By 1943 Great Britain had overcome the threat passed by the German aircraft and submarines. Explain the reasons for the outcome of the Battle of Britain and the Battle of Atlantic.

Due to some terrible decisions the Battle of Britain was fought over five phases. These were bad decisions because the commander of the Luftwaffe, Goering, kept on changing his mind about every target he bombed. In the first phase he concentrated his attacks on Channel shipping and the ports. This attack lasted from 10th July to 7th August and while it was happening the RAF was concentrating mainly on building its fighters. The attack was changed from the ports and the shipping to the bombing of radar stations and fighter bases. This was a very good move because the fighters could not get to their bases because they had been bombed. This second phase of bombing lasted from 8th until 23rd August. However, as it was a hard job to knock out radar stations, Goering gave up bombing the radar stations but instead bombed aircraft factories. So through the third phase, from 24th August to 6th September, they bombed fighter factories and fighter bases. This attack made the RAF suffer tremendously and could've been the key to victory for the Germans, but it wasn't. Goering changed his attack to bomb London into submission. This attack gave the RAF time and they were able to get back at the Germans. It lasted from 7th to 30th September and on the 17th September 'Operation Sealion' was postponed. The Battle of Britain carried on through the last stage, which Britain dominated until 31st October.

There were many reasons for why the Germans were defeated and why the British were victorious. The main reason was the fact that Goering consistently switched his target of his attacks. If Goering hadn't made the change of his attacks from the fighter factories and the fighter bases (third phase) to the city of London (fourth phase), then maybe he would've won the Battle of Britain for Germany and then Germany would have invaded Britain. This move was a bad mistake because if he had carried on bombing the factories and the bases the in a while Britain would no longer have any planes to fight with. So the Germans had the chance of totally wiping out the RAF, but they didn't. The British RAF had radar and this was a major success in the Battle of Britain because they could see the Luftwaffe coming over to Britain and then they sent the sufficient amount of planes to meet them. The radar was a huge part in the victory of the British. The British also benefited during the war because none of the German bombers were quick enough for either the Spitfire or the Hurricane. However the German fighter plane (ME 109) was more manoeuvrable than the Hurricane but not as good as the Spitfire. As the Spitfire took up only one third (1/3) of the RAF, it wasn't too much of an advantage. The Germans were using good fighters here and at the same time the U-boats were doing amazingly well in the Atlantic Ocean.

In the Battle of Atlantic the Germans done what they could to get to the British and one of the two main events was the Battle of Atlantic. In this battle the Germans had the upper hand. Their main weaponry of success was the U-boat. This was because they would be fighting against huge merchant ships and later convoys. This made them more manoeuvrable and therefore they could easily get around the ships and then fire their torpedoes. The U-boats also wouldn't have been able to be seen when they were underwater because there was no radar system underwater. There were some systems fitted in the convoys and destroyers called 'Asdic'. This was a system that sent a beam into the water and if it hit something it would bounce back and the crew would here the noise. However this was not good enough because it would not say how far the U-boats were and how deep in the sea they were. The U-boats were a great weapon to use against Britain because they were faster and more in control than the British ships. They also were impossible to spot and therefore were destroying the supplies of Britain. The food supply of Britain ran very low some of the times because of the U-boats.

There were five major phases in this battle as in the Battle of Britain. The first phase was from September 1939 to March 1941 and it was when the U-boats were mainly only fighting in European waters. The second phase was from April 1941 to November 1941. This was the phase when the Battle of Atlantic actually moved to the Atlantic Ocean as the U-boats were in their wolf packs. The third phase was from December 1941 to July 1942. This was one of the 'Happy Times' for the Germans because they had sunk many allied ships during a small period of time. They had sunk 586 allied ships in only six or seven months. The fourth phase was when the allies made their attack and began to counter attack. This phase lasted from August 1942 to May 1943. The fifth and final phase was when the counter attack was very successfully working and towards the end of the phase the threat was over. This phase lasted from June 1943 to April 1945. This battle had the Germans name on it from the start because they had sunk so many British merchant ships compared to how many U-boats the allies had sunk. However the allies had turned this all around because of their new high tech technology which was made at the end of the Battle of Britain.

Britain was finding it very difficult to defeat the Germans in the Battle of the Atlantic because there was nothing to be used against the U-boats. They used 'Asdic' to get a rough estimate of where the U-boat was and then the dropped their depth charges. This system didn't always work because when the U-boat was very low in the water the depth charges would miss because the U-boat would move away. However to turn the whole battle around, towards the end the allies had radar fitted into their ships and they could then tell exactly where the U-boats were. Also towards the end of the battle the RAF sent their planes to support the Ships. When the planes found a U-boat they would call the closest ship and go in and bomb. So the U-boats were bombed by the planes and torpedoed by the ships. The RAF planes were in radio contact with the British navy and therefore the navy could benefit a lot. This is because the navy could then tell where the U-boats were, as they already had radar and plus an extra view from above (planes). The allies produced newer destroyers and they were mainly American and also they were fitted with immense weaponry because they had the new hedgehog system. This was a weapon, which released multiple numbers of rockets at once instead of one by one and this was used to inflict more damage to the Germans. All of these things hugely contributed to the victory of the allies and Britain.

In conclusion the main factor for British success against the Germans in both the Battle of Britain and in the Battle of Atlantic was the radar system. The radar system helped so much in the Battle of Britain by showing the RAF when the Germans were coming, how many were coming and how fast they were coming. This would have given the British a head start because they knew where they would meet their opposition exactly. In the Battle of Atlantic the British were always looking for a radar system and they kept on experimenting with the system all for the right reasons because when they finally received it the won the battle. In both of the battles Britain was underneath Germany and Germany always had the upper hand over Britain but the British won both battles because of radar.