The Battle of Britain was a key aspect during World War II. After
defeating France, Hitler turned all of his attention toward his last
major enemy, Great Britain. "Hitler's plans to invade
Britain depended on crippling Britain's Royal Air Force" (BBC
Introduction). The importance of the Battle of Britain was to keep
Hitler from being unchallenged by the world. The interesting part about
the Battle of Britain was that the majority of the fighting was done in
the skies. The Battle began when Germany's Air Force, Luftwaffe, started bombing Great Britain. The Battle of Britain was the first part of Hitler's invasion of Britain. Hitler's plan to invade Britain started with defeating the Royal Air Force (RAF). By doing that, he would be able to ensure safety for his invasion barges. With his invasion barges he would have to defeat the Royal Navy, and then he would have successfully invaded Britain and would not have any enemies to stand against him. Before Hitler could do anything, he knew that he would have to take down the skillful fighters of the Royal Air Force. These one on one air combats, or dogfights, is now what defines the Battle of Britain. In the skies, the Royal Air Force, RAF, had 700 Spitfire and Hurricane fighters. These fighter planes were very advanced and were the best of there time. The British also had the most advanced radar which could inform them when the German fighter planes were coming. In Hiroshima the Japanese people did not know that the Enola Gay was coming, "As Mrs. Nakamura stood watching her neighbor, everything flashed whiter than any white she had ever seen. She did not notice what happened to the man next door; the reflex of a mother set her in motion toward her children" (Hersey, 8). When the British thought that they were almost out for the count, they bombed industrial areas of Germany and even Berlin. "The air raids on Germany are said to have angered Hitler so much that on 7th September he ordered the Luftwaffe to bomb British cities" (BBC writer, Cities Targeted). Soon after the Germans sent out a full 1,000 fighter planes over to Britain to fight for day and night. The RAF fighter's shot down 56 enemy aircraft and now that day is commemorated as the day of the Battle of Britain. As the fight went on, the German commanders kept sending fighters over the British air bases, but so many were being shot down so fast, that very soon, they would not have anymore planes to send out. As winter was coming fast, Hitler knew that he needed summer weather to continue the attack, so the threat of German invasion diminished. The importance of this battle is shown because if Hitler had been the victor of this fight then the world would never know if Hitler would have ever been defeated. With all of this said Germany did not have it very bad off compared to Hiroshima and Nagasaki of Japan. These are the two cities that the American government decided to test the effectiveness of the Nuclear bomb on during World War II. Hiroshima was a military based cities with many hospitals and air troops. There were citizens living in Hiroshima, but they were all pro-Japan, and would do anything for their country when called upon. Work Cited: Trueman, Chris. Battle of Britain. January 8, 2009. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/ battleofbritain.htm Jennings, Peter. Hiroshima: Why the Bomb was Dropped. ABC News. MPI Home Video, 2000. Hersey, John. Hiroshima. New York City: VintageBooks, 1989. Battle of Britain: Background to the Battle of Britain. 2005. January 20, 2009. http://www.raf.mod.uk/ bob1940/background.html The Battle of Britain: Introduction. Scott Eisenhower. 2002. 20 January 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/ hi/english/static/in_depth/uk/2000/battle_of_britain/default.stm |