Transcript Britain Alone

Britain Alone?
1940-41
September 1939 – Poland invaded
September 1939- May 1940
The so called ‘Phoney War’
Children
evacuated from
danger areas.
No actual air
raids on Britain
May 1940 – Germany attacks in the
west.
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April 1940 – Denmark & Norway were invaded and
occupied by Germany.
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May 10th 1940 – German attacks on Holland,
Belgium and France
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‘No-confidence debate’ in the House of Commons
causes Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to
resign. The King asked Winston Churchill to form a
new government.
Chamberlain associated with defeat.
Churchill had been the biggest critic of
Hitler and the British policy of
appeasement before the war.
The German
army moved
swiftly across
France and
surrounded
the British
army sent
there to help
defend France.
Disaster at Dunkirk
The 330,000
soldiers of the
B.E.F. (British
Expeditionary
Force) were
surrounded by
the German
army at
Dunkirk and
had to escape
by boat back
home.
Dunkirk was held for a
vital few days to allow
time for the British
army to escape.
Evacuation of the British
army from the beaches
around Dunkirk.
The surrender of France – June 18th
1940
Hitler’s first
and only
visit to Paris.
Hitler’s Europe………
How could
Britain
alone
mount a
full scale
invasion
to liberate
Europe
from Nazi
rule ?
Hitler plans to invade Britain next.
‘Operation Sealion’
(the invasion of
Britain) was scheduled
to take place on
September 15th 1940.
Hermann Goering’s plan
The German army must cross the
English channel in order to invade
Britain.
But….the British navy was far
superior to the German navy and
would sink the German invasion
fleet before it could reach Britain.
The British navy can only be
destroyed by sustained aerial attack.
Goering was Hitler’s deputy and
head of the German air force or
Luftwaffe.
The aircraft of the British RAF must
be destroyed first to give the
Germans a chance of success.
RAF Fighter Command was Britain’s main line of
defence. A few hundred planes stood between
Britain and a German invasion.
Radar stations
Radar
stations and
air fields
were the
main
targets for
the German
bombers.
British losses
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Within a few weeks Britain’s RAF had lost
25 % of its pilots.
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Aircraft could be replaced quickly but a pilot
takes at least a year to train.
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Volunteer pilots came from many nations
(Australia, Canada, Poland, South Africa etc)
German tactical mistakes
At the height of the ‘Battle of Britain’ the
German Luftwaffe switched targets to
bombing civilian centres like London and
Coventry. This was a mistake as it gave the
RAF a chance to repair their airfields and rest
their exhausted pilots.
St Paul’s
cathedral
surrounded by
flames.
Britain Defiant!
Was Britain fighting alone ?
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Britain’s allies came from the Empire &
Commonwealth (Canada, Australia, South
Africa)
25 % of RAF fighter pilots in 1940 were
foreign.
USA supplied Britain with oil, weapons, food,
aircraft and all kinds of material for war on a
‘cash and carry’ basis. In March 1941 cash
and carry gave way to ‘Lend-Lease’.
Destroyers for bases
In September 1940 Britain was so desperate
for extra warships that she purchased 50
obsolete destroyers from the USA in
exchange for British bases in Trinidad,
Jamaica and Bermuda.
Lend -Lease
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Britain could purchase from the USA all the
necessary material of war on a loan basis. There was
no payment required until after the war. There was
no limit on how much Britain could take from the
USA.
Without Lend-Lease Britain would have run out of
money by 1942 and would have been unable to
continue to pay for the war. Britain received between
$14 – 20 billion worth of US aid.
“They are fighting in the
front line of civilisation as
we speak. They need tanks
and guns and planes and
supplies of all kinds. From
America they will receive
tanks and guns and planes
and supplies of all kinds.”
President Franklin Roosevelt on the
Lend Lease scheme
June 22nd 1941. Germany invades
Russia (then known as the USSR)
Britain no
longer had to
fight Germany
alone. The
main bulk of
the German
army and air
force was sent
to Russia.
Britain was
safe from
invasion.
1941 – the Atlantic Charter
August 14th 1941
Churchill and
Roosevelt meet and
proclaim the ‘Atlantic
Charter’ declaring
common principles of
democracy and
freedom. The USA
was not at war yet but
was clearly on
Britain’s side.
President Roosevelt of the USA meeting Winston
Churchill.
December 7th 1941 – Pearl Harbour
Japanese
attack on
US navy at
Pearl
Harbour
brings the
USA into
the war
against
Japan and
Germany.
Churchill’s reaction to Pearl Harbour
“So we have
won after all”
Churchill’s diary
entry December 7th
1941.
A historian’s view…….
Churchill saw no way of winning the war without
full American participation. His famous ‘give us the
tools and we will finish the job’ radio broadcast of
9th February 1941 was a piece of tactical phrasing
and not hard truth. What he really meant was ‘give
us the tools and we will hold out long enough for
you to take your time about joining the war’. It was
therefore a moment of joy when he heard the news
of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. Churchill
wrote famously in his diary of that attack ‘so we
have won after all’
Churchill, by Roy Jenkins (2001)
Your task
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Using the information from this presentation
and the video, you will prepare in groups of 23 a short radio or film bulletin of the first two
years of the war.
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It could be for an American audience. The
USA did not join the war until 1941.