The Battle of Britain and the hoax of Operation Sealion was the most important reason as to why Britain was able to hold out against Germany, because Hitler didn’t actually want to conquer Britain. Hitler knew that he needed total air superiority, which he couldn’t get, and that conquering Britain would have no great advantage.
The Blitz:
In September 1940, aware of failure and rising losses, Goering changed from daylight bombing attacks to night. Soon after, London suffered eight months of bombing, sometimes as many as five hundred planes in twenty-four hours, which was known as the Blitz.
A sense of neighbourliness and determination arised from the shared suffering of the Blitz among the public. The 1940-41 Blitz killed over 20,000 British civilians in London alone. Citizens in London slept in the Underground and other shelters during the blitz and so in effect the country, or in any case London, was united because of the Blitz. This also boosted morale for the public. The bombing seemed to unite the British in a sense of outrage and hate against Germany.
After the 10th of May, the Blitz began to die away, as Hitler concentrated on other plans. The Blitz was to destroy morale, and turn the public away from the British government policy, but the Blitz reinforced the resolve of the people to resist and retaliate.
Maintaining Morale:
A volunteer army called the Home Guard was set up as the British army was weakened by the defeat of France.. It was sometimes nicknamed 'Dad's army' because it was made up of volunteers who were too old to serve in the regular army.
Hundreds of thousands of men joined the Home Guard in the summer of 1940 and served through the war. The force had some problems to begin with because they did not have proper weapons or uniforms. Despite this they began training to resist an enemy invasion and soon became a familiar sight around the country performing a number of roles.
Although it was expected, the Germans did not try to invade, so the Home Guard never faced an invading force and the question remains about how they would have fought. Despite this, the Home Guard were helped boost confidence throughout the country.
The Evacuation of the millions of children from London also helped the parents feel better, knowing that their children were safe.
Likewise, the evacuation of the soldiers from Dunkirk was a morale booster. As Churchill said ‘Dunkirk was indeed a miracle of deliverance’, which made the British public happier.
Finally, Churchill’s speeches moved many people ‘even though large tracts of Europe…have fallen under Nazi rule…we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on onto the end’. Since the public was brave and strong, it didn’t collapse and the government was supported. The army is represented by the people and so with high morale, everyone is united and involved. This meant that the country is stronger as a whole, thus being able to fend off the Germans.
The Royal Navy and the Battle of the Atlantic:
After the Germans had taken over the French ports, a German submarine admiral, Admiral Doenitz aimed to use the U-boats to attack convoys of merchant ships in the Atlantic. Losses of merchant ships quickly rose due to shortage of escorts, the long range of U-boats and the new German hunting tactics. In April 1943, it was predicted that unless something happened quickly, Britain was going to run out of food in six weeks, forcing them to surrender. At this point, there was extremely low morale as so many were dying; no one even wanted to go out on the ships. The government even gave out rationing books and encouraged people to grow their own food.
However, Roosevelt ‘lent’ food and other supplies to Britain, and the US navy escorted the British convoys to the Mid-Atlantic. The essential supplies included food, fuel and raw materials. Britain also got more escort ships to protect the convoys, which were initially 50 old US destroyers.
Britain broke the Enigma, the secret code which the Germans used to communicate between their U-Boats and Doenitz every day. German U-boats could therefore be easily hunted. This was aided by the Asdic (sonar), radio direction finders and the improvements in radar for aircraft.
This led to many German surface ships being sunk as well; the Bismarck in 1941, the Schanhorst in 1943, while the Tirpitz went out of action.
In April 1943, there were the highest losses of Allied ships, yet a month later the tide had turned and the Germans lost 40 U-boats in one month.
One must remember that the British did have a naval advantage, as the Germans had no aircraft carriers, and only three large battleships compared to about twenty, which the British navy had. The British were able to defend the convoys later with escort aircraft carriers which protected the convoys from German bombers and U-boats.
World Affairs:
The US were already giving arms, munitions and other supplies to the British before the lend-lease, however in December 1941, the European War became a World War, after America declared war on Germany. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour, Malaysia and Indonesia, while everyone’s attention was in Europe. America was infuriated and attacked on Germany as they were part of the Axis.
Historian Ray mentions how Operation Sealion could’ve been a plan to trick Russia to allow Germans to have their armies nearby. Ray says ‘the German build-up in Eastern Europe was variously described in carefully ‘leaked’ reports to the Soviet Union … as preparations for ‘Sealion’ out of reach of RAF Bomber Command’. Stalin still thought that he was friends with Hitler, and that the military build-up of Germans near Russia was just a bargaining ploy. All of Hitler’s actions indicated (e.g. the Battle of Britain and the campaign in North Africa) that Germany was intent on the destruction of Britain and its empire, and that an invasion of Russia seemed unlikely.
Stalin was extremely surprised when he found out Hitler had double-crossed him on 22 June 1941 when Hitler invaded Russia with ‘Operation Barbarossa’.
These world affairs explain how Hitler’s attention was focused on Russia, not Britain, helping Britain as it didn’t need to fight anyone.
The Italians and the Mediterranean:
Following the French surrender, each side fought for the superiority in the Mediterranean. This was an established sphere of influence for the Italians, which presented an easy target for the British until the Germans arrived to reinforce their Axis partners. The convoys arriving through the Suez Canal had to pass through the Mediterranean and North Africa was the ‘soft underbelly of Europe’, allowing attackers to infiltrate Europe from North Africa, which is what happened in July 1943.
Hitler had to postpone his invasion of Russia by a month since both the British and the Russians were in striking distance of his main source of oil in March 1941. Therefore, he sent German forces to seize Yugoslavia and Greece, whom secured his oil supply in a fortnight. Hitler and Mussolini had many victories in the Mediterranean up until the beginning of 1942, so they had effective control and superiority, so this does not seem like an important reason as to why Britain was able to hold out against Germany.
Following Taranto, the British Navy was superior to everyone else’s in the Mediterranean, and as there was no threat back home (as Operation Sealion was a hoax), Britain was able to send its armies and aircraft to the Mediterranean.
However, on October 1942 when a new British general called Montgomery opened his desert offensive at El Alamein, he managed to capture 30,000 Axis troops and drove the rest back to Libya. On 7 November 1942, the ‘Torch’ Landings were successful and after two days fighting, the Vichy France in North Africa agreed to an armistice. Finally, in May 1943, since the Axis forces in Tunisia were cut off from Europe, they collapsed and the Allies took 200,000 prisoners. The Allies then entered the city of Tunis and announced that a whole continent was now free of its enemy. This must’ve been hugely encouraging for both the British armies and the public. A month later, Operation ‘Husky’ invaded Sicily.
Conclusion:
The most important reason why Britain was able to hold out against Germany is that Hitler didn’t actually want the collapse of Britain. As Hitler said, ‘the collapse of Britain would be of no use to Germany, since German blood would be shed to accomplish something that would benefit America, Japan and others’. So, if Hitler didn’t actually want to conquer Britain, then this must be the most important cause as to why Britain was able to resist the Germans.
When the Americans declared war in December 1941, Hitler immediately knew that he couldn’t win, as he had already lost in the Battle of Britain and he couldn’t fight the strong morale of England, so he tried to defeat Russia before the Americans invaded Europe. In effect, from that point onwards, Britain couldn’t lose, and so they only held out against Germany for six months. After that, Britain stopped defending, and started offending until July 1943, when the Allies re-entered Europe.
