Transcript The Battle of Britain - Brunswick City Schools

Followed by the invasion of Russia
 After the fall of France the British are next
 In order to invade Britain Germany must have air
superiority
 Germany must destroy British air force
 Air Force
 Germany – Luftwaffe
 UK – Royal Air Force (RAF)
 German codename for the invasion of England
 Planned for September
 Amphibious and airborne invasion
 Germany:
 Fighter
 ME 109 (Messerschmitt)
 Bombers
 Heinkels, Junkers, Dorniers
 British fighters
 Hawker Hurricane
 Spitfire
 600 non-British pilots fought
 July – Germans attack ships in English Channel
 Aug – Germans attack coast
 Airfields
 Radar stations
 Late Aug – Sept – Germans target:
 Airfields
 Factories
 Ports
 London
 RAF retaliates by bombing Berlin
 Germans lose 1700 planes and 3000 aircrew
 British lose 1000 planes and 500 men
 RAF keeps air superiority
 Germans postpone invasion until Spring 1941
 Churchill – “Never in the field of human
conflict was so much owed by so many
to so few”
 Bombing of British cities between Sept 1940-May 1941
 London bombed 76 consecutive nights
 Incendiary Bombs
 Bomb Shelters
 Over 40,000 civilians killed
 Video
 Radar
 Broke the German code
 Enigma machine
 Ultra
 Winston Churchill
 The British People
 1928 – Won gold medal in bobsled at the Olympics
 16 yrs old
 1932 – Gold medal again in Lake Placid
 1936 – Refused to go to Olympics in Germany
 Joined RAF
 Pretended to be Canadian
 Killed in the Battle of Britain
 Sept 1940
 Germany, Italy and Japan Alliance
 Japan joins the Axis
 Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria,
Slovakia, Yugoslavia and Croatia
will join later.
 Italy invades Egypt
 1939 – “Cash and Carry”
 Keeps US Neutrality
 Can sell weapons to countries but they must pay cash
 They must use their own ships
 Sept 1940 – “Destroyers for Bases”
 US trades British 50 old destroyers
 Gets bases in Canada and
the Caribbean
 Sept 1940 – Selective Service
 1st peacetime draft
 Men ages 21-36
 Expanded to 18-45 after we join war
 Over 10 Million men will
be drafted during the war
 FDR nominated for 3rd term
 Republican
 Wendell Wilkie
 FDR wins 55%-45%, electoral 449-82
 March 1941 Passed by Congress
 Allows President to sell, lend or lease supplies
 US will provide aid to UK and China
 Later USSR
 Garden Hose Analogy
 FDR – “We must be the great arsenal of
democracy”
 Hitler frustrated by failure to invade England
 June 1941 – Germany invades USSR
 “The Eastern Front”
 Hitler thought invasion would take months
 Germany doesn’t prepare for a long war
 Stalin joins the Allies: “the enemy of my enemy is my
friend”
 By November the German Army reaches Moscow
 Russian winter hits
 Russians drive Germans back in January
 Over 1 million casualties
 1000 mile supply lines
 Scorched earth
 Summer 1941: FDR and Churchill meet aboard
warships off the Canadian coast
 Joint declaration of war aims
 Decide to beat Germany first, then Japan
 Battleships – Named after states
 Arizona, Missouri, etc.
 1500-2500 men
 Guns up to 16 in
 Cruisers – Named after cities
 Indianapolis, Chicago, etc.
 600-900
 Guns up to 8 in
 Destroyers – Named for Heroes
 300 men
 5 in guns, depth charges
 Submarines – Named after fish
 60 men
 Torpedoes
 PT Boats – Numbered
 15-17 men
 Aircraft Carriers – Many named for battles
 Yorktown, Saratoga, etc.
 Crew of over 2000
 90 planes
 Considered not as important
as battleships
 Until Dec 7th
 1939-1945 – German U-boats attack supply convoys
 After Lend-lease US ships carry supplies to UK
 Later Murmansk convoys to USSR
 Merchant Marine
 Ships travel in convoys
 Defended by destroyers
and submarines
 Sonar, depth charges
 Hunt in groups – wolf packs
 Solo hunters called Lone wolfs
 US Destroyer
 Torpedoed and sunk
 Halloween 1941
 115 men killed