During World War 2 after the fall of France to Germany, Hitler’s next move would be to attack Britain. In order to successfully invade Britain, Hitler’s army would have to attack by air. Hitler knew that Britain’s Royal Navy would be too strong for Germany to conquer, so Hitler and his military leaders came up with Operation Sea Lion. This Operation was supposed to give Germany control of the English Channel. Before the main plan could go into effect however, Germany first had to take down Britain’s Royal Air Force (R.A.F) Hitler would send around 2700 fighter planes to attack and destroy the R.A.F. The Battle of Britain marked the first time a major battle was fought completely by air. This grave mistake to underestimate Winston Churchill’s leadership ability and Britain’s Aerial strength proved to be the first major turning point for World War 2. Invading Britain was a tough decision for Hitler, because he had to decide whether it would be smarter to invade Russia or Britain first. Before the Battle took place, Hitler believed that Britain would be too scared to fight and that they would try to negotiate a peace offer. He figured that without any European allies left, Britain would quickly succumb to his will. Winston Churchill had others plans however, he hated Hitler and would never make a peace treaty with someone he believed to be evil. Instead he rallied the people of Britain and began to prepare his country for a long and disastrous war. Meanwhile, Hitler himself was preparing his Luftwaffe for battle, he believed by outnumbering the amount of fighter planes Britain had, his success would become certain. Britons tried to prepare for the upcoming German onslaught as best as they could. Gas masks were given out to civilians, regular workers, cops, and home guardsman. The home guardsmen were taught to use any method to attack German soldiers, as well as how to camouflage themselves with burlaps, soot and leafy branches. Pouring sugar in gas tanks and thrusting crowbars into tank wheels were other methods taught to guardsmen in order to disable German vehicles. Air- raid shelters were also given to civilians, which were made from steel arches. Unfortunately they were not very affective, mainly because they had to be dug deep in the ground and most of the ground in London was deeply paved. In August of 1940, Hitler sent 1400 bomber and fighter planes to attack air bases and military command post in England. Eagle day which was branded by the German high command, was the name given to this attack. Although the R.A.F was extremely outnumbered, they were better prepared and exceptionally organized compared to the Luftwaffe. Britain’s R.A.F only lost thirteen fighter planes, which was three times less then what Germany’s Air Force lost. Thanks to two of the R.A.F.’s fighter planes the Spitfire and Hurricane, they were able to take down more enemy planes then they lost. Germany’s Stuka bomber planes could not match the speed and agility of the Spitfires and Hurricanes. The Luftwaffe’s bellwether bombers were also big, clumsy, and lacked good acceleration making it easy to spot. Still the R.A.F took some heavy losses as well. But the difference between them and the Germans was that they continued to make fighter planes to improvise for their losses. When Hermann Wilhelm Göring and Hitler realized that the British would not surrender they changed their strategy. This time the bomber planes would shift their focus to major cities, specifically London. The Blitz continuously bombed London from September all the way until May. What many considered being much worse than the actual bombings, was the blazing fires that killed and badly hurt many people. London did not have enough firefighters or resources to contain the fire safely. As conditions worsened outside for people, they were forced to sleep in harsh conditions, tightly packed, underneath the ground at the subway station. It became routine as the enemy planes would drop bomb after bomb throughout the night. When the sun rose the next morning, people would return to work and live life as normal as possible. Fighting at home proved to actually have some benefits for the British. Whenever enemy planes were shot down the pilot would become a POW, but when a British pilot went down they would be rescued and would live to fight another day. More importantly was the advanced technology that the British possessed. Radar gave them an advantage because it would let them know when enemy planes where in the area. This gave the R.A.F a jump on the Luftwaffe and sufficient time to respond. Hitler soon realized that the R.A.F could not be defeated and with his other invasion of Russia coming soon, they decided to cancel Operation Sea Lion and stop the bombings. Winston Churchill and the citizens of Britain proved that their will could not be broken. The Battle of Britain marked the first time the German’s lost a major battle and became the major turning point during WW2.