Eagle Day - Tuesday, August 13th 1940

[Deathblade Eric]

Today marks the 70th Anniversary of 'Eagle Day', or perhaps more properly, 'Adler Tag'. Day One of the Battle of Britain.

Simplistically, Hitler's order for the invasion of Britain (Operation SeaLion), given on July 16th 1940, depended on the Luftwaffe gaining total air superiority over the R.A.F in order to give the Kriegsmarine a sporting chance of pulling off the cross-channel transportation without undue interference from the Royal Navy.
Target date for Sealion was Sept. 15th, & Goering assured Hitler that the RAF would be "destroyed" by that date.

Estimates of the forces ranged against each other vary, but look rather like this:

Luftwaffe: - 1,107 single-seat fighters; 357 two-seat fighters; 1,380 bombers; 428 dive bombers; 233 Coastal; 569 reconnaissance. Total - 4,074.
RAF: - 754 single-seat fighters; 149 two-seat fighters; 560 bombers; 0 dive bombers; 500 Coastal; 0 reconnaissance. Total - 1,963.

Stiff odds, given the response times of the day, plus the RAF were dispersed over a fair bit of mainland Britain whereas the Luftwaffe were poised in western France.

August 12th was a Prelude. The Luftwaffe launched attacks on the RDF (radar) network and three forward airfields. The three airfields (Manston, Kenley & Hawkinge) were re-commissioned by the morning of the 13th, whilst, of the six RDF stations, one was put out of action for a month & the remaining five were back in service the same day.
The Luftwaffe's High Command took to believing they'd destroyed the RDF sites & thus effectively 'blinded' the RAF.

Eagle Day minus 1 Losses: Luftwaffe - 31; RAF 22 planes & 11 pilots killed.

So. To the title Date. The Luftwaffe launched 1,485 sorties, the RAF responded with 727.

The 13th August could only be summed up as a total disaster for the Luftwaffe. We know of three occasions where communications had broken down allowing the attackers to be hit at will by the RAF because missions were incomplete. This naturally led to the Luftwaffe sustaining a great number of casualties. And the blunder by German Intelligence regarding Detling as mentioned, was a complete waste of time, and again because of the high casualty rate was also a waste of valuable aircraft and pilots. The total for the day was that the Luftwaffe had lost some 53 aircraft (another reference states that this figure was only 34) and nearly two hundred aircrew, while although not including the 68 airmen killed at Detling, the RAF lost 15 fighter aircraft and miraculously only three pilots were killed, but it was still a day of intense fighting.

Dowding (C/O of Fighter Command) said of this day '....it's a miracle'. He had been looking back on the days events and considered that it had been very busy all round, and that the fifteen planes that had been lost would be very easily replaced. Adlerangriff was to be an all out attack on the RAF and its fighter bases, but as yet all the wrong targets had been hit, causing no immediate concern to Fighter Command.

(Source)

This state of affairs would not continue. The Battle of France was long over, but the Battle of Britain was just beginning.

[Deathblade Eric]

Yesterday marked the 70th anniversary of one of the landmark speeches of the 20th Century; Churchill's address to the House on Tuesday 20th August 1940:

"The great air battle which has been in progress over this Island for the last few weeks has recently attained a high intensity. It is too soon to attempt to assign limits either to its scale or to its duration. We must certainly expect that greater efforts will be made by the enemy than any he has so far put forth. Hostile air fields are still being developed in France and the Low Countries, and the movement of squadrons and material for attacking us is still proceeding. It is quite plain that Herr Hitler could not admit defeat in his air attack on Great Britain without sustaining most serious injury. If after all his boastings and bloodcurdling threats and lurid accounts trumpeted round the world of the damage he has inflicted, of the vast numbers of our Air Force he has shot down, so he says, with so little loss to himself; if after tales of the panic-stricken British crushed in their holes cursing the plutocratic Parliament which has led them to such a plight-if after all this his whole air onslaught were forced after a while tamely to peter out, the Fuhrer's reputation for veracity of statement might be seriously impugned. We may be sure, therefore, that he will continue as long as he has the strength to do so, and as long as any preoccupations he may have in respect of the Russian Air Force allow him to do so.

"The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

In the Battle itself, the day saw little action - Rain Stopped Play for much of it.
"The RAF flew 450 sorties and lost 2 aircraft but shot down 6 German aircraft. Amongst these latter was the first success by one of the Polish squadrons, 302(P), which shot down a Ju88" source

BBC's coverage
Interview with Battle pilot W/Cdr Bob Foster