Battle of Britain
▶ Explore on the map
The Battle of Britain was a Second World War military campaign in which the Royal Air Force and the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe. It was the first major military campaign fought entirely by air forces. Its name came from Winston Churchill's 18 June 1940 House of Commons speech, in which he said the Battle of France was over and expected the Battle of Britain to begin. After Germany rapidly overwhelmed France and the Low Countries, Britain faced possible invasion by sea, though the German high command recognized difficulties while the Royal Navy controlled the English Channel and North Sea. Germany's primary objective was to compel Britain to agree to a negotiated peace settlement. The British officially recognize the battle as lasting from 10 July to 31 October 1940, a period overlapping the Blitz night attacks from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941. German historians regard it as a single campaign from July 1940 to May 1941, including the Blitz. In July 1940 an air and sea blockade began, with the Luftwaffe targeting coastal convoys, ports and shipping centres such as Portsmouth. On 16 July Hitler ordered preparation of Operation Sea Lion; on 1 August the Luftwaffe was directed to achieve air superiority over the RAF, and later attacks hit RAF airfields, infrastructure, aircraft factories and eventually civilians. RAF Bomber Command night raids disrupted German barge preparations, and the Luftwaffe's failure to overwhelm the RAF forced Hitler to postpone and eventually cancel Operation Sea Lion. Germany's failure to destroy Britain's air defences and force it out of the conflict was its first major defeat in the Second World War.