The 17th September - 86 years ago

In the previous blog about Operation Sea Lion, the planned German invasion of mainland Britain, I wrote how to achieve their stated aims, the Luftwaffe would need full control of the British skies. The German navy, the Kriegsmarine would also need dominant control of the sea in order to allow the invasion barges filled with troops to safely make it across the channel. Britain had spent the summer of 1940 expecting an invasion. After Dunkirk, the German forces were massed on the channel coast and preparing to push forward. The had assembled heavy guns at Pas-de-Calais region in northern France, massed troops and landing barges on the coast. As September dawned, the RAF still had control of the skies and started a bombing campaign deliberately designed to take out the landing barges the Germans had assembled. By September 7th the Luftwaffe switched its bombing raids away from targetting RAF bases and installations to bombing cities. This was designed to not only bring death to a…