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.

Main menu

IWM London
London
Open daily 10am - 6pm
Closed 24, 25 and 26 December

Admission is free
- What's On
- Visiting Information
IWM North
Manchester
Open daily 10am - 5pm
Last admission 4.30pm
Closed 24, 25 and 26 December

Admission is free
- What's On
- Visiting Information
IWM Duxford
Cambridgeshire
Open daily

Summer 10am - 6pm
Last admission 5pm

Winter 10am - 4pm
Last admission 3pm

Closed 24, 25 and 26 December
- What's On
- Visiting Information
Churchill War Rooms
London
Open daily 9.30am - 6pm
Last admission 5pm
Closed 24, 25 and 26 December
- What's On
- Visiting Information
HMS Belfast
London
Open daily 10am - 6pm
Last admission 5pm
Closed 24, 25 and 26 December
- What's On
- Visiting Information

Collections search

A Blockhouse Somewhere in England
(art) Made by: Duffy, Louis 1943
image: a blockhouse in a rural location. In the foreground there are six girders sunk into the ground, surrounded by rocks and cast concrete forms. In the background there is a row of similar concrete blocks running along the edge of a plowed field on a...
War in the Forest : Newfoundland lumberjacks at work in Scotland
(art) Made by: Sutherland, David M (MC, RSA) 1940
image: Lumberjacks at work in a Scottish forest. In the foreground two men are cutting a large tree trunk with a saw and a man tends to a white horse. In the background other men manoeuvre the large trunk of a tree that has just been felled.
Limestone Quarry Trucks
(art) Made by: Sutherland, Graham (OM) 1943
image: crates of quarried stone sitting in wheeled trucks on rails that end at the quarry face. In the background there is a third crate which is empty, and a figure standing nearby.
Lime Quarry Trucks
(art) Made by: Sutherland, Graham (OM) 1943
image: three quarry trucks, the foremost two filled with limestone, on tracks in front of a quarry face to the left.
Lime Quarry Trucks
(art) Made by: Sutherland, Graham (OM) 1943
image: a number of red quarry trucks, the foremost of which is filled with limestone. They run on tracks which run to the quarry face on the left. A worker is visible at the quarry face.
The Quarry Truck
(art) Made by: Sutherland, Graham (OM) 1943
image: a detailed image of a quarry truck on a railway track filled with lumps of stone, with a face of the quarry visible behind. Other filled quarry trucks are also visible further down the track.
Shelter Experiments, near Woburn, Bedfordshire
(art) Made by: Piper, John (CH)
image: a view across a depopulated rural landscape where bomb shelter experiments have been conducted. Two domed igloo- like concrete structures stand in the foreground, one largely intact, the other largely destroyed. Further back is a shattered brick...
An AA Battery : River Medway
(art) Made by: Pitchforth, Roland Vivian (RA) 1943
image: a view looking down on several anti-aircraft guns, including two Bofors guns, in gun emplacements with a few soldiers moving around in between the maze of walls in the battery. The battery is positioned on the coast with the sea and a small dock...
An AA Battery
(art) Made by: Pitchforth, Roland Vivian (RA) 1943
image: Two figures stand in the centre of a road in the foreground. Behind them, just off the roadside, is a gun battery. An anti-aircraft gun points up to the sky, surrounded by a circular stone wall and sandbags. The rooftops of a large town lie...
A Royal Observer Corps Post, Rottingdean
(art) Made by: Pitchforth, Roland Vivian (RA) 1944
image: a view looking down on two observers, one wearing headphones, facing upwards towards the sky with binoculars and a aircraft range finder. They stand in a small brick enclosure on a hillside near the coast.