History KS2: The Battle of Britain and beyond

Narrator: After France was defeated in June 1940, Hitler hoped the British forces would surrender and agree to an armistice, to stop fighting. However, the British held firm and so Hitler decided to prepare for an invasion of Britain.

But first, he had to destroy the RAF, which controlled the skies above Britain.

RAF stands for the Royal Air Force and they fought the war from aeroplanes built specially for fighting. This was where the Battle of Britain was fought, in the skies over southern Britain, against the German air force, the Luftwaffe.

The Germans first tried to destroy British air fields, so the RAF had fewer places to fly from. To stop these attacks, Britain had to use a new and complex communication system, using radar and information from people watching on the ground, incoming German planes were spotted early.

Once they knew where they were coming from, RAF planes and anti-aircraft guns were called into action. To make this system work, over one thousand observer posts had to be continuously manned by volunteers.

Full-time soldiers, which later on included the Women's Army, could then fire the guns where needed.

The fight back worked and eventually Germany realised they had failed to gain control over the skies. The planned invasion of Britain by the Nazis was stopped.

However, the Germans continued to bomb cities and other non-military targets for many more months. In what became known as the blitz.

As well as the Battle of Britain and the blitz, German aircrafts continued to attack Britain for the rest of the war. As they did this, RAF bombers were also sent to attack Germany.

Frank was a bomb aimer in a Lancaster bomber squadron, which flew on missions to Germany.

Interviewer: Which one are you?

Frank: The handsome one!

Narrator: He was responsible for insuring that the bombs accurately hit their targets. This was a very dangerous job.

Frank: On one occasion, we'd been debriefed and we were going out to the mess, a crew comes in and the bomb aimer is carrying his parachute and it's torn to ribbons. A piece of shrapnel from this anti-aircraft shell comes through, hits him in the chest, throws him off the foot of the pilot controls and he was not marked at all. On another occasion, the crew brought a bomb aimer back and he'd been hit and he was dead, he was killed, yeah. I was one of the lucky ones, came out without a scratch.

Narrator: As well as being dangerous, the job was very difficult. Frank remembers one of the missions he was sent on to destroy a bridge in Germany.

Frank: I watched those bombs go, miss the bridge, as all the others did, nobody hit the bridge on that occasion. That split second can make all the difference. If you're travelling up there at twenty five thousand feet, at two hundred miles an hour, you've just got to be on target if you possibly can.

Narrator: Did you know? As the war progressed, the RAF strategy changed from bombing strategic points like bridges and factories, to bombing cities as well, as the Germans had done. These bombings became increasingly powerful. Much heavier than those carried out by the Germans on British cities.

In the attack of the German city of Dresden in 1945, over a thousand British and American planes bombed the city.

Over three days, tens of thousands of people were killed.