VE Day 80 - At brief look at aviation in WWII
- Av Geek Blog
- May 8
- 5 min read
Today marks 80 years since the allied powers celebrated Victory in Europe after the Second World War – VE Day. Air warfare was a major part of fighting in all theatres of the Second World War and in this special blog post to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day, I take a brief look at the key role that aviation had in the war, particularly the Battle of Britain as well as some of the aircraft used in the Second World War.
Read our blog about aviation in the First World War here: https://www.avgeekblog.co.uk/post/aviation-in-the-first-world-war
United Kingdom
Britain, along with the United States, took an approach that emphasized strategic bombing. As a result, both Britain and America built larger, long-range bombers.
Once it was clear that Germany was a threat, the Royal Air Force expanded. More airfields were established and the number of squadrons increased from 42 squadrons with 800 aircraft in 1934 to 157 squadrons and 3700 aircraft by 1939. Following the outbreak of war in 1939, the RAF also integrated Polish and other airmen who had escaped from Europe.
The RAF had 3 major combat commands: RAF Fighter Command in charge of defending the UK, RAF Bomber Command which operated bombers against the enemy and participated in the strategic bombing against German war production and the RAF Coastal Command which was tasked with protecting allied shipping and attack enemy ships.
Soviet Union
By the end of the war, the USSR had a peak annual aircraft production rate of 40,000 aircraft per year in 1944. The USSR aviation industry created more examples of the Ilyushin Il-2 during the war than any other military aircraft design in aviation history with over 36,000 produced. During the war, the USSR used 7,500 bombers to drop 30 million bombs on Germany with a density of 100 - 150 tons per square kilometer. When Nazi Germany invaded the USSR under Operation Barbarossa, in the first few days, the German Air Force destroyed 2,000 Soviet aircraft at a loss of 35 aircraft.
United States
Before the war, the US Army Air Corps had only a few hundred airplanes. However, at the end of the war it had one of the largest air forces with around 80,000 aircraft.
Robert A. Lovett stated,
“while I don’t go so far as to claim that air power alone will win the war, I do claim the war will not be won without it”
The United States used the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress among other aircraft. The B-17 was the foremost bomber of the war. It had a top speed of 287 mph. The B-17 bomber dropped 640,000 tons out of the 1.5 million tons of bombs dropped on Germany.
The Battle of Britain
During the Battle of Britain, the German Luftwaffe’s primary aim was the destruction of the Royal Air Force. To do this, the Luftwaffe used 1,300 bombers, guarded by 900 fighters. They made 1,500 sorties a day from bases in France, Belgium and Norway.
The RAF had a network of reporting stations and control rooms which utilized the new innovation of radar. The RAF combined the newly developed radar with communications centers to direct their operations and fighter defences. This was the world’s first integrated air defence system and it gave the RAF the ability to effectively counter German raids without the need to regularly patrol using fighter jets. This increased the efficiency of the RAF.
The Hawker Hurricane accounted for most British Kills in the Battle of Britain as this aircraft made up the majority of the RAF fighter force. However, despite the high numbers of Hurricanes in the RAF, the Spitfire is more well known and has become synonymous with the Battle of Britain.
At first the Germans focused on bombing airfields and radar stations but as the RAF attacked Berlin, the Luftwaffe attacked London. This decision to switch to bombing London is largely seen as a mistake because London was not a factory city, and this resulted in British aircraft production increasing.
Military investment during the war drove aviation forward at a rapid pace. During World War One, planes were bi-planes and made from wood. In contrast, World War Two planes were sleeker, made with aluminium and had piston engines. In World War Two, key aircraft designs included: a monoplane wing, a conventional tail, retracting landing gear, landing flaps and a fully enclosed cockpit.
Other Theatres of War
The European theatre of war was not the only place that aircraft were used. The Japanese also used aircraft to attack Pearl Harbor. Famously, the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 were dropped from B-29 bomber aircraft. Aircraft were used by both the allies and axis powers in an attempt to win the war over the skies and establish air superiority. Aircraft were also used in North Africa.
Aircraft production
Between 1939 and 1945, the allied and axis powers ramped up production of aircraft to be used in the war. The following table shows the number of aircraft produced by each countries between 1939 and 1945.
Table 1: Aircraft production by country between 1939 and 1945
Country | Total aircraft produced 1939 - 1945 |
France | 5,276 |
Soviet Union | 157,261 |
United Kingdom | 131,549 |
United States | 324,750 |
Germany | 119,371 |
Italy | 11,122 |
Japan | 76,320 |
The table clearly shows that the United States produced the most aircraft, over 300,000. The Soviet Union produced the second most with over 157,000, less than half of what the United States produced. However, it must be mentioned that the United States only joined the war in 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and France did not produce any aircraft after 1940 when it was defeated by Nazi Germany. Italy also did not produce any aircraft after 1943.
In order to get a better idea of how many aircraft each country produced during the war, Table 2 shows the number of aircraft each country produced when it was at war alongside the dates the country was in the war.
Table 2: Aircraft production during each countries war years
Country (Years it was in the war) | Number of aircraft produced |
France (1939-1940) | 5,276 |
Soviet Union (1941-1945) | 136,314 |
United Kingdom (1939-1945) | 131,549 |
United States (1941-1945) | 316,523 |
Germany (1939-1945) | 119,371 |
Italy (1940-1943) | 9,430 |
Japan (1940-1945) | 71,853 |
The results in Table 2 show that The United States is still the number one aircraft producer during the years that it was at war. The Soviet Union is still second in number of aircraft produced but Britain is less than 5,000 behind it.
In countries at war, many civilian aircraft were pressed into military service. However, some civilian operations remained and BOAC made overseas passenger flights while camouflaging its aircraft.
It is clear that aviation had a massive impact on winning the Second World War, particularly in the European theatre but also in all war theatres. This blog post has taken a very brief look at how aircraft helped to win the war in each of the big three allied nations, particularly in the United Kingdom and the Battle of Britain.
I hope you enjoyed reading.
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