Was Britain well prepared for WW2?

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This essay will conclude whether Britain was well prepared to meet the threat of invasion in 1940. The different areas covered are the public precautions, Morale, the Battle of Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, General Ironside’s plan as well as the sources from Merchant Taylors.

Britain was well prepared as the fact that Britain was preparing for a war two months before the potential invasion shows that they were well prepared in ensuring the safety of their citizens. Source 2 on page 152 states “street lighting will be put out” showing that the government were informing everybody what to do and using precautions such as gas masks and air raid shelters.

The Battle of Dunkirk could have been portrayed as a triumph as in May 1940, even though the Germans were leading the attack, the British pulled together and Winston Churchill announced ‘Operation Dynamo’ indicating that all British ships, whether it being a large vessel or fishing boat came to take away the British troops showing the heroism of the British people and most of the soldiers were taken back. Source 12 page 161 shops the “contribution” of the civilians was “gallant” and the source is from 1981 suggesting it is trustworthy as it would have viewed other sources and made a conclusion.

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The Battle of Britain showed that the British were well prepared as once the British attacked the bombers instead of the fighters, they were destroying many more German planes. This led to the Germans losing more planes than the British. The British pulled together again and started producing 563 planes per month meaning on September 17th, the Germans called off their invasions.

The British were very efficient in taking care of Operation Sealion. This meant that they were well prepared as is suggested by source F which shows that the strong GHQ line would have held off the Germans coming ...

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