The Battle of Britain - 7 September: the turning point

On 7 September 1940 the Luftwaffe suddenly changed tactics. In the late afternoon, 300 bombers escorted by 600 fighter planes made their way over London. The fires caused by the raid became a flaming beacon for another 450 bombers that came that night. The raid over London was partly in revenge for British raids over Berlin in late August.

The 'Blitz' had begun and German raids continued every night or day until 3 November. During the course of the whole war about 60,000 British civilians were killed by raids. (It is worth remembering that British and American raids over German cities during the course of the war killed some 600,000 German civilians.) The Blitz was certainly a terrible ordeal for the people of London and other British cities bombed by the Luftwaffe, but it also meant survival for the RAF. While the Luftwaffe was bombing cities, the RAF was repairing its airfields and the factories were able to replace lost aircraft.

Goering promised Hitler that the RAF was finished. On 15 September Goering launched what he thought would be the knock-out blow against London. In day and night raids 410 bombers struck at British cities, but 60 German aircraft from the daylight raid alone were shot down. (The RAF, at the time, claimed to have shot down 185.) Clearly the RAF was not finished. Two days later, Hitler postponed indefinitely the invasion of Britain – although the British, of course, did not know that.

Some leading British politicians, like Chamberlain and Lloyd George, had seriously thought about negotiating a treaty with Hitler, but Churchill had refused to consider it. Britain had achieved one vital thing: she had stayed in the war. The American President, Roosevelt, now decided that Britain was worth backing and greater US military help was promised.

Neil Demarco: The era of the Second World War; Oxford University Press, 1993/2000, page 34