The+Battle+of+Britain

After the German success in France, they decided to go for Great Britain. First, since Hitler still admired the British and thier fighting spirit, Germany offered a peace treaty that demands that Britain recognize Germany as the main power in continental Europe. The British declined. Then, Germany went on the offensive. They had already made plans for an invasion of England, code named "Operation Sealion" (sealion is pronounced almost like zealion in German), which called for a massive invasion of England from the English Channel. This however, could not be achieved at that moment because in order for the operation to succeed, the Germans needed complete control of the air. For this, the Germans decided to do what they had always done. They would use their elite pilots to destroy the Royal Air Force and pound Britain into submission. However, the this operation had very bad timing, because almost the same time, the Germans lunched Operation Bararossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, which took up much men and material, including vital airmen that were needed in knocking out Great Britain. This probably saved the British, as they were gettiing mauled by the the German Luftwaffe in the early part of the battle. As said before, the battle was favoring the Germans for a very long time, until something miraculous happened. A British bomber that strayed from its formation (as the British were counter bombing the Germans) bombed Berlin. Now, Hitler had said that no airplane would ever bomb Berlin and so this accidental bombing really set him off. He then ordered the Luftwaffe bomber wings to go for a relentless bombing of London. This, although it seemed like the worst possible outcome, was a godsend to the RAF. Before that time, Germany had been taking out its rage on Great Britain's RAF bases, which handicapped the RAF's capabilities to beat off the German threat. However, with all of Germany's effort focused on London, the RAF had time to recuperate and so they could finally launch a great fighter force to beat off Germany's "invincible" Luftwaffe. This is what eventually, after many more long struggles beat the Luftwaffe from the British Isles and postponed Operation Sealion indefinitely.