![]() Their view (expressed vividly in 1932) was that the bomber will always get through, and that the only defence was a deterrent bomber force capable of matching retaliation. Interception was nearly impossible, with fighter planes no faster than bombers. Its first Chief of the Air Staff, Hugh Trenchard, was among the military strategists in the 1920s, like Giulio Douhet, who saw air warfare as a new way to overcome the stalemate of trench warfare. ![]() Strategic bombing during World War I introduced air attacks intended to panic civilian targets and led in 1918 to the amalgamation of the British army and navy air services into the Royal Air Force (RAF). 5.5 Night time Blitz, fighter-bomber day raids.5.4 Day and night attacks on London: start of the Blitz.5.3.4 Assessment of attempt to destroy the RAF.5.3.3 Attacks on airfields from 24 August.5.3.1 Assault on RAF: radar and airfields.4.4 Bomber and Coastal Command contributions.4.3.2 Squadron- and higher-level deployment.3.1 Regrouping of Luftwaffe in Luftflotten.1.2 First stages of the Second World War.I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin." The Battle of Britain takes its name from the speech given by Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the House of Commons on 18 June: "What General Weygand called the ' Battle of France' is over. Historian Stephen Bungay cited Germany's failure to destroy Britain's air defences to force an armistice (or even an outright surrender) as the first major German defeat in the Second World War and a crucial turning point in the conflict. The Luftwaffe proved unable to sustain daylight raids, but their continued night-bombing operations on Britain became known as the Blitz. In September, RAF Bomber Command night raids disrupted the German preparation of converted barges, and the Luftwaffe's failure to overwhelm the RAF forced Hitler to postpone and eventually cancel Operation Sea Lion. On 16 July, Hitler ordered the preparation of Operation Sea Lion as a potential amphibious and airborne assault on Britain, to follow once the Luftwaffe had air superiority over the Channel. The German high command recognised the logistic difficulties of a seaborne attack, particularly while the Royal Navy controlled the English Channel and the North Sea. The Germans had rapidly overwhelmed France and the Low Countries, leaving Britain to face the threat of invasion by sea. Eventually, it employed terror bombing on areas of political significance and on civilians. As the battle progressed, the Luftwaffe also targeted factories involved in aircraft production and strategic infrastructure. On 1 August, the Luftwaffe was directed to achieve air superiority over the RAF, with the aim of incapacitating RAF Fighter Command 12 days later, it shifted the attacks to RAF airfields and infrastructure. In July 1940, the air and sea blockade began, with the Luftwaffe mainly targeting coastal-shipping convoys, as well as ports and shipping centres such as Portsmouth. The primary objective of the German forces was to compel Britain to agree to a negotiated peace settlement. German historians do not accept this subdivision and regard the battle as a single campaign lasting from July 1940 to May 1941, including the Blitz. The British officially recognise the battle's duration as being from 10 July until 31 October 1940, which overlaps the period of large-scale night attacks known as the Blitz, that lasted from 7 September 1940 to. It has been described as the first major military campaign fought entirely by air forces. The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England ( German: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe.
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