in the Britain was on, and we “And now the Battle of peared under it. A. A. guns ap er th ra or it, in re we Weald s, with the fights all over our head in various fields. Dogaking in the cold upper air m ts us ha ex of ct fe ef ic dramat ped and e fighters as they swoo white streaks around th see of the sky. We used to ue bl e th t ns ai ag ed irl sw s; bombs with the bailed out pilot parachutes descending ll.” us at night; shrapnel fe nd ou ar ed on tis jet re we
L. R athbone, Smarden. ntrails edral with co St Paul’s Cath the ove it during in the sky ab M. IW ain, 1940. © Battle of Brit
The Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, July - October 1940, is without doubt the greatest air battle in history. The battleground was the skies above Kent and the orchards, fields and villages below where hundreds of aircraft crashed. RAF P-51 Mustang takes off from a wet runway during a test at the Ashford air base, 21 October 1943. © IWM.
the Battle The first major incident of tember 1940 of Britain occurred on 2 Sep s and Spitfires when more than 70 Hurricane hter and bomber intercepted 250 German fig planes over Ashford. Later, on 15 September 194 0, now celebrated as the Battle of Britain Day, waves of German bombers and fighters flew above the Kent countryside bound for London. 21 squadrons scrambled to meet the fray and by nightfall the RAF had sho t down 61 German aircraft, 34 of which were bombers, for the loss of 26 fighters. In the whirling dogfight tha t ensured, the skies were filled with curling tracers, smoking aircraft and the crackle of ammunition. For the peo ple of Kent who watched from below it was impossible to distinguish friend from foe .
Two German Dornier 17 bombers over West Ham in London during a raid on the first day of the Blitz, 7 September 1940. © IWM.
A Heinkel He 111 bomber fly ing over the Isle of Dogs in the East End of London at the start of the Luftwaffe’s evenin g raids on 7 September 1940, the first day of the Blitz. © IWM.
erator A battle-da maged B-24H Lib Ashford at up of the 490th Bomb Gro IWM. © 4. airfield on 30 June 194
A formation of German bombers, 1940. During Britain, the Heinkel’s punish ment was one of
Heinkel He 111 the Battle of ability to take heavy its strengths. © IWM.