What part did the Royal Air Force play in the defeat of Germany?
The Luftwaffe was very near to defeating RAF Fighter Command in 1940. Then they switched from bombing the fighter airfields to attacking cities, particulaly London. This was known as the Blitz. The main German force was then needed to support Hitlers’ attack on Russia in the summer of 1941. The development of long range heavy bombers, most particularly the Avro Lancaster, supported by the de Haviland Mosquito in the Pathfinder role, enabled the RAF to take the fight to the German centres of Population & Industrial strength. With the aid of the USAAF, bombing in daylight, the British bombed at night, Germany sufferd ’round the clock’ bombing. By the time of D Day, June 1944, the Allied forces had air superority allowing defence of ground forces by use of ground attack aircraft.
