Explain why Britain was able to continue to hold between June 1940 and the end of 1943.

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BRITAIN’S SURVIVAL 1940-43

When France surrendered in June 1940 Britain was the only European country holding out against Germany.

Explain why Britain was able to continue to hold between June 1940 and the end of 1943.

There were many reasons in why Britain was able to hold out against Germany in the battle of Britain for so long with no allies, but the main reason was that they maintained air superiority.

To maintain air superiority Britain developed a system called “Chain-Home”. This was a system of aerial defences, which had been put into place between the times of “The Munich Agreement” and the defeat of France (Oct 1938). Radar (or RDF) stations were placed on the southern border of Britain and would detect incoming planes. Then men in observation towers would see what type of planes were attacking and transmit it back to fighter command where they would send the appropriate type and number of planes to shoot down the opposition.

British planes also had another advantage; they were fighting over their home country. If a pilot survives a crash they can land in Kent or Sussex and head back to fighter command to take off again, pilots were much more needed than planes. The German pilots however would be kept as prisoners of war. The British planes could also land and refuel but the German planes could only spend 10 minutes over Britain before refuelling.

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The planes that fought in the battle were the ME bf 109, ME bf 110, Ju 87 Stuka, Spitfire and Hurricane. The Messerschmitt BF 109 was the spitfire's greatest opponent in the battle for air superiority in World War two; it was the standard fighter of the Luftwaffe and could outmanoeuvre any fighter of its time, except for the Spitfire. Equipped with two 7.9 mm machine guns and two 20 mm cannons it did not match the firepower of the Spitfire either. The ME 110 was not a good fighter due to its weight; it was a two-man fighter ...

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