Herman Goring, the commander of the German air force, the Luftwaffe, convinced Hitler that he would be able to take out Southern British defenses and the entire Royal Air Force in four weeks. 60 German bombers were sent to attack a large British convoy in the channel. To their surprise, The R.A.F was already there to meet them. The R.A.F shoot down 10 German aircraft before only one ship sank. On August 13th, 1940, The Germans launch operation Eagle Day. German bombers were to destroy R.A.F airfields to weaken the British defense. Due to poor communications, not all German pilots got the orders to turn back and were left isolated in the British air space. The R.A.F had won the day and shot down 47 German aircraft. 86 German pilots were killed, missing, or captured.
Found on a shot down bomber, a note with the word knickebein is discovered. Through intelligence gathered from captured German pilots, it is discovered that knickebein, or crooked leg in English, is a radio system that allows bombers to navigate in the dark. The ability of the Luftwaffe to do bombing raids at night rendered British defenses useless. The Knickebein radio system used radio beams to guide the bombers, giving them approximate distances and directions to the targets.
The Blitz is a time period spanning from September of 1940 to May of 1941 in which the knickebein system was in use to carry out night time bombing raids on Britain. These night raids proved successful until the emergence of British night fighter operations. The British night fighters were fighter planes mounted with special radio targeting systems which allowed them to repel night time bombing raids.
The Battle of Britain day is the largest aerial assault during the Battle of Britain. 475 aircraft were sent over for a massed attack on London. This massed assault proved to be the biggest failure of the Luftwaffe as they failed to cause considerable damage to London, and 56 German aircraft were lost while only 28 British aircraft were lost. The R.A.F due to their more frequent success against the Luftwaffe prove to Hitler that he can not invade Britain. Hitler called off the invasion and The Battle of Britain ended on Halloween of 1940.
https://www.netflix.com/watch/80989927?trackId=14170286&tctx=1%2C1%2C5f001256-ee46-4336-b6bb-f99bde676e38-449796907%2C5064ea0f-81c8-46a4-af3c-a3e26acbdd5c_13002411X3XX1575864808256%2C5064ea0f-81c8-46a4-af3c-a3e26acbdd5c_ROOT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_fighter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Britain_Day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blitz#Final_attacks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Beams
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/July-August-08/On-this-Day--Germany-Launches-the-Battle-of-Britain-.html
Something that I found interesting in what you mentioned was the knickebein system. The system was a collection of two-radio beams, one for general guidance over the area and a more specific one relaying information to steer towards the actual bombing site. These beams were called the Gee and Oboe. Aside from this, planes often had radar mapping systems that displayed detailed images of beaches and target locations. Planes often also used incendiary to light up and guide other planes.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.britannica.com/topic/air-warfare/Ground-attack#ref511431