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French offensive until possibly 1943, the

November landings in French North Africa won

which eventually resulted in the German

collapse in North African, along with the British

victory at El Alamein in October 1942, in Tunisia

in May 1943. Not only was this not what theAmerican or British experts wanted it was clearly

not what Stalin wanted or the dominion forces

who wanted British help in the Far East, the

British had promised they would leave the

Middle East if the Far East was challenge but by

March 1942 Singapore and Burma had fell and

Australia and New Zealand looked set to be

challenged. Members of the Empire were also

opposed; a rebellion in Egypt in February 1942

had to be crushed with a pro-British government

put in and similar conflicts occurred in Iran.

1942 he followed the line he had taken in July

1941, after Britain signed the mutual assistance

pact, he repeated his demands for the Second

Front as the Russians were doing the majority of

the fighting. Churchill refused yet was able to

convince Stalin of the possibilities of theMediterranean campaign and they departed on

good terms.

Economic consequences In the midst of the

British victories in late 1940 and early 1941 the

huge financial bill that faced the British was

being ignored. The only way the British were

able to remain in the war was through the

American Lend-Lease in March 1941 which

allowed access to American resources without

this the British would have to have pulled out of

the war to focus on her exports industry.

Allowed for the invasion of Italy Whilst all the

cynical interpretations of the Mediterranean

campaign, to avoid the actual theatre of war and

caring more for the Empire and its economic

benefits than those at home, are valid Churchill

also saw the campaign in the Mediterranean,

which Mussolini wanted to make an Italian pond,

as a way to get into the soft underbelly of

Europe through Italy the invasion of which was

agreed at the Casablanca conference of January

1943 and Rome was occupied in June 1944 aftertaking Sicily in July 1943 before reaching the

mainland in September and Napoli in October.

Significance of Battle of Atlantic in winning war in Western Europe 1942-3

Importance of Naval Supremacy especially of

the Atlantic was essential to the British war

effort, the early success of the U-Boat warfareforced Britain into rationing by January 1940 and

Low Priority Naval Resources were given to the

Mediterranean campaign, which with the ocean

closed had to go round the Cape using up vitalresources and the RAF refused to focus their


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nearly lost Britain the war, only the strategy of

naval convoys kept British hopes alive. The

closing of the Mediterranean to British shipping

following June 1940 when the Italians joined the

war made it even more essential. The Fall of

France allowed Germany to gain ports in Franceto attack the Channel which was detrimental for

shipping from the United States, especially when

they joined the war in November 1941.

efforts on the Atlantic in the name of strategic

bombing campaigns on German such as March

1942s attempts in Cologne where a 1000 plane

raid failed to make any distinct impact on the

German mainland and when they did attempt

to bomb German U-boat ports thousands of tonsof bombs were dropped at times with no U-

Boats destroyed. Hitler also gave little priority to

his navy and began to win with under 30 U-boats

in his entire fleet, most of his navy got destroyed

In the Norway campaign of April 1940, and it

took him until 1941 to agree to commission

more U-boats.

German success From 1942 Germany had more

U-Boats than ever acting in Atlantic waters and

was able to menace the United States on their

entry into the war delaying supplies into Britainand American troops to support the war effort

before they adopted the British convoy strategy.

Even then there were still holes in British

planning; up until April 1943 between the

transfers of the American convoy to the British

convoy there was a 300 mile gap where no

aircraft cover was given leaving merchant

shipping open to attack.

Mediterranean campaign had other factors -

practical issues such as the fact that British

troops were already there and the American

struggles in the Pacific and the British limitationsto tackle the Axis in Europe, political factors such

as Churchills need for a decisive victory in the

Mediterranean after the loss of advantages

gained against Italian forces on German entry in

April 1941 and later the victory in El Alamein in

October 1942 furthered the gusto which allowed

for the Anglo-American landings in French North

Africa and the encirclement in Tunisia which

removed the German and Italian forces from

North Africa and would eventually allow for an

Allied assault on first Sicily and then mainlandItaly The allies overthrow of Mussolini and the

invasion of Napoli in September 1943 and later

Rome in June 1944 lost Axis prestige and divided

the German forces and eventually victory in

Europe.

June 1942 to Match 1943 The newly developed

tactic of U-Boats to hunt in packs was to mean

that all previous efforts to defend against U-

Boats were to become obsolete. In June 1942

700k tons of goods were lost and Anglo-

American communication was challenged andclose to being cut off by the sheer power of the

U-Boat menace.

Russians As occurred in the First World War

the majority of the fighting for the bulk of the

German forces happened in the war with the

Russians and the Soviet victories in Stalingrad in

January 1943 and later Kursk led the Germans

into retreat with heavy losses. When weconsider the Chiefs of Staff of Allied and Axis

nations thought that Russia had ATMOST three

months before it was to crumble this was an

incredible effort.

British success 1943 saw the creation of new

types of technology the Huff Duff, a form of

high frequency tracking device, and a new more

advanced radar system to replace the old long-

distance tracking devices came in and allowed

the British to better prepare and deal with the

attacks of U-Boats sending out support groupswhich could stop the threat to British merchant

Allie bombing Allies began outproducing the

Axis powers and the British had effective air

supremacy. Campaigns such as the bombing of

Dresden in February 1945 killed 30,000 civilians

and destroyed the city in stark contrast to earlier

British bombing campaigns of Germany which

had to be cancelled in November 1941 as it waskilling more allied pilots then it was German


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ships; in one day in May 1943 five U-Boats were

lost to no merchant ship losses and the amount

of resources reaching Britain began to rise and

any losses, soon after naval supremacy was won

and the U-Boat campaign was cancelled, none

were built by the Nazis in 1945. This was crucialbefore D-Day when the Americans were able to

station 500k troops in Britain.

civilians.

How close was Britain to losing the Battle of Britain?

Early successGoerings pushing and claims he

could destroy Britain with only an air campaign

and the destruction of most of the German navy

in the Norway campaign meant that the initial

part of Hitlers invasion of Britain was to come byair. After a series of attacks in the Channel on

British advantages Britain had many

advantages on the German forces home

advantage was crucial, it meant that pilots shot

out of aircraft were not simply killed or taken as

POWs but could be nursed back to health andthen put back in the field, German aircraft could


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British merchant shipping in July Goering gave

orders for attacks on the British mainland in

August, strategic bombing of airfields and radar

communication systems was highly successful 6

out of 7 key airfields in the South East were put

out of action and Britains advanced radarsystem on the Isle of Wight was temporarily shut

down.

only hold enough fuel for 90 minutes meaning

that once they reached the British mainland they

had only a few minutes to conduct their attacks.

Britain also had air superiority, German bombers

were powerful but slow compared to the

powerful new Hurricane and Spitfire fighter jets,and Britain was also out-producing the Germans

in aircraft production, building around 500 in July

1940. The new early tracking radar system and

the ability to intercept and decode German

Luftwaffe correspondence at the Bletchley Park

intelligence centre also allowed the element of

surprise to be on the side of the RAF.

British losses between 24th and 6th September

the Luftwaffe was able to shoot down over 160

RAF aircraft at a rate too quick for them to be

replaced. More importantly, over 100experienced pilots lost their lives and more than

a hundred more were injured, whilst aircraft

could be replaced the training of pilots could not

be done quickly and under the high amount of

pressure that the RAF was under, if it wasnt for

the rest-bite gained by Goerings orders of a

change of target to civilian targets the RAF would

have crumbled.

German errors The Luftwaffe had no clear,

agreed-upon strategy for their attack on Britain

thus pilots were not sure if they should be

attempting to fight the RAF fighters or bombingtheir strategic targets, many chose neither and

as a result the Germans suffered heavy losses

during their first assault on the British mainland.

Even when strategic bombing the Luftwaffes

attacks on ports and airfields was misguided and

gave little thought to the other branches of the

military that would take part in an invasion to

which these would be crucial. Ultimately, the

change of course from strategic targets to

civilian targets lost Germany the Battle of Britain.

Weak preparations Hitler had set October ashis date for a full land invasion of Britain by

which time the Luftwaffe was supposed to have

destroyed the RAF and gained air superiority,

British preparations for such an attack was

almost non-existent, as the Chiefs of Staff said at

the time all depends on the air force, few

divisions were available, the navy didnt want to

risk their capital ships. Home Guard volunteers

with pikes and ammunitionless rifles were

building road blocks and preparing to die in the

village ditches.

Half-hearted Hitler It has been argued thatHitler had no clear intentions towards an

invasion of Britain, he had always been

sympathetic towards the British Empire evident

even before his peace initiative of July 1940 and

as AJP Taylor argues he was a land animal who

cared little for wars of the air or the sea and

instead of Britain craved an attack on Russia

which he thought would force a British

surrender, destroy communism and gain the

living space for a Greater Germany he craved.

Soon after the Battle of Britain plans werecompleted Hitler said that he would need to

directly give the order for any invasion, which he

would do only days before it would take place,

and complained that there may be technical

issues, he took little interest in Goerings air

assault and instead concentrated for the planned

Russia invasion.

Britain alone Poland had fallen, the superior

French forces with the combined might of the

British who greatly outnumbered the Nazi forces

had fallen just months before Britain was to beattacked and now the British had less aircraft

Other The Battle of the Atlantic nearly lost

Britain the war! The amount of tons of goods

they were losing forced them into rationing in

January 1940 before the plan of using convoyswas created, July 1940 attempts by Goering


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than Germany how were they supposed to do

any different?

before the assault on land failed to cause any

damage. During the height of the Battle of

Britain Churchill allowed for 1/3rd of the tank

stock in the army to go to defend Egypt from a

German invasion was Britain really that close?

The strategic bombing campaign of 1942 and 1945 was misguided.

Took resources away The British fetishized theidea of strategic bombing of Germany taking

Baldwins idea that the bomber will always get

through. So much was the obsession that 1/3 of

British production resources and a large chunk of

the Lend-Lease with the Americans were used

for bombers for this purpose. Tank and naval

demands took a backseat, the tying up of the

RAF meant that Crete in June 1941, Singapore in

February 1942, The Battle of the Atlantic, the

French port of Dieppe in August 1942, the

invasion of Sicily and Italy in 1934 and D-Day in1944 all had to suffer from less aircraft than they

Symbolic the bombing campaign waschampioned by British statesmen as a British

attacking offensive away from the side line war

which took up little of the German resources yet

the bulk of the British in North African. In 1943

the combined raids of the British and American

airforces were able to smash German cities such

as Hamburg and Berlin and the Ruhr.


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may have wanted.

Usually failed In 1942 both American and

British RAF both began to take up the view that

the war could be won with only the use of area

bombing yet the impact of most of these

assaults is debateable; the 1000 plane raid ofCologne in March 1942 has been argued to have

been more for British public opinion and the

newspapers than it was to have any real effect

on the German public who went away their

normal working days soon after the attack. Living

standards in Germany actually went up in the

earlier parts of the war despite the bombing

campaign and didnt fall into the later years and

even at that point did not fall below the British.

Used up German resources most of these

advantages were unforeseen but important

none-the-less; 1 million German workers had to

switched from working in productions factories

to working on air-raid precautions, the high flakguns for attacking tanks and the German fighter

jets had to be kept at home to ward off the

British attacks. More German money and

resources were also poured into the creation of

fighters and not bombers, these unforeseen

advantages were crucial to the British war effort

during the D-Day landings in June 1944 in

Normandy.

No clear aimquestion asserts the strategic

bombing yet strategy played little part in theAnglo-American attempts. Before the long range

American fighter the Mustang came in in 1944

the Americans had given up any attempts at

strategic bombing by day as it has miserably

failed. The British had learnt this much earlier in

November 1941 when they had initially halted

their bombing campaign and instead resorted to

attacks to challenge German morale such as the

attack on Dresden that killed 30k in February

1945 which just made the German people more

resilient to the allies. Not surprising then thatthis plan only went through after the Quebec

Conference of September 1944 after the

bombing campaign was cancelled as too costly in

life and cost in March 1944.

Resisted a Second Front From the mutual

assistance pact signed with the USSR in June1941 and the entry of the Americans in

December 1941 to Stalins demands for a second

front in August 1942 the British had been

desperate to resist having to commit to a land

invasion of France or the Balkans claiming that

the bombing campaign along with the German

blockade and the events in North Africa

contributed a variable enough contribution to

the war effort. The British favoured only having

to attack a Germany once she had been

weakened by the USSR which the British hadassumed would lose.

German production went up as the British

bombs kept falling.

The Moral Question Whilst attacks such as

occurred at Dresden were criticised as barbaric

and unnecessary after the war, and strategic

bombing was kept out of Churchills victory

broadcast, this was not the opinion at the time.

After the war the effects of the bombing

campaigns on the cities of Britain and Germanyhad a uniting function as a key part of the

collective memory of the war it can be argued.


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How significant was Britains contribution to the defeat of Germany in Western Europe in 1944-5?

The Fall of Italy with its origins after theinvasion of Sicily in July 1943 and the mainland

attack of September 1943 and the capture of

Napoli in October it wasnt until June 1944 that

Rome was captured. The fall of Italy was

essential to the British victory it used up German

resources to once again attempt to clear up

Mussolinis problems and German troops did not

give up Milan till after May 1945, the soft

underbelly of Europe in Italy also gave the allies

a dent into Axis prestige in Europe with the first

land victories in Western Europe and won theallies airbases of which to strike the Balkans and

Central Europe.

Germany took on too much it is often said thatHitlers biggest mistakes came in 1941 in

declaring war on both the USSR and the United

States which could eventually outproduce and

outnumber the German forces. By early 1945

this was really starting to show as the German

forces were exhausted and starting to run out of

fuel and men, young teenagers had to be

conscripted to fill the shoes, literally, of more

experienced soldiers.

Liberation of France relied on Britain despite

not making up the bulk of the forces Britain was

where American and British troops were

prepared and stationed for D Day over the

summer of 1944. British intelligence was able to

keep Hitler guessing as to where the invasion

was coming thanks to fake armies in Kent, fake

messages to British generals and through a

bombing campaign of French ports away fromNormandy to create a decoy for the eventual

British landing. The British quickly took Caen in

July 1944 despite heavy resistance and assisted

in the liberation of Paris in August and Belgium

in September, they crossed the Rhine into

Germany in March 1945.

The Americans and the USSR The Americans

made up a great deal of the Normandy invasion

force for the liberation of France 500k were

stationed over the summer in the United

Kingdom and also made a key contribution

during the assault on Italy in 1943-45. Whilst the

British had heavy losses and fighting against

Caen in France the American forces when they

landed quickly took 30k German POW and wereable to give relief to the British. The Lend-Lease,

signed March 1941, also still gave Britain most of

her economic and military power and without it

would have had to have bowed out of the war in

the middle of the North African campaign to

concentrate on her export trade.

Although not In Western Europe the

contribution of the USSRs use up of German

resources and eventual invasion has to be

acknowledged, it was the Russian forces whichentered Berlin and inflicted the final fatal defeat


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in April/May 1945 and not the Anglo-American

forces which refused to be drawn into a race to

Berlin. The Soviet resistance characterised by

the 3 year siege of Leningrad which killed 1.5

million over 1941 to January 1944 kept the bulk

of the German forces occupied for most of thewar and the Russian advance through Poland in

August 1944 and eventually Germany and Berlin

made allied victory possible.

Strategic bombing Promoted by Britain since

the American entry into the war in late 1941

which despite early American objections

eventually sold the idea to their RAF that the war

could be won in Germany without a land

campaign, whilst this was not true attacks such

as those on Berlin throughout 1943 to 1945 and

the attack on Dresden which killed 30k inFebruary 1945 were able to turn German cities

to rubble and pave the way for their eventual

surrender. Strategic bombing over this time also

allowed for the creation of air superiority, the

Germans invested heavily in fighters and not

bombers to make retaliation difficult and the

fighters were mostly kept at home, this was

essential at Normandy.

Resistance In June during the liberation of

France many of the smaller French cities were

won for the allied forces by French resistance

forces, the FFI. In July 1944 when Mussolini

toppled in Italy he was not overthrown by the

allies and replaced by a puppet government but

by the Fascist party who then attempted to

make a deal with the allies to switch sides.Although these examples didnt win the war

for the Allies they undoubtedly contributed and

in the latter case contributed heavily to the

eventual collapse of fascism and the Italian war

effort.

Battle of the Atlantic Between June 1942 and

March 1943 the attacks on British shipping from

German U-Boats was at its peak, the newstrategy in hunting in packs meant that the old

British technique of convoy and RAF assistance

was no longer as effective as it once was.

However, the British invention of Huff Duff a

high frequency tracking device and a more

advanced radar system allowed for the early

detection of U-Boats and made it easier for

British battleships and aircraft to attack, the U-

Boat campaign was soon called off and in 1945

none were built. This gave the allies naval

superiority as well as superiority of the air.

CYNICAL It can be questioned as to whether

Britain truly did want the war to end. Churchill

committed the British to the war in the Pacificafter a victory in Europe which the American

admiralty attempted to reject before Roosevelt

overriding them, possibly in the knowledge that

Britain still needed the vital Lend-Lease

resources. It can also be argued that Churchills

focus on pushing the allies into the

Mediterranean which Roosevelt agreed to in

1941/early 1942 despite initially favouring a

quick swoop and a battle of attrition which the

Americans knew they would win prolonged the

war longer than it needed to be. Chiefs of Staffat the time argued that the detour in the

Mediterranean would push the Second Front

back to 1942 and possibly even 1943, little did

they know it would take until 1944.


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Retreats and defeats? First two years of the war.

Norway and Dunkirk Allies plan to mine theNorway and Swedish coast in order to cut off

German access to Swedish Iron Ore had been

part of Churchills strategy on the way to the aid

of the Finns in November 1939s Finn-Soviet war,

when the war ended in March 1940 the allies

decided to press on with the plan regardless.

They sent a large naval force and had made

appropriate preparations for any German

retaliation at sea but none on land, the 100k

expeditionary force was left at home and was

poorly trained and arrived too late. Denmark andNorway were overrun and troops were

evacuated in June. Dunkirk, in France, was

evacuated in the same month and was heavily

criticised by the French at the time who thought

that Gort and his expeditionary force should

have continued fighting, citing the success at

Arras just before the evacuation. 150k French

troops who were not evacuated were lost as

POWs also.

They werent defeated and they werent alone It can argued that between 1939 and 1940 the

British were not defeated as such in most

occasions the British were able to flee from the

situation, as they did in Dunkirk, Crete and

Norway, with a large amount of their forces. The

very fact that Britain was able to remain in the

war by themselves from the whole year from the

Fall of France in June 1940 is remarkable; The

German forces and the Blitzkrieg were able to

destroy Poland within two weeks and reach the

Channel of France home of Europes largest andmost powerful army within 10 days but Britain

managed to hold on.

Although the British did not know it at the time

the USSR was able to be a formidable fighting

force on the Eastern Front and was to do the

majority of the fighting of the bulk of the

German army throughout the war. Even at this

time the addition of USSR to what was left of the

allies was seen as vital, even if the USSR line was

losing and retreating, the line was there.North Africa and the Mediterranean Despite

making advances in North Africa before February

1941 Churchill diverted the majority of these

victorious forces to Greece mostly for reasons of

prestige and the honouring of the April 1939

guarantee. This was an error as just as the troops

were leaving Rommels German forces were able

to make large advances and by April had undone

all the gains the British had made. The retreat

was also forced in mainland Greece where the

British forces were overrun and forced to theisland of Crete. After weeks of heavy

bombardment in June Crete had to be evacuated

ala Dunkirk- with the loss of most equipment

the 18k men got away, 36k lost their lives during

the campaign, despite good naval and land

coverage the allies had only 7 aircraft, it was said

that 3 squadrons could have saved Crete but

aircrafts were in the Atlantic and the bombing of

Germany.

Progress in North Africa The defending of the

Suez Canal was seen as vital to British interests;

for her shipping and her Empire at large when

Mussolinis forces went into Egypt in September

1940 outnumbering British forces by 5 to 1 the

British faced a significant challenge yet they

were not only able to crush Mussolinis forces in

Egypt they were able to push him back into Libya

taking Bengazi and Tobruk before the majority of

the troops were sent to Greece. Although the

Germans then undid most of these gains theoriginal allied victories were a massive blow to

Axis prestige and a morale boost at a point when

the British public mood was at an all-time low, it

was also a burden on German resources away

from their desired attack on Russia. It is thought

that Egypt along with Greece were crucial in

delaying Hitlers move into the USSR gaining vital

time for Stalin which would eventually help

prevent the German forces move into Moscow.

Britain alone France and Poland had quickly fell

and it was thought that Britain would soon alsoand become another part of German satellite

Battle of Britain and Dunkirk The Battle of

Britain was the only instance where Britain couldconsider themselves as victors; despite early


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Europe whilst the USSR had been gained in June

1941 they were not expected to last more than 3

months by any Chiefs of Staffs estimates.

German success, shooting down over 100

aircraft and killing over 100 pilots over August

24th and 6th September, through the RAFs

home advantage, the new Hurricane and Spitfire

aircraft, ability to produce aircraft and sheer skill

the British were able to secure air superiorityshooting down 50 aircraft in a single day in early

September, in October Hitler called off his

invasion. Yet this can be disputed Luftwaffe

errors just as much contributed to the British

victory.

The ability to save 340k lives at Dunkirk and keep

the British expeditionary force in the war along

with the potential shown in the counter attack at

Arras also singles out General Gort as the

producer of something which has gone down inmodern British folklore as a victory of some

form.

Economic It has been argued that March

1941s Lend Lease from the Americans which

kept Britain able to fight the war lost them their

ability to be considered a great power, the North

African campaign cost the British dearly and

without American resources would have had to

bow out of the war and return to her export

industries.

Small victories The Norway campaign was not

an absolute disaster, the German navy lost most

of its major elements of its navy. This was

invaluable as it prevented the opportunity of a

significant naval force being put against the

British in the Battle of Britain. The invention of

the convoy strategy in the Battle of the Atlantic

in 1941 meant that the losses that forced Britain

into rationing in January 1940 were put on hold.

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