The Battle of Britain as a turning point of the Second World War.
Extracts from this document...
Introduction
The Battle of Britain as a turning point of the Second World War. The battle of Britain is probably one of the most famous battles in Britain's long history of war, it is remembered for the "few" that stood between Hitler and the conquest of Britain, the Battle was fought over Britain between the 10th July and 31st October 1940, and 544 brave men lost their lives during the Battle. The Battle of Britain stands as a landmark in the resistance to Hitler's evil empire, the first country to withstand and defeat the conquering army; this little island stood alone against a force that significantly out numbered it but they came out triumphant because they were not just fighting for their lives but also their land and whole way of life. This showed the invincible army of the third Reich could be beaten and this little victory turned in to a tremendous and decisive war winning battle. It has been said that there were other more decisive factors that turned the war such as, Stalingrad or the USA's entry to the war but none of these could have helped were it not for the Battle of Britain as I will argue in this essay. The German attack was sudden and unexpected to most countries and they did not have time to react, even if the country did know it was coming they were poorly prepared. ...read more.
Middle
the brink of defeat because about 30,000 merchant sea men lost their lives in the battle, four million tons of allied shipping was sunk in the first 18 months and more then a 1000 ships sunk, at one point during the summer a ship was going down every 4 hours and u boat losses were still very low, Winston Churchill once said " the battle of the Atlantic was a dominating factor all through the war" what he means is that if the German navy one the battle and controlled the Atlantic Britain would soon run out of food and supplies that was coming from America and Britain desperately needed to carry on the war effort, this is another decisive factor in the war. In the long term all lot of different events added up to the winning of the war, winning the battle of Britain meant that it was a secure island right next to the fortress of Europe and could easily be used for bombing raids or attacks, Britain refused to agree terms which the Germans did not expect so they turned their attention to invading Russia in1941. When they realised that they did not have the proper man power and equipment to fight a war on two fronts it was too late they were greatly out numbered by the Soviet Red Army. ...read more.
Conclusion
The war ended a year after D-Day, D-day was only possible because Britain was free, it meant a massive army could assemble there and be ready to make the short journey across the channel to France and what was better yet is that it could mean they could pick any spot up and down the French coast to attack and the German force would not know where it was coming until it was to late. The Battle of Britain in some respects may and may not have been the turning point of the war but it was a significant factor as it led the way for far greater events such as D-day but once again other factors contributed to that as well, this question is a very complex one to answer and there probably will never be a right answer to it. It was a domino effect really because one event led to another then that led to another so it cant really be said what was the turning point because there would be to many ifs and buts. But in final conclusion to the question I believe that the Battle of Britain was an extremely important turning point because it set the scene for other major war winning events that were a consequence of the Battle of Britain. Daniel Amos 11RF Battle Of Britain ...read more.
This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level International History, 1945-1991 section.
Found what you're looking for?
- Start learning 29% faster today
- 150,000+ documents available
- Just £6.99 a month