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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Collections search

A Battery Shelled
(art) Made by: Lewis, Percy Wyndham 1919
image: Three officers stand to the left of the composition beside a pile of ammunition boxes. Each looks in a different direction. One has his back to the viewer and looks out over the scene of the painting. There are marionette-like figures moving over...
An Air Raid Warden at Kano, Northern Nigeria
(art) Made by: Trevelyan, Julian (RA) 1942
image: A night scene of the town of Kano, in Nigeria. In the foreground the air raid warden stands holding what appears to be a long trumpet. He wears a white robe and a tin hat. Behind and around him the townspeople carry out their routine activities of...
War Diary in Four Volumes: Volume 1
(art) Made by: Ardizzone, Edward Jeffrey Irving 1943-06-21
whole: diary entries and images for 21 June 1943.
In the Image of Man, 1947
(art) Made by: Blyth, Robert Henderson 1947
image: A view from an elevated position overlooking a bombed town and green fields beyond. The central motif is of a shattered Calvary, the figure of a hollow Christ is broken and headless and surrounded by debris. A field ambulance is parked close to...
Defence of Albion
(art) Made by: Nash, Paul 1942
image: A Sunderland flying boat on a stormy sea off the coast of Portland. Part of the U Boat is visible in front of the plane. Large quarried stones are stacked on the shore.
Skull in a Landscape
(art) Made by: Burra, Edward 1946
image: A ghoulish, skeletal figure wearing a British steel helmet, stalks a featureless landscape against a red sky. The skull-like head has large black eye sockets and a fleshy nose. Its mouth, seen in profile, is the shape of a fish head and spine. The...
Battle of Britain
(art) Made by: Nash, Paul 1941
image: An abstracted aerial view of a wide flat landscape including the mouth of a river. Above the sky is full of contrails, and to the upper right aircraft can be seen flying in formation.
Void of War
(art) Made by: Nash, Paul 1918
image: an angular, almost abstract depiction of a shell-pocked landscape and shattered trees. A duckboard angles its way across the landscape, and driving rain falls from a cloud in the top left corner of the composition.
Harvest, 1918
(art) Made by: Orpen, William 1918
image: A scene with three French peasant women. Two of the women lean towards the ground as if harvesting, though they are actually tending a grave that is covered in stakes with barbed-wire. To the right another woman stands holding a baby. She has...
Youth Mourning
(art) Made by: Clausen, George 1916
image: A naked young woman, personifying Youth, kneels in a grief-stricken attitude before a wooden cross marking a grave. In the distance are the flooded craters of a battlefield.