Hitler called his plan to invade Britain ‘Operation ’. He had detailed plans of how he would rule Britain and had already made a of his 'victory'
But - because Britain was defended by the - Hitler needed to find a way to defend his invasion barges from attack. To do that, Hitler would first have to knock out the Royal Air Force (). Thus the was the first part of Hitler’s invasion.
     
Four things helped Britain survive:
1. (July 1935).
2. In July 1937, Air Chief Marshall was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command. He reorganised the RAF into four , divided into sectors (each with a main airfield with a number of supporting airfields).
3. The (Nov 1935) and the (March 1936) fighter planes.
4. In May 1940, Churchill put Lord in charge of aircraft production. His ideas included an appeal for , ‘buy’ a Spitfire (for £) schemes, and the , which made new aircraft from shot down planes. Beaverbrook increased the production by %; in 1940, British factories produced 4,283 fighters, compared to Germany’s 3,000.

The Battle of Britain
10 June 1940 - the Battle of Britain started when the attacked a convoy of ships off Dover.
12 - the Luftwaffe attacked the RAF (which lasted until 31 October).
At first the Luftwaffe attacked radar stations and .
31 August - the RAF was losing – in the previous fortnight the RAF had lost planes destroyed and pilots. The young British fighter pilots (nicknamed ‘Dowding’s ’) were exhausted.
30-31 August - the of the battle for the RAF, with fighters destroyed and 6 of the seven sector stations in the vital Group out of action.  
2 September - Hitler ordered his bombers to attack London as a reply to an RAF bombing raid on Berlin. This decision to stop attacking the RAF gave it time to .
7 September - Nazi bombing raid was so huge that a false invasion alarm went out: code-word ‘’.
15 ('Battle of Britain day') - the Luftwaffe came by day to sweep the RAF from the skies. But the RAF fought them off. At one point every British plane was in the sky – soon, some would have to come in to and there were no reserves to protect them.  But – just in time – the Luftwaffe turned back.
17 September - Hitler ordered the of Operation Sealion because the RAF had bombed the Nazi invasion . Instead, the Luftwaffe night-bombed London (the 'blitz').
 
Result:
The RAF lost 1,173 planes and 510 pilots and gunners killed.
The Luftwaffe lost 1,733 planes and 3,368 airmen killed or captured.
Britain because the RAF held out, and .  
Winston Churchill said of the fighter pilots: 'Never in the field of human conflict was owed by to .'