RAF Speed Achievement by No. 111 Squadron
On 10 February 1938, No. 111 Squadron’s J. W. Gillan flew a Hawker Hurricane at remarkable speed, showcasing…
10 February 2026 · 5 min read 22 July
On This Day, 1940: On 22 July 1940, an RAF Blenheim used airborne interception radar to shoot down a Dornier Do 17…
Read the entry →Second World War · 1939 – 1945
Second World War
The RAF's defining chapter. The Battle of Britain, Bomber Command's strategic offensive, the desert war, the long-range fight over the Atlantic - six years that tested the service to its absolute limits.
7 Operations
16 Aircraft
12 People
9 Squadrons
The Royal Air Force entered the Second World War as a modern service, forged from the hard lessons of the First World War and shaped by two decades of technological transformation. By September 1939 it possessed the Spitfire, the Hurricane and the first of its four-engined heavy bombers — tools adequate for the fight ahead, though not yet fully equal to the demands that fight would place on them.
The Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940 was the service's first existential test. Fighter Command, outnumbered and often outclassed by the Luftwaffe's experienced pilots, held long enough for the threat of invasion to pass. The cost was severe: over 550 pilots killed between July and October alone.
"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." — Winston Churchill
Bomber Command's strategic offensive against Germany ran from 1940 to 1945, growing from small raids of questionable effectiveness into the most destructive air campaign in history. The human cost was enormous: 55,573 aircrew killed — a casualty rate exceeding the British Army's officer losses on the Western Front. Whether that cost was justified by the results remains one of the most contested questions in military history.
Operations · 7 operations
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Second World War
Battle of Britain
How the Battle of Britain saw RAF Fighter Command defeat the Luftwaffe’s attempt to gain the air superiority…
Second World War
Operation Chastise
On the night of 16–17 May 1943, 617 Squadron breached the Möhne and Eder dams using Barnes Wallis's…
Second World War
Operation Market Garden
How the RAF supported Operation Market Garden through transport aircraft, glider towing, fighter control and resupply in September…
Second World War
Operation Jubilee
How the RAF supported Operation Jubilee at Dieppe and what the air battle revealed about amphibious operations in…
From the Archive — Second World War
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617 Squadron Debuts the Tallboy Bomb Against Saumur Tunnel
On 8 June 1944 617 Squadron used the new 12,000-lb Tallboy bomb against the Saumur tunnel, sealing a…
8 June 2026 · 3 min read Article
Spitfires Flown in under Operation Colima and Operation Pinpoint
On 15 July 1942, Spitfires launched from HMS Eagle reached Malta in Operations Colima and Pinpoint, sustaining the…
15 July 2026 · 3 min read