Grace Watson

Dr. Schafer

World History Since 1500

April 10, 2023

The Battle of Britain Report

The Battle Of Britain: Five Months That Changed History May - October 1940, by James

Holland is a large historical book about the battle of Britain. Holland is a British historian and

has written many History books. The book was published in 2015, and tells the story of the

heroic men who defended Britain from the Nazis by refusing to surrender to Hitler. Holland

includes many first hand accounts of the battle, from soldiers to civilians to Hitler’s secretary.

The book starts off 1939, when Britain and France first go to battle with Germany after Hitler

decided to invade Poland. Britain declared war first on Germany on September 3 1939. Holland

talks about when Churchill took over the role of Prime Minister after Chamberlain. The British

expected the Nazis to attack so they developed a new plane to help defend their country called

the Spitfire. Britain had been the most vocal when it came to anti German propaganda, so Hitler

declared the UK as their number one enemy. Britain and France had expected the Germans to

invade western Europe but they did not know when. Hitler’s army was able to go through

Luxembourg and Belgium in order to get to France. The British Expeditionary Forces were sent

to France in 1939, in order to help the French defend their country. They were a large field army

that contained about half a million men. The British and French worked on a plan of attack on

the Nazis while Belgium and the Dutch worked on their own. Chamberlain seemed to be

humiliated once word got out that Hitler had invaded Belgium in order to get to France.

Chamberlain resigned and Churchill became the new Prime Minister. Holland talks about
Hitler’s life and about the wealth he gained from being the German Chancellor. As well as

Hitler’s right hand man Goring who even flew with the Red Baron during World War 1. Goring

had been the one to set up the Schutzstaffel, or better known as the SS. In 1935, Hitler even gave

him control of Germany’s oil and synthetic rubber production effort. Goring helped develop the

Luftwaffe, and by May of 1940 contained a majority of Germany’s anti-aircraft forces. The

German air force was confident they could take out the French air force. The French had roughly

around 320 bombers and 630 fighters by January of 1940. After they knocked out the French,

Hitler was confident in taking out the Royal Air Force, but never worried about the Dutch or

Belgian air forces, since they were so small. In order to eventually fight Britain alone, the

Luftwaffe was heavy in the skies of Holland, Belgium and North-west France many of the

German airmen were flying four to five times a day. On Sunday of May 12, the Belgian soldiers

at Eben Emael had surrendered. While the Dutch army fell back and the French were forced back

to Antwerp. This meant that most of the Netherlands was in German hands causing the British

and French to move up to Dyle. The resistance in Holland crumbled and the Belgains were also

stumbling. The Germans crossed the Meuse, the Meuse front fell from May 12-15 1940. The

Germans expanded west into France, while the British were building factories and stocking up

on spitfires. It was even agreed that sixty spitires a week would be produced. Unfortunately the

French were not prepared for another large war, bunkers were filled with poorly trained French

soldiers. As France began to surrender the UK was starting to depend on the United States for

supplies and even wanted the United States to enter the war, as Mussolini prepared Italy for war.

Holland describes one of the most famous battles of world war two, Dunkirk in four chapters.

The Allies were becoming surrounded by the Germans forcing them to go to the beach of

Dunkirk. Churchill was told that 50,000 men would need to be lifted, although 100,000 would be
a magnificent effort. Soldiers had to abandon their vehicles and news broke that Belgium

surrendered. On Tuesday May 28 the weather began to favor the British as it was raining and

cloudy, Nearly 18,000 men were able to be taken to safety that day. As the allies were starving

and dehydrated on the beach the Nazis were dropping shells on them. By the 30th of May 80,000

men were lifted to safety. On May 31, 165,000 men had been taken to safety leaving Dunkirk

behind. During it all the soldiers at Dunkirk were also forced to face dark, cloudy, gray skies

brought on by the Nazis shell bombing. After Holland talks about Dunkirk he goes on to what

Hitler was planning next. By May 24, Hitler wanted to finish off France, since he knew they did

not have much fight left in them. This would leave Britain to fight alone, Hitler’s goal was to

make Britain surrender. Mussolini decided on June 10, 1940 that Italy would join Germany.

When Italy joined the war Churchill was determined to bomb Italy immediately, he even went as

far as any Italian man living in the UK between the ages of 17 and 75, with British citizenship

for less than 20 years to become interned. On June 12, Paris fell which made the future of Great

Britain not look too great. It was still over a year until the United States would enter the war. The

British feared that they would be bombed and invaded. In what would be known as Churchill’s

finest hour he gave a speech saying “If we stand up to him all of Europe may move forward into

broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including

all that we have known and cared for will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more

sinister, and perhaps more protracted by the lights of perverted science.” On 17 June it was

announced by the London Evening Standard, that Britain was to turn itself into a fortress.

Canada, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, all old British colonies but still in the

commonwealth declared war on Germany. Even men from Czechoslovakia and the US

volunteered as RAF pilots. England ramped up Hurricanes and Spitfires being produced, they
were producing around 300 aircrafts a week. This was all in fear of being bombed by the

Germans, they were also expecting German pilots to parachute to the ground and attack from

there. Soldiers were ordered to shoot down any parachuters in addition to planes. A Scottish man

named Robert Watson-Watt came up with the idea of a radar, to track where planes were. By

using pulses of high frequency beams. On July 5 France cut off all ties from the British after the

sinking of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir. According to Holland Hitler believed that the

German U-Boats would destroy the British and get them out of the war. It turned out that some

torpedoes from the ships did not go off. Unfortunately for Hitler it did not turn out this way.

Soon after the Luftiwaffe invaded the British skies starting blitzkrieg, many Londoners hid in the

underground inorder to stay safe. Holland even states that the people of London became

accustomed to the bombings that they would live out their lives as normal. The British inorder to

protect their country, in about every town there were spitfire funds. People were encouraged to

donate money in order to afford to build more spitfires. Many of the air battles took place over

the English Canal, the Brits were hoping to stop the Germans before they reached Dover. One

day the German planes and the stukas were coming in on Dover and suddenly 610 spitfires

appeared. This caused the Germans to be separated and every German fighting for himself. By

the end of July the Luftiwaffe had lost over 200 fighter planes. Then on August 1 Hitler

demanded an all out attack on Brittain. This led to almost daily bombings on English airfields,

coastal oil plants, and ports. The British realized that oil was the weakest link in the German

economy of war. The RAF started to attack Germany at their own game, bombing military places

and cities. British pilots attempted bombing right on targets, one pilot named Andrew Jackson

states “Getting bombs onto the target was difficult, We did have bomb sights but they were not

controlled by the gyro compass and therefore you relied entirely on the pilot keeping the aircraft
straight and steady for the run- up to the bombing.” Inorder to protect their countries, both the

British and Germans planted mines, there was a minefield that laid around most of Britain, all

against enemy ships. Whenever the English channel was nice and sunny it was in favor of the

Germans, but when it was cloudy, foggy and rainy, it was favoring the Brits. Two RAF pilots,

the Pete brothers, were convinced that God was on their side “ God was there and he was looking

out for us”. This was on a cloudy and rainy day, even the Germans believed that the English

were somehow controlling the weather. On one bright and sunny day the English channel was in

sunshine so the Germans decided to strike. Hundreds of dive bombers were crossing the English

channel, down below spitfires preparing to dive down on the German Stukas. Dolfo a German

fighter pilot, saw this and dived down forcing the British to abandon their attack. The spitfires

were able to reform and shoot at the Luftwaffe. This was the most number of aircraft seen in the

skies of the English channel. Many of the British planes missed the Germans and were able to

escape. One RAF pilot named Cocky Dundas was at around 12,000 feet when he was shot down,

his cockpit filled with smoke. He was able to open the canopy and get out, he pushed half his

body out of the aircraft as the spitfire exploded he saw his parachute open. Dundas landed

moments later, a farmer found him followed by soldiers and an army ambulance. According to

Holland Cocky’s survival is 32 of 615 pilots. Between August 8-23 the British lost 204 aircraft

although more than 300 had been built and around 260 had been repaired. Unlike the Luftwaffe,

397 had been lost and in August 184 new ME 109s were built and 125 ME 110s. While during

all of August 476 British fighters were built. In August of 1940 it was decided that the British

were to bomb Berlin, since there were little clouds over the city, the RAF bombers could see the

vast city clearly. Hitler was so mad that Churchill dropped bombs on Berlin that he ordered more

bombs to be dropped on London. During the day the Germans and Brits would battle in the
English channel but by night the Germans would bomb London. Many soldiers would go to pubs

when they could as it was a part of relaxing and drinking away their sorrows. One RAF pilot

Bee Beamont stated. “ If you’d been fighting during the day and you’d gone off down the pub,

by four o’clock in the morning when you were woken up probably a bit of a hangover and so as

soon as you get to dispersal you’d find a bed and lie down and go to sleep till somebody woke

you up.” Britain was starting to get stronger as the United States was sending them supplies and

the Russians rebuilt their strength as well. The British morale was crumbling and Hitler believed

a revolution would lead to his victory, which would never happen. Submarines had been

positioned along the channel and had been successful in taking down some ships. But the Nazi

commanders agreed that planes were the way to take down the British. 295,335 tons of allied

ships had been sunk, through that and the London bombing there was no break in the British

morale. The Luftwaffe planes would head to London but the British, knowing of their arrival,

would go up high and wait for them. The RAF would attack the German forces upon their

arrival. By October of 1940 the Germans had lost 3,701 aircraft, and they had begun the summer

with 3,578. They had lost more than 100% of their planes. Germany had lost the battle mostly

because the The Luftwaffe was not ready for the fight. At the end of the long book Holland talks

about some of the pilots he talks about in his volume. Such as what happened to them after the

war and when they died or if they are still alive. Such as those who I have mentioned in the

paper. Holland’s book is a great read for anyone who wants to expand their knowledge on world

war two, especially what it was like before the United States joined in. The book also includes

photos of the plane and some of the pilots, as well as maps showing where the troops were.

Holland depicts a great amount of the war in 600 pages by going into the lives of the soldiers

who fought in the bloody battles.