How did Britain remain undefeated from June 1940 to 1943 in World War 2?

In the last week of August and the first week of September 1940, German attacks intensified, and 103 fighter pilots died and another 128 were seriously injured. At this time, Britain was at breaking point, and then on September 7th, a giant fleet of bombers headed for Britain, but headed for London instead of the airfields. If it had headed for the airfields, then the chances are it would have overwhelmed the RAF and destroyed it, as many of the bases had been significantly weakened. Then on September 15th, the Germans launched another major attack, headed for major cities including London, but this time the RAF was waiting for them. At 9:00 on September 15th, 660 RAF planes were ready to fight.

Between 11:30 and 14:00, about 450 German aircraft crossed the coast between Dover and Dungeness, headed for the London district. 36 Squadrons were sent to meet the attack. Approximately 170 enemy aircraft succeeded in reaching Central London in total, over 6 hours.

At 15:30 a formation of 25 enemy aircraft attacked Portland but it was successfully driven off by British fighters, and at 17:25 about 50 enemy aircraft flew over the Isle of Wight and attacked the Southampton district. Again this formation was intercepted and driven off by the RAF.

Approximately 200 enemy planes of an estimated 500 were shot down during the day of September 15th. Then the Blitz began. 76 nights in succession the Luftwaffe intensely bombed London. On September 16th, another daylight attack was attempted, but German aircraft turned away before it was intercepted by the RAF. This was the end of major daylight attacks on Britain.

The morale of the British people was one of the most important things that kept Britain going on during the war. Churchill kept telling the people that “Britain can take it,” and although there was mixed opinion about this, it inspired the British people, and they did everything they could to keep their morale up. During the night raids, the anti-aircraft guns were used, but even though they knew there was no hope of hitting any enemy aircraft, they knew it boosted the moral of the people in the shelters. Between September 1940 and May 1941, 40,000 British civilians died in night raids, half of whom were Londoners. Other cities which were severely bombed were Manchester, Liverpool, Coventry, Birmingham and Swansea.

On the night of May 10th/11th, 1941, 10:30pm, 180 bombers arrived over London, with 100 more 30 minutes behind. This was the worst night of the Blitz, with over 3000 casualties. Bombs hit lots of significant buildings in London on this night, including the Houses of Parliament. On this night, the RAF had every single plane in the sky fighting off the Luftwaffe. Once again, Britain was at breaking point, and Hitler postponed his attack on Britain, and turned his attention to the USSR with his ‘Operation Barbarossa’, as he thought Britain was too strong and would continue their resistance. Germany going to war with the USSR was a major turning point in the war, as it relieved pressure on Britain, and it also gave Britain an ally in Europe.

Churchill knew that he could not stop the Nazis by just defeating their air force as they attacked, so he decided to attack the Axis forces in North Africa. On June 10th, 1940, British forces occupied Italy’s Fort Capuzzo. The Italians tried to regain control of the base, but suffered huge losses. The German Afrika Korps led by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel came to Italy’s assistance in North Africa to help force out the allied troops. After a back-and-forth series of battles for control of Libya and parts of Egypt, British Commonwealth forces under the command of General Bernard Montgomery eventually pushed the Axis forces west to Tunisia. The North Africa Campaign was a great morale boost for the people at home, because it was the first victory outside of Britain in the war.

On 8th November 1942, ‘Operation Torch’ began. The objective was to clear the Axis Powers from North Africa, improve naval control of the Mediterranean Sea, and prepare an invasion into “The backdoor to Europe” in 1943. This operation was a success, and the Commonwealth and US forces entered Greece and Yugoslavia. However, these attacks were overwhelmed by Nazi forces, and 50,000 troops had to be evacuated.

The Battle of The Atlantic played a major role in WWII, as Britain required over one million tons of overseas imports every week. If the Axis cut off these supplies, it would bring Britain down to its knees. At first, many merchant navy ships were being sunk, but then the allies began to use convoys to protect their ships. The Germans used U-boats to attack allied convoys, and Commodore Karl Dönitz calculated that 300 of the latest U-boats would be needed to knock Britain out of the war. A major factor in the success of the allies during the second half of 1941, and throughout the rest of the campaign, was the cracking of the Naval Enigma machine cipher. The German tactics relied on radio communications, based on the assumption that the Enigma cipher could not be broken and that short signal messages could not be pinpointed with enough accuracy to endanger the signalling U-boat. Knowing the codes of the Enigma enabled the British to plot the positions of the U-boat patrol lines, allowing the convoys to be routed to evade them.

Up until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7th, 1941, Britain was importing supplies from the USA at a cost. At first they paid for the weapons as they received them, but within a year the gold reserves had run out, so a ‘lend and lease’ procedure was undertaken, meaning that Britain pays for the weapons after the war in annual payments.  Britain and the USA declared war with Japan, and Germany declared war on the USA. Churchill managed to persuade Roosevelt to assist Britain with the war in Europe. This was a major turning point, as the Americans not only brought with them supplies, but also large numbers of troops to assist against Germany and Italy, whilst they were still fighting Japan on the other side of the world.

In 1943, the allies eventually gained control of the Mediterranean, and then pushed forces into southern Italy. Mussolini was dismissed, and the new leader made peace with the allies, proving to be a major turning point in the war, as they then went to war with Germany.

In conclusion, there were two major factors that protected Britain in the war. The first was the English Channel. Without this, Hitler would have easily been able to invade Britain using his blitzkrieg tactics. The other major factor was the involvement of the USA. If the USA had not delivered weapons to Britain, and not joined the war itself, then the North Africa Campaign would not have succeeded, allowing the German and Italian troops to fight together on fewer fronts, so there would have been larger forces to attack Britain and Russia.