The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-05-14

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 But to the relief of the anti-Axis world, the British resolved not to play doormat as scheduled. Dismiss ed by Hitler as piece of willful folly, this decision proved to be the turning point of the western war.
 For the British were victorious in all three phases of the grim aerial struggle that followed = christened by Prime Minister Churchill "the Battle of Britain"
 Pounded British Ports
 The first phase began late in June when, hoping to starve the island out of the war, the numer- ically superior Luftwaffe launched a terrific assault on Britains ports and shipping.
 First the Thames estuary and Plymouth and then the west coast ports of Liverpool, Cardiff and Bristol were subjected to relentless poundings as hundreds of Nazi dive bombers pressed the assault without respite for days on end. For a time it apspared as if Britain's supply lines might indeed be stran- gulated from the air.
 After a few weeks, however, the Hedging RAF, rising stubbornly to meet every attack, found an an- swer. The Nazis' dreaded Stukas, it developed, were startlingly vulner- able. Designed entirely for the as- sault, they had been given neither the gun nor the armor to with stand severe attacks themselves either from fighters or anti-aircraft fire.
 The British made the most of their knowledge, and by August 1, the balance had swung in their favor. By the middle of the month, they were destroying seven enemy bombers to each of their own planes missing. And Allied shipping still piled the sea lanes
 Then Air Marshal Hermann Goer- ing changed his strategy. In the hope of cracking Britisl. morale, he sent series of mass daylight raids against the major British cities, es- pecially London.
 Blitz London Daily
 This phase reached its peak in the late summer and autumn when up to 1000 Nazi bombers hammered the British capital almost daily. De- struction was terrific, thousands were driven underground as bombs showered on economic targets and residential areas indiscriminately.
 But this form of raid also had its weakness. Streaming in by daylight, the Nazi formations made even cas- fer targets than the dive bombers. In one four-week period, the RAF, backed up by barrage balloons and anti-aircraft batteries, knocked down 883 German planes. By Mo- vember, Goering had to admit the RAF ruled the daylight sky over Britain. He couldn't frighten the British out of the war.
 In mid November, the Luftwaffe switched to large-scale night bomb ing of unprecedented intensity. Con- centrated attacks were hurled at Coventry, Southampton and Birm- ingham, as well as new death deal- ing assaults on London Scores of churches, historical buildings and large residential districts were de- molished throughout England. Thouands were made homeless and the death toll mounted toward 30,- 600 as Britain rocked and shuddered under the worst the enemy could give.
 Then, toward the end of the year, defensive measures - radar, night fighters = improved markedly. Larger and larger percentages of the raiding airfleets started going down in flames rapidly in strik- ing power, began to send out bigger and bigger flights of its own bomb- CTS on reprisal raids. Defensively, it carefully husbaned its dwindling force of fighters to make every blow count.
 First Defeat To Hitler
 In late December, the Nazi at tacks began to lose their sting Heavy incendiary raids wrought severe damage for time, but by the end of January the worst was over The British had won the bat tie of Britain: for the first time in World War II, Hitler had been de- feated. . "Never," said Churchill in a trib- l ute to the RAP pilots. had SO many | owed 90 much to SO few."