How many spitfires were shot down

Britain was fortunate to have extracted its retreating expeditionary forces from the beaches at Dunkirk. Britain itself was next. The first objective for the Germans was to establish air superiority as a precondition for invasion. Not everyone agreed with Churchill. Appeasement and defeatism were rife in the British Foreign Office. Joseph P.

Key Pittman D-Nev. Thus it was that the events of July 10 through Oct. Britain won. The RAF proved to be a better combat force than the Luftwaffe in almost every respect. The decisive factors were British capability and determination, but German mistakes, before and during the battle, contributed significantly to the outcome. German rearmament was forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I, but aircraft development continued under the guise of civil aviation.

When Hitler came to power in , he pursued militarization openly. The Luftwaffe, formally established as a separate branch of service in , was soon the largest air force in Europe and, in the opinion of many, the best. German pilots honed their skills in the Spanish Civil War.

They perfected techniques, tested their airplanes—including the Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber and the Bf fighter—and gained experience. Lindbergh, toured German bases and factories in September In July , it was about twice the size of the RAF, but the critical measure was not gross numbers. Essentially, the Battle of Britain pitted the first-line fighters of RAF Fighter Command against the fighters, bombers, and dive bombers of two German air fleets.

In that matchup, the German advantage was significantly greater. The Luftwaffe was not as invincible as it looked. One of its fundamental weaknesses was unstable leadership. The commander in chief was Reichsmarschall Hermann W. He had become a fat, blustering caricature of himself. He had not kept up with changes in airpower and had little knowledge of strategy. Goering was prone to impulsive and erratic decisions.

When Hitler intervened in the decision-making, which he did regularly, the results were even worse. The officer corps was infatuated with the dive bomber. It had worked well for the Condor Legion in Spain, where pilots had difficulty hitting targets from high altitude. The dive bomber was accurate in putting bombs directly on compact targets, which predominated in Spain.

The foremost advocate of the dive bomber was Ernst Udet, another flamboyant flying ace from World War I. His friend Goering appointed him to be technical chief of the Luftwaffe, a position for which he was utterly unsuited. Udet insisted that every bomber have a dive bombing capability, which added weight and subtracted speed from numerous aircraft in development. It was enormously successful as a terror weapon in the Blitzkrieg.

A wind-powered siren, used in diving attacks, contributed to the psychological effect. Germany had no long-range bombers and would not field its first strategic bomber, the Heinkel , until What it had in was an assortment of twin-engine medium bombers, notably the slow-moving He and Do They had been adequate to supplement the Stuka on the continent, but they were out of their league in the Battle of Britain.

The best of the German medium bombers was the Ju 88, which had better range and speed, but it was just coming into production at that time.

The Luftwaffe also had the Bf , nominally a twin-engine fighter. It had good speed and range, but it was not agile enough to take on RAF fighters. Germany might have done well to use it instead as a fighter-bomber—which it did later in the war—but it was rarely employed in that role in It went on to score more victories than any other aircraft in World War II.

Its problem in was limited range. Flying from bases in France, it had only about 10 minutes of fighting time over London. It could not escort the bombers on deep penetration missions in Britain. At the same time the Germans had over 1, single seat fighters operational. The first kill by a Spitfire was on 16th October when Spitfires from and Squadrons intercepted a force of nine Junkers JU88s of Kampfesschwader 30 attacking shipping in the Firth of Forth.

During the Battle of Britain the nineteen Spitfire squadrons were responsible for shooting down enemy aircraft. An average of 27 per Spitfire. It was finally retired in July Anatoly says: 20 Dec PM As in many other places, you confuse kmh and mh.

It is mh, not a kmh maximal speed for Spitfire MK Vb. Adam V. The RAF Spitfires were on an unarmed tactical reconnaissance mission along the ill defined Israeli border when they were attacked by Israeli Spitfires and ground fire.

On the next day a Tempest fighter on a search and rescue mission was also shot down in the same region. Thankfully only one pilot was killed, otherwise the consequences might have been much more serious. Clearly this was no accident, but a clear attempt by the Israelis to force a conflict with Great Britain.

Bill says: 8 Jun PM Did you know There were more Hurricane Squadrons, than Spitfire's, but its a myth that the Battle of Britain was won by the spit.

The Hurricanes fought both German fighters and bombers However, both aircraft turned the battle, they were the "Few". Bill says: 5 Sep AM With eight. Anonymous says: 13 Jan AM Hi. I have 4 x griffon mk 57a50 engines I would like to sell I am from south africa can you please advise me who will be interested to purchase them Thank you.

Luc says: 26 Jul AM the first spitfire lost in combat was shot down by an Heinkel He gunner in April I read the story on a blog, I don't know it if is allowed to post links of other website. Anonymous says: 14 Jul PM the spitfire was undoubtedly the best plane in ww2, the germans would have been better off to copy their designs instead of contradicting them.

Gosling actually flew the fighter over directly over the restricted area so that the pilot could take photo's - thanks. Anonymous says: 22 Jul AM would it be possible to supply email adress of person on comment no8on the spitfire page as i would like to get in contact with him. Kimchi says: 5 Nov PM Anyways, however much you want to argue about facts and statistics and such things, two things are for sure.

The Spitfire did have a large impact on the tides of WW2 and the innovation of planes, and all of the pilots in WW2 in the Western Theater did a very good job in wiping out the Luftwaffe. God bless those brave pilots. According to Geoffrey Quill in his book "Spitifire", there was a bit of resistance to the Griffon as it was intitially considred to be less rugged and reliable than the Merlin preciselybecause of its "ancestry".

It soon proved itself in combat. Peter A. Sonic boom first occurs when the plane crosses Mach 1 and the plane continues producing sonic boom as long as the speed stays above Mach 1. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Lifehacks How many Spitfires were shot down?

Ben Davis February 15, How many Spitfires were shot down? Which was the fastest Spitfire? Is Thunder a sonic boom? But [Richard] pulled out and rocketed past, whipping over into a vertical turn at fantastic speed. As a result of the display, the Belgian Air Force put in an order for them. German pilots would soon get a much closer look at the Hurricane. After World War Two broke out, several RAF Hurricane squadrons were sent to France, where they occasionally encountered German aircraft during a period of relative calm.

German fighters were armed with small fast-firing cannon whose shells would explode when they hit their target. One or two would normally be enough to fatally damage an aircraft.

He says that in one early encounter in , one RAF pilot returned from a mission with five gaping holes in his fuselage from German cannon shells; the pilot had had no idea he had been hit. Not all Hurricane pilots would be so lucky, however. Though nimble at low altitudes, the Hurricane was more sluggish at greater heights; German fighter pilots were more aggressively trained and adept at attacking from behind, flying with the Sun at their back.

It was almost impossible to spot a small fighter in such a position. A mix of design defects and pilot habits created one particularly gruesome problem with Hurricanes. The doped fuselage and wooden frame could catch fire quite easily. Fuel would flow from damaged tanks in the wings to an empty space under the cockpit, but a bigger problem was the main fuel tank which sat directly in front of the cockpit.

Another factor compounded this. Some of the more experienced pilots at the start of the Battle of Britain had originally flown biplane fighters in the s and tended to fly with the canopy open. Also, early Hurricanes had a problem with carbon monoxide fumes leaking into the cockpit, so an open canopy meant they could take their oxygen mask off it was an incredibly uncomfortable thing to have on your face for the whole mission.

The open canopy, the unarmoured fuel tank in front of the cockpit, the tendency for Hurricane pilots to fly with an unfastened mask, all combined with agonising, disfiguring effect. The severity of these burns cases was a huge challenge for doctors.

McIndoe used experimental techniques — pioneering plastic surgery — on pilots with severe burns. He discovered saline water treatment helped burned skin heal more quickly after noticing shot down pilots who had been rescued from the English Channel tended to recover quicker than those who went down over land. McIndoe became aware some of his patients might need years of medical treatment, and realised treating the mental effects was as vital as the physical.

The pilots were able to wear normal civilian clothes or their uniforms while they were recovering and were encouraged to leave the hospital grounds when they wanted.

The people of East Grinstead were asked to invite the pilots into their homes and ignore their injuries. The club held yearly reunions in East Grinstead until , more than six decades after the end of the war. Some of the club members lived to see their th birthdays. The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight is famous for the graceful Spitfire which leads it from the front.

But next to it is always Hawker Hurricanes. The Hurricanes made an outsized contribution to the battle itself.