Lunchtime Lecture: Eagle Days: Life and Death for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain
08 July 2025
On Tuesday 8 July 2025 at 12pm, Dr Victoria Taylor will consider the Battle of Britain from the perspective of the Luftwaffe. This lecture will be hosted virtually via Crowdcast and livestreamed from the RAF Museum’s Midlands site.
Talk Outline
The Battle of Britain is the most famous aerial campaign in British history, so it is tempting to think we already know the Luftwaffe’s role in the story well. Certainly, historical attention has frequently been paid to Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring and his exasperated fighter pilots – but what about the non-commissioned officers and the other ranks, who made up the German air force in far greater numbers? Did they regard pressuring the British war cabinet to sue for peace as the overarching goal, or was paving the way for Operation ‘Sealion’ at the forefront of their minds? As the final victory over Britain became ever more elusive, how did they view the inconclusive campaign?
Above all, what did the Battle of Britain mean for the entire Luftwaffe and Nazi Germany at large, and how seriously did they think they were going to win? Drawing upon newly translated Luftwaffe field letters, diaries, combat reports, operational memoranda and post-war memoirs – as well as Nazi speeches, newspapers, and magazines – this refreshing new perspective weaves a rich, multifaceted tapestry of how the German air force’s mentality and morale were shaped during its gruelling ten-month Luftschlacht um England (‘Air Battle for England’).
Eagle Days not only traces the flying arms that rained death upon the ‘pirate island’, but also the Luftwaffe’s oft-forgotten ground personnel in both the Third Reich and occupied Europe, such as air signalmen, anti-aircraft gunners, airfield construction units and medical staff. Based on this newly published book, this lecture transforms the Luftwaffe’s historical role during the RAF’s ‘Finest Hour’ from a cartoonish antagonist to a multidimensional, flawed yet formidable opponent – making it even more remarkable and crucial that Fighter Command managed to prevail against it.
Location
This hybrid lecture will be hosted in-person at the RAF Museum’s Midlands Site in the Lecture Theatre. Attendance in-person is free but registration is required via Digitickets.
Livestream
To attend virtually, register via Crowdcast.
About Dr Victoria Taylor
Dr Victoria Taylor is an award-winning aviation historian, broadcaster, speaker, and writer who specialises in the history of the Royal Air Force and the German Luftwaffe. Her PhD thesis on the Luftwaffe and National Socialism (University of Hull) was awarded the 2020 Royal Air Force Museum Doctoral Academic Prize. The year before, her MRes thesis on Britain’s wartime and postwar mythologization of the ‘Dambusters Raid’ won the RAF Museum’s RAF Centenary Master’s Academic Prize. She has served as an on-screen expert, historical consultant, narrator and assistant producer across historical programming for the BBC, Channels 4 and 5, Sky History, National Geographic, History Hit, the RAF Benevolent Fund, the Smithsonian Channel, BFBS, and beyond. She is an Ambassador for the RAF Charitable Trust and the National Spitfire Project, as well as being an Assistant Editor for the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Journal of Aeronautical History.
