In 1939 The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan started
The Royal Air force was the first independent air force in the world having been formed on the 1st of April 1918. After World War I the Royal Air Force also became the largest air force in the world but this title would not remain for long. When the strength of the Luftwaffe was demonstrated in 1939, and war was imminent, the United Kingdom began large scale production of its air force. The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan started on the 17th of December 1939, training pilots in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK for areal warfare and strategic bombing. Pilots from all these countries and more would soon be available to fight within their own air force or part of the RAF.
Despite the increased preparations the RAF were numerically outnumbered by the Luftwaffe and previous fighting in the Battle for France signalled the Luftwaffe’s superiority of the skies. On the 10th of July 1940 the Luftwaffe began an aerial bombardment of British ships in the Channel marking the start of the Battle of Britain. Shortly after the Luftwaffe began to attack coastal shorelines until the 12th of August 1940 when their focus was turned to the RAF, airfields and radar bases. The Luftwaffe’s pilots favoured their Messerschmitt BF 109E (Me 109) for areal combat believing them to have superior manoeuvrability while RAF pilots preferred the Spitfire which could out manoeuvre the Me 109 with a smaller turning circular and superior weaponry (the spitfire had 8 machine guns compared to the Me 109’s 2 machine guns and two cannons).
Goering was concerned and surprised with the losses to the Luftwaffe during these raids and on the 4th of September he changed tactics once more with bombing raids of the major cities. These raids continued with the hope of destroying British infrastructure and morale. On the 15th of September the Luftwaffe sent out its largest fleet of 1,120 aircraft with the hope of initiating a large scale attack with the RAF and hopefully annihilating them once and for all. As the 500 bombers approached their target, London, with their 620 fighter escort, the 620 RAF fighters engaged the invaders and the largest areal battle in history ensued over the city of London. The RAF proved to be the superior force inflicting far more damage on the enemy despite fewer numbers. Hitler realised that an Aerial superiority of Britain would not be possible and therefore “Operation Sea Lion”, the invasion of Britain, never came to pass.
In the battle of Britain the RAF had 1,960 aircraft with 2,936 pilots and of these 595 were non British pilots. The foreign Allied pilots that aided in the battle of Britain include 145 Polish, 127 New Zealanders, 112 Canadians, 88 Czechoslovakians, 32 Australians, 28 Belgians, 25 South Africans, 13 French, 10 Irish, 7 from the US, 3 Rhodesians, 1 Jamaican and 1 Palestinian. Thanks to the efforts made by these allies, and the 2,341 British pilots, Hitler lost the Battle of Britain which ended on the 31st of October 1940.
During the Battle on the 20th of August 1940 Churchill gave a speech to the House of Commons, declaring that “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed to so few by so many”.
