Battle of Britain FAQs

In June 1940 Germany conquered France and started to put in place the conditions that would enable an invasion of Great Britain.

Such an invasion could only take place if the German Luftwaffe controlled the skies over the English Channel and south east England, thereby denying the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm the ability to interfere with the landing of troops and equipment.

Thus the Battle of Britain (as it was called in a speech by the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill) came to be fought.

It is possible to define the Battle in a variety of ways. The official British definition came about because in 1945 it was announced that participating Allied aircrew would be entitled to the “immediate” award of the 1939-1945 Star with a Battle of Britain Clasp.

Eventually it was established that to qualify for this award a member of aircrew (not all were pilots) must have made one authorised operational sortie between the arbitrary dates of July 10 and October 31 1940, with one of 71 accredited squadrons and other units, all under the control of RAF Fighter Command.

Men who qualified for the award were “The Few”, so called after Mr Churchill, on August 20 1940, told the House of Commons that, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”.

No invasion took place.

10 July – 31 October 1940.

These were the dates favoured by Air Chief Marshal Dowding who had led Fighter Command in the Battle, though he accepted that they were arbitrary.

In the early summer of 1940 Germany had conquered France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark and Norway. Hitler contemplated invading Britain and might have done so if there had been a reasonable prospect of an invasion force crossing the Channel without heavy losses. Because the German Luftwaffe failed to eliminate the threat to the invasion posed by the RAF, the invasion never materialised.

In 1945 the Air Ministry announced that participants in the Battle would be entitled to the “immediate” award of the 1939-1945 Star with Battle of Britain Clasp. This award was to go to Aircrew who had made at least one operational sortie with an “accredited” unit under the control of RAF Fighter Command between the specified dates. The list of accredited units was amended in a series of further Air Ministry Orders until 1961. There are 71 such units. The award was only available to fighter aircrew.

No one is certain. There are 2,941 names on the Christopher Foxley-Norris Memorial Wall, but the actual number is probably slightly higher

This may be because your relative did not fly operationally between the specified dates or because his service was in Bomber or Coastal Command, Army Co-operation aircraft, etc.

If you feel that your relative has been overlooked, then the normal method of making the case is to produce a relevant reference to him in his squadron’s operations record book (likely to be held at The National Archives, Kew) or a clearly operational flight in his logbook, with the page signed by the CO or Flight Commander. If you wish to pursue a claim contact the Memorial Trust or the Air Historical Branch (via the RAF website).

Some Coastal Command and FAA squadrons were attached to Fighter Command during the Battle, enabling some of their aircrew to qualify for the Clasp. In addition some FAA pilots were attached to Fighter Command squadrons.

Some units in the Battle were equipped with Blenheim, Beaufighter or Defiant aircraft, which were multi-crewed and included air gunners.

The answer depends on definition. For example, one man was killed while on leave and another was standing on the ground when a landing aircraft struck him. A booklet published by the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust lists 534 aircrew who died during the Battle or were mortally injured and died later.

Far from it. Overseas participants included men from, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Newfoundland, South Africa, Rhodesia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, France, Belgium the United States and Ireland. One Air Gunner had been born in Austria and was officially stateless.

For a variety of reasons, none of the “league tables” of scores by Allied airmen can be relied on. Some people over claimed and others under claimed. Some intelligence officers were tougher than others in questioning claims. Many historians now accept that the highest scoring Allied pilot in the Battle was Sergeant Josef Frantisek, DFM, a Czechoslovakian flying with the Polish No 303 Squadron. He is often credited with 17 enemy aircraft destroyed. He was killed in a flying accident on 8 October 1940.

Geoffrey Page was a 20-year-old Pilot Officer flying Hurricanes with No 56 Squadron in the Battle. On 12 August 1940 he was shot down and baled out into the sea with grievous burns. He was rescued and underwent many operations at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, where he became a founder member of The Guinea Pig Club. Later in the war Geoffrey returned to action and earned the DSO, DFC and bar, before being injured again. In the 1980s he founded the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust and was the driving force in creating the National Memorial. He died in 2000.

The future Air Chief Marshal Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris was one of the Army Co-operation pilots who converted to fighters in 1940 at a time of desperate need. He flew Hurricanes in the Battle with No 3 Squadron. Later in the war he became one of the leading pilots in the RAF specialising in low level attacks on ships bringing industrial supplies to Germany and was awarded the DSO. Sir Christopher held senior commands in the post-war RAF. He was President and a great benefactor of the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust and a long serving Chairman of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association, of which only “the Few” may be full members. He died in 2003.

Scramble is an RAF expression meaning “take off immediately”.

In the sense that no invasion was attempted, then “yes”. Historians continue to argue over the finer points of what took place.

It depends on your definition, which aircraft are included, etc. In absolute terms the answer is “yes”.

Many were teenagers and in their early 20s. Plenty were in their later 20s. Some were in their 30s and a few were over 40. We think the oldest man to qualify for the Battle of Britain Clasp was 51-year-old Defiant air gunner, Pilot Officer Sydney Carlin.

Many pilots felt that there was little to choose between the Spitfire and the 109. Each had advantages over the other. The Hurricane was an older design than the Spitfire, was slower and could only operate effectively at a lower altitude but it could turn more tightly than both the Spitfire and the 109 and pilots often felt that it could take more punishment than the Spitfire. On the other hand, the design of the Hurricane meant that men flying it were in more danger of serious burns if the aircraft was hit. The Bf 110 normally carried a crew of two and was slower and heavier than the other types.

Yes; there are many photographs and accounts of veterans to demonstrate the point. Apart from authenticity, a reason for the “seated airman” to wear a jacket is that it means we do not know his rank, nationality or aircrew trade.