Figure 1.--Here an unidentified sits in the ruins of her bombed home during the Battle of Britain (August 24, 1940). Thisd has aooked of a staged photograoph, but plenty of children were found in the remains of their bombd out home. And this was before the Blitz on London. The German killed about 40,000 civilians and destroyed some 2 million homes, assuming that they could bomb other countries at home. Killing civilians is not how wars are won. For that bloody, but militarily inconsequental success, Germany's most formiable military force was damaged with consequences for the invasion of the Soviet Union -- the decisive campaign of World War II.

In purely military terms, the Battle of Britain was more of a blow to the Germans than commonly understood. Perhaps most importantly is thst Hitler experienced his first defeat and the War was not going to be the short one he was seeking. And the World War I-like war of attrition that Germany was not going to win was shaping up. The most obvious accomlishment of the Germns was killing 40,000 civilians and destroying or damaging 2 million homes. The losses were tragic, but wars are not won by killing civilians and destroying homes. The German bombing did not significantly impact the British war economy which would soon be bolstrered by American Lend-Lease. In exchange for dubious success in killing civilians, the Luftwaffe was seriously damaged. During the initial phase of the battle (July-October 1940). The aircraft losses were relatively comparable--nearly 2,000 German planes as opposed to some 1,750 British planes. Planes could be replaced and by the time of the battle, the Brits were out producing the Germans in aircraft construction. And the American Arsenal of Democracy was just gearing up. Air crews were a very different matter. Nearly 2,600 German air crews were killed. Compared to only about 550 British air crews. The primary reason for this disparity was that the German attacking force was primarily multi-crewed bombers, which the defendung British aircradt were singke seated fighters. Even so, the Germans lost a substantial portion of their nest trained and experienced air crews. But for the Germans the numberrs were even worse. As the War was fought over Britain, some 925 German air crews were captured and 735 seriously wounded. British flyers shot down unless serious wounded, were within days back into the fight. Sone 420 British flyers were wounded. The importance of all of this was the impact on the decisive campaign of the War--the Ostkrieg. At the outset of Barbarossa, the Germans had the most powerful invasion force ever assembled. Some 3 million men and far more and better tanks and artillery than ever before, in part because of the vast resources the Soviets were providing their NAZI ally as part of their evil alliance (1939-41). The exception to this was the Luftwaffe. This was important because the most important assett the Germans had in their stunning victories was the Lufwaffe. The Germans had managed to replace (but not increased) the number of planes. The experienced aircrews lost were not so easily replaced. The result was that the Ostheer moving east had far less air support than any of the previous German campaigns. In contrast, the RAF had more and better planes than before the battle. And never again would the British be so pressed for trained aircrews, this would become the Luftwaffe's major problem.

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