1. during WWI
   at the end of Spanish Civil War
2. during the American Revolution

The RAF was founded at the end of the first World War. By the time the Second World War rolled around, the British knew they'd need every bit of aerial firepower they could muster.

1. Battle of Tripoli
   Battle of Britain
2. Battle of Iwo Jima

In 1940, Hitler realized that Britain was never going to surrender, so he began a merciless air attack on London and other cities. The Battle of Britain was a major air battle, and one that the Allies desperately needed to win.

1. SS
   Wehrmacht
2. Luftwaffe

Nazi Germany's air force was called the Luftwaffe, and it was a terrifyingly powerful weapon of the Third Reich. The RAF was in for a major test during the Battle of Britain.

1. about 200
   about 2,000
2. about 20,000

When Germany invaded Poland in in 1939, the RAF had just 2,000 aircraft ready to fight. By the end of the war, though, those numbers would skyrocket as the Allies frantically built machines for combat.

1. a secret RAF stealth bomber program
   the planned Nazi invasion of Britain
2. a British plan to train sea lions as fighter pilots

Germany's Operation Sea Lion was the planned invasion of Britain, scheduled for August 1940. If the RAF failed to fend off the Luftwaffe, Operation Sea Lion would devastate England and her allies.

1. 400
   around 2,000
2. 14,000

The RAF was outnumbered from the start, with about 2,000 aircraft trying to beat back more than 2,500 Nazi planes. The RAF would need its pilots to perform amazing heroics in order to save the day.

1. Supermarine Spitfire
   P-51 Mustang
2. Hawker Hurricane

The P-51s were an American plane that didn't come along until later in the war. The Hurricanes and Spitfires, though, became iconic during the Battle of Britain.

1. cloaking
   energy shields
2. radar

Radar technology was it its infancy during the Battle of Britain, and the British put it to good use. Their radar stations helped them anticipate where the Luftwaffe was going to strike, allowing the RAF to concentrate its fighters in the correct areas.

1. true
2. false

Nearly 3,000 pilots fought for the RAF in the Battle of Britain, but only around 2,300 of them were of British roots. The others came from various Allied nations.

1. 12
   18
2. 51

RAF ace Pat Pattle was credited with 51 victories in WWII, and he may have actually had even more. He was the deadliest RAF fighter pilot of the war.

1. He died in battle.
   He retired 20 years after the war.
2. He drowned while on leave.

Pat Pattle shot down dozens of Axis planes in WWII and survived the Battle of Britain. But in April 1941, at the age of 26, he was shot down and killed near Greece.

1. about 100,000
   perhaps 60,000
2. more than 960,000

Britain greatly expanded the RAF during WWII. By the time the war ended, the RAF included more than 960,000 personnel.

1. nickname for a British RAF commander
   German bomb attacks carried out at night against British cities
2. a type of British plane

In the fall of 1940, the Nazis began The Blitz, a series of nighttime bombing runs against British cities. The RAF struggled to beat back Nazi bombers in the dark skies, and tens of thousands of British civilians died.

1. built-in radar
   autopilot
2. nuclear bombs

Introduced in the summer of 1940, the Bristol Beaufighter eventually featured onboard radar. Then, it used that radar system to track and shoot down German bombers, even during nighttime attacks.

1. They spotted low-flying German planes.
   They threw rocks at Nazi fighters.
2. They helped American planes land on remote airfields.

Britain's civilian Observer Corps were critical line of defense -- its members spotted very low-flying German planes that had managed to evade radar. Then, the RAF used that information to deploy its fighters.

1. to dive bomb German tanks
   to spit flames at the Germans
2. to intercept German planes

The Supermarine Spitfire was one of the best interceptors of the war. More than 20,000 of these feisty fighters were built, and the RAF used them to cause the Nazis all sorts of grief.

1. to resupply Allied forces in North Africa
   to bomb Germany into oblivion
2. to assist American fighters in Italy

The RAF didn't just shoot down German bombers. Its Bomber Command sent aloft many heavy bombers, which flew eastward, bombing the lights out of Germany and its allies.

1. about 9,200
   about 13,000
2. more than 42,000

The RAF suffered mightily at the hands of the Axis, losing more than 42,000 planes in the war. Still, the Allies pushed on, buidling more planes and training more pilots as quickly as possible.

1. bombing
   terror
2. interception

RAF Bomber Command put the Vickers Wellington to good use. It was the only bomber used for the duration of the entire war.

1. true
2. false

The British Women's Auxiliary Air Force did not see combat with the RAF. However, some of its female pilots performed all sorts of vital jobs, like moving planes to an from certain locations, and they did come under fire.

1. fighter
   bomber
2. stealth aircraft

The Handley Page Hampden was a bomber that saw much action in WWII. By 1944, it had been phased out in favor of bigger planes like the Avro Lancaster.

1. around 8%
   around 45%
2. around 89%

RAF Bomber Command crews had agonizing casualty rates of nearly 45%. They knew their lives were in jeopardy every time they took to the skies.

1. They lost too many planes during the day.
   They used the moon for navigation.
2. They were vampires.

During daylight hours, Nazi air defenses stiffened, blasting many RAF bombers out of the skies. The British switched to nighttime bombing runs ... and then had to deal with navigational difficulties.

1. about 9,000
   about 70,000
2. about 700,000

About 70,000 RAF personnel died during their service during the conflict. Almost all of those personnel were aircrew.

1. He flew home and got a beer.
   He rammed the German bomber.
2. He pretended to be a German pilot and led the bomber into a different direction.

Holmes, out of ammunition, didn't give up the fight. He rammed his fighter into the Nazi bomber, destroying it. Then he managed to bail out of his own plane … and survived.

1. true
2. false

Not even close. Sure, the RAF endured tens of thousands of casualties. But the Soviets? They lost more than 100,000 aircraft to Axis aggression.

1. Iceland
   United States
2. Australia

In 1940 (notably before the attack on Pearl Harbor), three squadrons of American volunteer pilots formed as Eagle Squadrons. They destroyed dozens of enemy planes before they were absorbed into the American Air Force in 1942.

1. It lost more than 5,000 airmen in one day.
   It sent bombers into orbit.
2. It flew more than 1,000 bombers on one raid.

In May 1942, RAF Bomber Command sent 1,000 bombers to smash Cologne, Germany, the first time it had ever flown that many bombers on a single raid. More than half of the bombers carried incendiary bombs intended to set the city on fire.

1. suicide bombings
   scouting
2. kindling

The Spitfires are more famous as fighters, but the RAF used modified versions of this plane for critical photo reconnaissance missions. The pilots gathered important information on Nazi defenses all over Western Europe.

1. true
2. false

The British draft did force men into RAF service … but no one was pressed into the air. Aircrews were comprised of volunteers -- brave ones.