Why was England able to defeat the German air force in the Battle of Britain?

Answer 1

The Battle of Britain essentially pitted the defending British Royal Air Force (RAF) against the attacking German Luftwaffe. A number of factors favored the RAF from the beginning.

Radar

Prior to Hitler's attacks, the British had installed "Chain Home" and "Chain Home Low," a system of fixed radar and radio installations scattered mainly along the southern and eastern coasts of England. These stations enabled the British to detect approaching aircraft at distances of 120 miles or more, thereby giving the RAF a good half-hour to respond. RAF pilots were scrambled and vectored directly to targets, knowing exactly where the Germans were, how high, how many, and which direction they were flying.

Early in the battle, German strafing and dive-bombing raids were aimed at the Chain Home stations, with some success, forcing the British to fall back on human spotters in some areas. But a shift in German strategy soon took the pressure off the radar system, and it continued to work well until the battle was over.

Time on Target

The bombers the Germans sent to England were sitting ducks for RAF fighters, unless they were closely escorted by the Luftwaffe Messerschmitts. German philosophy and aircraft design had always produced aircraft that would fulfill a tactical role -- as opposed to the strategic role they were attempting to fill -- and they paid dearly for it in the Battle of Britain. German bombers were relatively small and lightly armored, easy prey if unescorted.

But a key downfall of the primary escort fighter, the vaunted Bf109, was its miserably short time on target. Flying out of bases in France, and without external fuel stores, the 109s could only operate over London for about ten minutes before being forced out of the battle for lack of fuel. The RAF pilots, flying with full gas tanks from airfields mere minutes away, quickly learned this and simply waited for the 109s to depart before tearing the bombers to pieces.

Shifts in German Strategy

Early German raids on Chain Home stations were followed by concentrated attacks on RAF airfields and hangars. Later analysis has shown that this strategy could have been the downfall of the RAF, forcing it to withdraw to the north and giving the Germans the effective air supremacy over southern England and the channel that German invasion plans required.

But within a few weeks, Hitler's forces began bombing civilian targets, especially London. This change gave the RAF the much-needed opportunity to rebuild and regroup. Though thousands of British civilians perished in the raids, the RAF's Hurricanes and Spitfires were able to make the Luftwaffe pay a very dear price, which in the end proved unsustainable for the Germans.

Other Issues

The British were fighting essentially at home. Besides the obvious motivation that fact provided, combined with the coordinated use of Chain Home, this meant that RAF fighters could be scrambled quickly and vectored to targets accurately, with nearly-full fuel tanks, and without the need for constant patrolling. British pilots who bailed out over England were sometimes back in a cockpit and flying again the same day; German pilots who parachuted became prisoners of war or drowned in the English Channel, and were forever lost to the German war effort.