Hurricane Mk.I piloted by Sgt. Josef Frantisek, camouflage made by Paegas | download here

After the conclusion of the “Battle of Britain day” on September 15th, the conflict for the skies over England had changed and evolved massively since the initial stages. What was seen as one of the first victories over German forces provided critical for gaining aerial superiority and also in the building up the strength of the RAF in the process.
 

The result of the bombing campaigns over London's “St Pauls” cathedral.

Both sides had made mistakes and misjudgements about each other throughout the conflict. At the same time, both sides had also overestimated their claims of victories to losses of aircraft, resulting in a constant conflict of the exact statistical outcome. Without a doubt, it was the events of August 24th that altered the course of the battle and its outcome for good. A He-111 bomber mistakenly dropped bombs over the heart of London, to which the RAF retaliated with a raid on Berlin. This caused the Luftwaffe to change its targets from key strategical points to the cities of England themselves. The end of the Battle of Britain signaled by the cancellation of “Operation Sea Lion” on September 17th merely triggered the dawn of the “Blitz” campaigns.
 

The Battle itself had claimed the lives of many civilians on both sides, yet moral was still high for the British people who even in the face of statistical disadvantage proved to fight on. Despite the massive raids on British cities it seemed impossible to knock England out of the fight. Moving away from the airfield bombing gave the RAF time to build back and re-organise Fighter Command despite claims from Hermann Göring that they were nearly defeated by early September. As such, the RAF became much more systematic in its defense of the capital and its surround cities that were targeted, forcing many Luftwaffe raids to cease operations during the morning and focus on night bombing.
 

Many wrecks were salvaged from downed aircraft over England during and after the battle for evaluation.

By this time British Fighter production was exceeding that of Germany’s with 10,000 to 8,000 respectively by the end of 1940 as a result of the Battle. Both sides had also learned many lessons from the conflict with new tactics arising. The Luftwaffe’s Messerschmitt BF 110 and Junkers Ju-87 Stuka that proved critical during the early campaigns over europe were beginning to show their inferiority to the British fighters who at the same time, were beginning to see the advantages of cannon armed aircraft over the common British loadout of Browning 303 7.62mm machine guns. Experience gained here was also directed to the North American company from the RAF for a new fighter that would eventually become the “Mustang”.
 

The Blitz campaigns would go on until May of 1941 where Hitler's attention was switched to the East and Operation Barbarossa. A large majority of the Luftwaffe's forces stationed around the Channel were pulled back, however a sizeable force remained to keep up the consistent strategic bombing of Britain in efforts to weaken the economy whilst the Kriegsmarine were playing havoc in disrupting the Atlantic supply lanes to disrupt British shipping from America. By this time however, the British were also more on the offensive, with fighter sweeps and bombing missions back over occupied Europe.
 

The Battle was of critical importance to the Second World War, one that shaped the outcome of the conflict and the events that followed in the long months to come. It was and will always be remembered for its significance and to the sacrifices made on both sides of the conflict by so many people.
 

“If the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, this was their finest hour” - Winston Churchill.
 

The War Thunder Team