The Battle of Britain
Courtesy of Getty Images.In the Battle of Britain, radar enabled the British to force the Germans to postpone their invasion of Britain.
I. The Chain Home and the Battle of Britain
“The 'Battle of France' is over. I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin.”
- Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister, House of Commons Speech, June 18, 1940, after the French Armistice
Following the fall of France in June 1940, Hitler began looking to invade England, and first needed air control over Britain for this to be possible.
Phases of the Battle of Britain - Courtesy of Perez.
“The RAF was outnumbered by the Luftwaffe [the German Air Force]... [it was] going to be pretty impossible for them to beat the Nazi's air force, but by having radar, they were able to say, 'Here comes a big, huge group that's coming in to attack us. So we're going to throw all of our fighters against that one group.' And they did [that] over and over again.”
- Lt. Col. Randall DeGering, USAF (ret.)
Condensation trails from German and British fighter planes engaged in an aerial battle appear in the sky over Kent, along the southeastern coast of England, on September 3, 1940.
Courtesy of Rare Historical Photos.
Adolf Galland, Luftwaffe, 57 confirmed kills
Courtesy of Perez.
“From the very beginning, the British had an extraordinary advantage which we could never overcome throughout the war – radar and fighter control…The British fighter was guided all the way from takeoff to his correct position for an attack on the German formations. We had nothing of the kind.”
- Gen. Adolf Galland, German Ace Pilot, fought in Battle of Britain
RPReplay_Final1708100260.movFootage from an RDF (Radio Direction and Finding; the early name for radar) station during the Battle of Britain. Excerpt from the documentary Stories from the Blitz.
Courtesy of Best Documentary.
RPReplay_Final1708104660.movFootage of a radar-guided anti-aircraft fire shooting down a German raider. Excerpt from RADAR, the secret weapon that revolutionised warfare (1945)
Courtesy of British Pathé
"Come to Readiness!" - Pilots running to their Hawker Hurricane aircraft during the Battle of Britain.
Courtesy of the Imperial War Museums.
Wing Commander George Unwin and his dog Flash next to a Spitfire.
Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum.
Two airmen of the Polish Air Force Depot at RAF Blackpool receiving instruction on the controls of an aircraft, probably a Vickers Wellington medium bomber, during ground training at Squires Gate Aerodrome.
Courtesy of Stanley Devon, Flight Lieutenant and RAF Photograph, via the Imperial War Museum.
Man attending a radar station in Britain during the Second World War. Circa 1943.
Courtesy of Memory Lane Galleries.
In this first detrimental air battle, radar marked the first turn in the tides of war, because the Luftwaffe could not surprise the British.
“...it is not too much to say that the warnings [the Chain Home] gave could have been obtained by no other means and constituted a vital factor in the Air Defense of Great Britain.”
- Sir Hugh Dowding, Commander in Chief of Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain
“[More] significantly, this revolutionary new weapon [called radar] had been integrated into Fighter Command... thus, when war came, the Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command had a battle-ready weapon with which to scramble and control his few but brave young fighter pilots and defeat a numerically superior enemy, and with the Battle of Britain won, to thwart Hitler's plans to invade Britian.”
- Sir Edward Fennessey, Electronics Engineer under Watson-Watts, in C. Latham and A. Stobbs' book Radar: A Wartime Miracle
II. The Chain Home Low and the Blitz
Two Luftwaffe Dornier 217 bombers flying over the Silvertown area of London's Docklands on 7th September 1940 at the beginning of the Blitz on London. Fires have started near the Beckton Gasworks. West Ham greyhound track is near the centre of the picture, which was taken from a German bomber.
Courtesy of Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.
The Palace of Westminster in London, silhouetted against the light of fires caused by bombings.
Courtesy of Rare Historical Photos.
Undaunted by a night of German air raids in which his store front was blasted, a shopkeeper opens up the morning after for "business as usual" in London.
Courtesy of Rare Historical Photos.
Smoke rising from the London Docklands after the first mass raid on the British capital, September 7, 1940.
Courtesy of New Times Paris Collections/USIA/NARA/Britannica.
Once the Blitz began in September 1940, radar allowed the RAF to concentrate their attacks on the enemy, giving them a chance against the bombers.
“By [using radar] it just completely baffled the Nazis. They had no idea how every time that they went across the English Channel, they were met with this wall of fighters.”
- Lt. Col. Randall DeGering, USAF (ret.)
RPReplay_Final1703103420.movFootage of British fighters during the Battle of Britain. Excerpt from the documentary The Second World War: Triumph of the Axis (1963)
Courtesy of Britannica
RPReplay_Final1708100904.movRecount from Air Commodore Peter Brothers of his role during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. Excerpt from the documentary Stories from the Blitz.
Courtesy of Best Documentary.
The CH was not foolproof, and next-generation radar was smaller and rotational, called the Chain Home Low (CHL).
“These sets demonstrated their ability to detect low-flying aircraft at ranges greater than the horizon limit... [and] for the RAF, [supplemented] the existing early-warning chain.”
- Colin Latham and Anne Stobbs, radar instructor, and radar operator (respectively), in their book Radar: A Wartime Miracle
A formation of low flying German Heinkel He 111 bombers flies over the waves of the English Channel in 1940 - lowing flying planes like this were undetectable by the CH.
Courtesy of Rare Historical Photos.
Ground control interception, which is used to inform night fighters of enemy aircraft at a radar research station in Great Malvern during the Second World War, 1945.
Courtesy of Memory Lane Galleries.
Chain Home Low Station, 1940s - the beginnings of modern radar.
Courtesy of Memory Lane Galleries.
Supermarine Spitfire, Britain's premier fighter plane from 1938 through World War II.
Courtesy of Quadrant/Flight/Britannica
GCI radar installation at RAF Sopley, Hampshire, 1945.
Courtesy of Imperial War Museums/Wikimedia.
“An innovation in the tactical use of radar was the direct control, at an early stage, of fighter aircraft from a CD/CHL station... This successful operation presaged the introduction of GCI [Ground Control Interception] radars.”
- Colin Latham and Anne Stobbs, radar instructor, and radar operator (respectively), in their book Radar: A Wartime Miracle
“[GCI was first developed during the Biggin Hill Experiments of 1936/1937, where the] procedures for ground control of fighters were... evolved and refined... I absolutely agree with the importance of what Tizard did through the medium of the Biggin Hill Experiment, and ever since 1940 have held the view that without Tizard we would have lost the Battle of Britain and the war.”
- Air Marshall Sir. Arthur McDonald, KCB, AFC, in C. Latham and A. Stobbs' book Radar: A Wartime Miracle
Bristol 142M Blenheim IF-in an effort to counter the German Blitz on England of 1940-41, a number of Blenheim Is were converted to radar-carrying night fighters.
Courtesy of Mary Evans Picture Library.
GCI allowed operators to help pilots directly over radio, and this assistance would prove critical for RAF fighters during the Blitz.
Member of Women's Royal Army Corps in England, plotting points from the chain home.
Courtesy of Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images.
“It is a very tense time, because you've got to get it absolutely right, because everybody's depending on you, especially the pilots.”
- Joan Bouverie Brine, Plotter, Women's Auxiliary Air Forces
People shelter and sleep on the platform and on the train tracks in Aldwych Underground Station, London, after sirens sounded to warn of German bombing raids on October 8, 1940.
Courtesy of Rare Historical Photos.
Map of bomb damage in London during the Blitz.
Courtesy of Encyclopedia Britannica.
The Dome of St. Paul's Cathedral (undamaged) stands among the flames and smoke of surrounding buildings during heavy attacks of the German Luftwaffe on December 29, 1940 in London, England.
Courtesy of Rare Historical Photos.
“[The Blitz] lasted for months and months and finally [the British] broke the will of the Nazis, and they said, 'Okay, forget it, we're not going to attempt this anymore', and they held off on the potential invasion... that is how the RAF held them off.”
- Lt. Col. Randall DeGering, USAF (ret.)
Daily Mirror headline, 1940: Churchill's speech vowing to never surrender to the Nazis.
Courtesy of Alamy.
“The German Air Force suffered its first great defeat in 1940, during the daylight Battle of Britain. In the spring of 1941, they were defeated again in the night battle [of the Blitz], never to return in force against the British mainland.”
- Edward George "Taffy" Bowen in his book Radar Days, Welsh Physicist, assistant to Robert Watson-Watt
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
- Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister, August 20, 1940
This was the beginning of modern radar, expanding the range, technological, and strategic capabilities of Britain. Through American collaboration, this pattern would only continue.
“I think we can say that the Battle of Britain might never have been won…if it were not for the radar chain.”
- Lord Douglas, successor to Sir Hugh Dowding