Battle of Britain (1940): The Few speech — Section 1013: The Few speech

The 1940 air campaign in which the RAF denied Germany daylight control of southern England -- a prerequisite for any invasion scare, and a British memory engine. The Battle of Britain, in RAF official dating, ran from 10 July to 31 October 1940: Kanalkampf over the Channel, then attacks on airfields and aircraft plants, then the turn toward London after 7 September. Hitler's invasion sketch (Sea Lion) required air superiority the Luftwaffe did not win in daylight.

Fighter Command under Dowding, with Park's 11 Group in the southeast, used Chain Home radar and a ground-controlled interception system that was as important as any Spitfire silhouette. RAF aircrew dead in the battle period are usually counted in the high hundreds; Luftwaffe aircrew losses were higher. Civilian deaths belong mainly to the Blitz ledger that overlapped and outlasted the official battle.

Churchill's "Few" sentence made this the British civic air war. English-speaking memory sometimes treats it as the war; it was a necessary 1940 survival, not 1945. Korean readers should hear it beside the later UN air war in 1950-53: radar and fighters as a defensive system, not as a how-to of interception.