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Blitzkrieg- Blitz
It was estimated that one million Brits would die in the attacks of the Blitz but the official number was actually 60,000, this was due to great organisation from the Brits.
Hitler planned to invade Britain and began with a series of daylight air raids to cripple the coastal defences. In the desperate battle of Britain, German bombers and Messerschmitts (a German plane) were fought off by the RAF (Royal Air Force). So Hitler had to change something, so he cancelled his invasion plans. He switched his plans to a series of intensive night-bombing raids, first on London then on other industrial centres (Coventry etc.) This then became knows as the “Blitzkrieg” which was then shortened to “The Blitz”. The Blitz eased off in May 1941 when the Nazi bombers were ordered to switch attack to Russian targets. London was bombed 75 out of 76 nights! People built Anderson shelters in their gardens or some just stayed down in tube stations. Anderson shelters were not strong enough to survive direct hits, but they were strong enough to survive nearby attacks. The same went for the tubes, they were not very safe down there because if a bomb went down a ventilation shaft then near enough 100% of the people down in the tubes would be killed. On November 4 Coventry experienced the worst of the attacks when a huge air raid caused a big 30% of its buildings to be destroyed. The government were very clever in this situation, they realised it could affect the British’s confidence so they stepped in and told newspapers that they could not print off the full story. Other places that were heavily bombed during the blitz were Plymouth, Southampton, Liverpool, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, Canterbury and Dover. The good organisation showed when all children were evacuated and taken to a safer place. It was an upsetting time for many evacuees to be living in an unfamiliar territory but it paid off in the end. In some extreme cases though, children were abused, but this was down to the individuals they were put wit, the government weren’t at fault, despite many saying it was over the top.
Overall the Blitz can be deemed as a failure, this was because it didn’t destroy the morale of the civilian population. Goebels, Hitler’s propaganda chief said Great Britain was showing too much toughness because they were a “Germanic race”. In fact the Blitz may have even improved the morale of the British as it created a sense of community and shared danger, and brought people closer together. On 13th September 1930, Buckingham Palace was hit by explosives dropped by the German Air-Force. This event quickened feelings of solidarity among all the classes. The British felt like they had the courage and determination to see the blitz through to the end and not give in and let the German’s think they can win.
War in The Atlantic
In 1939 half of Great Britain’s food and two thirds of its raw materials came in from the Atlantic Ocean……….
The Atlantic Ocean became a battleground because Great Britain were trying to keep the sea’s safe.
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This showed the governments cleverness again in anticipating that they
could get caught short of food and materials. German U-Boats was its main threat, as well as submarines! The Submarines were small, but they could sink any ship afloat..
U-Boats and Submarines were lead by Admiral Doenitz., at the start of the attacks Germany had just 14 Submarines and 22 U-Boats. But by 1940-1942 the numbers had increased hugely. The German’s had a U-Boat fleet of 300.
In 1938 Great Britain imported sixty-eight million tons of supplies, but in 1941 they only managed to import just twenty-six million tones of supplies. In order to stop the Submarines, Great Britain created a warship called “destroyer” This used an electronic listening device called sonar or asdic which detected the position of submerged U-Boats. The Destroyer then sent off many depth charges-underwater explosive devices. They were set to explode at a certain depth and then the pressure of the explosion could crush or split a submarine in half! As long as It was close enough, 9metres usually would have been close enough.
Hitler’s Mistakes
Hitler rarely made big mistakes but he made an absolute huge one which in actual fact cost Germany defeat!
Churchill heard that Russia had been invaded by Germany and this was good news as it took a huge weight of pressure off Britain’s shoulders, and the pressure was on Russia to perform. Germany took 80% of its forces away from the west and took them to the east preparing for Russia. A certain amount of pressure was still on Britain though. If Russia had been defeated it would have left Britain alone to fight the war with Germany in which they stood no chance of winning by themselves. Hitler got over confident and said that the war would be over in six weeks as he made a guarantee that Britain would be defeated in that period. Hitler showed his cockiness by not providing his army winter uniforms! Germany attacked Russia on 22nd June 1941. This was a big mistake as up until this point Germany had been in a very strong position. It was inevitable that Hitler would attack Russia as he wrote about it in his book- “Mein Kamf.” He had a great passion of hate towards the Russian’s especially the way their political system was being run. The German army got to within 12 miles of Moscow before snow storms, and this is where Hitler’ mistake took a big part, all his army men had not been given winter Jackets and froze to death! The rest of the battle was put on hold until the winter season was over, this gave Britain the chance to prepare. A huge mistake by Hitler. The British morale grew as they realised the German army was weakening. The German army had to then organise itself , and this left them with a low number of fighters in the west…….
The Attack of The Soviet Union
The German attack in the east had been underway for two weeks and Goebbels claimed that Germany attacked the Soviet Union to save the Western civilization.
Three million soldiers of Germany and her allies began an attack on the Soviet Union, it was meant to be over and done with in a matter of months but it took four years!
It was called Operation Barbosa and it had been secretly planned in 1940.
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Hitler hoped to destroy the communist system and make use of the USSR’s natural resources. Russia was not expecting it and the weakened Red Army was pushed back. But because of the bad weather in winter the war was halted until the weather was workable (as mentioned above) By 1944 the Red Army had pushed the German’s out of Russia. Around twenty-million soldiers were estimated dead fighting for the USSR. But in May 1945 the German’s had to surrender.
The US Land/Lease, The US Entry Into The War and The Battle Of Britain
The US was already giving arms, munitions and other supplies to the British before the land/lease. However in December 1941, the European War became a World War after America declared war on Germany. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour, Malaysia and Indonesia, while everyone’s attention was in Europe. America was furious and attacked Germany as they were part of the alliance. U.S Sherman’s were very powerful tanks that the US had. In terms of weapons, Britain had the advantage in the Battle of Britain. Luftwaffe bombers were too small and they did not cause enough damage to their targets to put them completely out of action. German fighter planes had only enough fuel on board to guarantee them thirty minutes of flying time over Britain. This was a risk that was taken. Air Chief Marshall Sir Hugh Dowding led the Royal Air Force. He had been planning Britain’s air defence system since 1936 and had brought in many important technical developments such as bullet-proof windscreens and command and communication systems which could be quickly and effectively directed to meet enemy attacks. The Luftwaffe had plans to build long-range heavy bombers but Goerring’s poor financial planning meant they were incapable of being followed through! Britain was lucky in this case as these types of bombers could have devastated airfields and aircraft factories. The main RAF fighter planes were the Spitfires and the Hawker Hurricane. Only the Messerchschmitt could compare to them. RAF fighters were organised well so that they could meet attacks quickly.
Reasons for failure in Battle of Britain:
- Production of more aircraft factories working at full capacity made more aircraft.
- Radar developed secretly in Britain before the war began.
- The British Spitfire and Hurricanes proved more manoeuvrable than the German Messerschmitts which were further from their bases with shorter flying time.
- RAF Pilots- despite a desperate shortage of pilots the skilful and highly trained pilots of the RAF fought with bravery and efficiency.
Britain obviously went on to defeating Germany, and if they had not done so, we would be living a different world now!
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