Luftwaffe's image of invincibility during the Battle of Britain shattered from within
On 10 July 1940, the Luftwaffe began a series of large-scale attacks on targets across the country that became known as the Battle of Britain.
Herman Goering had vowed his air force would sweep the skies of any RAF or Fleet Air Arm opposition, so Operation Sea Lion – the planned invasion of Britain – could begin.
The Germans looked invincible, but as aviation historian Victoria Taylor points out, that was far from the case.
By the summer of 1940, France had been invaded by Adolf Hitler's forces and British troops were driven off the continent, with thousands rescued from Dunkirk.
Only the RAF, backed by the country's newly established radar system, could stop Germany continuing its advance and attempting to invade Britain.
German bombers, escorted by fighter planes, made their way across the Channel to bomb Britain, and the Luftwaffe began by attacking coastal targets and British shipping operating in the English Channel.
The main offensive came on 13 August.
But the intense aerial combat across the English Channel and over southeast England would not reflect the optimism of Nazi propaganda about the capability of its Luftwaffe and Germany failed to conquer British skies.
Ms Taylor has published a new book, Eagle Days, about the military and political driving force behind the Luftwaffe during this crucial phase of the Second World War.
Eagle Days is based on Luftwaffe aircrews' personal letters, as well as diary entries of official combat reports, eyewitness accounts and German newspaper articles – from a German perspective.
"I think so often we present the Luftwaffe as being this absolute, completely unstoppable force," she told BFBS Forces News.
"We look at the Blitzkrieg campaigns of 1940 and think... it's an absolute wing and a prayer that Britain prevailed.
"But actually, when we look into the morale, the psyche of the Luftwaffe and just how much it was exhausted very early on coming up against Fighter Command, I think there we can give the RAF its full credit."
The Luftwaffe was built up in secret, as Germany had been banned from having an air force since the end of the First World War.
"The Luftwaffe does come with a chip on its shoulder," said Ms Taylor.
"It comes from the Luftreichkräfte, or the Imperial German Flying Service, being defeated in the First World War and it's not necessarily the defeat per se, it's what happens in the peacetime.
"It's the stripping away of German military and naval aviation and this sense of German territory feeling as if it's been stripped away unfairly.
"When you look at that, some of the letters that I've delved into in Eagle Days, that sense of retribution and... putting things to right in their eyes, that is an important means of combat motivation for the Luftwaffe in this period."
But by 1935, the new German air force was openly deployed in the Spanish Civil War.
"I think people often have the misconception that the Luftwaffe originated with the Nazis," said Ms Taylor.
"In reality, it was already being developed surreptitiously under the successive Weimar governments."
Once the Luftwaffe was openly operational again, it boosted the experience and confidence of the organisation, as well as its ability to strike strategic and tactical targets – at the cost of civilian towns and villages in Spain.
This deployment, says Ms Taylor, helped give the Luftwaffe operational momentum ahead of the start of the Battle of Britain.
"They had captured their first major water-ringed country in Norway in Operation Weserübung [in 1940]," she said.
"And this was to the point that they started to feel... this sense of almost kinsmanship with the water and they say about how... they were singing 'we're comrades at sea'... the 'Kriegsmarine song' because they got used to that kind of naval element... and there's this sense of the wonder of 1940 as they head into the Battle of Britain.
"But in terms of exhaustion, it's starting to set in.
"They've already taken quite significant losses to their bomber units, with the Zerstörer, or the destroyer units, the [Messerschmitt] Bf 110s, they've lost about 20% of some of their Bf 109 capabilities."
Luftwaffe pilots were also surprised by British air superiority when they came up against the Spitfire over Dunkirk.
Low morale in the Luftwaffe
Some of those doubts were revealed in personal letters from German pilots, which are documented in the book.
"The thing with morale is it can be contagious, so you need to look at all different links interacting with each other, that sense of how they feel in the ranks," said Ms Taylor.
"I think that's very much encapsulated in a letter from Eagle Day on 13 August 1940, where there's a junior doctor in a bomber wing in the Luftwaffe... he says 'our nerves are shot, our men are trying to gather the last strength to win, but ultimately, we've lost a lot of brave comrades and we're incredibly sad'.
"That's only about a month into the Battle of Britain, so when you look at all those moving elements, you get more of an idea of that kind of psychological frame that they're operating in."
But while German air force personnel also had a human side, Ms Taylor says their motivation was quite different to that of RAF pilots.
"Their... sense of shock, fear, concerns, worries, particularly when they'd been captured, you could see a bit more humanity on each side in most cases," she said.
"But... the Royal Air Force was deployed in terms of trying to stem this tide of nationalism that had polluted Nazi Germany... whereas with the Luftwaffe there is this sense of supporting Nazi ambitions, a sense of recognising their part in securing Hitler's living space.
"They would have been laying the way for an invasion. Whether it would have happened or not, that would have put thousands of people's lives at risk."
The events of the Battle of Britain and the ultimate outcome of the Second World War have shaped German military thinking to this day, although this is now challenged by the war in Ukraine.
"We cannot underestimate actually just how embedded it is in the German psyche that we are not aggressive, we do not overstep our mark," said Ms Taylor.
"That has been drilled into them since the minute of Stunde Null, or ground zero hour, that point after the Second World War, that breakaway from the... outward militarism, nationalism, aggression."
The Battle of Britain lasted from 10 July until 31 October 1940, with the RAF successfully defending the country from German aerial attack in a major air campaign.
Events and commemorations to mark the 85th anniversary will be held throughout the year, with a particular focus from 10 July to 15 September.
The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight is also preparing for a packed summer of displays, bringing historic wartime aircraft to the skies as part of its 2025 season.
Eagle Days, Life and Death for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain by Victoria Taylor is published by Bloomsbury.
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