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| combatant2 = | commander1 = Winston Churchill (Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) Hugh Dowding Keith Park T. Leigh-Mallory Quintin Brand Richard Saul William Lyon Mackenzie King (Prime Minister of Canada) L. Samuel Breadner | commander2 = Adolf Hitler (Führer of Germany) Wilhelm Keitel Hermann Göring Albert Kesselring Hugo Sperrle Hans-Jürgen Stumpff Benito Mussolini (Prime Minister of Italy) R.C. Fougier〔Haining 2005, p. 68.〕 | strength1 = 1,963 serviceable aircraft | strength2 = 2,550 serviceable aircraft. |units1 = Royal Canadian Air Force |units2 = ''Luftwaffe'' ''Regia Aeronautica'' | casualties1 = 544 aircrew (RAF Fighter Command), 718 (RAF Bomber Command), 280 (RAF Coastal Command) killed〔〔Ramsay 1989, pp. 251–297.〕〔("Battle of Britain RAF and FAA Roll of Honour." ) ''RAF.''. Retrieved: 14 July 2008.〕 422 aircrew wounded〔Wood and Dempster 2003, p. 309.〕 1,547 aircraft destroyed | casualties2 = 2,698 aircrew killed〔Bungay 2000, p. 373.〕 967 captured 638 missing bodies identified by British authorities〔Overy 2001, p. 113.〕 1,887 aircraft destroyed | casualties3 = Around 90,000 civilian casualties, 40,000 of them fatal.〔Goodenough 1982, p. 22.〕 | notes = }} The Battle of Britain (German: ''Luftschlacht um England'', literally "Air battle for England") is the name given to the Second World War defence of the United Kingdom by the Royal Air Force (RAF) against an onslaught by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) which began at the end of June 1940. In Britain, the officially recognised dates are 10 July – 31 October 1940, overlapping with the period of large-scale night attacks known as The Blitz.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 website=RAF Museum )〕 German historians do not accept this subdivision, and regard the ''Luftschlacht um England'' as a campaign lasting from July 1940 to June 1941. The Battle of Britain has been described as the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces.〔("92 Squadron – Geoffrey Wellum." ) ''Battle of Britain Memorial Flight'' via ''raf.mod.uk.''. Retrieved: 17 November 2010, archived 2 March 2009.〕 The objective of the Nazi German forces was to increase pressure on Britain to agree to a negotiated peace settlement. An air and sea blockade began in July 1940, with coastal shipping convoys, ports and shipping centres such as Portsmouth the main targets of the Luftwaffe. A direction issued on 1 August for the Luftwaffe's ''Adlertag'' campaign to achieve air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF) with the aim of incapacitating RAF Fighter Command, and shifted attacks to RAF airfields and infrastructure. As the battle progressed, the Luftwaffe also targeted factories involved in World War II aircraft production and ground infrastructure. Eventually the Luftwaffe resorted to attacking areas of political significance and using terror bombing strategy. By preventing Germany from gaining air superiority, the British forced Adolf Hitler to postpone and eventually cancel Operation ''Sea Lion'', a planned amphibious and airborne invasion of Britain. However, Germany continued bombing operations on Britain, known as The Blitz. The failure of Nazi Germany to achieve its objective of destroying Britain's air defences in order to force Britain to negotiate an armistice (or even surrender outright) is considered by Steven Bungay to be its first major defeat in World War II, and a crucial turning point in the conflict.〔Bungay 2000, p. 388.〕 The Battle of Britain has an unusual distinction in that it gained its name prior to being fought. The name is derived from a famous speech delivered by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the House of Commons on June 18, more than three weeks prior to the generally accepted date for the start of the battle: ==Background== Strategic bombing during World War I introduced air attacks intended to panic civilian targets, and led in 1918 to the amalgamation of British army and navy air services into the Royal Air Force. Its first Chief of the Air Staff Hugh Trenchard was among the military strategists in the 1920s like Giulio Douhet who saw air warfare as a new way to overcome the stalemate of trench warfare. Interception was near impossible with fighter planes no faster than bombers. Their view (expressed vividly in 1932) was that the bomber will always get through, and the only defence was a deterrent bomber force capable of matching retaliation. Predictions were made that a bomber offensive would quickly cause thousands of deaths and civilian hysteria leading to capitulation, but widespread pacifism contributed to a reluctance to provide resources. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Britain」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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