An invasion of the island depended on the Royal Air Force being destroyed, in turn rendering the Navy, the main defending force of the channel. The invasion began at the beginning of August 1940.
On the 8th August the Lufftwaffe began arial attacks on RAF airfields. Over 1500 aircraft were used in huge waves of assaults. Despite these huge offensives the Royal Air Force had several advantages.
- The British had access to early forms of Radar thus enabling them to send the right number of fighter planes to the right height at the right time to try to stop these waves of assault before they reached any bases.
- British pilots had radio communication with bases and so could move swiftly from attack to attack without having to land and learn of the location of the next dogfight.
- The Messerschmidt 109, although technically superior to the Spitfire, had a very limited range and so could not defend the bombers right until the raid.
- German pilots if they were shot down were automatically out of the war. If a British Pilot survives a crash or lost a dogfight they were often in another plane within hours.
Ceaseless attacks on RAF airfields began to wear them down. Bases closest to the French coast were worst hit such as Thanet and Manston. Due to the much-publicised war-effort and many women ‘joining in’ at home by working as mechanics meant that there was always a supply of planes yet the RAF was hit by a desperately low number of pilots
Spirit was beginning to drop in the British forces and so an insignificant raid was launched on Berlin to boost moral. In reply to this Hitler ordered bombers to cease raids on airfields and start to bombard major cities such as London. This was the start of the Blitz.
This move of efforts to London was the worst mistake of the war. The so-called ‘trivial’ attack on London had eventually given the RAF bases time to recover and replenish, and limited bombing made by the Lufftwaffe had little effect on a city the size of London. German bombing was during daytime and the limited range of the Messerschmidt meant that bombers were not protected all the way.
Due to the fact that their own losses were too high, the Germans had to switch to night bombing, but the damage they caused was too indiscriminate to be militarily decisive. On September 17, 1940, Hitler postponed the invasion indefinitely, thereby conceding defeat in the Battle of Britain. This was effectively the beginning of the end for Hitler as this was the 1st time that Germany had been defeated and pushed back into their own territory.
The entry of Italy into the war in June 1940 could have caused serious problems to Britain such as cutting of the supply route through the Mediterranean. They were in a position to threaten interests in the Suez Canal as well as a variety of bases such as Malta, and areas under British control such as Palestine and East Africa.
Italy ended up to be not nearly as dangerous as they had potential to be due to the fact that the men were not interested and a result when it came to combat they did not do terribly well.
The German forces sent out to support the Italians succeeded completely and reversed the situation, sending the British back as far as El Alamein and looked like the retreat would continue to the Suez Canal. This was achieved under the great leadership of Rommel. The British did however eventually set up a defensive line about 70 kilometers from Alexandria.
To combat this new driving force, Churchill sent out General Montgomery to take charge of the eighth army. ‘Montys’ confidence seemed to rub off on his troops and a rapid preparation for the Battle of El Alamein.
After a huge bombardment a new breed of American tanks were sent in just ahead of the infantry, despite strong retaliation Monty continued to press forward and by November 4th Rommel knew that he was beaten and gave the orders for a full retreat. The British army by now was exhausted yet they chased them all the way back to Tripoli.
This was the first significant British land victory over the German Army in World War II and led to the destruction of the German forces in Tunisia by the British and American forces and their allies in the spring of 1943. This was enforcing the growing feeling of doubt within the Nazi hierarchy. Hitler had suffered one of his worst defeats.
A vital battle that had to be won by Britain was between convoys and their escorts and the German U-boats has come to be known as the Battle of the Atlantic.
In 1939, when war broke out the German Navy adopted a ‘sink on sight’ policy for any vessel pointed towards a British port. Many non-military ships were sunk within hours of the war being declared, including cruise ships and any vessel not in a convoys or without escort.
As soon as Germany had sufficient operational bases in France and they had manufactured a greater number of U-boats, convoys carrying food and other vital supplies from the USA to Britain were being attacked. Some 586 ships were sunk and it seemed that Germany were getting closer and closer to winning the battle of the Atlantic, thus cutting of British supply lines.
Something big was needed to combat these menaces who had begun to hunt in packs of several submarines. This came in the shape of the RAF using advanced radar techniques to spot the U-boats in the surface at night and so the British destroyers could pick them out 1 by 1 on their own. As well as this more powerful depth-charges were introduced. For the U-boats the days of easy picking was over.
Allied losses were falling by the month and despite advances in submarine technology the Germans never regained the upper hand and the allies had won the Battle of the Atlantic.
The significance of this was enormous, as this was the point that could have won Germany the war by cutting off all supplies to civilian and military means. The fact that they failed signified the beginning of the end and that Hitler had lost by air, by land and as well as by sea.
The Battle of Stalingrad checked the German advance into Russia. In August 1942, the German Army under General von Paulus advanced into Stalingrad, becoming buried in months of bitter street fighting as they attempted to clear the city of Russian troops. In November, Romanian forces defending the German supply route to Stalingrad were routed by the Red Army, and the 200,000-strong German army was left besieged in Stalingrad.
The Soviets launched a counter-offensive into the city. Hitler ordered Paulus to stand fast; having been assured by Goering that the Luftwaffe could keep the 6th Army adequately supplied by air. Hitler ordered Field Marshal Erich von Manstein to relieve Paulus. However, the Luftwaffe was only able to supply the 6th Army with a fraction of its requirements while the advance of Manstein's relief army was blocked by the Red Army.
The Russians pushed on from three sides in January 1943, and von Paulus surrendered on January 31. The battle cost Germany about 200,000 troops. In the aftermath of Stalingrad, in part owing to the collapse of the Italian and Hungarian armies, the Germans were forced to retreat from the Caucasus and back approximately to the line from which they had started the 1942 summer offensive.