Special: Operation “Eagle Attack”

Pilots!

What “D-Day” was to Operation Overlord on the ground, “Eagle Day” was to Operation Eagle Attack in the aerial struggle between Germany and Great Britain during World War II. However, what was supposed to be a concentrated strike to sweep away the British Royal Air Force resistance, ended up being the beginning of the famous Battle of Britain. It is this which we want to celebrate with you in this week’s special.

Prepare for the following bonuses in the game:

30% discount on the purchase of two iconic German planes

	German Tier V Fighter Bf 109 E
	German Tier V Heavy Fighter Bf 110 E

Save yourself some 130,000 credits by buying either one of these aircraft today!

50% income increase on both of these aircraft

Make your Bf’s your BFF’s for this special and earn additional credits in the process!

This special runs from Tuesday August 13^th 07:30 CEST (GMT+2) until Thursday August 15^th 08:00 CEST.

After defeating the Allies in Western Europe and Scandinavia in 1940, Hitler turned his attention to ever-resistant Great Britain, and ordered his armed forces to prepare for an invasion, which was codenamed Operation Sea Lion. This offensive was to be preceded by the destruction of the Royal Air Force (RAF) in order to prevent it from attacking the invasion fleet or giving cover to the Royal Navy, which was also a thorn in the Germans’ side. 

The result was Unternehmen Adlerangriff (Operation Eagle Attack) – a massive, concentrated aerial attack.  Its objective was to target and destroy British military targets such as bomber and fighter command airfields and coastal command stations, as well as shipping and aircraft factories in major manufacturing cities along the south coast of Britain. To this aim, the German Luftwaffe assembled three armies across Europe, in France, Holland, Belgium and all the way up to Denmark and Norway. This force consisted of around a thousand bombers and an equal number of single-engined and twin-engined fighters.

The first attack, named Adlertag (Eagle Day), was initially scheduled for August 10^th but had to be postponed twice due to bad weather. A third last-minute cancellation followed on August 13^th. However, due to poor communication, the order to cancel failed to reach a group of bombers who took off on their own, thinking the offensive had begun according to plan. 74 Dornier Do 17 bombers started to make their way over the English Channel, planning to attack airfields at Sheerness and Eastchurch. Cut off from their base by what they believed to be the usual radio silence on an attack, the bombers could not be called back. As a result, they headed straight into a swarm of defending Spitfires and Hurricanes which British Fighter Command had summoned to intercept the invaders. Needless to say, without fighter protection, the German bombers didn’t stand much of a chance against their outnumbering opponents and lost ten planes whilst on the run for their lives.

By the time they returned to their home base, the weather had improved enough for the Luftwaffe Command to seize the rest of the day and finally carry out the attack in full force. They mounted a formidable 1,485 offensive sorties against 727 British defensive ones, but ultimately failed to achieve their overall objective. Despite the havoc caused by the German attacks, the RAF Fighter Command remained operational,  as did most of the other airfields and factories that were damaged during the assault. Overall, the Germans lost 20 bombers, 15 Bf 110s and 9 Bf 109s as well as a couple of other heavily damaged aircraft. On the British side, the RAF reported 14 fighters shot down, as well as 11 bombers and almost 50 other aircraft destroyed during the bombing raids on the ground.

Operation Eagle Attack continued on after Adlertag and became famously known as the Battle of Britain. However, that’s another tale to be told in a later special…

Have your own ‘Eagle Day’ by flying your Messerschmitts across the Lighthouse map this week, Pilots!