How significant a role did Britain play in the defeat of Germany, 1939-45?
...ans, U-boats hunted in wolfpacks, and stayed surfaced, so they couldn’t be picked up by Sonar. They would slip into convoys at night and destroy the merchant ships before they could be detected. The U-boats mainly operated in ‘the black gap’, an area in the middle of the Atlantic where there could be no air support. After America joined the war in 1941 U-boats had sunk more than 200 ships before America introduced its own convoy system. In 1943 a new radar system, with a higher frequency, was introduced. This could detect U-boats on the surface, allowing the convoy ship to attack the U-boats. A high frequency direction finding device (known as ‘Huff Duff’ and the capture of German enigma machines could detect wolfpacks or lone U-boats and direct the convoy away from them. A new mortar system, new convey ships and a new long-range aircraft (which could cover the black gap) all made attacking and sinking U-boats easier, and in May 1943 alone the Allies destroyed 41 U-boats. The allies had kept their supply lines open, vital for D-Day. Britain was also fighting against Germany in North Africa, for control of the Suez Canal and vital oil supplies which were in Persia and Iraq. This was important so Britain could gain control of the Mediterranean, and protect their precious oil supply coming from the Middle-east. From 1940-41 British troops in North Africa had captured Bardia, Tobruk, Benghazi and El Algheila from the Italians. They also took 130,000 prisoners and advanced 800km. However a huge German counter attack by the Afrika Korps, led by Rommel, while British troops were in Greece saw, drove the British back to the Egyptian border and in 1942 Rommel’s counter attack had pushed the British back to El Alamein. But by doing this the German army had used up all its supplies so the British army, under General Montgomery, was able to counter attack and drove the Germans back into Libya. Soon after Operation Torch was launched from Morocco, attempting to trap Rommel’s troops, but the Germans reacted quickly and Operation Torch soon fizzled out. In 1943 Operation Torch was launched again and this time was successful and the British had defeated the Axis powers in North Africa. The British armies then invaded Italy forcing Mussolini to resign and new General Badoglio to sign a cease fire. Germany the occupied Italy and set up the Gustav line. Adding another front to the one in Russia they already had. In 1943 Britain and America stepped up their bombing offensive against Germany even though Britain had been bombing them throughout the war. This is because for a large part of the war this was the only offensive action that Britain could take against the Germans and it was an attempt to weaken German Industrial Production. Bombing was very useful in 1943, and although it didn’t cripple the German supplies it would mean that the Luftwaffe was tied down in Germany, and was not fighting in Russia or was not at D-Day. Britain were not aiming for targets, but merely carpet bombing Berlin and using Firestorm techniques (mixture of bombs and incendiaries) to destroy huge parts of cities. Bombing before this time has usually been reserved for night time, except the USAAF which bombed during the day and suffered heavy losses, as in the day bombers were shot down too easily, but after the invention of ‘the Mustang’, a long range fighter plane that could support the bombers, bombing offensives were taking place at day and night time. In 1943 Germany dropped 2320 tonnes of bombs on Britain whereas Britain and America dropped 207,000 tonnes on Germany. In 1943 Germany had started to retreat with new fronts in Russia and Italy, and by 1944 had been driven back on both these fronts. The allies saw the opportunity and planned an invasion of German occupied France. Code-named D-Day, the operat...