Britain's role in World War Two

Colegiul Naţional “Mihai Eminescu” Lucrare scrisă în vederea obţinerii atestatului profesional la Limba Engleză Absolvent: Profesor coordonator: Keresztesi Zsolt Albert Iercoşan Elena Baia Mare 2014 Colegiul Naţional “Mihai Eminescu” Lucrare scrisă în vederea obţinerii atestatului profesional la Limba Engleză Absolvent: Profesor coordonator: Keresztesi.Zsolt Albert Iercoşan Elena Baia Mare 2014 Contents: Motivation………………………………...4 Introduction………………………………4 The clouds are gathering……………….....6 1939: The beginning of the war…………..6 1940: A year full of surprises……..............8 1941: New allies, big mistakes……………12 1942: Victories and defeats………………14 1943: Italy says “arrivederci!”…………....15 1944: D-Day………………………………17 1945: The end of the war…………………19 Conclusion………………………………...20 References…………………………………21 Britain’s role in World War Two (1939-1945) Motivation: The reason why I chose this topic was to show Great Britain’s contribution to the victory of the Allies and to highlight the way the country finished the war. That it was no longer the global power after the First World War, but a country depending on the the USA’s help. Introduction: From the years 1914-1918, Europe experienced one of its greatest wars ever. Because of the destructions caused by the war, the continent lost the global supremacy in the USA’s favor. The map of Europe changed a lot after this war as many new countries had emerged from the ashes of the four empires. (The German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Russian Empire and the Turkish Empire) The Treaty of Versailles (1919) limited the power of certain nations, such as Germany, which was made responsible for the start of the war. The country was banned from having large ships, tanks, aviation and the number of soldiers was reduced to 100.000. These imposed conditions would later haunt Europe. In the same year the League of Nations was formed. Britain had finished World War I with a large conscript army, the Empire reaching its peak in 1920. All the British colonies contributed to the war effort with the small hope that Britain would grant them independence. In order to settle the rights of its colonies so both parts should be happy, Britain signed the Treaty of Westminster. The inter-war period brought high rates of unemployment during The Great Depression which started in America, but affected Europe as well. Britain, with the reforms of the Labour Party started a process of economic recovery. This recovery resulted partly from the danger of another war. By 1935 the leader of Germany, Adolf Hitler, was preparing to regain the country’s position in Europe. His constant territorial demands culminated with the invasion of Poland and so, the start of the bloodiest war in history. In the present material I am going to analyse and discuss the role of Britain in the war since it declared on Germany. Every war year will represent a chapter full of military actions and their consequences: 1939 ( Ribbentrop-Molotov non-agression Pact; The invasion of Poland; the Battle of the Atlantic; the “phony war”; the Russo-Finish war), 1940 (The conquest of Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, France; the Battle of Britain), 1941 (The invasion of U.S.S.R; the invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece; the North African Campaign; the fall of British colonies in Asia; the attack on Pearl Harbour), 1942 (The Battle of Singapore; the Battle of Midway; the Final Solution; the Battle of Stalingrad), 1943 (The invasion of Italy; the German retreat on the East; Tehran Conference), 1944 (“Operation Overlord”; the Battle of the Bulge; V1 and V2 rocket campaign), 1945 (The defeat of Germany; the atomic bombs and the surrender of Japan; the start of the Cold War). The clouds are gathering… Before I start with 1939, I must say that only the appeasement policies of Britain and France avoided the war to happen earlier. The 1930’s proved that the League of Nations failed in its task to maintain good relations between its members. This failure to use the League’s authority had serious results. Italy’s Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, and Hitler realized that Britain and France lacked the will to make sure the standards the League demanded of its members were followed. In the next years, Germany, Italy and their Far East ally, Japan, took advantage of this weakness to seize territory of interest to them. Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and China in 1937; Italy invaded Abyssinia in 1935; Germany took Austria in 1938. The same year, Germany demanded the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. Feering an imminent war, the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, decided to act as a peacemaker. In Munich, with Mussolini as mediator, France and Britain signed an agreement giving Sudetenland to Germany in return for a formal declaration that Germany had no more territorial ambitions. Of course, Hitler didn’t kept his promise and six months later, Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia. 1939: The beginning of the war. The Allies lack of military response towards Germany’s actions. On the 1st of April 1939, the international press announced that Chamberlain’s cabinet abandonded the appeasement policy and gave a guarantee of support to Poland if Germany invaded. France did the same. Hitler demanded from Poland the city of Danzig so he can link Germany with East Prussia. He was refused. Hitler knew that Poland was supported by Britain and France, so before he could act, he had to secure the country’s back. On the 23rd of August 1939, Germany signed a secret Pact with the U.S.S.R which included an article regarding the splitting of Poland. This Pact will be known in history as the Ribbentrop-Molotov. Poland was and ideal target for the mobile warfare. After the annexation of Czechoslovakia, the border between Germany and Poland grew even more. The were two armies: Army Group North (lead by Fedor von Bock) and Army Group South (lead by Gerd von Rundstedt). The plan consisted of two pincer movements to meet at Warsaw and Brest-Litovsk. The “Blitzkrieg” proved very efficient. Among the major causes why I think Poland was defeated so easy was that it had old planes, few troops at the border and even had cavalry units fighting against Panzers. Warsaw was taken in less than 10 day and on the 17th of September the outer pincers reached Brest-Litovsk. The same day, U.S.S.R invaded from the East sealing Poland’s fate. Britain, as promised, declared war on Germany on the 3rd of September. The country mobilized its Dominion and Imperial forces, sending its Expeditionary Force in France. On the sea, the Battle of Atlantic started with German U-boats grouped in wolfpacks, sinking convoys of British merchant shipping. As Hitler had gambled, Britain and France had no idea what to do once they actually declared war. Following the conquest of Poland, the war entered a strange phase called “phoney war” due to the limited conflicts. The U.S.S.R knew that one day Germany might decide to attack her, so she signed treaties with the Baltic states to establish garrisons in key points. With Finland, it was a different story. She refused the Soviet demands which resulted in its invasion by the U.S.S.R . At first, the Finns lead by Gustav Mannerheim inflicted serious losses to the Soviet Union, but because of its immense manpower, the U.S.S.R forced her neighbour to capitulate. Finland had to surrender the Petsamo region which was very rich in nickel. Britain wanted to interfere in this war, but it was too late. 1940: A year full of surprises: Germany invades Western Europe. Britain’s last hope. The six months of apparently slack time ended with a thunder clap. This did not occur where everybody was expecting, but in Scandinavia. By the time U.S.S.R invaded Finland, Hitler had his own interests in the northern regions. In order to assure the iron ore received from Sweden, Hitler decided to conquer Norway. As Denmark was on the way, they invaded her also. Germany’s northern neighbour surrendered in less than 24 hours, but with Norway it was more complicated. They used paratroopers to seize major targets from the cities of Norway: Oslo, Stavanger, Kristiansand, Bergen, Trondheim etc. Britain sent troops in the region and for a small period it had retaken some of the conquered territory. The troops then retreated when Germany sent reinforcements. Chamberlain was widely blamed for his lack of response towards the German aggressions. He resigned and was replaced by Winston Churchill on the 10th of May. He could not have picked a worse day. It was the same day the Third Reich unleashed its forces against the West. At first, the Germans thought of repeating the Schlieffen Plan from the First World War. This consisted of a full scale attack on France through Belgium. The only problem was that the Allies were expecting the attack from there, so they moved their troops accordingly. The only German general to come up with a daring yet impressive plan was Erich von Manstein. He proposed to trap the Allied forces with a sickle-cup movement. The main force of Panzers had to cross the Ardennes forest and head for the coast. Britain and France were completely taken by surprise. Here, I think that the defeat was due to the French generals who had a rigid and defensive mentality. Of course, the German air superiority and special created armor divisions contributed also. Holland, threatened by constant Luftwaffe raids, surrendered after five days of intense fighting. Belgium had been attacked by the powerful 6th Army (lead by Reichenau) and with the help of the paratroopers, Fort Eben-Emael was captured. With this, the Belgium front collapsed. King Leopold requested an armistice. After the surrender of these countries, France’s situation got worse. The Allied High Command understood the German plan and considered the sea as the only salvation. When the British and French troops arrived at Dunkirk, operation Dynamo was launched. Thousands of private boats crossed the English channel to save as many soldiers as possible from being captured by the Germans. Hitler took a strange decision near Dunkirk. He halted von Kleist’s Panzer Division without any clear reason. I think that Hitler knew his tanks needed to be repaired and his men needed some rest. Besides, I read that Hermann Göring, the head of the Luftwaffe, assured Hitler that his bombers would take care of the British boats. Some of them were sunk, but the majority reached the British Isles. Meanwhile, the rest of France was being conquered. Among the commanders that remarked themselves were Charles De Gaulle of the French and Erwin Rommel of the Germans. Rommel lead the “Ghost Division” which swiftly conquered Rouen, Arras, Lille and Cherbourg. After the defeat of France, De Gaulle fleed into exile in London and continued to support the French Free Forces. Italy declared war on France on the 10th of June. France considered it nothing more than a backstabbing. Even though her forces were weakened she managed to resist 10 more days. At Compiegne, in the same wagon where the Germans signed the armistice of 1918, Hitler imposed the French delegation his conditions. They were accepted, making the victory over France total. Germany annexed only the northern part and the Atlantic coast from France, the rest remained “free” and formed a government at Vichy (lead by Phillipe Petain). They decided to collaborate with the Nazies. By the summer of 1940, Britain stood alone. It had lost almost all its weapons in France, but refused to surrender. This was partly because of the Prime Minister and his encouraging message to the population: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender.” (Winston Churchill) Little did Churchill knew that Hitler didn’t wanted to conquer Great Britain. In his vision, the existence of the British Empire was vital. Hitler wanted only supremacy on the continent. Churchill would have never accepted this. As the peace offers were rejected, Germany prepared for operation “Sea Lion”. Britain also prepared for the imminent attack. Anti-aircraft guns were placed in major cities and shelters were erected. Soon, children were being evacuated to the countryside, everyone had to carry gas masks and a blackout was introduced. Due to German commerce raiding, the food was rationed. Britain’s luck was that it was an island. It had also a great fleet with which the German Kriegsmarine couldn’t compete. The Germans realized this and focused on the aspects they had the superiority: the air. Great Britain had less than 1000 planes. Air Mashall Hugh Dowding wished to spare them for major battles only. This is why, I think, the merchant shipping was targeted even more. The only advantage Britain had in the air war was the radar. This way, the planes were sent where the Germans attacked. Göring underestimated the role of the radar and continued to attack military targets. This was, from my point of view a great mistake. Had he destroyed the radars placed on the coast, the Bitish would have been blind. The German fighter, the BF 109 was not as agile as the Supermarine Spitfire or the Hawker Hurricane. The Germans lost more planes than the British, although some of the British pilots had 4 or 5 missions a day. Britain, due to shortage among pilots, accepted the help of the occupied nations. The most notorious during the Battle of Britain was the 303 Squadron made of Poles. The Royal Air Force kept the Germans from having air supremacy over Britain. By September, the Germans changed their tactics and started bombing civilian targets. The aim was to reduce morale of the population. It did not work although some cities like Coventry suffered enormous damage. For the moment at least, Britain was safe. 1941: New allies, big mistakes. The turning point. While Germany was busy with Great Britain, Italy launched its own campaign against her. It attacked Egypt using the bases from Abyssinia and Somaliland, but failed to conquer it. The British counter offensive inflicted many losses to the Italian Army which was forced to retreat. Hitler sent one of his best generals to help Mussolini: Erwin Rommel. We was put in command of the Afrika Corps. Italy made yet another foolish decision. In Mussolini’s plans of recreating the Roman Empire featured the annexation of Greece. As the ultimatum was rejected, Italy invaded the country. With the support of Britain, Greece pushed back the Italian Army forcing it to retreat towards Albania. Germany was making plans for the East when this new crisis appeared. Also, the German friendly Yugoslavian government had been overtrown with a British sympathizing one. All these problems forced the German High Command to postpone any attacks on the East and to focus on the Balkans. Germany invaded and quickly conquered both Yugoslavia and Greece. Many British troops were captured. In May, a strange event occurred. The British news announced that a German pilot had parachuted near Glasgow. The pilot was none other than Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s adjutant. After interrogating him, the British found out that Hess came to sign a peace treaty with Britain, so Germany could invade the U.S.S.R . Churchill refused to speak with him, so Hess was taken into custody. Britain informed Stalin about the plan, but he thought it was just British propaganda meant to arouse suspicions between them and the Germans. Hess wasn’t normal in many ways, but this time he said the truth. As Napoleon did in 1812, Hitler took the unwise decision to invade the Soviet Union on the 22nd of June. Why do I say unwise? Because Germany had unfinished business with Great Britain who still played the card of defiance. The German Army was split into three groups according to their task: Army Group North (lead by Leeb) had a symbolic objective, Leningrad; Army Group Center (lead by Fedor von Bock) had the political one, Moscow; Army Group South (lead by Gerd von Rundstedt) had the economical one, Ukraine and the Caucasus oil fields. The attack took Stalin by surprise. He did not expect Germany to attack so soon. By winter, Army Group Center was at the outskirts of Moscow. The Soviet spy, Richard Sorge, informed the U.S.S.R that Japan, Gemany’s ally, was not going to invade her. Troops were transfered from Siberia to the European front to fight with the Germans. The savage counter attack of the Soviets forced Germany to pull back. Meanwhile, Leningrad was besieged instead of conquered to spare the German soldiers lives. Japan, indeed had no territorial interest in the U.S.S.R . The country focused on conquering French, British or Dutch colonies as they were weakened by fighting with Germany. Among the first to be taken was Hong Kong. Then, unexpectedly, on the 7th of December, Japan attacked Pearl Harbour forcing the U.S to enter the war. Same day, Japan attacked also Burma, Malaya and Singapore. Germany, because of the alliance it had with Japan, declared war on America a few days later. The year ended with the war now on true global scale. 1942: Victories and defeats. The Axis starts to crumble. At Wansee, Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich spoked about the extermination of Jews as the Final Solution. All around Poland, extermination camps had been built. Some of them were quite notorious: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Chelmno, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, Majdanek etc. More than 6 million Jews had been killed in the gas chambers of these monstrous buildings. The Holocaust represents a black taint in Germany’s history and an important lesson that shouldn’t be forgotten. Britain created in 1940 the S.O.E (Special Operations Executive). Its task was as Churchill put it to “set Europe ablaze”. Many troops were trained to participate in sabotage or capturing missions. In 1942, one of these missions was given the code name “Operation Anthropoid”. Its task was to assassinate Heydrich, one of the Holocaust’s architects. It succeeded in its objective, but the Germans revenged by killing citizens of the villages Lidice and Ležáky. Then they razed the cities to the ground. Meanwhile, in Asia, Singapore capitulated. General Percival surrendered to Japanese General Yamashita who won with an army 3 times smaller than the British. It was “the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history.” (Winston Churchill) Japan’s supremacy in the Pacific since it attacked on Pearl Harbour and the Philippines had been sunk together with its aircraft carriers in the Battle of Midway. From this battle onwards, America would eliberate, step by step, the islands under Japanese control. In Africa, after the failures of Archibald Wavell and Claude Auchinleck, General Bernard Montgomery managed to defeat Rommel at El Alamein. Following “Operation Torch”, the Allies had driven the Axis forces out of the continent. Germany’s Army Group South reached the city of Stalingrad and almost took it. Due to Soviet reinforcements, the city was held and, by winter the 6th Army (lead by Paulus) was encircled. The fights went on until the next year. 1943: Italy says “arrivederci!” The Allied bombing campaign against Germany. After securing North Africa from the Axis forces, the Allied High Command proposed to invade Italy. The first part of the plan was the capturing of the island of Sicily. The King of Italy ordered “Il Duce” to be arrested and asked for an armistice with the Allies. Mussolini was later saved by a German commando unit lead by Otto Skorzeny. The northern part of Italy was invaded by Germany and Mussolini was placed in head of it. The bloodiest battle in Italy was at Monte Cassino where the Germans used the ruins of the Benedict Monastery to hold the Allies off. The Allies lead by Harold Alexander won, but with many casualties. Italy wasn’t Germany’s only problem. At Stalingrad, General Paulus had surrendered together with 90000 troops. Only 5000 would ever return to their country. Stalingrad is considered by many the first major defeat of Germany. I somehow agree with them, but I think Germany lost more military equipment in the Battle of the Atlantic. Se had 2 battleships with tremendous power: “Bismarck” and “Tirpitz”. Both were hunted by the Royal Navy and sunked. The U-boat campaign also started to lose its effect. Britain’s locating devices and weapons such as the “Hedgehog” made the work of the German U-boats almost impossible. Anyway, after Stalingrad the German High Command launched a last offensive in the East codenamed “Operation Citadel”. The culminating point of this operation was the Battle of Kursk where the largest armoured clash took place. “Operation Citadel” was delayed, I guess, because Hitler wanted to deploy more Tiger tanks to the front line. The Germans lost the battle and so, started the retreat. The western allies were also busy. As Germany did with London and other cities, the British started their own carpet bombing campaign. The aim was the same, to lower the enemy morale. The Americans joined in so, they bombed on shifts: By night, Britain attacked civilian targets; By day, America bombed Germany’s infrastructure. From my point of view, an interesting element in this bombing campaign was represented by the “Dam Busters”. They were part of “Operation Chastise” and had to destroy the dams near the industrial valley of Ruhr: Eder, Mohne, Sorpe. The villages close to these dams were flooded and many civilians had drowned. By the end of the year, the “Big three”: F.D. Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill met in Tehran to discuss about the opening of another front in Europe for 1944. It wouldn’t be that easy… 1944: D-Day. Germany unleashes the “Vengeance weapons”. The situation of the Axis got from bad to worse. Britain, with its Chindits, eliberated Burma from Japan and continued to advance. In Italy, the Germans lead by Albert Kesselring fought stubbornly but had to retreat, the Allies eliberating Rome. Meanwhile, the Russians entered Poland being a constant threat for Germany. But these weren’t the main actions of the year. The Allied High Command made a plan to debark on the coast of France. It would be the largest amphibious landing in history. Before they could launch “Operation Overlord” as it was codenamed, they had to trick the Germans that the attack was going to happen elsewhere. The Germans thought the attack is going to be at Calais and not at Normandy. It was a big surprise. The 6th of June marked the beginning of D-Day. The allies divided their forces in 5 beaches: Utah, Omaha (America); Juno (Canada); Gold and Sword (Britain). Troops were parachuted behind enemy lines to prevent enemy artillery being used. Except for Omaha beach, everything went as planned. The Allies secured the place and brought portable harbours (“Mulberries”) to facilitate rapid offloading of cargo to troops. France was liberated step by step together with Holland and Belgium. But Germany was not going to give up. Scientists had developed a rocket that Hitler wanted to use against the Allies. The V1, and later the V2, were too inaccurate to hit military targets so they were used to terrorize the citizens of London or Antwerp. The damage wasn’t great and soon, due to Allied advance, the targets were out of range. In December, Germany launched its last desperate attack against the Western Allies. “The Battle of the Bulge”, which started very good for the Germans, ended with their defeat. The main reason was, in my opinion, the Allied supremacy in the air. The German tanks couldn’t stand a chance. With the American and British advance from France and Italy and the Soviet advance from Poland, Germany became squeezed even more. 1945: Germany is defeated. The atomic era started with the bombing of Japan. The end of the war. The allies become enemies. The year 1945 was dramatic in many aspects. April, particularly, proved fatidical for three important actors of the war: F.D. Roosevelt, the President of America died on the 12th; Mussolini, together with his mistress Clara Petacci, were killed by a furious population and hanged by their legs at a gas station on the 28th; Hitler commited suicide with Eva Braun in the bunker under the Chancellery on the 30th. Berlin was being attacked by Jukov’s troops and soon was captured. The Nazi leaders surrendered to the Allies making the 9th of May the Victory in Europe Day. The German leaders were judged during the Nurenberg trials. Japan was still far from being defeated. In order to spare American troops, Truman, the new President, accepted to test the new developed bombs from the “Manhattan project”. 2 bombs were dropped: “Little Boy” in Hiroshima and “Fat Man” in Nagasaki. Both caused many casualties and destructions. After this episode, Emperor Hirohito accepted to capitulate. The war ended on the 2nd of September 1945. After the war, the relations between the Westen Allies and the Soviets went cold. The main reason was, I say, the fact that the U.S.S.R “liberated” many Eastern European countries then supported the rise of the Communism there. It was the beginning of the Cold War. Although it had won, the emerged Britain was a weakened one that could no longer consider itself a first class world power. It became dependent on the U.S during the Cold War and started the hard process of decolonization Conclusion: Britain’s role in the World War II was important as it was the only country that resisted against the German menace from the beginning. The victory can be attributable to the population of Britain which did not surrender during the bombing of English cities and helped the war effort from home. We saw that Britain honored its promise towards Poland and went to war for her in 1939. Then, we saw the mistakes of the Allies and their retreat from Dunkirk in 1940. 1941 brought many changes as both Germany and Japan invaded two superpowers: the U.S.S.R and America, involving them in the war. In 1942, we saw the effects of the Holocaust and the fierce battles of Singapore, Midway and Stalingrad. By 1943, the Italian front and the last German offensive on the East. From 1944, the Axis was retreating on all fronts, especially after the D-day landings. Finally, 1945 brought the end of the war and the end of the suffering. I am certain that I haven’t presented all World War II battles because it would be impossible to recall them all in this small material. I think I succeeded in making a clearer image of Britain’s role of the war, but this is something others decide, not me. The conclusion would be that the war changed the status of its participants, especially Britain, weakening them to a level where they would need the help of either America or the U.S.S.R. The post-war Europe was split between the democratic and communist states. The effects of this “iron curtain” are visible even today… References: A. Books: Liddell Hart, Basil H. (1998) History of the Second World War, Orizonturi: Bucharest (2 volumes) Maurois, Andre (2003) The History of England, Corint: Bucharest McDowall, David (1994) An Illustrated History of Great Britain, Longman: London Mougel, Francois-Charles (2006) Great Britain in the twentieth century, Orizonturi: Bucharest B. Documentaries: Barrett, Matthew (2009) World War II in Colour (13 episodes) C. Websites: Bogdanor, Vernon Britain in the 20th Century - Progress and Decline: The Character of Twentieth Century Britain, available at http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/britain-in-the-20th-century-progress-and-decline-the-character-of-twentieth, last accessed on 17.04.2014 Luscombe, Stephen British Empire: Twentieth Century Timeline, available at http://www.britishempire.co.uk/timeline/20century.htm, last accessed on 18.04.2014 Knowles, Michael "Bink" Operation Overlord, available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Overlord, last accessed on 9.05.2014