Women were also recruited into the Women's Auxiliary Air Force that was the female auxiliary of the Royal Air Force during World War II, established in 1939. The use of women pilots was limited to the Air Transport Auxiliary. Although, they did not participate in active combat.
Germany had strengths and weaknesses. One of their strengths was that the German pilots had more combat experience than the British and probably had the best fighter plane, the Messerschmitt BF109. They also had the impressive Messerschmitt 110 and Junkers Stuka. The commander of Fighter Command, Hugh Dowding, relied on the Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire.
One of their main weaknesses was that the German fighters could only stay over England for about half an hour before flying back to their home bases. The RAF also had a great advantage using the latest technology of the radar. The radar is an electronic instrument that uses radio waves to find the distance and location of other objects. This was used to avoid collisions, particularly in times of poor visibility or detect where the enemy was located.
However, on the 12th August, 1940, the German airforce began its mass bomber attacks on British radar stations, aircraft factories and fighter airfields. This severely damaged the radar stations. This attack was followed by daily raids on Britain.
The battle was mainly fought over southern England. Fighter command no. 11 under Keith Park and 12 led by Trafford Leigh-Mallory were protecting this area but they also received support from the squadrons based in the E n astern counties.
From the result of no success, the Germans withdrew and prepared to invade the USSR.
The British triumph in the Battle of Britain was not without heavy cost. During the conflict the Royal Air Force lost 792 planes and the Luftwaffe lost 1,389.Total British civilian losses from July to December 1940 were 23,002 dead and 32,138 wounded. Winston Churchill summed up the effect of the battle and the contribution of Fighter Command with the words, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few". The 15th of September is celebrated in the United Kingdom as "Battle of Britain Day", marking the battle.
The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign of World War II. It ran from 1939 through to the defeat of Germany in 1945. The Battle of the Atlantic was a fight for Britain's very survival. Winston Churchill claimed that the 'U-boat’ was the only thing that ever really frightened him during World War Two. The’ U boat ‘was a submarine. Germany had the largest submarine fleet in World War II. The U-boat was essentially a launch platform for its main weapon, the torpedo, though mines were also laid. By the end of the war, almost 3,000 Allied ships were sunk by torpedoes. German submarines hunted in what were called wolf-packs invented by Karl Dönitz.
Women were also recruited into non-combat military units such as the Women's Royal Naval Service. Members included cooks, clerks, wireless telegraphists, and electricians. It
also included flying transport planes. At its
peak in 1944it had 75,000 people. During the war there were 100 deaths.
If Germany had prevented merchant ships from carrying food, raw materials, troops and their equipment from North America to Britain, the outcome of World War Two could have been radically different. Britain might have been starved into submission and her armies would not have been equipped with American-built tanks and vehicles.
Germany had underestimated the impact of U-boats and mostly used over surface vessels. Germany had 46 operational vessels.
- 1939 : 222 British ships sunk (114 by submarine)
- 1940 : 1059 British ships sunk (471 by submarine)
- 1941 : 1328 British ships sunk (432 by submarine)
- 1942 : 1661 British ships sunk (1159 by submarine)
- 1943 : 597 British ships sunk (463 by submarine)
- 1944 : 247 British ships sunk (132 by submarine)
- 1945 : 105 British ships sunk (56 by submarine)
So how did Britain survive this onslaught?
- New ships were developed called corvettes which were very lightly armoured which made them much faster but very heavily armed with depth charges and also with Sonar which enabled all corvettes to hear submarines underwater.
- Luckily bad weather helped the Navy as submarines could not shoot torpedoes when there was a heavy swell meaning the merchant ships were safer during storms.
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New planes like the Short Sunderland helped as it gave the navy valuable air cover and a submarine has to be near the surface to use torpedoes so they were sitting targets for the planes.
Another factor to Britain’s success was the Enigma machine. During the middle of 1941, reading Enigma messages and radio direction finding enabled the British to plot the positions of the U-boat patrol lines, allowing the convoys to be routed to evade them.
Unfortunately Between 75,000 and 85,000 Allied seamen were killed. 3,500 Allied ships were sunk. About 28,000 out of 41,000 U-boat crew were killed. 783 German U-boats destroyed.
If the U-boats had been more successful, the western Allies could not have been successful in the war against Germany.
In conclusion, The Germans failed to restrict the flow of supplies to Britain, and that failure resulted in the massive build-up of troops and supplies needed for the Normandy landings (D-Day).
