What happened at the Battle of Britain?

70 years ago an epic conflict took place between Allied and Axis powers. It was one of the defining moments of World War II and changed the nature of armed conflict forever

The Battle of Britain was an exclusively aerial campaign between Allied and Axis forces which began in the summer of 1940 and culminated in May of 1941. The objective of the German-led aerial assault on Britain was to completely destroy the Royal Air Force (RAF)and render Fighter Command useless, so a planned land invasion of Britain could begin. The Luftwaffe (Germany's air force) was ordered by Hitler to drive the RAF from the skies in It he shortest possible time, and led by notable First World War veteran fighter pilot Hermann Wilhelm Goring, the then Reich Minister of Aviation, what was to follow was a costly-in terms of human life and financially - battle of attrition.

At the head of Britain's defence was Hugh Dowding, the then Air Chief Marshal of the RAF and Fighter Command, which had been set up in 1936 to oversee and manage Britain's emerging modern air force. Fighter Command led its RAF-based defence of Britain from Bentley Priory, London, communicating with airfields, radar stations, pilots and other communications headquarters over the south east (where the majority of the battle took place) and other regions of the country. At his disposal was a well-ordered yet numerically inferior air force to that of the Germans, with many pilots lacking valuable experience. Contrary to Dowding, Goring inherited a Luftwaffe of great.