The Battle of Britain Was The First Defeat For The German Luftwaffe.

[flyingblind]

It was never about winning or losing individual battles or about skill or courage. The axis lost due to a lack of resources. Germany went into Russia and particularly North Africa to secure oil supplies. When they failed they had no chance even without the overwhelming output of equipment from America. The same with Japan. The Americans had more fuel in a fuel dump on one island in the Pacific than the entire fuel available to Japan. This was a large part of the rational behind Kamikazi tactics. They literally could not keep flying missions and it was a last desperate attempt to inflict maximum damage on the advancing enemy.

There was a good documentary on the Battle of Britain done by the BBC a little while back. The premise of that was that Germany failed in its objectives due to tactics and logistics. The Germans over engineered thier aircraft and simply could not keep up with the numbers of the more basic British offerings. The British had a good system of pilot rotation whereas the Germans were soon suffering from fatigue. Also the British had a good system of radar that was used to good effect. On top of all that was Goerings monumental blunder of switching from military to civillian targets. Finally the Germans ran out of time and missed the chance of mounting an invasion before Winter set in and so continuing that particular battle became pointless.