Introduction

On 1^st September 1939 Germany invaded Poland. They used a new type of warfare called ‘Blitzkrieg’ or ‘Lightening War’. This is a war when tanks and planes are used to knock out the defences so that the defending country is easier to conquer. Two days after this happened; Britain and France declared war on Germany and the other Axis powers. It wasn’t until 7^th December 1941, after a surprise attack by Japan, that destroyed most of America’s navy whilst it was still at Pearl Harbour that America joined the war to help Britain and France. Also in the war was the Soviet Union under the control of Stalin. On 6^th June 1944 the Allies Invaded France in a massive attack and by 2^nd September 1945 the Allies had won the war.

Turning Points

Dunkirk

The rapid defeat of the Allies in France in 1940 came as a great shock to many people, not least the British Expeditionary Force. The Germans forced the British troops out of Belgium. Most of the troops fell back onto the beaches of Dunkirk between May 29^th and June 4^th 1940. The Royal Navy did not have enough ships to risk a lone rescue so they called upon the British public for help. Anyone who had a vessel capable of sailing across the channel was asked to come forward to help Britain in her ‘hour of need’ There was a massive response. The Makeshift navy was called the “Skylark Navy”. All together it took 7 days to complete the evacuation. Because the operation had to be done with such speed, guns and heavy fortifications had to be left behind. This cost lots of money but saved lives. Even though the defeat in France was a disaster, the event of saving the British troops boosted moral and made people believe that the operation was a great British success. The soldiers that had been rescued from Dunkirk were bitter towards the Nazis and this proved useful during the D-Day landings.

Battle of Britain

Germanys invasion of Britain could not succeed if the Luftwaffe did not have supremacy in the air. On 14^th August 1940 the Luftwaffe launched an attack on British Bomber Command. In two weeks of air fighting, one quarter of British pilots were killed or badly injured. For 53 nights they came every night. On 7^th September 1940 the Luftwaffe started bombing Cities. This was a fatal mistake. It gave the RAF time to regroup, repair airfields and train new pilots. This is probably what cost Germany the war. On 15^th September 1940 the German air force came by daylight. Also, at this time there was a lot of propaganda going on to boost British citizens moral. People were asked to donate scrap metal for new planes. This metal would just have been dumped though, because metal was plentiful, pilots were not. On many radio broadcasts it was reported that more German planes were shot down than actually were. In some cases three or four times as many. The Britain won the Battle of Britain for a few reasons; the Allied planes, Spitfire and Hurricane easily outmatched the Luftwaffe’s fighters. Also, the British pilots were highly trained and very efficient, they were ready to take of at a moments notice. At the height of the battle, they would be fighting practically all day. Just landing for fuel and ammunition.

Battle of the Atlantic

Because Britain is an island, her supplies mainly brought in from abroad. This meant that Hitler could cut off the supplies by bombing supply ships that were heading for British ports. Because Hitler had already gained control of most of the supply counties all he needed to do was to stop the Americans. He used a type of submarine called a U-boat. These were fairly heavily armed and could easily sink ships. To protect the ships from these, U-boats American ships would travel close together in convoys. American and British destroyers would surround these convoys, making it hard for U-boats to destroy and entire convoy and get home without damage. The battles were so frequent and hard to win that in 1941, 1299 allied ships were sunk (Six times as many as could be replaced). Only 87 German U-boats were sunk. To the Germans this was nothing. By July 1942 they were being launched at a rate of 30 per month. To cope with this new threat from U-boats, a new radar system was fitted to destroyers so that depth charges could be deployed in the correct area of sea. Radar systems were also fitted to planes so that they could seek-out and destroy U-boats whilst they were recharging their batteries. So that German U-boats could contact each other secretly, a new code was formed. This code was the Enigma code. Two Enigma machines were needed to encode and decode. This was very effective until one enigma machine and cipher documents were captured by the HMS Griffin, unharmed in May 1940. Thanks to this, the newly formed, ’convoy’ system of travel and the code-breakers of Bletchley park, the German U-boats were no longer as good a weapon as they were at the start of the war

D-Day

On 6th June 6,500 vessels landed over 130,000 men on five Normandy beaches: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. 12,000 aircraft ensured air superiority. They bombed German defences and provided cover. On Utah beach 23,000 troops were landed at a cost of 197 casualties. However, on Omaha beach the landing was significantly harder, meeting with fierce German resistance, there were 4,649 American casualties. Overall, however, the landings caught the Germans by surprise and they were unable to counter-attack with the necessary speed and strength. Once the allied troops had destroyed the German defences they were free to bring new troops, machines and supplies over the channel and into Normandy. By the end of June, Eisenhower had 850,000 men and 150,000 vehicles ashore in Normandy. Fuel would have been a major problem for the allies, but thanks to the idea of piping oil straight from America, a pipeline had been built under the Atlantic Ocean. This was hard to destroy and so it was a success.In the weeks following the landings however, the narrow lanes and thick hedgerows of the French countryside slowed Allied progress considerably. Never the less in August Paris was liberated.

Evacuation

Due to the threat of war in 1939, women, children and old people were moved out of high-risk areas of Britain such as industrial areas and areas with a high population. In 1939 approximately 1,125,000 people were evacuated. This was a precaution and was not necessary. No direct action was taken against Britain by Germany. Most of the evacuees were transported back to their homes. However in August 1940, the war took a turn for the worse. The number evacuees rose to about 1,300,000. Life for evacuees was difficult. Most lived with people who didn’t understand them. Some got to live with rich people and had a nice few years but most didn’t. They were separated from their parents, not knowing if they were dead or alive. Many Mothers, children had diseases such as Vermin or Scabies, (see source). The evacuees where chosen by families, like at an auction. Each evacuee had a label saying where they were from and what medical conditions they had. This was horrible for most and “I'll take that one” became etched on the memory of our evacuees.

Rationing

Two months after the war began, plans were announced to limit the food a person could have. This began with butter and bacon. Seven weeks later sugar and meat were rationed also. People had to register with shops to get their rations. The government advertised the phrase “Waste not, Want not!” The aim of this was to get people to become economic. Families were even asked to share hot baths and used no more than 12cm of water. Cloth was saved on clothes by stopping men’s turn-ups and shortening women’s skirts. Unwanted iron was melted down to make weapons and ammunition. Any wasteland or grassy areas were used to grow vegetables. Carrots were extensively used and Woolton pie was very popular. Due to this, some people’s diets were better balanced than before the war and the general health standard improved. During this period of the war Britain became efficient, self -sufficient and learned to cope with lack of supplies and food. It prepared the public for what followed. Once America joined the war however, there were more supplies, still not as much as before the war but more than the public were now used to. This raised moral.

Women at War

Due to the fact that men between the ages of 18 and 45 were called up for military service, there were not enough men to do the essential jobs, vital to the war effort. However, there were plenty of unemployed women in Britain at this time. After 1941, they were also called up into the factories and workplaces to help with the war. Many went into the ‘women’s services’, these were, the Auxiliary Territorial Service or A.T.S. Women’s Auxiliary Air Force known as the W.A.A.F.s, and the Women’s Royal Navy Service, or W.R.N.s. Other women went into the munitions factories or land army (Farming). Without women, Britain could not have maintained it’s war effort and would not have had the manpower necessary to mount a large counterattack to the Nazi armies. Ernest Bevin managed manpower for Britain.

Other Notes in this Category

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