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Unlock This CourseThe Changing Nature of Warfare and International Conflict, 1919-2011, is one of eight Paper 2 Section B breadth studies. You study only one of them. This lesson is about two linked campaigns in the air over Britain in 1940-41.
By the end of June 1940 Germany had beaten France. Britain was still fighting. Hitler wanted Britain to make peace, and if it would not, he planned an invasion across the English Channel, code-named Operation Sea Lion. But the Royal Navy was stronger than the German navy. To cross the Channel safely the Germans first had to win air superiority: control of the skies over southern England. That meant destroying the RAF, and the struggle that followed was the Battle of Britain.
Key terms:
Germany had more aircraft. Its Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters escorted bombers such as the Heinkel 111 and Dornier 17, and Stuka dive-bombers. But the Bf 109s could stay over England for only a short time because they had to return across the Channel for fuel.
Led by Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding. Its main fighters were the Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire. The Hurricane was more numerous and shot down more German aircraft; the Spitfire was faster and more agile. Pilots came from Britain and from other countries, including Poland, Czechoslovakia and Canada.
The Germans began by attacking shipping in the Channel in July. In August they widened their attacks to RAF airfields, aircraft factories and radar stations. They launched their main assault, called Adlertag ("Eagle Day"), on 13 August. The RAF lost many aircraft and pilots, but the Germans lost more. On 15 September, now remembered as Battle of Britain Day, large German formations were met by fighters again and again. Two days later Hitler postponed Sea Lion. The invasion never happened.
Several things explain why Britain held on:
On 20 August 1940 the prime minister, Winston Churchill, told the House of Commons: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." He was talking about the RAF pilots.
The Blitz began on 7 September 1940, when the Luftwaffe attacked London. Daylight raids became too costly, so it turned more and more to night bombing. London was bombed on 57 nights in a row. Then the bombers hit other cities and ports, including Coventry (14 November 1940), Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow, Belfast, Plymouth and Hull. The heaviest raid on London came on 10-11 May 1941, and after that most German bombers were sent east for the invasion of the Soviet Union.
The German aims were to break British morale, damage ports and factories, and force Britain to ask for peace. Night raids were safer for the bombers, because the RAF had few night fighters then. But bombing at night was very inaccurate, and many bombs hit homes rather than factories.
The effects of the Blitz:
The bombing did not win the war for Germany, and it also meant that German aircraft that might have supported other fronts were used over Britain.
What changed: in 1917 German Gotha bombers raided London, but the raids were small and the aircraft were slow. By 1940 thousands of aircraft fought over Britain. Radar and a radio control system, linked together, changed defence, so that in the Battle of Britain the bomber did not "always get through", as Stanley Baldwin had said in 1932 that many feared. Whole cities, not just fronts, were attacked.
What stayed the same: bombing civilians still failed to break a country's will, as it had in 1917. Air power alone could not win the war without control of the skies.
Explain TWO causes of the failure of the Luftwaffe to win the Battle of Britain in 1940. [8 marks]
One cause was Britain's radar and control system. A chain of radar stations along the coast spotted German aircraft as they gathered over France, and the Royal Observer Corps tracked them over land. Reports went to Fighter Command, which ordered squadrons by radio to the right place. This meant the RAF had fighters in the air at the right time without wasting fuel and pilots, so the Luftwaffe met strong opposition every time it came and could not destroy Fighter Command.
A second cause was German mistakes in how they fought the battle. In August the Luftwaffe attacked airfields and radar stations, and Fighter Command was under real strain. But on 7 September the Germans switched to bombing London. This gave the RAF time to repair its airfields and replace aircraft. The Stuka dive-bombers were also too slow and were shot down in large numbers. Because the Luftwaffe had not gained air superiority, Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion on 17 September. These mistakes therefore led directly to its failure.
What lifts it to the top level: each cause has precise facts and shows how it led to the failure.
Give two different causes, each with its own paragraph, and end each one by saying how the cause led to the Luftwaffe's failure. A single cause, however good, cannot score more than 4 out of 8.