The Battle of Britain

The Air War 1939-1945

An RAF Handley Page Halifax Mk III bomber over an oil refinery target in Germany’s Ruhr industrial region, October 1944.; By this stage of the war, Allied air superiority allowed raids to be flown in daylight. The bomber offensive remains controversial, but the Allied campaign against Germany’s synthetic oil industry in the last months of the war had a major impact on fuel production and left the German armed forces virtually paralysed.

An RAF Handley Page Halifax Mk III bomber over an oil refinery target in Germany’s Ruhr industrial region, October 1944.

photographs

By this stage of the war, Allied air superiority allowed raids to be flown in daylight. The bomber offensive remains controversial, but the Allied campaign against Germany’s synthetic oil industry in the last months of the war had a major impact on fuel production and left the German armed forces virtually paralysed.

Licensing

Click through to the Collections item to see licencing options

The Second World War witnessed a major leap in the effectiveness of military aircraft. Advances in technology permitted bigger, faster and more capable designs. Radar provided the means to fly and fight in the dark, and the first jet aircraft were in...

The Second World War witnessed a major leap in the effectiveness of military aircraft. Advances in technology permitted bigger, faster and more capable designs. Radar provided the means to fly and fight in the dark, and the first jet aircraft were in service at the war's end.

In the early years, the German Air Force controlled the skies above Hitler's armies and served as flying artillery. This requirement for local air superiority, and the use of ground attack aircraft, became common to all battlefronts as the war progressed. Aircraft came to dominate the skies over the oceans too. The once-mighty battleship proved acutely vulnerable, and even submarines could be sunk from the air.

Strategic bombing put civilians and workers in the front line. Germany was first to attack city targets, but the Allied bomber offensive was vastly more destructive. Air power reached a terrible climax with the nuclear bombing of Japan.

Read more

  • Bristol Beaufighter Mk Xs of No. 404 Squadron RCAF

    photographs

    Bristol Beaufighter Mk Xs of No. 404 Squadron RCAF; Bristol Beaufighter Mk Xs of No. 404 Squadron RCAF on a training sortie from Dallachy in Scotland, February 1945. These rocket-armed strike aircraft took part in operations against enemy shipping off the Norwegian coast. As the war progressed, Germany’s supplies of iron ore and other strategic materials from neutral Sweden were successfully interdicted by the RAF’s anti-shipping squadrons.