The first Battle of Britain might be the battle of Ypenburg, Holland, on May 10-11, 1940. Germany's invasion of The Netherlands included a massive airborn attack on Ypenburg airport (between The Hague and Delft). Unexpectedly, Dutch reservists held out for a couple of days, destroying about 40 percent of the German air force as it came in, trying to land. The German response was the heavy bombing of Rotterdam, which led to the decision to halt Dutch military resistence. But the delay accomplished at Ypenburg allowed most Dutch ships to leave Rotterdam harbor and escape capture. The Germans had intended to use those ships against the British Navy, and they had needed their entire air force, now severely diminished, if they were to mount an immediate attack and invade Britain in the first days of the war in the west. Britain was not even mobilized yet so at this point could not have been expected to resist competently. If hyperbole (like Churchill's) is allowed, it was not the British navy that won the Battle of Britain so much as it was a few Dutch reservists.
E. H. Bronger's book De Slag om Ypenburg (Rijswijk, 2000)tells this story.
by Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs on August 25, 2006 at 3:15 PM