Though the odds and numbers were against the British, it was the unorganized planning and overconfidence that led to the British army to ultimately win the battle against Germany. The invasion of France ended in June 1940; it was not until over a month later that Hitler made the decision to invade Britain, because he was unsuccessful in trying to get the British to surrender. The Battle of Britain was not an immediate, necessary battle to Hitler, but because he wanted and would benefit from air superiority, he put forth the effort to fight it anyway. The small number of British forces fueled overconfidence for Germany and
Despite Hitler’s wealth of well put together weaponry, well trained and seemingly invincible army and a seemingly tactical mind-set (which made him at first so fearful and successful) he eventually made some vital errors which led to the Nazi demise. One of the key mistakes Hitler made, which allowed Russia to defeat them, is that of his overambitious stretching of the army. Whilst it was a strong army it couldn’t handle being attacked/ attacking both Britain and Russia as its resources became so overstretched that the army officers became ill-equipped and unable to fight effectively, in addition the easing of pressure from Britain also enabled the British to recover from The Battle of Britain and became a much stronger ally to the Russians in later years. The second mistakes the Germans made, which again made the Russians stronger and enabled their victory over the Germans, was the way in which they chose to attack Russia. By embarking on their attack in mid-1941 the Germans left little time to cross Russia’s vast land and reach their intended targets before the bitter winters set
The Battle of Britain took place when the Luftwaffe attempted to win air superiority over southern England from the Royal Air Force as an essential prerequisite for the invasion of this country by German naval and land forces. For the British, it ran from 10 July - 31 October 1940. For the Germans it began on 13 August, Adlertag or "Eagle Day". The key to success for the Luftwaffe was the destruction of the RAF's fighter force. Conversely, for Fighter Command it was to hamper bombing and inflict losses, preferably before the target was reached.
Strategic Bombing WW2 During WW2, the Allied and Axis powers each used strategic bombing to try and defeat their enemy economically. Both bombed factories where military weapons where being made to slow down their enemy. Also being bombed where military forces, railways, harbors, cities, civillians, and industrial areas. They did this to try and break down their enemys will to fight, to try and lower their morale and help shorten the war. My opinion on this argument is that there should be no civillians killed by bombs unless it was accidental.
German air power prevented the enemy from adequately resupplying or redeploying forces and thereby from sending reinforcements to seal breaches in the front. German forces could in turn encircle opposing troops and force surrender, (Holocaust). In 1939 Blitzkrieg defeated the Polish army, which had obsolete Cavalry instead of tanks and an obsolete Air Force. In 1940 it defeated the French army, which had the necessary weapons (tanks, aircraft, radio), but of lesser quality. In 1941 it defeated the Yugoslav and Greek armies, but did not have the needed weapons for mobile warfare.
The British were unable to bomb the gas chambers and crematoria for sound technical reasons. From about the end of August 1944, the Americans could have bombed these installations. Senior air commanders were justified in their decision because numerous sorties against V-1 rocket sites, barges, petroleum oil, lubricant depots, roundhouses, airfields, power stations and other German military installations would have been sacrificed due to the amount of aircrafts required to bomb Auschwitz. Heavy prisoner casualties would have arisen and the uncertainty of success would have posed grave moral questions. Overall, the Joint Chief of Staff, the British Foreign Office, the Royal Air Force, the War Department and senior officials knew that their air power was imperfect and finite and thus acted
Advanced Higher History Dissertation How important was the RAF victory in the Battle of Britain in preventing a German invasion in 1940? “Since England, despite of her hopeless military situation, shows no signs of being ready to come to an understanding, I have decided to prepare a landing operation against England, and, if necessary, to carry it out. The aim of this operation will be to eliminate the English homeland as a base for the prosecution of the war against Germany and, if necessary, to occupy it completely.” The Führer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces Directive 16 16 Jul 1940 Contents Introduction 3 The Battle of Britain 4 The RAF Victory 8 The Invasion of Britain? 13 Other Factors 14 Conclusion 17 Bibliography 18 Introduction Britain’s victory in ‘The Battle of Britain’ is arguably the most decisive incident of the Second World War. Our victory could be claimed to have prevented an invasion of Britain in the summer or autumn of 1940 and the subsequent defeat of the Western allies, also it was the first time Hitler’s mighty Luftwaffe had been defeated.
The German Luftwaffe often sent 109 fighters to bomb English cities with an aim to destroy civilian morale. They were called “blitzes”. The English retaliation to these blitzes killed more citizens in Hamburg than all the blitzes combined. The war in the skies was an important part of WWII. It’s important to study how aircraft was used during WWII because the effects were so devastating.
Hitler decided to bomb the British airfields and then eventually cities. The British cities were bombed to bring out the RAF so the Luftwaffe could take them down. But Hitler underestimated the RAF, because the British had RADAR technology.
The events of World War 2 had a global effect and still effects how we live today. There were two opposing forces in this war, the Axis and the Allies. In the end, the winning side was the Allies .The Allies victory had no singular cause; however some factors contributed to victory more than others. These factors included a strong air force, a way to quickly transport supplies, and other smaller contributions. A major blow dealt to the Axis powers was the immense power of the Allied Air Force.