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Adler Tag - August 1940

Goatman

ADC
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After 4 weeks of trying to cripple the Royal Air Force- a task predicted to take 6 days- Luftwaffe command is growing desperate. Today they plan largest attack yet. pic.twitter.com/YohoFXT3p5



The Battle of Britain: 13 August 1940 - Adler Tag (Eagle Day) - RAF Association


Stories of the Battle of Britain 1940 – Adlertag — Battle of Britain | 1940 | history

In combat, the Germans lost 20 bombers with 14 badly damaged; 15 Bf 110s with six damaged plus 9 Bf 109s destroyed. Fighter Command lost 14 fighters and six damaged and no conclusive damage to airfields or command and control.
For its part, however, the Luftwaffe estimated 134 British aircraft destroyed. Their intelligence services also ticked off many of the attacked airfields as destroyed. Reporting on the four days of action on 8, 11, 12, and 13 August, the German Air Ministry wrote:
“The primary objective of reducing enemy fighter strength in southern England was meeting success: Ratio of own to enemy losses, 1:3 (…) lost three per cent of our first-class bombers and fighters, the enemy fifteen per cent. Fighters: Ratio of losses 1:5 in our favor British will probably not be able to replace losses. (…) Eight major air bases have been virtually destroyed.”​
The course of the fighting on the 13th highlighted the overly optimism and serious error of judgment on the part of the Luftwaffe. Already the choice of targets indicated a lack of understanding of the enemy’s organisation. Exaggerating own results was another proof of over-confidence which verged on self-deception; a process which soon would prove decisive for the German conduct of the Battle.
 
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Adler Tag started to show the lack of combat radius of the Me 109 for protecting the bombers. Fighter Command was not pulled back north of London mainly for political and psychological reasons. By this point the Me 110 and Ju 87 wre being withdrawn from the battle in the south. The attacks that day at the North East sustained heavy losses to Luftflotte 5, at that point they withdrew from the Battle.
 
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