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B Battle of Britain

Cost

Human and material cost of Battle of Britain, as documented ranges.

Educational history. Casualty figures are documented ranges. This is not operational advice, a ranking of nations, or a how-to for weapons or coups.

Aircrew dead in the hundreds on the RAF side in the official battle; more if you widen the dates. Luftwaffe aircrew higher. Blitz civilians are the large urban number -- do not dump them unlabelled into "the battle."

Aces' scores are a poor guide to national cost.

Bands

Human-cost band

about 500-1,000 RAF aircrew dead in the battle period; Luftwaffe losses higher; civilian Blitz deaths are a linked but wider ledger

Dated span (10 July-31 October 1940 (official RAF dates))

Battle of Britain is taught as 10 July-31 October 1940 (official RAF dates). 1940-06 and 1969 are the usual poles.

Theatre (English Channel, southeast England, Lon.)

English Channel, southeast England, London approaches is the geography of the ledger -- cities, seas, plants, or ministries as the file requires.

Adlertag

1940-08-13: Main assault on airfields and radar -- mixed German results.

Official end

1940-10-31: RAF dating closes; night Blitz does not.

Regions

English Channel

Core theatre of Battle of Britain (10 July-31 October 1940 (official RAF dates)). Kanalkampf over convoys.

Channel

Jul 1940: Convoy fights; the learning month.

London

Sep 1940: Daylight capital; then night.

Memory

After: Films, flypasts, Polish plaques.

US / UK / AU / CA classrooms

Where Battle of Britain (10 July-31 October 1940 (official RAF dates)) is taught -- or skipped -- in US/UK/AU/CA surveys, often beside 1939-45 rather than beside Battle of Britain's own calendar.

Korean comparative reader

Battle of Britain (10 July-31 October 1940 (official RAF dates)) is world-history in a Korean classroom, often paired with Inchon or Tsushima when the subject is a hinge battle -- theatre here is English Channel, southeast England, London approaches.

Key numbers

Span10 July-31 October 1940 (official RAF d.
Cost bandabout 500-1,000 RAF aircrew dead in the.
TheatreEnglish Channel, southeast England, Lon.
Hero articleBattle of Britain

Makers

Hugh Dowding

Hugh Dowding (Fighter Command) is a named maker of the Battle of Britain story. Built the system, won the battle, lost the personnel fight. A late-honoured British type.

Keith Park

Keith Park (11 Group) is a named maker of the Battle of Britain story. The New Zealander who ran the southeast fight; also sidelined, later a hero in print.

Hermann Goring

Hermann Goring (Luftwaffe) is a named maker of the Battle of Britain story. Promised a sky he did not deliver; the political air marshal of the failure.

Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill (Prime minister) is a named maker of the Battle of Britain story. Wrote the Few and held the political war. The speeches are sources and myths together.

Adolf Galland

Adolf Galland (Luftwaffe ace) is a named maker of the Battle of Britain story. Later a frank German witness to the campaign's mis-aims -- use as a source, not as a hero template.

Douglas Bader

Douglas Bader (Big Wing icon) is a named maker of the Battle of Britain story. The legless ace of English legend and of the Leigh-Mallory camp -- a memory problem as well as a pilot.

Bent aircraft and burned-out pilots were the July-September clock.

Exile airmen who could not go home are a human leftover of 1940.

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