ALLIED VICTORY
Why Hitler failed to defeat Britain in 1940.
In June and July 1940 defeat
was staring Britain in the face, but Hitler had already made serious
mistakes:
Hitler had ordered the German tanks to stop on the outskirts
of Dunkirk in May and June. This enabled the BEF to be evacuated. The
310,000 men were the only fighting forces available to the British Government.
Hitler apparently hoped that this would make the British Government
more likely to make peace.
Hitler also stopped attacks on Fighter Command on 7th
September, just when the Luftwaffe was on the verge of winning the Battle
of Britain. He lost his patience with the Luftwaffe and ordered London
to be bombed in retaliation for an air raid on Berlin.
Hitler held back production of U-boats in 1939 and 1940,
so that when the Battle of the Atlantic began in 1941 the German Navy
only had 37 submarines.
Britain also played an important role in preventing a
German invasion. In June 1940 Churchill the new Prime Minister, refused
to send the RAF to France. This proved to be crucial as had the RAF
suffered serious losses it could not have defended Britain during the
Battle of Britain.
The determination of the British people in holding on
alone from June 1940 until June 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet
Union set an example to the rest of the world and showed that the British
people were not prepared to give in. Churchill again played a key role
in maintaining morale with his speeches and visits to bombed areas.
Britain was supported by President Roosevelt of the USA.
Although the USA was neutral until December 1941, after the fall of
France in June 1940, Roosevelt became more and more determined to send
as much help as possible to Britain. He realised that if Britain were
defeated, the USA would be next.
In September 1940 Roosevelt signed the "Destroyers for Bases' agreement.
This gave fifty old destroyers to Britain, in exchange for the use of
bases in the Caribbean. In March 1941 he signed the Lend Lease Act;
this allowed American planes, tanks and other equipment to be given
to Britain on the understanding that they be handed back as new after
the war. By the late summer of 1941 US ships were escorting convoys
across the Atlantic to Britain.
However the Battle of the Atlantic, the only thing that
really worried Churchill, was not won until 1943. By then it was possible
to escort all convoys and provide them with air cover.
By 1943 US war production was in full swing, producing
four times as much each month as Germany. Roosevelt agreed with Churchill
that the defeat of Germany must come first. Large numbers of G.I.s,
backed up by US weapons were sent to Britain ready for the invasion
of "Fortress Europe".
From 1942 the RAF began to bomb Germany every night.
When the US airforce arrived it began to bomb during the day. By 1943
1000 bomber raids were organised which plastered German cities with
incendiaries and heavy explosive. The scale of the raids was much greater
than the German raids on Britain in 1940 and 1941. The Luftwaffe had
never had a heavy bomber like the Lancaster, which could carry ten tonnes
of bombs.
59,000 British airmen were killed in raids over Germany, but the effect
of the raids is unclear. By the end of the war German industry was still
working at about 90% capacity.
In the meantime, events on the Eastern Front were to be far more serious,
however.
What effects the Eastern Front had on the German Army.
In April 1941 Hitler diverted some of the forces intended
for Operation Barbarossa to help the Italian Army when it got into trouble
in Yugoslavia and the Balkans. This meant that the attack on the USSR
was delayed for two months.
As the Red Army retreated Stalin ordered everything to
be destroyed. This Scorched Earth Policy meant that the German Army
could find no supplies as it advanced.
Stalin had also begun to move heavy industry further
east, beyond the Urals. New cities like Magnitogorsk had been built
from scratch in Siberia. These were out of reach of the German Army.
Before the war Stalin had forced Soviet industry to follow plans laid
down in Moscow by Gosplan, but during the war he put much more power
into the hands of managers and technical experts. The quality of Soviet
tanks and other equipment rose dramatically.
Hitler had also expected to win the war by the autumn
and most of the German troops had no winter clothing. The delay of two
months in the Balkans meant that by the time the Germans reached Moscow,
winter had set in with a vengeance.
In June 1941 Britain began to send supplies to Stalin
after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, and Lend Lease was extended
to the USSR.
The attack on the USSR was the most serious mistake Hitler
made. It was brought about by his belief that he had to destroy Communism.
He forced his generals to adopt a three-pronged attack aimed at Leningrad,
Moscow and finally Stalingrad. This meant that forces were dispersed
and could not concentrate on one objective. The Sixth Army was ordered
to take Stalingrad at all costs, as it was named after the Soviet Leader.
General von Paulus was not allowed to fight his way out and the German
Army lost when von Paulus surrendered in February 1943. This was an
enormous blow to the prestige and the morale of the Germans.
Worse was to come in July 1943 when the Soviet army destroyed
1500 German tanks at the battle of Kursk. This effectively marked the
end of the German attempts to conquer the Soviet Union. The war in the
East dragged on for two years, but in the end the enormous advantage
that the Red Army had in manpower was too much.
Operation Barbarossa proved a disaster for Hitler. 90% of the casualties
suffered by the Army during the war were inflicted on the Eastern Front.
Victory in the Pacific
Although the attack on Pearl
Harbor appeared at first to have been a complete success, one serious
mistake had been made. All three US aircraft carriers were at sea on
trials and were not destroyed.
Six months later the USA struck back when the Japanese tried to occupy
Midway Island in June 1942. US intelligence was able to break the Japanese
code and intercept the fleet. Three aircraft carriers were sunk. This
convinced the Japanese High Command that the war was lost. News of the
losses was never published during the war.
The war in the Pacific lasted for another three years. US manpower,
oil and war production made all the difference. However, Japanese forces
often refused to surrender and fought to a finish on every island. US
forces adopted the policy of "island-hopping", leaving Japanese
units isolated on island without supplies and selecting targets carefully.
However this policy did not work when the first two Japanese islands
were attacked. On Okinawa and Iwo Jima, 28,000 US marines were killed.
It was losses like these which encouraged the new US president, Harry
S. Truman, to use a new weapon - the Atomic Bomb - on the Japanese cities
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Within a week the Japanese Government had
surrendered.
Truman received news that the Atomic Bomb was ready for use whilst he
was attending the Potsdam Conference in July 1945. The other two leaders
were Joseph Stalin and Clement Attlee, who had just been appointed prime
minister after winning the general election.
Why were the Allies able to defeat the German Army in
the West in 1944 and 1945?
On D Day, 6th June 1944, Allied forces
invaded France to begin the defeat of Germany in the Second World War.
The D apparently stood for Day. The landings were planned for 4th
June, but had to be cancelled on two occasions because of bad weather.
The tides meant that 6th June was the last possible day for the invasion
that month.
The landings took place in Normandy on five beaches - Sword, Juno and
Gold beaches were attacked by British and Canadian troops; Omaha and
Utah beaches were American. The Allies went to great lengths to ensure
that the landing was a success:
A big diversion was staged using imitation camps to persuade the Germans
that the landings were going to be near Calais.
The biggest naval fleet ever assembled was to escort the invasion force
and bombard the German defences; 10,000 aircraft were available to provide
air cover and paratroops were to land the night before the invasion
to knock out enemy positions. Gliders carrying forty soldiers each flew
to France to land behind the German defences.
A pipeline was laid across the Channel to supply oil to the invasion
force, PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean). Floating transportable harbours
were built which enabled supplies to be landed. Seasick pills were invented
to try to ensure that the invasion force was fit to fight.
Despite these and other precautions the landings did not go as planned.
Many of the gliders crashed and about half of the soldiers in them were
killed. Some of the aeroplanes carrying the paratroops lost their way
and dropped them in the wrong places. One unit fell into a marsh and
drowned.
The naval bombardment did not destroy all of the German defences. The
American beaches were very heavily defended and the invaders were unable
to make quick progress. The Germans were able to bring up reinforcements
to stop the Allies making much progress. It was not until mid-July that
they were able to break out of Normandy and advance on Paris.
However, in August Paris was liberated and by September British and
US forces were at the Rhine. An attempt to cross the river at Arnhem
failed, and the invasion of Germany was delayed until the following
spring. By then Germany was on its knees, having been bombed round the
clock and starved by the Allied blockade. The surrender was signed in
northern Germany on 8th May 1945.
It was at Potsdam that the Allies tried to sort out the problems created
by the Second World War, just twenty-six years after they had signed
the Treaty of Versailles at the end of the First World War.
Summary
In early 1942 the Allied position
seemed hopeless. Great Britain, the USA and the USSR were able to defeat
the forces of the Axis Powers so comprehensively by the summer of 1945.
Answer
!
1.Why
did Hitler fail to defeat Britain in 1940?
2.What
effects did the Eastern Front have on the German Army?
3.Why
was there a victory in the Pacific ?
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