Battle of Britain

Battle of Britain
Platform
Game	Battlefield 1942
Game modes	Conquest Objective
Setting
Part of	Second World War
Teams	United Kingdom vs. Nazi Germany
Date	July 10th – October 31st, 1940
Location	English Channel
Combat	Air Superiority
Singleplayer	Yes
Media
Console Codenames	PC

The Battle of Britain was an aerial campaign of the German Luftwaffe against the British Royal Air Force. The Luftwaffe's mission was to cripple the Royal Air Force and set Britain up for an invasion, codenamed Operation Sealion.

On July 10th, 1940, the Luftwaffe commenced air raids on RAF airbases, infrastructure, and shipping areas. The attacks were successful at first, and the RAF was effectively crippled. However, on September 7th, the Luftwaffe soon began bombing cities, which were harder to reach and bought the RAF time to recover. The RAF's retaliation inflicted heavy causalities on the Luftwaffe, who lacked the fuel supply to wage prolonged dogfights. By the end of October, the Luftwaffe had lost nearly 2,000 aircraft and were forced to cancel the campaign. The Battle of Britain was a terrible and crippling defeat for Nazi Germany. While Germany would still conduct bombing raids into Britain at night and later with the infamous V-1 and V-2 rockets until the end of the war, the Luftwaffe would never again seriously threaten Britain. The battle is still celebrated today in Britain, often with vintage Spitfires and Hurricanes (alongside modern RAF fighters), symbols of British victory in this battle.

This battle is featured as a map for Battlefield 1942, included as a bonus in the version 1.45 patch. The map is a simplified version of the battle, with superior Luftwaffe forces facing the RAF.

Conquest

As the player might expect, this map is almost entirely based on aerial combat. In fact, the map is unique in that victory is not reached by capturing flags. Indeed, there are no flags to capture both in Singleplayer and Multiplayer mode. The map centres around a set of objectives - four radar towers and a factory.

As the German tickets tick down, they must damage and eventually destroy all of these objectives to win before their tickets reach zero, doing so then reduces Allied tickets. The radars and factory can be repaired by allied engineers at any point until they are destroyed completely. The Germans have an airfield, with two spawn points. The British have two airfields, all uncapturable.

If the Luftwaffe destroy all objectives, specifically the factory, the RAF will be defeated from ticket bleed. If the RAF successfully defend all objectives, again specifically the factory, the Luftwaffe will be defeated from ticket bleed.

Equipment

Royal Air Force
Light vehicle(s)	Willys MB
Half-track(s)	M3A1
Fixed-wing aircraft	Spitfire
Emplacement(s)	40mm Bofors M2 Browning

Luftwaffe
Light vehicle(s)	Kubelwagen
Fixed-wing aircraft	Messerschmitt BF-109 Junkers Ju-88A
Emplacement(s)	Maschinengewehr 42

Outcomes

"Even with numerical superiority, the Luftwaffe was unable to destroy all of their objectives. The RAF's state-of-the-art radar system enabled them to detect and intercept German bombing runs before they got over British airspace. With the help of their powerful air defense systems, the RAF made short work of attacking German aircraft, and Britain was saved from the invasion."

— British victory

"Neither the early detection systems of the RAF, nor their heroic pilots could overcome the sheer number of attacking German aircraft.Once the coastal Radar Towers were knocked out, the Luftwaffe flew over Britain with near impunity, bombing Harwich until nothing remained. Their objective destroyed, Germany's Operation Sealion and the invasion of Britain would soon follow."

— British defeat

"The highly vaunted Radar system developed by the British provided no security when matched against the legendary German Luftwaffe. The Bomber crews attacked their targets with unerring accuracy, protected by the most skilled and daring fighter pilots in the war. Thanks to the Luftwaffe, the German dreams of invading Britain will soon come to fruitition [sic]."

— German victory

"Despite a heroic effort, the Luftwaffe was unable to penetrate British airspace enough to complete their objectives. The state-of-the-art Radar system counterbalanced Germany's numerical superiority, while Luftwaffe bombers were ripped apart by the expert RAF pilots. With the British objectives still intact and the invasion of Russia imminent, Operation Sealion is scrapped before it can even begin."

— German defeat

Trivia

• It is the only map not to feature a screenshot from Intro as it's loading screen. However, the bombs in the picture are taken from the loading screen of Bocage.