The Battle of Britain
With France under control, Hitler turned his attention to removing Britain as a threat before moving against the Soviet Union in the East. On July 16, 1940, Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to achieve air superiority against Britain before any ground or naval forces would be send in.
With France under control, Hitler turned his attention to removing Britain as a threat before moving against the Soviet Union in the East. On July 16, 1940, Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to achieve air superiority against Britain before any ground or naval forces would be send in.
There were, however, some drawbacks in the German plan of attack which eventually brought victory to Britain. First, the Luftwaffe never had a cohesive plan of attack against the British in the way that the German army had against France. The Luftwaffe’s effort was largely improvisational, and this would allow the British Royal Air Force (RAF) much-needed breaks at crucial moments during the fight. Second, the British were fighting over their own soil, which conserved fuel and more importantly pilots. When a British pilot had to bail out, he did so over friendly territory and could be put back into action. When German pilots or crews had to bail out, they would be captured and placed into prisoner of war camps, meaning they were lost for the remainder of the war. Third, the British had an excellent early warning system in the form of fifty radar stations that ran along Britain’s eastern coast. These radar stations allowed the British command to know the direction, altitude, and number of incoming German attacks and let them more efficiently use their forces. The Germans understood radar, an invention of British scientists at the National Physical Laboratory, but the British had gone much further in refining the system and by 1940 had arguably the finest radar network in the world. The fourth advantage the British enjoyed was that by the summer of 1940, British airplane manufacturing had begun to surpass German production, and throughout the battle the Royal Air Force managed to keep an equal number of fighters, about six hundred, available on a daily basis to match the German numbers.
The Battle of Britain would run from early July through the end of October 1940. Much of the battle was a close-run affair with neither side having a large margin for error. By the end of August, German attacks on British airfields had begun to have a serious effect on the RAF’s ability to fight back. But it was at this moment that Hitler, impatient with what he saw as a stalemate, ordered a change in focus away from the airfields and onto London. This gave the RAF a much-needed respite and allowed them to repair their airfields and to refit in order to repel the onslaught against London. This period of the Battle of Britain is what captured the popular imagination of the world. The Germans hoped that by bombing London and other British cities they could break the British people’s will to fight. However, the effect of the attacks, which the Luftwaffe often exaggerated, was quite often the opposite, serving to galvanize British will to continue to fight. By September 17, Hitler was forced to postpone any invasion of Britain. For the remainder of the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe began to turn to nighttime bombing of British cities in order to lessen their losses. By the end of October, the RAF had lost 832 fighters against 668 for the Luftwaffe, but this was coupled with the loss of nearly six hundred German bombers over the course of the fighting. Eventually Hitler was forced to accept that Britain would not be beaten into submission, but his hope was that the upcoming invasion of the Soviet Union might force the British into accepting an accommodation with his new continental empire.
Operation Barbarossa
The great focus for Hitler had always been the toppling of the Soviet Union and the seizure of its rich resources. For several months leading up to the summer of 1941, German military planners had meticulously plotted a massive military invasion of the Soviet Union and codenamed it Operation Barbarossa. The focus of the German military was to destroy as much of the Soviet military as quickly as possible in order to paralyze the Soviet state.
The great focus for Hitler had always been the toppling of the Soviet Union and the seizure of its rich resources. For several months leading up to the summer of 1941, German military planners had meticulously plotted a massive military invasion of the Soviet Union and codenamed it Operation Barbarossa. The focus of the German military was to destroy as much of the Soviet military as quickly as possible in order to paralyze the Soviet state.
The invasion of Russia was one of the largest military undertakings in human history. Germany put to the battlefield more than 3 million soldiers and nearly 2,700 planes. On June 22, 1941, Germany launched its invasion, catching the Soviet Union completely by surprise. The attack was divided between three separate army groups: North, Central, and South. In the face of growing Soviet resistance, however, Germany realized it had to give up the idea of attacking on all 3 fronts. It tried to capture the city of Leningrad in the north and Kiev in the south but having failed to crush the enemy, redirected their war effort on Moscow. German military effort gained limited success and by the end of 1941, the war in the Soviet Union had turned into a stalemate, but one in which German forces were slowly losing strength and Soviet forces were gaining.
Several factors help to explain why the Soviets were able to recover so quickly and halt the German advance. First, they had undertaken a herculean job of evacuating whole factories further east and away from German guns. This meant production of war material continued on. Second, Communist spies within Japan had informed Stalin that the Japanese had no intent of attacking Soviet-held Siberia. This allowed the transfer of tens of thousands of high-quality soldiers to the Soviets’ western front, where they were desperately needed. Third, the Soviet Union was now the beneficiary of American Lend-Lease material aid, the most important of which was not tanks or artillery, but trucks and jeeps in order to facilitate the movement of all of these troops.
Changing Attitudes in America
In September 1940, Roosevelt concluded the Destroyers for Bases agreement with the British, which gave the latter fifty World War-I era destroyers that were badly needed to combat the German submarine in the Atlantic. As Roosevelt was elected the third term in office, he introduced the Lend-Lease legislation that turned United States into the principal supplier of war materials to those countries fighting Nazi Germany. As Roosevelt himself stated, the United States had become “the arsenal of democracy.” In August (1941) Roosevelt and Churchill met personally to issue a joint statement of American and British war aims, the Atlantic Charter. The charter consisted of eight points that broadly signaled a shared commitment to the ideals of self-determination, free trade, and international cooperation.
In September 1940, Roosevelt concluded the Destroyers for Bases agreement with the British, which gave the latter fifty World War-I era destroyers that were badly needed to combat the German submarine in the Atlantic. As Roosevelt was elected the third term in office, he introduced the Lend-Lease legislation that turned United States into the principal supplier of war materials to those countries fighting Nazi Germany. As Roosevelt himself stated, the United States had become “the arsenal of democracy.” In August (1941) Roosevelt and Churchill met personally to issue a joint statement of American and British war aims, the Atlantic Charter. The charter consisted of eight points that broadly signaled a shared commitment to the ideals of self-determination, free trade, and international cooperation.