Unit 1: Topic 2 - Britain Alone 1939 - 1945 Flashcards
September, 1 1939
What happened?
Nazis invade Poland.
PREPARING FOR WAR (See May, 14 1940)
Over 1.5 million AIR RAID PRECAUTION wardens (ARP).
-Wardens placed sandbags around buildings to stop bomb damage.
-Barrage balloons stopped German planes flying low.
-Organized ‘Blackout’ which stopped light showing through and giving the Germans a target.
-ARP wardens organized the air raid sirens too.
-They checked that people went to their shelter.
-Councils built 50 public shelters, but the government decided not to crowd people together during bombing.
September, 3 1939
What happened?
What was the Phoney War?
Britain declares war on Germany.
BEF sent to France during ‘Phoney War’
The Phoney War was the 8 month period of no hostilities until May 1940.
May, 10 1940
What happened?
Germany initiates attack on Belgium and Netherlands.
Invasion of France begins and BEF are overwhelmed.
Churchill gains rule.
May, 14 1940
What happened?
Home guard formed. Anthony Eden asked for a ‘Local Defence Force’. 250,00 joined on the first day. In august there was approximately 1 million strong.
- The home guard manned anti-air guns during air raids. -They helped rescue workers after air raids.
- They cleared up the bomb damage, making roads clear first.
- They painted over road signs so that if the enemy landed, they wouldn’t know where they were.
- They were also in charge of unexploded bombs.
- They put large obstacles in fields so that they wouldn’t land.
- They put barbed wire along the beaches too.
- They were trained to fight a German Invasion.
Over a thousand were killed on duty during the war.
May, 26 - June, 4 1940
What happened?
- Battle of Dunkirk - Evacuation of British and French soldiers.
THE IMPORTANCE OF DUNKIRK
Many people saw the evacuation as a victory. However, Churchill pointed out that ‘wars are not won by evacuation’. He did his best to promote Dunkirk as as an example of how British people could work together to produce victory. When France did fall, the fact that the British had snatched so many troops from the overconfident Germans made it less likely to think that Britain should just give in or that the Germans could never be defeated.
OPERATION DYNAMO
May 28 - RAF lost 177 planes
Luftwaffe lost 132 planes
May 29 - Panzer divisions were stopped so Infantry could catch up and or so that french could not flank.
338,000 troops rescued altogether.
- Belgium surrenders.
July, 10 - Oct, 31 1940
What happened?
Battle of Britain commences.
LUFTWAFFE (2600) VS. RAF (640)
Unlike the defeat of Dunkirk, the RAF had one major advantage - their home front. This gives the ability to do many things such as:
- Use Radar (1935 installed on the South and East coasts for tracking guidance.
- Pilots who crashed could often return to battle.
- British had more fighter planes and the Spitfire were far more efficient in design.
- British planes replaced destroyed planes far quicker than the Germans.
- ‘Dunkirk Spirit’ kept RAF fighting despite terrible losses.
Aug, 25/26 1940
What happened?
First air raid on Britain.
Sept, 7 1940
What happened?
German Blitz against Britain.
- Lasted until May 1941.
- London was bombed first. It was bombed for 75 nights.
- There were many bombing raids on Coventry and Liverpool. The Luftwaffe believed Liverpool was most likely destination for US ship arrivals.
- Initially bombs were dropped on the Industrial East End, but it was clear most raids were targeted towards civilians, as they wanted to break British morale.
DID IT WORK?
- 43,000 civilians were killed and over 2 million were made homeless.
- Supplies were affected.
- Over 60% of people had less than 4 hours sleep.
- People did not turn against the war in large numbers.
The Blitz was the second German fail after Dunkirk.
Nov, 14/15 1940
Germans bomb Coventry.
While RAF bombed Munich on the 8th of November. The Luftwaffe responded by bombing Coventry. The destruction was so devastating that there was a term known as ‘concentration’ that derived from it - wiping something out completely.
Cities burned so fiercely that fires were seen from 150 miles away. The fires also guided the other German fighters too.
500 bombers dropped thousands of bombs and the ‘all-clear’ did not signal until 11 hours later at 6:15.
There was approximately 380-554 deaths with thousands of injuries.
Over 4000 homes were destroyed.
The Luftwaffe returned 40 times to Coventry and the last raid being in August 1942.
August, 31 1939
What happened?
Civilian evacuate from London.
April, 1942 - Jan, 1943
Germans planned ‘baedeker’ raids because the Germans chose their targets from towns with 3 stars in the German baedeker tourist guide to Britain.
These Baedeker targets were on smaller towns of less importance such as towns like Exeter, Bath, York and Norwich.
By January 1943, they last a bomber (4 trained crewman) for every 5 civilians.
12 June, 1944
September, 1944
A new bomb was developed called ‘Vergeltung’ (‘retribution’) or V1 for short.
These new bombs were often launched from the French coast at Calais.
Over 9000 V1s were launched; many failed to reach their targets and failed to explode.
They killed about 6000 people, and did not panic at first - about 1.5 million left London.
In SEPTEMBER, the V2 was used. It was rocket-powered, so it was faster and could go higher, although it had the same explosive.
Over 5000 were launched, but only 1000 reached Britain, killing 2700 people.
