The Battle of Britain

The battle begins, summer 1940
The battle begins, summer 1940

After defeating France in June 1940, Hitler assumed Britain would sue for peace but ordered his armed forces to prepare for invasion. Hermann Goering assured him that a sustained air assault would destroy the RAF, winning the air superiority needed.
A Heinkel He 111 bomber flying over London, September 1940
A Heinkel He 111 bomber flying over London, September 1940

July 1940 saw German planes target shipping in the Channel, drawing the RAF into combat, before radar stations, communications centres and airfields faced round-the-clock bombing in August. The battle reached a climax with attacks on London in September.
The Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF)
The Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF)

Joan 'Elizabeth' Mortimer, Elspeth Henderson and Helen Turner of the WAAF. All three received the Military Medal for courageous conduct during attacks on Biggin Hill airfield. Biggin Hill suffered a total of ten major attacks between 30 Aug and 5 Sept.
Non-British personnel in the RAF
Non-British personnel in the RAF

A group of pilots of No. 303 (Polish) Squadron RAF return from a sortie. The first Polish squadrons were formed in the summer of 1940. Pilots came from several other countries, including Australia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, New Zealand and the USA.
Sector 'G' Operations Room at RAF Duxford
Sector 'G' Operations Room at RAF Duxford

RAF Duxford was a Sector Station in 12 Group, responsible for defending the Midlands and East Anglia. As the fighting intensified, Duxford's squadrons were called on to support 11 Group's defence of London and the south-east.
Hawker Hurricane Mk Is of No. 85 Squadron RAF
Hawker Hurricane Mk Is of No. 85 Squadron RAF

Despite incessant attacks, the RAF's defences held. The Luftwaffe could not continue, and in the autumn switched to 'nuisance' raids and night operations. The failure to defeat the RAF convinced Hitler to postpone his invasion plans indefinitely.

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Battle of Britain: The Bells of St Clement's
(art) Made by: Gray, Joseph 1940
image: a view inside the bomb damaged church of St Clement's in London, the famous bells lying on the floor surrounded by rubble and debris. Behind them is an archway, revealing a broken window in the far wall.
The Dance of Death - Death Waits
(art) Made by: Smith, Percy Delf 1919
image: Death, personified as a skeleton wrapped in drapery, sits pensively on the edge of a front line trench defended with barbed wire.
The Dance of Death - Death Awed
(art) Made by: Smith, Percy Delf 1919
image: Death, personified as a skeleton wrapped in a cloak, stands on a duckboard in a flooded battlefield, looking at a pair of boots sited in a puddle to the left. The boots contain remnants of flesh and shattered bone.
The Dance of Death - Death Marches
(art) Made by: Smith, Percy Delf 1919
image: a column of British infantrymen march along a road in rows of four, seen from a slightly elevated angle. Marching alongside them is Death, personified as a skeleton wrapped in a cloak.
The Dance of Death - Death Ponders
(art) Made by: Smith, Percy Delf 1919
image: Death, personified as a skeleton wrapped in a cloak, watches a British infantryman gasping for air. The soldier lies on his front, clutching at the edges of the shell-hole he has fallen into. He is wearing a gas-mask as clouds of poison gas...
The Dance of Death - Death Forbids
(art) Made by: Smith, Percy Delf 1919
image: a British infantryman lies pinned by a fallen tree, his hand raised in an attempt to attract the attention of his comrades, three of whom are disappearing into the far left distance. Death, personified as a skeleton wrapped in a cloak, reaches out...
The Dance of Death - Death Refuses
(art) Made by: Smith, Percy Delf
image: a scene showing the bottom of a dark trench. A dying British infantryman lies entangled with his dying companion, both wearing gas masks. He raises his arm in supplication towards the departing figure of Death, dressed in a cloak, who turns his...
The Dance of Death - Death Intoxicated
(art) Made by: Smith, Percy Delf
image: the scene of a battle showing a British infantryman wearing a gas mask, poised to bayonet a German soldier emerging from a trench on the left of the composition. The German is unarmed and has his back to his assailant. Death, personified as a...
The Doctor
(art) Made by: Nevinson, C R W (ARA) 1916
image: a scene at a dressing station with the wounded being treated by medical orderlies and a doctor. In the foreground a soldier sitting up on a stretcher on the floor cries out in pain as a doctor examines his head wound. Other figures pass in the...
Twilight 1917
(art) Made by: Nevinson, C R W (ARA) 1917
image: a medical orderly carries a wounded man slumped on his back through a battlefield. From below the horizon the sun sends rays up into the sky that fan out behind the figures of the two men. A line of barbed wire, trenches and broken ground are...