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In his Adlertag
- Eagle Day order, Hitler instructed his air force: “Within a
short period of time, you will wipe the British Air Force from the
sky. Heil Hitler.” Thus, the Luftwaffe (the German air
force) attacked British air-force targets in a vast operation. With
clear supremacy in the skies (2,700 warplanes against 700), Hitler
hoped to bring Britain to its knees quickly from the air and thereby
set the stage for a ground invasion of the island. When the
Germans’ attempt to defeat the British air force failed, the
Luftwaffe changed its tactics and began to bombard cities, mainly to
brutally intimidate the civilian population.
Churchill
had the following to say about Hitler: “This wicked man, this
monstrous product of former wrongs and shame, has now resolved to
break our famous island race by a process of indiscriminate
slaughter and destruction”.
Hitler’s
gambit failed; Operation Sea Lion was delayed again and again. Great
Britain spent that summer in utter isolation, fighting not to rescue
its air force, but to save the country itself.
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