How And Why Did Britain Survive The War From 1940-1943 Essay Example

assist France in its defence against a German invasion and also to plug a Maginot Line gap along the Belgium border. The country itself (Britain) was preparing for the war with the public practising air raid alerts. Rationing was being put out in place and children were being evacuated from the towns and cities into the countryside. The phoney war inevitably ended with the invasion of the Low Countries by Germany in May 1940.

The Blitzkrieg tactics came in to their own as the flat land of Holland and Belgium posed no real obstacles for the powerful army. France braced itself for the invasion which occurred in May 1940. Germany took no time to defeat the Low Countries. It attacked the weaker central part of the Maginot Line. The Germans easily defeated the First World War style French troops and drove on to capture Paris.

Incredibly, although the French had a bigger army than Germany, they were defeated in just six weeks.Invasion Of The Low Countries This attack on France turned Britain's fortunes from bad to worse as a German army trapped the British at Dunkirk. The BEF were stuck on the beaches and Rommel wanted to step in and finish them off with tanks but Hitler intervened and ordered that the Luftwaffe should do it. Luckily Hitler had not envisaged the ability of the British to organise one of the most amazing rescues in world history in which an armada of hundreds of small privately owned boats sailed from southern English ports to ferry the British army from the beaches of Dunkirk.

30,000 men were rescued in just nine days and the heroism of these seamen

helped in the survival of Britain. Although the new Prime Minster, Winston Churchill, put a brave face on things by saying "The tale of the Dunkirk beaches will shine in whatever ecords are preserved of our affairs" secretly he would have been in a rage about this incident as although he proclaimed it as a great victory, 50,000 men were lost and vast amounts of British equipment were left behind and so Britain was left on its knees with no outside help and on the brink of a German invasion.Defeat was a distinct possibility but luckily Germany decided to concentrate on France and Britain had time to arm itself and get the war machine into momentum, The Battle Of Britain had begun! Dunkirk One French General suggested that Britain was waiting 'to have its neck rung like a chicken'. That was the way it was because Britain was in desperate trouble with its army in disarray and its commercial shipping and navy taking heavy losses from the German U-boats.Although Britain was preparing for a massive German invasion Hitler did not think there was a reason to attack Britain and would have preferred to make peace with her and to leave the British Empire untouched.

But there was no way that Churchill would agree to any peace deal with Germany as if that happened Germany would have a free rein in Europe and ruin Britain's economy. Realising that there was no way that Britain wanted peace, Hitler ordered er invasion. The planned date for invasion Sealion was 15th September 1940.The problem for the German army was that this would be like no battle so far as

it would not just be a case of crossing over some flat plain and blasting a hole through a weak army's defences.

He had to cross over a twenty mile stretch of sea and, with the RAF above, any men in landing craft and on boats would be blown to kingdom come. Thus Hitler had to defeat the RAF before he could proceed to invade Britain. Hitler's attempts to destroy the RAF with the Luftwaffe was called The Battle Of Britain.The Battle Of Britain The Luftwaffe was complacent under the command of Herman Goering who believed or just boasted that the RAF would be destroyed within four days.

He may have had reason to think this as the Luftwaffe had more pilots and planes but what was quantity when Britain had quality? The Spitfire was the best battle plane as it was faster, could stay flying longer and had more fire power. Britain had many other advantages over the Luftwaffe and these were why we stood up to the Luftwaffe so well.We had radar and the Germans did not, we could refuel more easily and we could reinforce up our small number of pilots from parts Empire. For example, pilots were brought in from the West Indies.

Between July and September of 1940 waves of German bombers accompanied by Messerschmitt fighters attacked RAF bases in England, but due to the radar system the attacks were known to be coming. Hurricanes and Spitfires intercepted the German planes but losses were high with pilots being lost faster than they could be replaced.The Germans bombed RAF bases such as Duxford, Marston, Hendon and Biggin Hill. Hugh Dowding, the

RAF commander, realised that defeat was close but Hitler made a fatal mistake which insured Britain's survival and eventual victory. He relieved the pressure on the RAF by deciding instead to bomb the main British cities.

This gave the RAF time to re-group. Hitler's decision to change tactics may have been a result of Eagle Day when the RAF shot down 183 German planes. (This number may have been exaggerated).Although Hitler's tactic was good for the RAF it was a disaster for the people as the bombs were often dropped quite indiscriminately on the cities and major centres of population.. But if the Blitz had not begun the RAF would have been defeated and if that had happened then operation Sealion would have been put into action and Britain ost likely would have been defeated leaving Germany one last opponent in Europe: Russia.

Although our armed forces were not too well organised the people of the cities were and that is why we survived the Blitz.The Spitfire The British government estimated that one million would die in the Blitz but the actual number was sixty thousand and this was because we were so well organised. The government realised that if too many people died we would have severe trouble in the future with a shortage in the workforce and it would face the blame. London was bombed on 75 out of 76 nights. People uilt Anderson shelters in their garden or took refuge down the tube stations.

Although Anderson shelters could not survive a direct hit they could protect families from nearby blasts.People were not completely safe in the underground because if a bomb went

down a ventilation shaft then most people below would die. Coventry suffered the second worst attacks especially on November 4th 1940 when a massive air raid caused 30% of its buildings to be destroyed including the Cathedral. The government realised there could be a major panic and to prevent this told the newspapers that they could not print the full story.

Liverpool, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Dover, Canterbury, Plymouth and Southampton were all heavily bombed.The Blitz happened mostly in 1940-41 but some air raids occurred after this. It was not just the air raid shelters that meant we survived the Blitz. Massed air raids on civilians by the German airforce brought an early response from the RAF.

Children were evacuated from London and other major cities to be taken to safer rural regions where they would be protected against German bombers flying from air bases in Europe. For many evacuees, it was very distressing to be made to live with strange people and in nfamiliar places. In some bad cases children were abused by the people they stayed with.The policy may have saved many children, but it could be described as a little over the top. Rationing of food and other goods was one of the minor frustrations of the war. The population was issued with books of ration coupons for various provisions, and currency transactions almost ceased for some products and services.

People often grew their own food, or sometimes bought illegal goods on the black market. The cost of the war for the British economy was so great that rationing carried on beyond the end of World War II as theBritish government struggled to

pay off its debts. In 1940, when Great Britain faced its worst danger of the war and German invasion was a possibility, the Home Guard was formed. It grew in time to more than a million part-time soldiers, who received basic training and some arms to defend their local areas against the Germans in the event of an invasion.

Land girls were a way for women to help the War effort. They were brought onto the fields to replace male agricultural workers called up into the armed services.Food supplies were a considerable problem for Britain, with ts ocean links to its usual foreign food sources under constant threat from German U-boats and bombers, and every effort was made to increase home cultivation. The land girls and other women helped to sustain production levels in every branch of the economy. The Land Girls One of the most important factors in Britain's victory was its leader, Winston Churchill.

Churchill succeeded Chamberlain as Prime Minister on May 10, 1940. During the awful days that followed-Dunkirk, the fall of France, and the blitz-Churchill's rousing speeches united the British to continue the fight.He urged the British people to conduct themselves so that "if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years men will still say: 'This was their finest hour. " By successful co-operation with President Roosevelt he was able to secure military aid and moral support from the United States. After the Soviet Union and the United States entered the war in 1941, Churchill established close ties with the other leaders of what he called the "Grand Alliance".

Travelling ceaselessly throughout the war, he did much

to co-ordinate military strategy and to ensure Hitler's defeat.It must be said that without Winston Churchill Britain's people would have lost eart and probably would have wanted to surrender but with his skilled speeches, military tactics and outright stubbornness he kept the country united and got Britain through the war. Winston Churchill One of the most important battles of the war for Britain was the Battle of the Atlantic. This was a German effort to sink allied shipping using its U-boats. The German submarines hunted in "wolf packs" and targeted almost anything that floated as when U-boats sunk the passenger liner Athenia.

The reason for Hitler putting so many resources into this battle was that Britain was an island and so had to get most of its supplies from other ountries. If Britain could be starved out with convoys from America being sunk then she would have to surrender. Hitler did not put his resources into battleships because Britain had such superiority in this area. Hitler's idea of developing cheaper submarines would prove a very one for the first couple of years of the war. The German plan was to disrupt British supplies and to force it out of the war.The German fleet was told to carry out attacks on merchant shipping in the North Atlantic.

If many ships were sunk the British navy would be forced to tie up valuable resources defending merchant shipping. After the sinking of The Graf Spee the German fleet was weakened and so a new plan had to be used. U-boats were utilised in a policy of unrestricted warfare in which all ships were liable to be sunk. By 1940,

following his success on land, new bases could be built in Norway and France and because of this two and a half million tons of merchant shipping were sunk.The Allies started grouping their ships into convoys hoping that there would be safety in numbers but this did not improve the situation with even more merchant ships being sunk because of the large number of U-boats.

Churchill et up a Battle of the Atlantic committee to look for answers to the U-boat menace. Answers were found and this is why Britain won the Battle of the Atlantic. The first solution was to develop refuelling facilities in Iceland. This was important because previously convoys could only be supported from the air near America and Britain but not in mid Atlantic.Now convoys were given air support throughout the Atlantic.

The next solution was to develop anti-submarine frigates that could be added to the escort groups. These frigates kept the U-boats submerged and so made them slower and less effective. A major new weapon was developed to destroy the U-boats, depth charges, which would be dropped on the submarines to depressurise them. The development of the Asdic sonar device meant that the Allies knew where the U-boats were in the Atlantic and so more attacks could be mounted against them.As a further defence anti-aircraft guns were put on merchant ships to defend themselves against long range German bombers. The first eighteen months of the war were called the happy time for the U-boats but by mid 1943, 109 of them had been sunk.

German morale slumped and as many of the U-boats limped back to port, most of these

in base were estroyed by the RAF. Only a handful of U-boats remained in the Atlantic and so the threat virtually ended. One other German threat in the Atlantic remained but this was easily dealt with. Magnetic mines accounted for a large amount of British shipping being sunk.With the use of new minesweeping methods and a degaussing mantle that demagnetised the hull of the ships that German threat was eliminated. All these solutions to German threats meant that convoys from all over the world could now supply Britain with supplies and men and ultimately enabled the Allies to go onto the attack and achieve victory.

Battle Of The Atlantic When Churchill heard the news that Russia had been invaded by German forces he was delighted, as it meant that pressure would be taken off Britain and burdened on to Russia.Germany took 80% of its forces away from western Europe and re-deployed them in the east. If Russia fell to Hitler then Britain would be forced to surrender as it would mean Britain would be the only country resisting in the whole of Europe. As in most of his other invasions, Hitler boasted that the war would be over within six weeks and as a result decided not to provide his army with winter uniforms, and so he bviously believed what he had boasted.

Although the world had been shocked when the Nazi-Soviet Pact had been signed it was only a matter of time before one party invaded the other.Hitler started the ball rolling with a three pronged attack on Russia on 22nd June 1941. Some historians see this attack as Germany's downfall because up to

this point Germany had been in a position of great strength. It was always on the cards that Hitler might attack Russia because in his book Mein Kamf he wrote that he believed the Russians to be a lower form of life. He detested the Russian political system, Communism, and he also anted the Russians to become a slave labour force for the German colonialists. Hitler famously said that 'We have only to kick in the door, and the whole rotten edifice will collapse.

This was quite possible as the Russian army was desperately short of good leaders after the Stalin's purges in the years before. The Russian army was technically inferior to the Germans but the soviet army still believed itself to be unbeatable. The German army had initial success advancing twenty miles a day. It got to within twelve miles of Moscow but then snow began to fall. Up to this point he Russian army was in chaos and its air force destroyed on the first day of the war.

The lack of winter uniforms meant that the German army froze to death. The battle was ground to a halt until winter was over.Meanwhile Britain was given a brief respite to prepare herself and to recover from the previous German onslaught. Morale improved and as a result of the Eastern Front people realised that the German army would be severely weakened. The pressure of organising two fronts on the German army was immense and the dilution of German troops across such a large area left the country without much of an army in the West. Should Germany be defeated in the east, which it

was by the Soviet Union, then it would be the turning point of the Second World War in which Germany would find itself close to defeat.

All it took was a push from Britain and America and then Hitler was defeated. The Russian front reopened when winter was over but to Hitler's horror he discovered a fresh soviet army bolstered by troops from Siberia. The Russians had learned how to defend themselves against Blitzkrieg tactics. The resulting defeat meant 200,000 German troops were captured or killed. This left Germany with it's eastern border open to the Russians as they dvanced towards them. The soviets had no mercy on the Germans and in the end got revenge for the awful things that the Germans had done to the Russian people.

This German defeat was brilliant news for Britain and became the turning point of the Second World War. To ensure victory in World War II Britain needed a constant supply of oil that could fuel our machinery and weapons. Germany had aimed to get its supplies from the Russian oil fields but because of their failure to conquer Russia Germany had to find its oil from some other source. The best option was to go to the Suez Canal where a constant supply of oil came from Arabia. Britain controlled the Suez Canal and Germany needed to capture it.

Britain had initially fought Italy over the oil but Italy's army was poor and so it was easily defeated. Hitler got tired of Italian failures and so sent in his African Corps to try and beat Britain to the oil. The German forces were called the 'Desert Foxes' while the

British were called the 'Desert Rats'. The German General in charge was Rommel who was considered the best German general while the British forces were under the control of Bernard Montgomery. Montgomery made his defences at El Alamein while Rommel tried to capture Cairo.In the eleven days a massive tank battle started, and although Germany had better tanks, Britain had more of them.

Rommel ran out of oil because the British navy controlled the Mediterranean. Britain had air control and Hitler was sending his best equipment to Russia, not Africa. As a result of Britain's victory in Africa, oil supply was insured and so Britain could comfortably fuel its war while Hitler had problems with this vital commodity. This was just another reason why Britain survived and won the war! El Alamein In my opinion the biggest influence in Britain's survival from 1940-43 was America's intervention and help.The USA had signed a strict neutrality agreement but realistically Britain and the US were always working closely together even when there was not actually any physical support from America. The neutrality agreement ended inevitably when US marines took over from British troops in Iceland.

The two countries were now free to talk freely on how to defeat Germany and to eventually prepare for battle against Japan. Churchill regularly visited the US to meet with President Roosevelt. America's first big role was in taking over from the British navy in atrolling the mid- Atlantic and protecting the convoys.This took the pressure off the British navy and left them to fight elsewhere.

Although the Americans did not actively fight alongside the British until later in the war they still

helped in other ways. By using its enormous and well-developed economy the US could churn out military hardware at an unbelievable rate. The US Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act and appropriated an initial $7 billion to lend or lease weapons and other aid to any countries that the president might designate. Britain profited most from this scheme and used it extensively to equip its rmed forces.The greatest factor for Britain in winning the campaign in North Africa was having masses of tanks produced by America. Although they were of poor quality compared to Germany's, the sheer number of them meant that Britain won in North Africa.

America loaned us all kinds of equipment such as Liberty ships, bombs, guns, planes, medical equipment etc. When American forces did eventually arrive in Britain with its men and machinery Britain had its help in bombing Germany's cities and military targets. Simply having the moral support of America helped to improve the morale of he British people.In the end it was probably America's help that insured Britain's survival between the war years of 1940-1943. To conclude, Britain did not find the survival of 1940-43 easy and in the end it suffered masses of deaths and destruction. Survival could often be put down to enemy failings such as when Hitler decided not to bomb the RAF but instead bomb British cities.

Not putting Germany's best equipment into North Africa meant that Germany could not fuel its army so easily. American intervention meant that we could equip our army with the masses of military ardware the Americans produced.German invasion of Russia took the pressure off us and military planning and scientific

skill meant that the German threat in the Atlantic was put to rest. The grit and determination of the British people meant that we survived the Blitz. Although as a result of the Second World War this country was in massive debt and had work to do to build itself up again, the factors from 1940-43 caused Britain's eventual victory over it's enemies and enabled future generations to live their lives freely and peacefully.

Just think what could have happened?