With defiance of the British, Hitler then planned an invasion of Britain. This was rather difficult as the German Navy suffered heavy losses during the Norwegian campaign. The British Navy still had a significant number of destroyers, cruisers and carriers still on operation. Thus, Hitler turned to the Luftwaffe to bomb key structures and sink Britains naval fleet. The German Navy would then land on the shores to complete the invasion. This plan was code named Operation Sealion and it launch day was called Aldertag.
Operation Sealion was still a risky endeavor. It would require the complete control of the air by the Germans so as to prevent tanks infantry from being strafed and bombed. The German High Command agreed with the idea but Grossadmiral Donitz thought the plan was a disaster waiting to happen. He argued that the neither the Luftwaffe nor the German Navy could take control or even gain control of the air or sea respectively. Despite the misgivings, the operation pushed through.
The British Royal Air Force had the Hurricane and the new Spitfire at its disposal, each one with its own strengths and weaknesses. Both aircraft had similar manueverability but the Spitfire suffered from stalling when performing tight turns. The Spitfire, however, was faster than the Hurricane partly due to its reduced weight and size. The reduced size also helped the Spitfire in dodging enemy fire. The two RAF aircraft were armed with eight .303 Browning machine guns in the wings which were configured in such a way that the bullets would converge at a distance. The machine guns had a high rate of fire and discharged a large number of bullets even with a short burst. However, the small caliber bullets had trouble penetrating the armor plating of most Luftwaffe aircraft. Though similarly armored, the Spitfire had lower serviceability rate than the Hurricane due to the formers complexity. The 100 octane boosted the performance of the Merlin engines, substantially improving climb rate. However, this fuel shortened the life the Merlin from 100 hours to 20. Moreover, the Merlin would suddenly cut out when performing negative g manuevers preventing the Hurricane and Spitfire from disengaging at will.
The Luftwaffe on the other hand had the Bf 109. The 109 had similar speed and turning as the Spitfire but without experiencing stall when performing tught turns. The roll rate of the Bf 109 was also higher than both RAF fighters, having very responsive controls. These however diminished as the 109 reached higher speeds. Bf-109E-1s were armed with four MG 17 7.92 mm machine guns, two above the engine and another two at the wings. The E-3, E-4 and E-7s were fitted with MG FFM 20 mm cannons at the wings instead. Though having significantly stronger firepower, the cannons low rate of fire had a lower effectiveness in air-to-air skirmishes. By 1940, Germans developed a synthetic fuel named C-2 which increased engine power by 20.
For bombing runs, the Luftwaffe utilized the Do 17, He 111 and Ju 88. These three bombers had relatively thick armor plating protecting the crew and self-sealing rubber covering the fuel tanks. However, MG 15 light machine guns equipped on these aircrafts could not deal sufficient damage to deter or stop attacks by Spitfires or Hurricanes. The German gunners were suffiently trained at shooting down fast-moving targets but the small caliber bullets the MG 15 fired were too weak to deal significant damage to enemy fighters. Do 17 and He 111 were easy prey for the Spitfires as the two bombers had low manueverability and speed even with empty loads. Ju 88 was more manueverable and faster and thus received lower losses. The He 111 delivered the highest bomb payload at 2000 kg followed by the Ju 88 at 1400 kg and the Do 17 with a slightly lighter 1000 kg payload.
The German strategy was to destroy RAF Fighter Command either on the ground or in the air. The British aircraft industry and other military installations should be crippled by bombing runs. Coastal airfields were to be eliminated first, moving in-land with long-range fighters to eliminate airbases there. Kill ratios over RAF fighters should be high and so that the Luftwaffe could support the amphibious invasion in the later part of the operation. Fighter escort and bomber tactics were diverse each applicable to however the enemy chooses to act. Though very effective, the tactics were only adopted at the later part of the battle and thus resulted to heavy bomber losses. Furthermore, the 109s did not have the ability to travel as far as the bombers they escorted often leaving bomber squadrons undefended.
The British strategy was to use a complex system of detection, command and control know as the Dowding system. Radar facilities were placed near the coasts to detect incoming enemy squadrons. The RAF then divided their fighters into four groups, each with its own clearly-defined sector to defend. The RAF fighters would then engage the enemy bomber squadrons with small numbers with the intent of lowering casualties on their side while forcing the enemy to break out of formation. Once achieved, the bombers were downed by Hurricanes and the Spitfire dispatched the fighter escorts.
The German Navy, though greatly weakened, still had enough forces to aid in the Battle of Britain. On September 20, 1940, U-100 successfully sunk 12 supply ships in the North Atlantic, possibly due to the concentration of air power to defend Britain from the daytime bombing raids instead of escorting supply ships.
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