How significant a role did Britain play in the War against Germany, 1939-45

How significant a role did

Britain play in the

War against Germany, 1939-45

Britain was the only country to fight in the war from beginning to end, the French were defeated very early on, and Russia and the USA joined in 1941. In my following essay I am going to illustrate, how significant a role Britain played in the war against Germany, 1939-45.

My first point is the Battle of Britain. Hitler wanted to invade Britain, and he believed that if he took control of the skies, then he could send his navy over the channel without having to worry about the Royal Air Force. The Luftwaffe started attacking British airfields, but the RAF fought back and kept control of the sky over Britain. The Battle of Britain is a significant point because; it was Germanys first setback of the war. It kept British hopes alive, if Britain was invaded, Germany would have almost certainly have won the war. Also winning the Battle of Britain meant that the USA could use Britain as a springboard to get into Northern France. In my opinion Britain winning the Battle of Britain was the most significant point of the war,

The Battle of Britain was Germanys first defeat, but their first defeat on land was in North Africa. In July 1942, the Axis forces led by Rommel drove the British out of Libya, back to El Alamein. But in doing so, they used all of their supplies. Without oil and food the Germans could go no further, which gave the British troops time to reorganise and counter attack, causing the first German defeat on land. Winning the Battle of Alamein meant that Hitler did not have access to oil, or the Suez Canal. It also meant that Britain were in reach of the “Soft under-belly of Europe”. Winning the Battle of Alamein was reasonably significant, as it gave Britain an opportunity to attack Nazi Europe from the south.

This is a preview of the whole essay

The first major sea battle of the War was the Battle of the Atlantic. For Germany, it was important to win for two reasons. The first was so they could starve Britain by destroying supply ships with U-Boats. The second reason was to try and stop the USA from entering the war, as the only way to Europe was across the Atlantic. The German U-boats were a big threat to British ships, and the British used two things to help combat them. The enigma coding machine was found on a U-Boat, and enabled the British to crack the codes on where the U-boats were going to go and attack. Huff Duff allowed ships to detect where the U-boats were. Winning the Battle of the Atlantic meant that; the USA could come over the Atlantic untroubled; Britain would not run out of food; and that we could supply the Russians with supplies. The Battle of the Atlantic was a very significant point, but we were greatly helped by the USA.

Now that the Allies controlled the sea, it was easy to get into Northern France. Between June and December 1944 2 million Allied troops entered Northern France on to five beaches. By September the Germans were driven out of France. Although most of the troops fighting at D-Day were American, there were many British soldiers, and British bombers were used to destroy German communication centres. The allies relied greatly on two British inventions. As the beaches in Northern France were unsuitable to land troops and supplies, two huge portable harbours were made, called the Mullberry Harbours. They were taken across the channel in pieces and assembled on the beaches. Very long pipelines, called Pluto, were laid on the seabed from Britain to France to transport oil, used by the Allies at D-Day. The biggest part Britain played in D-Day was the fact it was used as a launch pad, for American troops to get across the channel into Northern France.

I think that Britain played a very significant role in D-Day, as without Britain the Allies could never have entered France.

Another very significant point about winning the war was Bombing.

Bombing lasted throughout the war, but in the first couple of years, was a disaster. Only 25% of bombs landed within five miles of their designated target. In 1942 Air Chief Marshal Haris became the commander of Bomber Command. He decided that for Bombing to become effective, things would have to change: Bigger raids, better technology, (such as the Gee navigation system) and bigger bombers (the Lancaster Bomber).

The Bombing duties were shared between the USA and Britain. The USAF bombed during the day, and the RAF bombed in the night. In particular Cities, and industry were targeted. The last two years of the war saw very heavy bombing, with about one million tons of bombs dropped on Germany, as apposed to the 40,000 dropped in the first two years.

Bombing was very significant in the war, and Britain played a big part in it. Most of the American planes relied on British station equipment, radar and communications.

In my opinion, Britain played a very significant role in the War against Germany. If Britain hadn’t won the Battle of Britain, the war would have been over, as they were at the time, the only significant country fighting the Germans.

If Germany had controlled the Atlantic, it would have been unlikely that the Americans would have joined the war, as it would have been very difficult to get over to Europe. However Russia lost so many men to the war effort, it is impossible to count. In addition, their victories at Starlingrad and Kursk were two of the most important of the whole war. Having a war on two fronts, made things very difficult for Hitler, which is probably why they lost. Without the help of the Russians, maybe Britain would never have won. Nevertheless, this could be said the other way. Germany put 80% of their planes to fight the war against Britain, and the Russians maybe wouldn’t have won Starlingrad.

In addition to the Russian effort, the help of the USA was vital. Britain was helped at The Battle of the Atlantic, D-Day and with all the bombing. Also as the Americans fought the Japanese, it left Britain to concentrate on fighting the Germans.

Britain did play a very significant role in winning the war, but in my opinion Russia played a much bigger one.

1071 words.