Lesson 7: World War Two and After
In this lesson you will read of Britain's major role in World War Two, of its inevitable toll in sapping the nation's strength, the dissolution of its empire and of the painful process of postwar rebuilding
The Early Years
In the late l930's Britain's foreign policy stagnated; there were too many problems to worry about at home. While domestic policies had still to find a way out of the unemployment mess, it was vainly hoped that the League of Nations would keep the peace. In March, l936, Hitler sent his armies into the Rhineland. France was afraid to react without British support. It proceeded to fortify its Maginot Line as Hitler began to fortify the Rhineland.
The German and Italian dictators then signed the pact known as the Rome-Berlin Axis. Hitler’s troops marched into Austria in March, l938. There was no resistance.
Hitler's next move was first to surround Bohemia and then to demand modifications to the Czech frontier, including the Sudetenland (with a large German population). Fearing a catastrophic war, and with the vivid memory of the carnage of World War I in mind, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain then agreed, along with the French Premier, to hand over the Sudetenland to Germany. He thought he had bought "peace with honor."
Hitler then showed his true intention by seizing the rest of Czechoslovakia. Nest, German armies swept through Poland in l8 days. The allies turned to Russia for support, but Stalin had ideas of his own, coming to a marriage of convenience with Hitler in which Poland became a pawn in the hands of both. Stalin also took advantage of the situation to attack Finland. Britain then prepared itself for total war.
Hitler's legions first occupied Denmark, and then brushed aside a Franco-British force sent to help Norway. Next, after they had easily bypassed the "impenetrable" Maginot Line, German forces took only five days to take Holland. They then raced forward at lightning speed to capture Paris.
In one of the most successful campaigns in the history of war, German forces soon controlled France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, and Romania, leaving Britain alone in the West to face the Nazi hordes.
When France fell, the British army was forced to evacuate the continent at Dunkirk, but somehow halting a German division at Arras, managed to save most of its cadre to train millions of new soldiers it needed to defend its Empire. One of the strangest fleets in history rescued the bulk of the British Expeditionary Force from the burning beaches of Dunkirk.
New Prime Minister Winston Churchill informed the British people that the Battle for France was over: the Battle for Britain was about to begin. He stressed that Hitler would have to break Britain in order to win the war, and that no nation would be safe from sinking into the resulting darkness, not even the United States.
When France formed a "Vichy" government under Marshal Petain, the Royal Navy destroyed the French fleet at Oran in North Africa. In the Atlantic, German U-boats were destroying thousands upon thousands of tons of allied shipping, but Britain precariously held on. Hitler planned an invasion of England, but first he would first have to destroy the Royal Air Force.
The task seemed easy enough; he had a decided advantage in the number of planes and in trained pilots. From airfields in conquered France, the English coast was only a few minutes away.
