Preparations for War

The first 200 words of this essay...

Preparations for War

You need to understand why Northern Ireland wasn't ready for war, how and why the RAF was reorganised within Northern Ireland, the measures introduced by the NI Government to prepare NI for war, MacDermott's reforms.

Complacency

Northern Ireland wasn't ready for war even though Stormont had quickly promised its support to London. The administration continued to believe that the province was beyond the range of enemy aircraft and so appropriate defence measures weren't put in place. They believed this because Germans would have to travel up to 1000 miles to reach NI.

When the war was under way the government still was slow to react. It wasn't until well into 1941 that the majority of NI was covered by Radar and steps had been taken to introduce anti-aircraft batteries. There were still far from enough anti-defence structures in place to keep NI safe.

RAF Reorganisation

By June 1940, the Nazis had defeated France and reached the Channel. Therefore air attacks were more likely to happen. This lead to reorganisation of the RAF which included:

* Increase in squadrons within NI

* Hurricane Fighter Aircraft

* Construction of airfields