In just six weeks Hitler’s
forces had overrun Western Europe as once-proud armies fell before
the might of the German ‘Blitzkrieg’. It was a devastating
defeat, now Britain stood alone and few thought she could survive.
As Churchill pledged that Britain would never surrender, a German
invasion seemed inevitable. But before any invasion could take
place, the Luftwaffe must neutralise the RAF and win control
of the skies over southern England. Awaiting them was a small,
but resilient band of young men, the pilots of RAF Fighter Command.
First the Germans attacked the coastal convoys, hoping to draw
the RAF en-masse into battle. They failed. And then on 12 August,
they turned their full attention to the forward fighter bases
and radar stations, hoping to obliterate them once and for all.
From Norway in the north, through the Low Countries and northern
France to Brittany in the west, the Luftwaffe threw every available
aircraft into the attack. For the young men of Fighter Command
the next
seven days of fighting would leave them exhausted and all but
spent: They were to be the hardest days of the Battle of Britain,
culminating on Sunday 18 August.
"Air Armada" recreates a moment on that day as Heinz
Bär, the Luftwaffe’s top-scoring NCO Ace of the Battle
of Britain and one of the greatest Aces in history, climbs away
from his airfield near Calais with the other pilots of 1./JG51
(Mölders) to escort the Do17s of KG76 for yet another deadly
attack on the RAF.
Away in the distance, Me110s from EPRG 210 also prepare to join
the epic encounters that lie ahead. |