Today, July 10, 2021, is the 81st anniversary of the start of the Battle of Britain.

From July 10, 1940, until October 31, the Battle of Britain raged over British skies.

It overlapped with the Blitz which saw German bombs rain down on London and other UK cities such as Bristol, Cardiff, Belfast, and Glasgow.

To mark the anniversary of the start of this famous and historic World War Two battle, here’s what you need to know about what happened in the Battle of Britain…

What was the Battle of Britain?

The Battle of Britain was a sustained campaign that saw the Royal Air Force defend the UK against the Luftwaffe – Nazi Germany’s air force.

The name of the battle came from a speech by then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who said on June 18, 1940: ‘What General Weygand called the ‘Battle of France’ is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin.’

The Battle of Britain started out with the Luftwaffe largely targeting ports and then moving on to RAF infrastructure and factories before eventually bombing civilian locations with a view to forcing the British to broker a deal for peace.

It’s been argued that the fact that the battle did not result in victory for the Germans was the first important Nazi defeat of the war.

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British historians have it that the Battle of Britain lasted for three months and three weeks from July 10, 1940, until Halloween – this overlaps with the start of the Blitz, which began on September 7, 1940, and ended on May 11, 1941.

However German historians take the view that the Blitz and the Battle of Britain were both one and the same.

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