The Battle of Britain

The Battle of Britain — page 5 — and joined a prestigious social club in London In August 1939 he traveled to England just before the outbreak of World War II Fiske loved all high speed contests whether in bobsleds fast cars or fast planes His skills prepared him well for the Hawker Hurricane Along with the Supermarine Spitfire it was one of two principal fighter aircraft used by the RAF Still he had no training as a military pilot Nor had he ever seen aerial combat But he had every intention of joining the RAF even though he risked a criminal charge of fighting for a foreign power He was a US citizen and the United States was still neutral in the war By the summer of 1940 many of the nations of Europe had been at war for nearly a year High above southern England German and British pilots were locked in frenzied perilous high speed air battles Inside cramped fighter cockpits pilots gripped control sticks and stomped on foot operated rudders while spinning through tight turns and plunging into sudden dives They all knew the key rule of aerial combat flying in a straight line for too long with enemy planes nearby could mean death At more than 300 miles per hour HURRICANES AND SPITFIRES The RAF Fighter Command used both Nevertheless the Hurricane was the more Hawker Hurricanes and Supermarine Spitfires numerous aircraft used in the Battle of but the Spitfire won most of the attention Britain Hurricanes outnumbered Spitfires by from pilots the media and historians With approximately two to one in the RAF During its high speed high altitude capabilities and the course of the entire war the Hurricane impressive agility the Spitfire matched up scored 656 kills against German bombers and well with the German Bf 109 and proved a fighters besting the 529 kills achieved by the deadly opponent for any Luftwaffe bomber Spitfire 10

The Battle of Britain — page 6 — Fiske became an Olympic champion in bobsledding at the age of

The Battle of Britain — page 7 — 30 kmh they broke formation to pursue 1 enemy planes The force of the twists and THE EAGLE SQUADRONS turns stressed the pilots bodies streams of enemy bullets threatened to shred their Americans who left to fight in the United Kingdom were breaking neutrality laws in the planes wings or detonate their fuel tanks United States which banned citizens from joining foreign armies But so many Americans FIGHTING IN THE SKY arrived to fight in the summer of 1940 that the The commanders of the Luftwaffe were RAF decided to form Eagle Squadrons which determined to destroy British air power would include volunteers from the United States and other countries The first such squadron The German military had already defeated formed in September 1940 British recruiters France and occupied much of Europe Now smuggled out volunteers for the squadrons the United Kingdom stood alone against through Canada Eventually approximately Hitler's forces Germany had drawn up 250 US citizens would join the RAF's Eagle Squadrons by the time the United States formally invasion plans but it knew an invasion entered the war in December 1941 would fail if the RAF still had the power to attack German forces from the sky If the German army were to invade and conquer the United Kingdom as planned the RAF had to be knocked out its planes and airfields destroyed Leaders within the Luftwaffe knew they had to act quickly An amphibious invasion across the rough waters of the English Channel would be impossible by the fa For that reason Hermann Goring the Luftwaffe commander drew up plans for Unternehmen Adlerangriff or Operation Eagle Attack This campaign would be a powerful knockout blow delivered over several days By mid August 1940 the Germans were sending huge fleets of He 111 and Junkers Ju 88

The Battle of Britain — page 8 — Surviving crashes in fighter planes was a matter of both luck and skill protected by screens of Bf 109 fighters across the English Channel and the North Sea to attack airfields across the United

7

PAGE 7 OF 107

The only kids' eBook subscription service that offers thousands of high-quality books from well known publishers like HarperCollins, National Geographic and others.

JavaScript Required

Whoops! We're sorry but Epic doesn't work properly without JavaScript enabled. Check your web browser's settings to make sure it's enabled.