How Significant A Role Did Britain Play In The War Against Germany?

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Jack Field 11H                

How Significant A Role Did Britain Play In The War Against Germany?

  “Soviet success in Kursk was the single most important victory of the war.” This was observed by Richard Overy and brings out the point that Britain was not the main force in the war. Yet the British influence in the war was important, and sometimes completely vital as the Americans may have got involved too late or not at all if the British had not forced them into it, but the Russians and Americans, I believe, were the main force of the war because of the number of people and resources that they brought into the war.

  In 1940 Britain was the only main power against the German threat. Hitler had offered the British a peace treaty on moderate terms and had presumed the British would not want to fight. Yet the British did not conform to his plans and decided to fight Hitler. This was very important because if Britain had given into Hitler, he would have controlled Western Europe. This is important because it would have meant that when Hitler had later attacked Russia he would have only had a war on one front. The British hastily prepared for invasion, there was such a panic that all street signs were painted black and all aluminium pans and railings were removed to help the war effort. Had Britain been invaded, Britain would have no longer been a stepping stone for the Americans to get into Europe, but a stepping stone for Germany out of Europe, it would have also made it very difficult for the Americans to cross the Atlantic. It would have been a major disaster, had Germany beaten the British, as Germany would have almost certainly won the war in Europe. All of Germany’s resources could have been focused on the Eastern front; this would have made it very difficult for the Russians to defeat the Germans. The British, as they had decided to fight on, were forced into the Battle Of Britain.

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  The Battle Of Britain was an immense victory against the Germans as it virtually meant that the British had almost complete and total supremacy of the air throughout the rest of the war. On paper it looked like the British were in big trouble and should have lost, as the Luftwaffe outnumbered the British Air Force greatly, approximately 3,000 German aircraft against Britain’s 600-700. Yet in fact the Luftwaffe had not got as big advantage as first thought. They had many more aircraft than the British but only a few more fighters. If the British had lost other operations ...

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