo Italiano claimed nine British aircraft before leaving in January 1941; its real score was far lower.

Who commanded Luftflotte 2, responsible for bombing south-east England and London?

He championed attacking London directly, while Sperrle wanted to keep pounding the air-defence infrastructure.

Luftflotte 5 attacked northern England and Scotland from headquarters in which country?

Its bombers flew without Bf 109 cover and were mauled on 15 August; it never appeared in strength again.

What did the Luftwaffe call its four-aircraft fighter formation made up of two pairs?

The basic pair was the Rotte, leader and wingman about 200 metres apart; the idea went back to Oswald Boelcke in 1916.

Idiotenreihen, the German nickname for the RAF's tight 'vic' formations, means what?

Only the leader could look for the enemy; the others were busy keeping station, so 'weavers' were added behind and above.

Which 74 Squadron leader devised the 'fours in line astern' formation?

It was a variation on the German Schwarm and a vast improvement on the three-aircraft vic.

The 'Big Wing' tactic championed by Leigh-Mallory was pioneered by which pilot?

Park's report found that from 11 September to 31 October the Big Wing managed just 10 interceptions and one German aircraft destroyed.

Who commanded 11 Group, which bore the weight of the battle over south-east England?

His tactic was to send single squadrons to break up raids; post-war analysis agrees it was the right call for 11 Group.

Where was Fighter Command HQ, where radar and observer reports were filtered?

Filtered tracks were phoned down to Group and then Sector level, where controllers talked fighters onto the raid.

What was the name of Britain's coastal early-warning radar network?

The Luftwaffe knew Britain had radar but never grasped how the stations tied into fighter control, and stopped attacking them.

The German night navigation beam system Knickebein translates as what?

It was developed after the Condor Legion found targets hard to hit; it was rarely used during the battle itself.

What average interception success rate did the Dowding system achieve during the battle?

Pre-war planners expected a 30 per cent chance of even seeing the target; several interceptions hit 100 per cent.

What did the Germans call the July running fights over convoys in the English Channel?

Stuka attacks hurt the convoys badly enough that the Admiralty moved the coal by rail instead.

What did Jagdflieger call the combat fatigue brought on by flights over the Channel?

A 109 had just over an hour's endurance; a red low-fuel light meant turning for France at once.

What were the Störangriffe flown by the Luftwaffe from June 1940?

They trained crews in navigation and set off air-raid alarms; in August alone 1,062 of them were flown across Britain.

What was a Freie Jagd?

Galland preferred it to close escort, which tied the 109s to slow bombers and drove up fighter losses.

What was the nickname of the RAF life jacket, which in 1940 still needed manual inflation?

Inflating it by hand was almost impossible for an injured man; some 200 pilots and aircrew were lost at sea during the battle.

What chemical did downed aircrew release to make a bright green patch on the water?

The Luftwaffe issued it first; the RAF copied the idea along with its own belated rescue launches.

Pilots who fought in the battle have been known collectively by what name ever since?

Churchill's 20 August speech also praised Bomber Command's raids on Germany, a passage that is usually forgotten.

Churchill's 18 June 1940 speech that named the battle is known by which phrase?

The speech warned that if Britain fell the world would sink into 'a new Dark Age made more sinister by the lights of a perverted science'.

Which 1941 propaganda film won the first Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject?

The Air Ministry's 1941 pamphlet The Battle of Britain sold so well that even Goebbels admired its propaganda value.

In the 1969 film Battle of Britain, who played the head of Fighter Command?

Trevor Howard played Park; former participants Adolf Galland and Robert Stanford Tuck were technical advisers.

A Ju 88 downed in Kent led to which 'battle', the last fought on British mainland soil?

It happened on 27 September 1940 as the bomber returned from a raid on London.

Which award for civilian bravery did the King inaugurate during the battle?

Eleven days earlier two bombs had destroyed the Royal Chapel at Buckingham Palace while the King and Queen were 80 yards away.

Which part of Buckingham Palace was destroyed by two bombs during the battle?

The King and Queen refused to leave for Canada and stayed in London for the whole war, weekending at Windsor.

Whom did Roosevelt send to Britain for a second opinion on whether it could survive?

Ambassador Joseph Kennedy had been telling Washington Britain was finished; 'Wild Bill' came back convinced otherwise.

Over its official span, roughly how many aircraft did the Luftwaffe lose in the battle?

Fighter Command lost 1,087 in the same period; both sides claimed two to three times the real figures.

In 1926 Germany began secretly training fighter pilots at Lipetsk in which country?

Versailles banned a German air force, so crews trained through civilian flying and Lufthansa designed airliners convertible to bombers.