The First Battle Fought Only in the Sky Began 75 Years Ago
The Battle of Britain changed war, and the world, forever.
On July 10, 1940, a German pilot spotted a convoy of British fighter planes and radioed base. Luftwaffe commander Colonel Johannes Fink replied with a single word: "Destroy!"
Soon, 70 German planes were flying in. The Royal Air Force scrambled four squadrons of Spitfire and Hurricane fighter planes.
The Battle of Britain had begun.
The battle wasn’t a single fight. It was a four-month campaign against the United Kingdom waged by the German Air Force, or Luftwaffe. It was the first large campaign fought only by air forces. And it was Germany’s first major defeat in the Second World War.
(Watch WWII-era planes fly over the Nation's Capitol to celebrate Victory in Europe Day's 70th anniversary.)
The casualties came to 500 British airmen, 2,600 German
