Aeroplane Magazine Luftwaffe Over Britain Special Issue

Few in Britain would avoid the reach of the Luftwaffe during the Second World War. Even in the first six months of 1940, its early raids against maritime targets dwarfed in scale the sorties conducted by the Luftstreitkräfte in the previous war.

While an invasion force readied to cross the Channel, the Luftwaffe threatened to dismantle the key to Britain’s defences - the RAF - in one of the largest aerial campaigns of that global conflict. The battle for air superiority was quickly followed by the world’s first ever large-scale sustained bombing campaign - the Blitz - the assault on British cities and on the morale of its people. Britain endured, while the Luftwaffe failed. By D-Day in 1944, the raids had become infrequent, opportunistic and costly on the aggressor.

This is the incredible story of the four-year air campaign that, for the first time in modern history, transformed large areas of Britain into a major conflict zone.