Why was britain able to win the battle of britain

Why was Britain able to win the Battle of Britain? After the evacuation of Dunkirk by the British and the fall of France in June 1940, Hitler had one other obstacle in his bid for more Lebensraum and expansion of his empire, this was Britain. Hitler didn't really intend to attack Britain; however they were in the way of his plans. Hitler felt that Britain was his natural ally and not his enemy. As Hitler wanted to expand his empire he wanted to carve it out into the communist USSR, however Britain didn't want to make any deals with Germany, which angered Hitler. On the 16th June Hitler announced that he would be invading Britain even though he didn't really want to go to war with Britain in the first place. In summer of 1940 between July and September the Battle of Britain took place. However as Britain had just arrived just over a month ago, they were weak as they had burnt most of their weapons and vehicles, therefore they would be weak and easier for Germany to attack. However this was going to be an aerial and sea battle between the nations. The battle itself wasn't just a battle but a series of small battles. The French General predicted that Britain should fall in 3 weeks, as he saw what Hitler had did to France As the battle was going to be mostly air and sea due to the location of Britain, therefore there would be no Blitzkrieg or ground troops. There were many

  • Word count: 3760
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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why was britain able to win the battle of britain?

Why was Britain able to win the Battle of Britain? I believe that Britain was able to win the Battle of Britain for two main reasons; British successes and German failures. The British successes were the development of radar, coordination of the RAF into three groups, high rate of fighter production and the superiority of British aircraft. The German failures were; the fuel limitations of the Messerschmitts, slow German fighter production and Hitler's decision to change operation Sea Lion. I believe that the British successes were the main reasons why Britain was able to win the battle of Britain. By 1935 Britain had already set up 50 radar stations around her south and eastern coast which allowed RAF Fighter Command to have an accurate idea of where German attacks were going to take place and how strong they would be, this allowed for the RAF fighters to remain grounded until they were needed allowing them more air time fighting the Luftwaffe. The controllers could also guide the British fighters directly to Luftwaffe. Also the British had cracked the German "Ultra" code and were able to intercept and de-code German transmissions By coordinating the RAF into three main groups: 10, 11 and 12 meant that Fighter Command was better able to control the RAF by reducing large scale coordination of British forces as each group had its own zone of control. Furthermore this

  • Word count: 612
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why Was Britain Able To Win The Battle Of Britain

Why was Britain able to win the Battle of Britain? The Battle of Britain was an air war fought between the British RAF and German Luftwaffe which lasted from July 1st 1940 to October 1940. There were many factors which helped Britain win the battle, strengths of the British, weaknesses of the Germans. However it was a very close and costly battle for the British. Britain's greatest strength, and probably the main reason why Britain won the battle was their RAF leader, Sir Hugh Dowding. He was a veteran ace-flyer from World War I who had been due to retire from his position before World War II but had been persuaded to stay in control of the air force. He had been devising Britain's aerial defence since 1936, which gave Britain a great strength over the Germans in those few months of battle. He also played a vital part in the development of technologies such as the radar which ultimately helped the RAF overcome the German Luftwaffe. Another of his strengths was his vast knowledge of modern air warfare, which the German air force leader, Hermann Goering lacked. One of Goering's weaknesses was his limited knowledge of modern air warfare but the tactics he used were also very questionable, as he liked to frequently switch attack targets. He was also arrogant. Probably the second most important factor which helped Britain win the battle was the technology the RAF had and used.

  • Word count: 789
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why was Britain able to win the Battle of Britain?

Why was Britain able to win the Battle of Britain? Following the evacuation of Dunkirk, Hitler controlled the entirety of Western Europe except from Britain. Britain stood alone against the might of the German army, Air Force and Navy. The German army was situated in France whilst the Luftwaffe was regrouped into three Air Fleets (Luftflotten). Luftflotten 2 was responsible for southeast England and the London area, whilst Luftflotten 3 targeted the West Country, Midlands, and northwest England. The final fleet, Luftflotten 5 targeted the North of England and Scotland. Hitler's planned invasion of Britain was codenamed "Operation Sealion" and he first planned to land on the south coast of England but was told by Admiral Raeder (leader of the German Navy) that the invasion would only be possible if they had complete air superiority over the British. Hitler, therefore, ordered the invasion to take place once this had been achieved. This is when the Battle of Britain was first put on the table, the Battle of Britain was the name given to the period of time in which the Nazis tried to invade Britain. "I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin" these are the words spoken by Winston Churchill; PM of Great Britain, on 18th June 1940. There are many different views as to when the Battle of Britain started and finished. The first German plane crossed the channel on 1st

  • Word count: 2328
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why do sources A to F differ in their attitudes to the evacuation of children?

Why do sources A to F differ in their attitudes to the evacuation of children? There are many reasons why attitudes in sources A to F are different. As all the sources are different authors, it is inevitable that the attitudes will be different as thousands of people were affected by evacuation and no two experiences could be exactly the same. Also, they are not all the same types of sources and the sources do not all have the same motives and would want to show certain attitudes. Also, the dates of the sources vary which could make each source more reliable or unreliable than the others. Source A is a photograph showing evacuees walking down to the station in London in September 1939. Its view of evacuation is that children who were evacuated looked forward to it and it was an enjoyable experience. I think it has this view because the government wanted to promote evacuation by showing an image of smiling happy children on their way to being evacuated to counter the real concerns that parents had about evacuation. This source is reliable because the photo was taken at the time of evacuation. However, this source may not be reliable if there is government influence in it because they might have staged the photo to capture the view that they wanted. The children might have been told to wave by their teachers. The fact that all of the children are smiling and waving

  • Word count: 4539
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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