Channel
Convoy fights; the learning month.
Dunkirk and the French collapse are the preface. Without fighters saved in June, August is a different sentence.
Sea Lion on paper is not the same as barges in the Channel -- keep the invasion scare in proportion.
Timeline
- France falls
Britain expects invasion; fighters are hoarded.
- Official start
Kanalkampf over convoys.
- Adlertag
Main assault on airfields and radar -- mixed German results.
- Hardest day
A later named peak of losses on both sides.
- The Few speech
Churchill's sentence enters the language.
- London day raid
The turn to the capital; airfields breathe.
- Battle of Britain Day
Heavy daylight fighting; later the ritual date.
- Official end
RAF dating closes; night Blitz does not.
- Blitz eases
German weight shifts east toward Barbarossa.
- Film Battle of Britain
A memory machine in Technicolor.
Eras
Airfields
11 Group under strain.
London
Daylight capital; then night.
Official close
Fighter Command still fighting; dating ends.
Memory
Films, flypasts, Polish plaques.
Milestones
Daylight air superiority denied
Sea Lion's sky condition unmet.
Integrated air defence shown
Radar plus control rooms.
A civic vocabulary
The Few -- for better and narrower.
31 October is an accounting date. The Blitz and 1941 night war are the sequel civilians lived.
Dowding and Park's removal is part of the history of the victory, not a postscript of ingratitude only.