The Germans wanted to control the English Channel to launch her invasion on Britain.
The Germans code-named this operation sea lion.
The Germans wanted control of the channel so the British navy would not be able to attack the Germans when they landed on the Kent and Sussex beaches. To control the channel the Germans needed to take control of the air.
However Britain had a number of advantages over the Luftwaffe because Britain had radar which gave them early warning of the approach of the German planes.
Bad weather stopped the Luftwaffe raids through the day so by August 15th nearly all the stuka bombers were destroyed.
From august 23rd to September 6th, the Luftwaffe started nighttime bombing raids on the cities.
The next big mistake that Hitler made was that he stopped the attacks on the British radar bases, as he believed that they weren’t important. As a result of this the radar station at the Isle of Wight functioned through out the battle and gave the British vital information regarding the German targets.
Another mistake Hitler made was that he stopped bombing the RAF and bombed other cities, and industries; this gave the RAF chance to recover from the loss of pilots.
I think the German were defeated because,
- The Germans fought too far away from their bases so that the refuelling and rearming were impossible, the Germans fighters had a very limited time that they could spend over Britain before there fuel ran out.
- British fighters could land, refuel and rearm and be in the air again very quickly.
- The change of targets was crucial.
- The hurricanes and spitfires were exceptional planes-capable of taking on the might of the Luftwaffe.
The next key event is the blitz. The Germans attempted to bomb London into submission.
The theory was that that the population, would be in constant fear of a sudden and violent death, would put pressure on their government to surrender and accept defeat.
The attacks started on September 7th 1940 in Coventry and continued to May 1941. The raids began with a ten-hour bombardment, which killed more than 4000 civilians, and in summer 1941 over 40,000 people were killed and over 2 million had been made homeless.
The government did a number of steps to try and protect the civilians, the government ordered a total blackout, street and vehicle lights were shielded and dimmed, everybody was issued with a gas mask, and it was an offence to show a light. Windows were to be taped up so to avoid flying splinters when the windows were smashed. Sand bags protected important buildings, some people erected Anderson bomber shelters in their gardens and some used Morrison shelters in their homes.
In towns there were public shelters, some families spent the night on the London underground platforms as they thought this was the safest place to be.
The blitz was called off in 1941 due to the weather becoming worse and Hitler had changed his plans to invade the USSR, as Hitler no longer thought Britain would be a threat to him.
Although air raid precautions were effective the Luftwaffe failed to break the morale of the British people, by now over 40,000 had been killed and 2 Million had been made homeless.
Not only was London attacked but also so were many British cities Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool etc. The worse affected places were Coventry and Plymouth.
The next key event is the invasion of the USSR; also know as operation barborossa in June 1941.
Hitler invaded the USSR because the USSR was Germanys bitter rivals; Hitler also wanted to take control of the USSR’s rich oil fields and fertile
Wheat plains, a defeated USSR would also provide useful lebensraum for German settlers.
This was another one of Hitler’s mistakes because the Russians winter hardly ever rises above freezing point and the Germans weren’t prepared for the weather, because many Germans got frostbite and they were short of supplies from the soviets destroying everything they couldn’t carry away. This was known as Scorched earth policy.
Hitler delayed the invasion because he had to spend all spring rescuing his Italian ally Mussolini, from the difficulties it got into in Greece, the attack was to be launched in spring 1941 but was delayed till June 22nd.
At first the attack was successful, the panzer tank units advanced by 20 miles a day, by November the Germans were threatening Moscow.
The invasion indirectly helped Britain because it gave Britain a chance to recover from the blitz, and they wiped out the entire German navy.
The next key event was Pearl Harbour. The Japanese attacked the American pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour. The attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, took place on December 7th 1941; the attack was known as the day of infamy.
I think the attack on Pearl Harbour happened because in 1941 the Japanese invaded indo-china. The USA responded by banning trade with Japan. This hit Japan hard has they depended on America for 80 per cent of its oil. Roosevelt declared war on Japan due to Pearl Harbour so this brought America into World War 2.
Germany then declared war on the USA to support Japan.
I think this is another one of Hitler’s mistakes because Hitler won’t have recovered from the invasion of the USSR.
The next key event is the role of Winston Churchill.
Winston Churchill’s role in the Second World War was crucial to defeating Hitler; his greatest achievement was to motivate the British people into his own form of fighting spirit.
In the early days of WW2 when Britain stood alone his speeches proved inspiration to the British people.
The last key event is the role-played by the USA. The USA did not enter the war until 1941 when the Japanese bombed Pearl harbour.
When America declared war on Japan Germany declared war on America, Germany was still weak from the invasion of USSR has it was a cold winter and many Germans died or was captured.
Overall I think Germany was unable to defeat Britain by 1941:
Due to the evacuation of Dunkirk because Hitler ordered his tanks to stop, so this helped because the bulk of the British army was saved, even though the British lost most of its equipment and 1,212,000 men had been captured.
The battle of Britain helped Germany fail to defeat Britain because Hitler switched targets to bomb London instead of the RAF, so this helped because the Luftwaffe failed to destroy the RAF. The outcome was that the battle was always in the balance.
The blitz helped Germany fail to defeat Britain by 1941 because air raid precautions and other safety precautions, e.g. families sleeping on the underground platform, saved many peoples lives.
The invasion of the USSR helped Germany to fail to defeat Britain by 1941 because when Hitler declared war on Russia he didn’t expect to fight them in winter because the winter in Russia reaches below freezing point and as the weather worsened, thousands of the German soldiers were killed or captured, as they didn’t have the right clothing for there winter, also 20 million Russian people died.
The role of Winston Churchill (British prime minister) helped Germany to fail to defeat Britain by 1941 because Hitler wanted to break the morale of people in the blitz but failed because Roosevelt (American president) visited bombsites and made very dramatic speeches, which helped keep up the spirits up of the people when the war was at its worst. Even though wartime propaganda was exaggerating his importance.
The role played by the USA helped Germany fail to defeat Britain because America provided valuable food and weapons to Britain. This was called lense lease this was introduced in March 1941, when America declared war on Japan, Germany joined into help Japan, but with the USA providing Britain with weapons and equipment, the British could help America s they were all ready at war with Germany.
I also think that Germany failed because Germany made a lot of mistakes by going into a lot of the wars unprepared, tired and weak.
