How did Britain resist and contribute to the defeat of Germany in the Second World War?

The “Phoney” War

Germany invaded Poland on September the 17th 1939. By the end of that month Poland ceased to exist as a state. Because of the quick invasion tactics that Germany used Britain and France were unable to help. Between the end of September and April not much happened. Britain and France prepared for War but this was a half hearted attempt, This period became known as the “Phoney” War (Pretend War) in Britain and as the “Sitzkrieg” (Sitting War) in Germany.

The “Phoney” War ended in April 1940 when Germany attacked Norway. Germany relied heavily on Norway and Sweden for more than half of their iron ore imports. Neville Chamberlain the Prime Minister considered occupying Norway to cut off Germany’s main supply but feared the Worlds opinion of the World would have of Britain controlling a neutral country. From this British failure to help Norway Neville Chamberlain resigned as Prime Minister and Winston Churchill replaced him.

Blitzkrieg

Hitler was able to over-run Western Europe in 1940 because of his well-chosen tactics, which were called the Blitzkrieg (Lightning War). These tactics firstly consisted of bombing key targets and at the same time dropping parachutists behind enemy lines. This was followed by the main attack, which consisted of tanks and trucks that contained infantry. They would concentrate their attack on the weak point circling the strongholds. While more troops were arriving to deal with the strongholds that were circled. The tanks and trucks would advance further. The tactic was so advanced compared to the British and French who were still using tanks to back up an attack whereas Germany was using them to lead the attack.

Dunkirk

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Dunkirk

Germany swept into France through the Ardennes forest which was unexpected. This sudden surprise soon made the British and French retreat back to Britain. The BEF who were helping France were almost cut off from the coast because Germany had already captured Calais and Belgium. The evacuation took place at Dunkirk. It began on May the 21st and 7000 men were moved. Around 860 ships of all kinds took place in the evacuation and 338,000 men were saved from the beaches of Dunkirk. 139,000 of these were French. This was a greater success than the British could have hoped for but it was made easier because of the good weather and the German halt of their armed forces. It is still uncertain why Hitler halted his armed forces. Maybe he thought Britain would surrender or make peace after the defeat of France. Overall I don’t think you could call it a German victory. Britain saved 338,000 men, which were useful to them later on in the war. It would have been a German victory if they had taken advantage of the British situation. Churchill used this success to his advantage raising the morale of Britain. A lot of equipment was lost because it had to be left on the beach.

The Battle of Britain

Hitler planned to invade Britain to do this he believed that he needed air superiority. Germany started to attack British ports, airfields and radar stations. The RAF defended hard but came very close to defeat. New planes were being built quick enough it was the fact that they didn’t have enough pilots to fly them. It took a while to train a pilot. It was a chance in the tactics of Hitler that saved Britain from air defeat. Germany focused on demoralising Britain by bombing major cities. On September the 7th Germany focused on bombing major cities. This was the end of the Battle of Britain and the start of the Blitz. The Over a period of 77 days London was bombed every night except one. I think Hitler chance of tactics to the blitz was a mistake it caused a lot of damage but people were brought closer together and there hatred grew against Germany and Hitler. In some cases production rose in cities after they had been bombed an example of this would be Coventry.

The Battle of the Atlantic

Hitler used U – boats against Britain in a similar way Germany had done in the First World War. They destroyed all ships carrying food, oil and raw materials. The development of sonic techniques, which detected U – boats under water were useful but Germany changed its tactics. They started attacking at night on the surface of the water in groups of up to 40 U – Boats. This gave them a big advantage and stopped them from being detected by the ASDIC, which could only detect you under water. Things changed when America joined the War. There were now enough warships to protect every merchant ship, and radar, which was developed in 1935, was used to detect ships on the surface of the water in any weather condition. When a U – Boat was detected Escorts for convoy ships would break away to join in on the attack. In 1943 Britain was finally making more ships than were being sank.

The War in the Air

“German industrial production rose between 1942 and 1944 – the war in the air was a waste of time”.

I am unsure weather or not I agree on this statement. I think that the bombing would make people angrier with the British and therefore they would want to contribute more by working harder. But I also feel that not bombing the Germans would make it easier for them to produce more because more factories would still be standing. I expect that the Germans would have been producing less at the start anyway because Germany wasn’t preparing itself for a long War and they didn’t have the materials easily accessible until they invaded Norway. Overall I think that the bombing was worth it because it held Germany back from producing its full potential.

D-Day

D-Day was the British and USA invasion of German occupied France to relieve the pressure on the Soviet Union. The plan was to land at five different places in Normandy code named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. The first two were the responsibility of the Americans and the other three were of Britain and the Canadians. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the US general was in overall command. He led the Germans to believe that the main attack was going to be in Calais. He did this by setting up a dummy military camp in Kent the shortest crossing from Calais and by repeatedly bombing Calais. From this most Germans believed the attack would be in Calais. The attack was planned for the 5th of June but it was delayed for 24 hours due to bad weather conditions. Each of the five beaches was taken. Also there was a British and American airdrop which were both successful.