we shall fight on the beaches. what are we looking at today? battle for britain operation sealion...
TRANSCRIPT
WHAT ARE WE LOOKING AT TODAY?• Battle for Britain
• Operation Sealion
• Battle of Britain
• Operation Barbarossa
FORTRESS EUROPE
…BRITAIN STANDS ALONE
BATTLE FOR BRITAIN: BRITAIN PREPARES
• Winston Churchill delivers his famous “Finest Hour” speech
• France falls four days later
•Hitler assumed that England would not continue fighting
•The British focus on preparing the Royal Air Force (RAF)
• Britain remains firm in her commitment to stopping Hitler
OPERATION SEALION:GERMAN INVASION
• Codename given to the German military plan to invade Britain
• Surprise initiative• Land 160,000 men on a forty-
five mile costal stretch of south-east England
• Crossing of the English Channel launched from French ports
• 3 full armies including Panzer divisions
• The only thing stopping the Germans is...?
Royal Air Force
OPERATION SEALION:DIRECTIVE 16
• 16 July 1940
• “Since England, in spite of her hopeless military situation, shows no signs of being ready to come to an understanding, I have decided to prepare a landing operation against England and, if necessary, to carry it out. The aim of this operation will be to eliminate the English homeland as a base for the prosecution of the war against Germany and, if necessary, to occupy it completely.” -Adolf Hitler
• With this the Battle of Britain begins.
HERMANN GOERING
BATTLE OF BRITAIN:AND THE WINNER SHOULD BE...
RAF- BRITISH
• Strengths:
• Between 600-1000 planes• Spitfire• Hurricanes
• Familiar Territory • Radar stations
• Weaknesses
• Lacked skilled pilots
LUFTWAFFE- GERMAN
• Strengths:
• Between 1600-2000 planes • Messerschmitt• Stukka
• Skilled pilots• Confidence
• Weaknesses
• Fighting in enemy territory• Short range planes
Victory
Odds favour Luftwaffe
BATTLE OF BRITAIN:PHASE ONE- CHANNEL BATTLES
• 10 July 1940
• Lasts one month• German Luftwaffe focuses efforts on:
• Interrupting shipping• Hit Ports• Limited RAF bombings (Radar stations)
• 1 August 1940
• Directive 17• “The attacks are to be directed primarily against flying units,
their ground installations, and their supply organizations, but also against the aircraft industry, including that manufacturing antiaircraft equipment.”- Adolf Hitler
Bombed Radar Station
BATTLE OF BRITAIN:PHASE TWO- EAGLE ATTACK
• Objective: Destroy RAF
• Attacks on radar positions• Precision attacks on the enemy airfield
• 13 August 1940
• Adlertag or Eagle Day• Massive German offensive
• 1500 Luftwaffe vs. 700 RAF
• Target was radar stations in southern Britain• 20 August 1940
• The Alderangriff (bombers) keep up attacks• Churchill addresses the public
BATTLE OF BRITAIN:AN ACCIDENT CHANGES A WAR
• Early Morning 25 August 1940
• A pilot gets lost on a mission and accidentally bombed central London
• Directive 17- Luftwaffe ordered not to hit cities• Night 25 August 1940
• Churchill orders attack on Berlin• 80 RAF bomb Berlin• Hit Hitler’s ego
“If the British bomb our cities, we will bury theirs”- Adolf Hitler
BATTLE OF BRITAIN:PHASE THREE- THE BLITZ
• Standing order against civilian targets is eliminated
•7 September 1940
• High point of battle- fierce fight• Luftwaffe suffers huge losses• Big push
•London is attacked day and night
• Lasts 57 nights
London after bombing
CANADIAN WOMEN• Jill Canucks
• Served as firefighters
• Nurses, drivers
• Pregnancy considered grounds for dismissal
BATTLE OF BRITAIN: GERMAN RETREAT
• 17 September 1940
• The Blitz has produced little results• Hitler postpones Operation Sealion until further notice• Raids become smaller after this date
• 12 October 1940
• Hitler formally postpones the invasion until 1941
• Britain begins to rebuild and consolidate
Sign reads: “Dig for Victory”
BATTLE OF BRITAIN:WHAT WENT WRONG?
• Tactics and fire power favoured Germany
• Germans overestimation the damage caused• Changed their plans half way through• Luftwaffe did not replace fallen planes• Deplorable military intelligence
• German attention turns to Soviet Union• Luftwaffe bombed Britain until end of war• RAF lost 1,000 planes• Luftwaffe lost 1,900
Theatre shifts eastward
OPERATION BARBAROSSA:RUSSIAN INVASION
• Mein Kampf- made reference to conquering USSR
•Hitler called it Operation Barbarossa in reference to Frederick Barbarossa
• Hitler used Lebensraum to justify attack
• German army at beginning:
• 3 million soldiers• 3500 tanks• 2000 planes• 750,000 horses
• 22 June 1941- Operation Barbarossa begins
“We have only to kick in the front door and the whole rotten Russian edifice
will come tumbling down.”- Adolf Hitler
•German Tactics:
•German Army wanted to push only for MOSCOW• Hitler changed their plan to a three prong attack
• MOSCOW• KIEV• LENINGRAD
• Soviet Tactics
• Scorched Earth• “Not a step back!”• Winter
OPERATION BARBAROSSA:TACTICS
• The Northern Army:
• Begin attack: Leningrad (1 Sept)• Encircles: Leningrad (15 Sept 42)• Ends: (27 Jan 44)
• The Centre Army:
• Take: Minsk (29 June)• Take: Smolensk (15 July)• Begin attack: Moscow (26 Sept)• Lift siege: Moscow (5 Dec)
• The South Army:
• Begin attack: Kiev (11 July)• Ends: Kiev (27 Sept)• Advance: Stalingrad
• The three armies remain at these positions until 1943/44
OPERATION BARBAROSSA:PHASE ONE- GERMAN ADVANCE, 1941/42
• The North Army:
• Operation Spark (1943)• Siege at Leningrad cost approximately 1,500,000 lives
• The Centre Army:
• Reinforcements arrive• German army arrives at the town in winter• War of attrition
• The South Army
• Stalingrad: bloodiest battle
OPERATION BARBAROSSA: SOVIET COUNTER-OFFENSIVE 1942/43
• Ideologically important
• Battle begins: 23 Aug
• Fire bombing
• Fight outside city: 5 Sept
• Luftwaffe harass Soviet Army• Soviets forced to withdraw to city• “Not a step back”
• Three months of fighting before encirclement occurs
• Soviet Operation Uranus
• 19-30 Nov 1942• Trapped German army• Pincer attack
• German Army Encircled
• 230,000 troops in city
• 2 Feb 1943
• German army surrenders• 91,000 POW captured
OPERATION BARBAROSSA:STALINGRAD
REASONS WHY THE GERMANS LOST