German aims for the Battle of Britain in July 1940 were to win air superiority over the English Channel and potential landing sites on the south coast, to create a credible threat of invasion in the hope of driving the UK to withdraw from the war. Coastal Command's role in countering the threat was considerable, and it was No 16 Group that bore the brunt. Its area of operations included most of the English Channel and the southern part of the North Sea, including the coastline of northern France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark. Effectively it contained a large portion of the airspace in which the battle took place, and the ports where any invasion effort would assemble. Despite significant improvements in its equipment and establishment since the outbreak of war, Coastal Command was relatively weak. No 16 Group's establishment had risen from five squadrons to eight, occasionally joined by Fleet Air Arm Swordfish units. Of the full-time squadrons, two of them, Nos 53 and 59 Squadrons, were Bristol Blenheim reconnaissance outfits recently transferred to Coastal Command, licking their wounds after the Battle of France, while No 235 Squadron was another Blenheim operator. Two more, Nos 22 and 608 Squadrons, were converting to new types and necessarily a large part of their effort went on training. Arguably only two of the eight had effective, up-to-date aeroplanes: No 206 Squadron with Lockheed Hudsons newly obtained from the USA, and No 22 Squadron with Bristol Beauforts. No 608 Squadron was re-equipping with the Blackburn Botha, but this aircraft suffered from several shortcomings and the squadron never completed its work-up before it was withdrawn. The others, 220 and 500, had the ageing Avro Anson.
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