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  —Quoted in The Most Dangerous Enemy: A History of Battle of Britain, S. Bungay

  The Germans had originally planned to launch their main thrust through northern Belgium. Instead, during the winter of 1939–40, Hitler adopted a plan proposed by General Erich von Manstein. This called for a major attack by armored divisions much further south, through the Ardennes region. Since the Ardennes was rough, wooded country, considered almost impassible, Allied defenses in this sector were weak. Commanded by General Heinz Guderian, the spearhead of the German panzers (armored vehicles) crossed the Meuse River near Sedan, France, on May 13, 1940. They broke through the Allied lines and sped northwest toward the English Channel coast, which they reached on May 20. The Allied forces in Belgium were cut off from behind.

  The only option open to the trapped BEF and its Allies inside Belgium was escape by sea. Fortunately for the Allies, the German armor had temporarily halted its advance on May 23, leaving the Channel port of Dunkirk, France, still in Allied hands. Between May 26 and June 3, under constant bombardment, about 338,000 men were evacuated from the port and beaches of Dunkirk. Most escaped on Royal Navy or merchant navy vessels, but a fleet of civilians in fishing boats, yachts, tugs, and barges rushed across the English Channel, heroically rescuing thousands of troops and ferrying them back to England.

  The breakthrough of German panzers at Sedan, France, and their rapid progress to the English Channel coast cut off the Allied armies that had advanced into Belgium. Blocked on three sides, Dunkirk, France, provided their only escape route.

  Dunkirk was a huge escape, but the scale and speed of the German victory was more astonishing. On June 5, the Germans resumed their offensive, driving south and west into France and sweeping the French army aside. On June 14 the Germans entered Paris. Two days later a new French government, headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, asked for an armistice. The fighting stopped on June 25, 1940. Germany occupied northern and western France, while Pétain collaborated with Germany to govern the south from the town of Vichy.

  German tanks advance through Belgium in May 1940. The German army used panzer formations as a shock-attack force, creating a new form of mobile warfare.

  Although Britain had brought most of its soldiers back safely from Dunkirk, they lost almost all their tanks, artillery, and other heavy equipment. Hitler hoped that Britain, like France, would accept defeat and ask for peace terms, as some British government officials wanted. But Churchill was determined to fight on. On July 16, realizing that the British would not make peace, Hitler ordered his generals to prepare an invasion of Britain, Operation Sea Lion. He also ordered an air offensive. The goal of the Luftwaffe, —already clashing with the Royal Air Force (RAF) over control of the English Channel—was to “overcome the British air force with all means at its disposal and in the shortest possible time.”

  A Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Me-110 is shot down over southern England during the Battle of Britain. Often glamorized since, the air battle was in fact a tough war of attrition, or the gradual wearing down and destruction of enemy forces.

  Operation Sea Lion, the planned German invasion of Britain in summer 1940, never took place. Instead a battle for command of the air—the Battle of Britain—raged, mostly over southern England.

  The Luftwaffe’s attempt to establish air superiority is known as the Battle of Britain. Operating from airfields in occupied France, the Germans were only a few minutes flying time from southern England. Britain’s air defenses were, however, some of the best organized in the world. Radar stations and ground observers radioed warning of approaching enemy planes to operations rooms. They in turn alerted airfields to scramble RAF Hurricanes and Spitfires Fighter Command. Flown by Canadians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Australians, Poles, and Czechs as well as British pilots, some of these fighters engaged the German Messerschmitts in “dogfights” while others took on the German bombers.

  RAF fighter pilots run to their aircraft to meet an attack. Every second counted, because pilots had to gain sufficient altitude before meeting the enemy.

  THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN

  The Luftwaffe’s overall losses in the Battle of Britain were far higher than the RAF’s, even though the RAF lost more planes. More Germans died because many of their bombers carried a crew of four.

  Luftwaffe losses:

  1,887 aircraft, of which 873 were fighters; 2,698 airmen

  RAF Fighter Command losses:

  1,023 aircraft; 544 airmen

  THE BLITZ From mid-August through the first week in September 1940, the Luftwaffe repeatedly attacked airfields, aircraft factories, and radar installations in an attempt to wear down RAF resistance. Yet, led by Sir Hugh Dowding, RAF Fighter Command managed its resources well, steadily inflicting damage on the Luftwaffe while minimizing its own losses. On September 7, the Luftwaffe switched to bombing London, England. Mass daylight raids led to some major air battles—almost 1,000 German aircraft were involved on September 15—but they did not bring the Luftwaffe any closer to achieving command of the air. By October, Germany had abandoned its plans for invading Britain and the Luftwaffe concentrated on bombing Britain’s cities by night.

  Dubbed “the Blitz,” the intensive night bombing campaign lasted from September 1940 to May 1941. Although London was the main target, many other British cities were hit, including Liverpool, Coventry, Bristol, Plymouth, Belfast, and Cardiff. At first, air defenses were almost powerless against night attacks and the bombers met little resistance. Only gradually did the development of radar-guided night fighters and antiaircraft guns begin to allow the defenders to hit back. Bombing was a terrifying experience for the civilian population—some 43,000 people were killed in the Blitz. It failed, however, either to destroy Britain’s industries or frighten the British into surrender.

  It has often been said that during this period Britain “stood alone,” but this was never altogether true. Britain had the support of its Commonwealth and also, increasingly, of the United States. When war broke out in Europe, most U.S. citizens strongly opposed getting involved in the conflict. The spectacle of the Battle of Britain and the Blitz, however, helped swing U.S. opinion behind Britain. This was of great help to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was personally convinced that the survival of Britain was essential to the defense of the United States.

  The Allied supply lines across the Atlantic from the U.S. and Canada to Britain, and north to the Soviet port of Murmansk, were crucial to Britain’s survival.

  Roosevelt at first hoped to keep the United States out of the fighting by giving Britain the tools to do the job—the U.S. would be “the arsenal of democracy.” Under the Lend-Lease program, approved by the U.S. Congress in March 1941, the United States provided Britain with arms without immediate payment. The program was later extended to other allies of the United States, including the Soviet Union.

  President Roosevelt (left) and Prime Minister Churchill meet on a warship in August 1941. This led to an Anglo-American declaration of principles, the Atlantic Charter.

  THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC

  The only way to get U.S.-manufactured armaments and other supplies to Britain was by ship. This led to the Battle of the Atlantic—a long struggle against German surface raiders and, above all, U-boats (German submarines) that sought to cut Britain’s ocean supply line. Through 1941, the United States was drawn into this conflict at sea step-by-step. By the second half of the year, without being officially at war with Germany, U.S. naval vessels were escorting merchant convoys part way across the Atlantic.

  In August 1941, Churchill and Roosevelt met on board a warship off the Newfoundland coast of Canada and agreed on a joint declaration of principles, the Atlantic Charter. The United States was thus already thoroughly committed to the British side in the war when Germany’s Asian ally Japan attacked the U.S. Pacific naval base at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Hitler then put an end to any further American hesitations by declaring war on the United States.

  German U-bo
ats line up with their crews on deck.

  The crew of an Atlantic convoy escort vessel watch a depth charge explode. Depth charges were used to attack submerged U-boats.

  THE CODE IS BROKEN

  Still, U.S. involvement in the European war would come to nothing if the Allies could not ship men and equipment across the Atlantic. In 1942, U-boat “wolf packs” sank 7.8 million tons of Allied shipping. In fact, the Allies were losing more ships than they could build. If this had continued, Britain might have had to surrender for lack of food, fuel, and other essential supplies.

  IT MUST BE DONE

  In May 1941, although the United States was not yet at war with Germany, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt told the American people: “The delivery of needed supplies to Britain is imperative. This can be done. It must be done. It will be done.”

  —Quoted in The Second World War, Martin Gilbert

  In 1943, however, the situation was transformed by a combination of factors, especially long-range aircraft used on anti-submarine patrols and British codebreakers who cracked German naval codes. Almost 100 U-boats—a quarter of the entire German submarine force—were destroyed in the first five months of the year. They never again threatened to cut the link between the U.S. and Europe.

  CHAPTER 3

  WAR IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

  Swordfish biplanes fly over HMS Illustrious. Swordfish from the Illustrious devastated the Italian fleet at Taranto in November 1940.

  CYNICAL DICTATOR

  In June 1940, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini cynically expressed why he thought it was necessary for Italy to fight: “I need several thousand dead in order to take my place at the table with the victors.”

  —Quoted in The Second World War, Henri Michel

  Despite his Axis alliance with Nazi Germany, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini did not go to war in September 1939. He was only too aware of the weaknesses of his armed forces. Instead, he waited until a German victory seemed assured, declaring war on Britain and France on June 10, 1940. He hoped to exploit this opportunity to extend Italy’s empire in North and East Africa and take effective control of the Mediterranean at little military cost to Italy.

  Britain’s position in the Mediterranean looked difficult in the summer of 1940. There were British bases at Gibraltar, Spain, and on the island of Malta, south of Sicily. British troops were also stationed in Egypt to defend the Suez Canal, a key communications link with the British Commonwealth, and in Palestine and Cyprus. Most of the rest of the Mediterranean was in hostile hands. Italy controlled Libya in North Africa and some of the Greek islands. Spain under General Franco was neutral but but friendly with Hitler and Mussolini. The French government at Vichy controlled southern France and collaborated with Nazi Germany to help them carry out their racist and political goals. Britain had hopes that the French colonial authorities ruling Syria, Lebanon, and French North Africa would side with General Charles de Gaulle’s Free French movement, which fought alongside the British. Instead, they stayed loyal to Vichy. Vichy France’s hostility to Britain was strengthened in July 1940, when the Royal Navy sank French warships in the Algerian port of Mers-el-Kébir to keep them from falling into the hands of the Germans.

  THE ITALIANS IN AFRICA While Britain’s position in the Mediterranean appeared weak, it was in fact Italy that at first suffered disaster after disaster. In North Africa, the Italian army advanced into Egypt only to be trounced by a far smaller British and Commonwealth force, which then pushed deep into Libya, taking 130,000 Italian prisoners. Further south, Britain evicted Italy from its recently won colony of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). In November 1940, Swordfish biplanes from the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious crippled three battleships and a cruiser in a daring raid on the Italian port of Taranto. The Italian navy took another battering in an encounter with the British fleet at Cape Matapan, Greece, five months later. A further setback for Mussolini came in Greece, where an Italian invasion in October 1940 stalled in the face of stiff Greek resistance.

  In 1940, much of the Mediterranean zone was in the hands of powers hostile to Britain—Vichy France and Italy. Malta was a key staging post for the British navy between Gibraltar and Egypt.

  Italian soldiers who have surrendered to the British prepare a meal in a prisoner-of-war camp in Libya, North Africa. The Italian troops were generally poorly trained, badly led, and lacked up-to-date equipment.

  Italy’s weakness forced Germany to send aid. German forces arrived in the Mediterranean theater and quickly turned the situation around. Luftwaffe units, stationed in Sicily from the start of 1941, brought Malta under heavy aerial bombardment and inflicted severe punishment on British naval and merchant ships. In North Africa, German General Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps troops arrived in Tripoli in February 1941 and swiftly drove the British back out of Libya (see map on page 23).

  Italy invaded Greece in October 1940 but the Greeks drove the invaders back into Albania. Britain sent troops to aid the Greeks, but in April 1941 the Germans quickly overran both Yugoslavia and Greece. Most of the British forces withdrew to Crete, which then also fell to Germany.

  German parachute troops led the invasion of Crete in May 1941. The paratroopers suffered heavy losses but were able to seize a vital airfield.

  One reason for Rommel’s instant success was that some 60,000 British, New Zealander, and Australian troops had been transferred from North Africa to Greece, in anticipation of German intervention there in support of the Italians. Before the Germans could invade Greece, however, another crisis erupted in the region. In Yugoslavia, an uprising in late March 1941 overthrew the pro-German government and replaced it with a pro-British regime. Hitler immediately decided to invade Yugoslavia as well as Greece.

  YUGOSLAVIA CONQUERED Beginning on April 6, 1941, the Germans, aided by Italian and Hungarian troops, carried out another astonishingly swift and effective campaign, routing their enemies in just three weeks. Yugoslavia was conquered and broken up, the largest single part becoming the state of Croatia, closely tied to Italy and Germany. Greece was also overrun. Some 50,000 British, Commonwealth, and Greek soldiers were evacuated from southern Greece by sea, most of them being taken to the Greek island of Crete.

  There followed one of the boldest military operations of the entire war. On May 20, 1941, exploiting their air superiority, the Luftwaffe launched an invasion of Crete by airborne troops who floated down by parachute or landed in gliders. British code breakers had provided precise information about enemy plans from intercepted messages, and German losses in the initial attack were heavy. But the Germans were allowed to seize control of an airfield at Maleme on northern Crete, after which they were able to fly in more troops and equipment in transport aircraft. By the end of May, 1941, the island was in German hands.

  In the war in Yugoslavia, Axis soldiers conducted large-scale massacres of civilians, especially Serbs killed by the German, Italian, and Croatian troops.

  ONE-SIDED FIGHT

  Germany’s triumphs in Yugoslavia and Greece were overwhelming. The German army took prisoner 90,000 Yugoslavs, 270,000 Greeks, and 13,000 British and Commonwealth troops. The price Germany paid was about 5,000 men, killed or wounded.

  The British feared that the Germans might go on to capture other islands, especially Malta. Yet, although Malta was put under siege—hammered by continual Luftwaffe bombing raids and almost starved into submission as Germans sank ships that carried food and fuel to the island—it was never invaded.

  Once Germany had attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941 (see page 25), Hitler viewed the Mediterranean as a sideshow. Rommel had to fight on in the North African desert with often inadequate resources. From the summer of 1941 to the summer of 1942, the fighting swung back and forth. Rommel’s Afrika Korps generally won the tank battles, but he was never quite able to break through to Cairo and the Suez Canal in Egypt. His last offensive was stopped at Alam Halfa, in the Egyptian desert, in September 1942.

  General Bernard Montgomer
y was appointed commander of the British Eighth Army in North Africa in August 1942, three months before the victory at El Alamein.

  THE BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN

  The forces engaged at El Alamein in October–November 1942:

  Axis

  men

  104,000

  tanks

  489

  artillery

  1,219

  aircraft

  350

  British Eighth Army

  men

  195,000

  tanks

  1,029

  artillery

  2,311

  aircraft

  530

  The war in the desert was far more important to Britain than to the Germans because it was at the time the only place where British troops dared engage the enemy in battle. The same logic dictated that the United States become involved in North Africa. In 1942 it was time for the U.S. Army, in the war since December 1941, to actively join the fight against Germany and Italy. The U.S. chiefs of staff favored an invasion of German-occupied France, but the British persuaded them that this was too risky. The United States then opted for an invasion of French North Africa to attack Rommel’s forces from the rear.

  British infantry advance in the desert. Such “action” photos were almost always posed for the cameras.