Battle Of Britain

The British Evacuation was very successful, and people started to celebrate just that. But Hitler had declared a halt in his troops, for an unknown reason. The retreat got as far as the beeches of Dunkirk, and the British thought that it was over, but instead of the German army attacking them, the German Luftwaffle continued the attack. This forced the BEF to further the evacuation, and so 330,000 British troops were evacuated.

c) The following were all equally important in the British victory in the Battle of Britain. How far do you agree? [10]

i) Technological Advances

ii) Leadership

iii) Fighting A Defensive War

Firstly the British won the Battle of Britain due to the technology that they used, mainly the radar system. The radars allowed the British to know exactly when and where the Germans were going to attack from. This meant that the British could be more prepared and organised, even though the Germans were superior in numbers.

Also British planes played a huge role, as they were far better than the German planes. The spitfire and hurricane could fly at lower altitudes than the ME19 and ME110. This meant that they were in better positions to defend, also could be closer to dog-fights.

So these types of technology definitely gave Britain that 'Extra Edge' to the Battle.

Secondly, Leadership, Hugh Dowding was a fine leader and his qualities and tactics were far better than his counterpart Goring. His main achievement was that he split Britain up into four sectors; 10,11,12,13. This allowed the British to have a better organised defence system as each sector could focus on attacks on its area. This meant that the British could defend more effectively and also meant no gaps were left when defending a certain part of the country. Finally this caused problems for Goring and the Germans as it meant that they would have to deal with a concentrated counter attack, which would put them at risk when trying to complete their objectives.

Lastly, the British did have a great advantage in that they only had to fight a defensive war, whereas the Germans had to do both. This also meant that the majority of fuel was being used by German planes, which meant that the Germans had a limited time to attack. So this meant that their attack was hurried, and therefore didn't have a huge impact on the British. So this did allow the British to stay calmer as the Germans had the most pressure as they had two main objectives to attack and to defend.

In conclusion, I believe that all of the above reasons were very important in why the British won the Battle of Britain. But I think that the most important factors that contributed to the victory, was the British's technological advances, and Hugh Dowdings leadership skills in counter with Goring's.

Without the radar, the British wouldn't have known when and where the Germans were going to attack, and without Hugh Dowding Britain wouldn't have been prepared, as he implied the policy of dividing Britain into four sectors. So without these factors Britain would've vulnerable to the huge German army.