The British airforce was so successful because of the new invention called the Radar. By using it British could detect when the German aeroplanes were coming and they instead of being in the air the whole time, they could go up
when the attack was coming.
Although the German U-boats were a very strong opposition for the British sea defences, the Germans had far too few of them for and effective submarine offensive against Britain. Admiral Donitz had estimated that to lead an effective offensive against the British navy, Germany needed at least 300 U-boats. At the start of the war they only had 57. By the start of the war it was clear that Germany was not in a position to defeat the British navy with its resources. Hitler had made a mistake by aiming to defeat the Royal Navy because in order to do that he had to build a navy stronger than it, which would take far too long. Instead he should have been concentrating on the British Merchant Navy and by that decreased the supply of goods to Britain. (This was the plan Donitz had proposed but war rejected by Hitler and Raeder) Another weakness in the German navy was that Raeder "tied down" the fleet commanders by his precise orders and the individual commanders did not have that freedom to act as they found was best. This slowed down the operations and brought ineffectiveness to the whole navy. In 1941, the British managed to crack the German code "Hydra" which enabled them to read the German U-boat codes. This was crucial for the British because if they had not been able to crack the code, the new German U-boat plan (U-boats hunting in groups of 15) would have been successful.
A huge mistake on the German side was that on the 3rd of September 1940, Goering switched the bombing from the British airfields to the cities. This was either because of retaliation because Churchill had ordered the bombing of Berlin, or because he thought that the RAF was virtually defeated, and he underestimated the British. This move was a catastrophe for the British civilians but it save the RAF, which if defeated would have left Britain defenceless against the German airforce.
Britain had prepared for a long war (Chamberlain had been preparing for such a war when he was appeasing Hitler) was while Germany's economy was not yet able to cope with a long war. They had achieved a victory in France thorough "Blitzkrieg" but this wasn't the type of war that they were made to fight against Britain.....................
The USA gave Britain huge support. Roosevelt thought that a victorious German navy would disrupt American trade. Also that the fall of Britain would mean a Nazi take over of Europe which would mean that Germany would turn in to a very strong power that would challenge America militarily as well as economically. In January 1939 Roosevelt presented the Lend-Lease Plan to Congress. Although isolationist opposed his view, he was given the authority to dispose of any 'defence article' against Germany if he decided it was in America's interest. By this Roosevelt declared an "economic war fare" against the Axis powers. He lend Britain huge amounts of necessary goods in order to fight a war. Roosevelt made sure that American merchant ships were not destroyed by the German navy. Hitler knew that if such accidents happened, he would turn America even more against Germany. (Which the Germans were not yet ready for). In 1941, Roosevelt had given Britain 50 destroyers. Hitler ordered the stopping of any attacks against them.
The British morale was high which is also important when a war is taking place. This was due to the inspiring rhetoric of Churchill and his leadership. Churchill was known to be a man who never gave up and together with Beaverbrook, he inspired the British people to keep on fighting by rhetoric and propaganda. He would never give Britain up to Hitler and although, Hitler on may occasions offered peace, Churchill would not accept it.
One of the reasons why Britain was able to stand-alone against Germany was that Hitler had never intended to fight against Britain. Hitler had been planning to take over Russia. Therefore he never completely concentrated on Britain. If he had turned his whole attention on to Britain at the time, it is most likely that he would have defeated her. It was a fact that Germany did not have the economic of military power to fight a war in two fronts. In fact Hitler offered many opportunities to Britain not to involve herself in the war but Churchill did would not agree. Hitler wanted Britain to hold on to her empire because he believed that if she was defeated, the Americans and the Russians would become even stronger. In December 1940, Hitler told his Generals that Russia is Germany's main objective. He thought he could postpone or 'on hold' the complete invasion of Britain. He believed that when Russia was defeated, Germany would have sufficient resources and power to defeat Britain. As he turned his attention on Russia, he made the biggest mistake in the war because he simply could not fight a war on two fronts.
