Battle Of Britain

Britain Stood Alone With the fall of France, Great Britain stood alone against the Nazis. The new British Prime minister, Winston Churchill declared that his nation would never give in. –“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 never surrender.”

Hitler’s Invasion of Great Britain Hitler’s Plan: Operation Sea Lion –1. Knock off the Royal Air Force (RAF) –2. Land 250,000 soldiers on England’s shores. Summer 1940 –The Luftwaffe (Germany’s Air force) began bombing Great Britain. –The RAF was greatly outnumbered.

The British Fought on… Hitler first aimed at airfields and aircraft factories. Then moved on to cities, especially London –This was an attempt to break British Morale. –Despite the destruction Britain fought on. With Germany’s attention on the cities and off the airfields the RAF was able to counter attack.

The RAF takes control The RAF began to gain control of the Battle of Britain. Two main secret weapons helped turn the tide in their favor. –Radar—electronic tracking system Could tell the number, speed, and direction of incoming war planes. –Enigma—German code-making machine. Could now decode German secret messages.

Hitler Calls off His Attacks in Britain The Battle of Britain continued until May 10 th Stunned by British resistance Hitler decided to call off his attacks. The Battle of Britain had ended and for the first time the Allies learned that Hitler’s advances could be stopped!

Hitler’s shifts his focus The stubborn resistance of the Battle of Britain caused a shift in Hitler’s strategy in Europe. Hitler decided he would deal with Great Britain later. –Turned his attention east to the Balkans and the Mediterranean area.

North African Campaign Germany’s first objective in the Mediterranean region was North Africa. –This was prompted mainly by Mussolini He wanted Italy to share in some of Germany’s conquests. –Germany sent troops to N. Africa where its ally Italy was already falling to British forces.

North African Campaign By the time Hitler decided to help Italy in Africa the British had already taken 130,000 Italian Prisoners. –Hitler sent General Erwin Rommel “The Desert Fox” to step in and help. –After fierce fighting Rommel came out victorious against the allies.

Controlling the Balkans While Rommel campaigned in N. Africa, Hitler was active in the Balkans. By early summer 1940 Hitler had begun planning to attack his ally, the USSR. –In order to accomplish this plan he needed to control the Balkan countries.

Controlling the Balkans Early 1941 –In the face of overwhelming German strength Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary cooperated in joining the Axis powers. –Yugoslavia and Greece resisted. However, Hitler would then invade these countries and eventually win them. Their resistance did little good.

Operation Barbarossa With the Balkans firmly in control Hitler could go ahead with his plan to invade the Soviet Union. Hitler turned on his one time Ally and launched a surprise invasion of the Soviet Union. (Operation Barbarossa) –The Red Army (USSR) though the largest in the world was not well-equipped or well trained.

Operation Barbarossa The Germans quickly pushed deep into Soviet land. As the Red Army was forced to retreat it destroyed everything left behind to keep supplies out of German hands

Does History Repeat Itself? Sound Familiar???? –Where have we seen Russia use this type of tactic before? –What was it called? –What else does the Soviet Union have going for them?

Winter to the rescue After a hard attack on Leningrad, in which more than 1 million people died from the terrible winter, the city still refused to fall. Hitler, seeing that Leningrad would not surrender turned his sights to Moscow. –Here a strong Soviet counter attack, combined with fierce winter forced the Germans back.

Where is the U.S. Although the events of the the war in Europe were disturbing the United States sat back and decided they should not get involved. –FDR wanted o help the Allies. Sold weapons to the Allies –FDR met with Churchill in August –Although the U.S. was not officially in the war the two leaders were already working together.

Battle of Britain Comic Strip Instructions Fold white paper into 6 squares (hotdog style then fold like a wallet) Label top of comic Strip: Battle of Britain (not too big) Draw a picture with voice bubbles, like a comic, for each square. –Topics for each square German planes attack British airfields German planes attack British cities British RAF counterattack (maybe show the RAF planes getting off the ground into the air) Show both sides fighting in the air Radar and Enigma Germany retreats Everything must be in color!