On 7 October Germany invaded Romania, which was already a German ally, as part of its policy of forming a barrier of states against the Soviet Union. On 12 October Hitler again postponed the invasion of Britain, this time to the spring of 1941 (leading Winston Churchill to quip that Britain is “waiting for the… Read more »Read more

By now, the Battle of Britain was entering its final phase. Night-time bombing of cities still continued, and German fighters were sent out with small bomb loads to cause nuisance attacks and further wear down the RAF pilots, already exhausted by night fighting; but the Luftwaffe continued to suffer heavy losses. By the end of… Read more »Read more

This week on 24 September British and Free French forces landed at Dakar, West Africa, to try to persuade the Vichy French fleet and forts to join the Allied cause; but when these resisted, the troops were withdrawn after two days of sporadic fighting. On 25 September Britain launched a heavy bombing raid on Berlin,… Read more »Read more

On 17 September Hitler finally cancelled the planned invasion of Britain, though the Battle of Britain was to continue until the end of October, and the sporadic bombing of British towns and cities would last for many more months. The Luftwaffe had switched to night bombing after suffering so many losses, and this week London… Read more »Read more

This week saw the Blitz continue with heavy German raids on British cities: London, Portsmouth, Southampton and Merseyside were all attacked. On Sunday 15 September the Luftwaffe launched a massive raid on London which was repulsed by the RAF, with 60 German planes shot down for the loss of 26 British. The heavy losses the… Read more »Read more

The Battle of Britain took a decisive turn this week, as first of all the Luftwaffe’s failure to defeat the RAF caused Hitler on Tuesday 3rd to postpone his planned invasion of Britain until 21 September. And then Hitler and Goering directed German forces to bomb British cities instead of targeting RAF bases as they’d… Read more »Read more

German attacks continued on RAF fighter bases in the south east of England, inflicting heavy damage: at this time the RAF was losing more planes than it could replace. On 28 July Liverpool was bombed for the first time and then again over several nights (Merseyside would eventually suffer the second highest death toll in… Read more »Read more

This week the Battle of Britain entered a new phase, as Goering directed the Luftwaffe to concentrate on British aircraft factories and then, on 23 August, on fighter bases in Kent. This was the crucial stage of the battle, as the RAF was becoming exhausted and struggling to replace its losses. Birmingham and Portsmouth were… Read more »Read more

On Tuesday 13 August, Germany finally launched Adlertag or “Eagle Day”, the start of a two-week assault on British airfields in an attempt to weaken the RAF sufficiently to allow the invasion of Britain. Despite inflicting serious casualties the Luftwaffe ran into unexpected resistance: on just one day, Thursday 15 August, 75 German planes were… Read more »Read more

The second phase of the Battle of Britain began on Thursday 8 August, when German aircraft switched to raids on shipping, coastal airfields and radar stations south of London, although they were unable to knock out Britain’s radar warning systems. Plans to destroy the RAF’s planes and command structure (codenamed Adlertag or “Eagle Day”) had… Read more »Read more