WH Writing Assignment XV
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Writing Assignment XIV: World War II
Topic: Please write on the Battle of Britain. What was the time frame/context? Who were the
major characters in this story and what role do they play? What factors played in Britain's favor?
What was the outcome of the Battle and why? (textbook, lecture, Canvas source)
During the mid-1930s Adolf Hitler would begin his expansion through Europe with the Nazi
Army. In 1936 he began by remilitarizing the Rhineland, the area west of the Rhine River which
had been demilitarized as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. He would go on to invade Austria,
Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxemburg. The strategy that his military
would often employ was called ‘Blitzkrieg.’ Blitzkrieg was a very quick and forceful attacking
method. This attack was utilized to catch enemies off guard by using armored vehicles and large
amounts of infantryman. Finally, Hitler would mobilize his troops and break through the French
fortification, ‘The Maginot Line.’ After this huge military loss, 300,000 British and French
troops managed to escape due to the ‘Miracle at Dunkirk’, where thousands of civilian vessels
sailed across the English Channel to save the Allied soldiers. Although Hitler had successfully
taken France and established a Nazi puppet state, this would be the extent to his western
expansion due to the strategic and moral strength of the British people.
As we have seen in the past with Napoleon, crossing the English Channel for the purpose of
invading Britain is no easy feat. So, for the Battle of Britain, Germany devised a strategy to
soften up British defenses. The strategy employed consisted of bombing British airfields, ports,
facilities, industries, and infrastructure. The strategy was called Blitz and was carried out by the
German air force, also known as the Luftwaffe. In a primary audio source provided to the class,
Edward Murrow describes the scenes in London while air raid sirens hauntingly blare in the
background. Because of these bombings, Britain would rely heavily on their own air force, the
Royal Air Force (RAF), to defend the city. Hitler anticipated this as his goal was to eliminate the
RAF so Germany could clear the skies for an invasion of the island. However, this would
backfire as the RAF proved to be far more formidable than Hitler could have predicted. Britain at
the time had also developed new radar technology so they were able to inform the RAF where
German fighters would be. Germany would end up losing too many planes so this would
postpone any invasion of Britain for the time being.
An important figure to emerge during the beginning of the Battle for Britain was Winston
Churchill. Churchill was a British statesman who would be elected Prime Minister in May of
1940. His views on appeasement differed from those of former Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain, in that he was absolutely against this policy. Chamberlin allowed Germany to
invade Poland in order to ‘appease’ Hitler. The idea was that if he gave Hitler what he wanted,
then the Nazi expansion across Europe would be quashed and peace would be established.
Needless to say, this had the opposite intended effect. So, with Churchill now in control, Britain
began their own bombings of German cities as a form of retaliation to break the people’s morale
towards the war. Cologne would be the first German city to sustain these bombing raids, with
more than 1,000 British bombers on the attack (
The Essential World History, Volume II: Since
1500 p. 670
). Germany would suffer heavy losses from these bombing raids which further halted
the process of a possible invasion.
Hitler was unable to break British morale as Churchill delivered a very power speech to his
people referred to as the “We shall fight on the beaches” speech. This would be considered
‘Britain’s Finest Hour’ as they stood up against Hitler’s Nazi Germany and won the War for
Britain. In the end, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States would be coaxed
into entering the war alongside Britain, the Soviet Union, France, and China. After the axis
powers had been defeated, nearly 70 million people will have lost their lives in the Second World
War. (
The Fallen of WWII, 13:20
)
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