Britain Alone
Dec 17, 2015
The Battle of Britain
• Hitler suggests Britain gives up and leave Europe in Nazi Hands
• Churchill vows to never surrender
The Battle of Britain
• Hitler needed to invade before winter– Had to conquer England before the U.S.
entered the war
• Operation Sea Lion- Germans cross the channel into England
• Germany needed to control the skies to be successful
The Battle of Britain
• Britain prepares to defend themselves
• Goering’s war birds exaggerate their success so Germany starts day bombings of British industrial centers.
• He then orders the blitz on London
The Battle of Britain
• Germans used delayed action bombs– British formed UXB squads
• Battle of Britain comes to a close-Oct. 31, 1940– Did not completely end– Britain needed to be on guard until the end of the
war– Was a disastrous defeat for the Luftwaffe
Battle of Britain
• Winston Churchill:
• “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
War Beneath the Waves
• Winston Churchill: “The only thing that really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril.”
War Beneath the Waves
• Germany had many bases along the Northern Coast of Europe
• Used wolfpacks
• Allied losses were staggering
• President Roosevelt starts the Lend-Lease Program
War Beneath the Waves
• Used sonar or asdic as the British called it
• Germans invented Pillenwerfer– Shot small gas bubbles which returned a
ping and confused the sonar
• Also used radar• German Bismark was a feared ship
The Balkans
• Hungary and Romania joined the Axis
• Hitler takes over Bulgaria
• Mussolini (Il Duce) invades in Greece
• Greece reluctant to ask for British troops because fear Hitler will invade– End up asking for British assistance
The Balkans
• The Greeks surrender and British retreat to island of Crete
• Hitler also invades Yugoslavia and takes them over