September 15th in known as ‘Battle of Britain Day’ and each September it is celebrated to commemorate the day in 1940 when the Luftwaffe attacked Fighter Command with all its might and lost. Throughout September 15th 1940, Fighter Command had to use everything at its disposal to counter the two main attacks by the Luftwaffe but by the end of the day any threat that Fighter Command had faced had been repelled. While the Battle of Britain continued until October 1940, the real threat posed by the Luftwaffe was broken on September 15th and with no control of the skies orhurricane_06 the English Channel, ‘Operation Sealion’ had to be called off saving Britain from any chance of invasion.
September 15th fell on a Sunday in 1940. The German High Command had planned to issue new orders for ‘Operation Sealion’ on September 17th. Therefore control of the skies was vital if the plan was to proceed and the invading barges were to be safe from attacks by the RAF. On September 14th, the commander of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göering, had sent out instructions that an all-out aerial assault was to be made on southern England on September 15th.
