BRITAIN’S TRUE ROLE IN WORLD WAR II

Doctor Michael Herron
Brexiteers have made much of Britain’s mythical role in the Second World War of standing alone against a Nazi dominated Europe. The fact that Britain was ultimately successful in that conflict has been used by Brexiteer to support the view that Britain could equally succeed independent of the European Union.
The historical truth of Britain’s Second World War tells a very different story. The fact is Britain never stood alone against a Nazi dominated Europe. The Britain that fought the Second World War was, in reality, the British Empire that included the dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and colonial India as well as various Asian and African colonies.
Despite claims to the contrary none of the three major allies; Britain, the USA and the Soviet Union won the war by themselves. Each ally played a vital role at different times to defeat the Axis Powers of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan.
It is true that the Soviet Union with 20 million dead paid the ultimate price in blood for victory over Nazi Germany in which the casualty figures of the other two allies pale in comparison. Although the Soviet Red Army engaged the vast majority of the German army divisions during the war in comparison to the numbers assembled against the Western allies, the Soviets received large numbers of supplies from its allies. Of particular importance were the Arctic convoys of British merchant vessels escorted by Royal Navy ships to Murmansk in the Arctic Circle that supplied the Red Army after much of the Soviet Union was occupied by the Germans since their initial invasion during Operation Barbarossa. The Soviets would later be supplied with vast numbers of American jeeps and trucks to speed their advance into Germany.
However, Russians would argue rightly that during the most intense period of fighting their factories relocated beyond the Ural Mountains supplied most of the munitions to take the fight to the Germans. This does not negate the fact that at significant moments during the war Britain and the US aided the Soviets in their struggle for survival and ultimate victory.

The Battle of Britain
One of the most important moments in the war was the result of a catastrophic disaster. Winston Churchill, who was First Lord of the Admiralty orchestrated the campaign in Norway of British forces primarily around the port of Narvik and was the architect of a blunder to rank with his at Gallipoli during the First World War.
However, the opposition Labour Party believed that he was the most likely war leader amongst the leading Conservative politicians and after a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, Labour supported Churchill in his bid to become Prime Minister. The Labour Party thus helped to install the key British figure of the war at its most critical juncture.
After the evacuation of Dunkirk, which was really a strategic defeat since the British Army left behind most of its material and munitions then Britain faced the possibility of invasion. The Battle of Britain in which the RAF engaged the German Luftwaffe was pivotal. A number of commentators have questioned whether Hitler really intended to invade Britain. From reading the secondary literature on the subject this author has concluded that Hitler and his commanders may have envisaged an invasion of Britain but only if the Luftwaffe had command of the skies over the Channel. This is because the Royal Navy was still one of the most powerful navies in the world and in the absence of German air superiority would have sunk any invasion fleet. Conversely, German air supremacy over the Channel would have nullified Britain’s dominance at the sea since Royal Navy ships would have been vulnerable to attack from the air. The sinking of the Prince of Wales by Japanese fighter bombers in the Indian Ocean later in the war shows this was no idle threat. The fact that Britain maintained command of the air over the Channel by winning the Battle of Britain shows why this victory was so important.
By ending any prospects of invasion Britain then became a stronghold on the edge of Europe before the Soviet Union and United States entered the war. Britain stood as a beacon of freedom and hope for the rest of Occupied Europe and a launchpad first for aid to the Soviet Union when it was attacked and then for the invasion of Northern Europe during D-Day.

The Role of British Sea Power
Britain’s position as a maritime power was significant for the course of the war. The Royal Navy and its imperial subordinate the Canadian Navy were largely responsible for clearing the North Atlantic of U-Boats while the United States concentrated the bulk of its naval forces in the Pacific against the Imperial Japanese Navy. This was doubly important since it enabled the United States to overwhelm a dangerous foe in the Pacific and also to safely ship its army to England in the build-up to D-Day.

The Role of the RAF
There has been a great deal of debate about the effectiveness of the RAF’s bombing campaign over Germany during the Second World War. This bombing campaign did not undermine German morale to the extent that its architect Arthur “Bomber” Harris intended. However, it forced German strategists to maintain a substantial force of fighter planes in Germany to protect German cities that could have been used on the Eastern Front. This helped the Soviets to gain dominance of the air over the Eastern Front much to the Red Army’s advantage.

Churchill’s Mediterranean Strategy and D-Day
The fact that Britain had substantial imperial assets east of the Suez Canal determined Britain’s strategy during the war. After evacuating the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk Britain stationed the bulk of this army in North Africa protecting the approaches to the Suez Canal.
During the first half of the war Britain fought Italian and German forces in North Africa. However, British commanders overestimated the strength of the German Afrika Corps. The size of this force was substantially inferior to the German forces ranged against the Red Army on the Eastern Front. Nevertheless “The Desert Fox” Erwin Rommel continually overcame the British Army in North Africa until his Afrika Corps was massively outnumbered at El Alamein by Bernard Montgomery and soundly defeated.
Although the Americans were frustrated at Churchill’s eagerness to pursue a Mediterranean strategy of invading Sicily then Italy lessons learned from these invasions as well as the defeats at Narvik in 1940 and Dieppe in 1942 paved the way for eventual success on D-Day in 1944.
After D-Day the vast majority of the Allied soldiers fighting in France were Americans, however on D-Day itself the bulk of the invasion forces were from the British Empire. The ships that escorted the invasion force largely came from the Royal Navy while three of the five invasion beaches: Gold, Sword and Juno were assaulted by British Empire forces.
As long as it lasted the fighting in Normandy was as ferocious as anything on the Eastern Front. The British forces around Caen, according to Antony Beevor, fought the strongest German divisions in Normandy. Although the British became bogged down against the dug-in German forces, arguably, by pinning these divisions down they facilitated the breakout by American forces under George Patton through the Falaise Gap into the rest of France.

Conclusion
Britain could not have defeated the Axis of Germany, Japan and Italy by itself. The German army from 1940 onwards was just too strong on many levels for the forces of the British Empire to defeat alone. It required the might of two superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States to defeat Germany. As other commentators have argued we have to highlight the reality that the Soviet Union as another totalitarian society was prepared to pay the price in blood that its two allies as liberal democracies could not afford. However, Britain did play a pivotal supporting role to the two superpowers and, arguably, they could not have defeated Germany without Britain’s help.

Bibliography
Antony Beevor Ardennes 1944 Hitler’s Last Gamble (Penguin Random House
London, 2015)
Antony Beevor Stalingrad (Penguin Books: London, 1999)
Antony Beevor D-Day: The Battle for Normandy (Penguin Random House: London,
2010)
Max Hastings Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-45 (Macmillan,
Basingstoke, 2004)
John Keegan The Second World War (Pimlico: London, 1989)
Ian Kershaw To Hell and Back Europe 1914-1949 (Allen Lane: London, 2015)
Russell F Weigley The American Way of War: A History of the United States Military
Strategy and Policy (Indiana University Press: Bloomington and
Indianapolis, 1973)

296 thoughts on “BRITAIN’S TRUE ROLE IN WORLD WAR II”

  1. Pingback: 100 mg of viagra
  2. Pingback: buy cialis 10 mg
  3. Pingback: 100mg sildenafil
  4. Pingback: buy cialis cheap
  5. Pingback: viagra connect usa
  6. Pingback: flcc email
  7. Pingback: flccc ivermectin
  8. Pingback: fcccc
  9. Pingback: ivermectin ebay
  10. Pingback: ivermectin goodrx
  11. Pingback: tesco cheap viagra
  12. Pingback: ivermectin ontario
  13. Pingback: order ivermectin
  14. Pingback: ivermectin tablets
  15. Pingback: cost of ivermectin
  16. Pingback: ivermectin online
  17. Pingback: ivermectin generic
  18. Pingback: ivermectin buy
  19. Pingback: cialis2022gens
  20. Pingback: ivermectin uk
  21. Pingback: generic prednisone
  22. Pingback: peptide tadalafil
  23. Pingback: ivermectin human
  24. Pingback: cialis website
  25. Pingback: what is sildenafil
  26. Pingback: generic stromectol
  27. Pingback: cialis 36
  28. Pingback: cialis pills
  29. Pingback: 2symptoms
  30. Pingback: 3bicycles
  31. Pingback: coupon for cialis
  32. Pingback: cialis coupon
  33. Pingback: ivermectin monash
  34. Pingback: otc tadalafil
  35. Pingback: buy viagra online
  36. Pingback: ivermectin 5 mg
  37. Pingback: ivermectin can
  38. Pingback: cost of stromectol
  39. Pingback: ivermectin 80 mg
  40. Pingback: furosemide 30
  41. Pingback: madridbet
  42. Pingback: meritking
  43. Pingback: meritroyalbet
  44. Pingback: meritking
  45. Pingback: eurocasino
  46. Pingback: ielexusbet
  47. Pingback: trcasino
  48. Pingback: stromectol pills
  49. Pingback: meritroyalbet
  50. Pingback: eurocasino
  51. Pingback: eurocasino
  52. Pingback: stromectol tablets
  53. Pingback: ivermectin kaufen
  54. Pingback: madridbet
  55. Pingback: stromectol 12mg
  56. Pingback: stromectol cost
  57. Pingback: stromectol preis
  58. Pingback: child porn
  59. Pingback: psy-
  60. Pingback: projectio
  61. Pingback: psy online
  62. Pingback: uels ukrain
  63. Pingback: meritroyalbet
  64. Pingback: madridbet
  65. Pingback: ivermektin
  66. Pingback: bahis siteleri
  67. Pingback: DPTPtNqS
  68. Pingback: qQ8KZZE6
  69. Pingback: D6tuzANh
  70. Pingback: SHKALA TONOV
  71. Pingback: chelovek-iz-90-h
  72. Pingback: 3Hk12Bl
  73. Pingback: 3NOZC44
  74. Pingback: 01211
  75. Pingback: tor-lyubov-i-grom
  76. Pingback: film-tor-2022
  77. Pingback: hd-tor-2022
  78. Pingback: hdorg2.ru
  79. Pingback: ivermectin 50 mg
  80. Pingback: Psikholog
  81. Pingback: netstate.ru
  82. Pingback: meritroyalbet
  83. Pingback: Link
  84. Pingback: what is ivermectin
  85. Pingback: psy
  86. Pingback: bit.ly
  87. Pingback: cleantalkorg2.ru
  88. Pingback: bucha killings
  89. Pingback: War in Ukraine
  90. Pingback: Ukraine
  91. Pingback: site
  92. Pingback: stats
  93. Pingback: Ukraine-war
  94. Pingback: movies
  95. Pingback: gidonline
  96. Pingback: web
  97. Pingback: film.8filmov.ru
  98. Pingback: video
  99. Pingback: film
  100. Pingback: filmgoda.ru
  101. Pingback: rodnoe-kino-ru
  102. Pingback: stat.netstate.ru
  103. Pingback: sY5am
  104. Pingback: Dom drakona
  105. Pingback: JGXldbkj
  106. Pingback: aOuSjapt
  107. Pingback: ìûøëåíèå
  108. Pingback: psikholog moskva
  109. Pingback: A片
  110. Pingback: Dim Drakona 2022
  111. Pingback: TwnE4zl6
  112. Pingback: psy 3CtwvjS
  113. Pingback: meriking
  114. Pingback: lalochesia
  115. Pingback: film onlinee
  116. Pingback: 3qAIwwN
  117. Pingback: video-2
  118. Pingback: sezons.store
  119. Pingback: psy-news.ru
  120. Pingback: 000-1
  121. Pingback: 3SoTS32
  122. Pingback: 3DGofO7
  123. Pingback: rftrip.ru
  124. Pingback: madridbet
  125. Pingback: dolpsy.ru
  126. Pingback: kin0shki.ru
  127. Pingback: 3o9cpydyue4s8.ru
  128. Pingback: mb588.ru
  129. Pingback: newsukraine.ru
  130. Pingback: meritking
  131. Pingback: edu-design.ru
  132. Pingback: tftl.ru
  133. Pingback: brutv
  134. Pingback: site 2023
  135. Pingback: grandpashabet
  136. Pingback: sitestats01
  137. Pingback: 1c789.ru
  138. Pingback: cttdu.ru
  139. Pingback: 1703
  140. Pingback: hdserial2023.ru
  141. Pingback: serialhd2023.ru
  142. Pingback: matchonline2022.ru
  143. Pingback: bit.ly/3OEzOZR
  144. Pingback: bit.ly/3gGFqGq
  145. Pingback: bit.ly/3ARFdXA
  146. Pingback: bit.ly/3ig2UT5
  147. Pingback: bit.ly/3GQNK0J
  148. Pingback: bep5w0Df
  149. Pingback: www
  150. Pingback: icf
  151. Pingback: 24hours-news
  152. Pingback: rusnewsweek
  153. Pingback: uluro-ado
  154. Pingback: irannews.ru
  155. Pingback: klondayk2022
  156. Pingback: tqmFEB3B
  157. Pingback: fuck google
  158. Pingback: sikiş
  159. Pingback: mangalib
  160. Pingback: madridbet
  161. Pingback: x
  162. Pingback: 9xflix
  163. Pingback: xnxx
  164. Pingback: 123movies
  165. Pingback: kinokrad
  166. Pingback: batmanapollo
  167. Pingback: vsovezdeisrazu
  168. Pingback: 2023
  169. Pingback: porn
  170. Pingback: ipsychologos
  171. Pingback: yug-grib.ru
  172. Pingback: studio-tatuage.ru
  173. Pingback: meritking giriş
  174. Pingback: meritking
  175. Pingback: video.vipspark.ru
  176. Pingback: vitaliy-abdulov.ru
  177. Pingback: psychophysics.ru
  178. Pingback: child porn
  179. Pingback: grandpashabet
  180. Pingback: meritking
  181. Pingback: izmir escort
  182. Pingback: fuck google
  183. Pingback: child porn
  184. Pingback: porn
  185. Pingback: porn
  186. Pingback: sex
  187. Pingback: porn
  188. Pingback: batmanapollo.ru
  189. Pingback: 777
  190. Pingback: wlw.su
  191. Pingback: vxi.su
  192. Pingback: nlpvip.ru
  193. Pingback: manipulyation

Leave a Reply