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Britain and The Challenge of Fascism: Saving Europe at a Cost? TSR communal fact bank

For revision purposes, a bank of facts and figures to be added to for learning before the exam:

WW2 FACTS &FIGURES


German War Aims

11th November 1918 Armistice

Treaty of Versailles £6,600 Million Reparations, army <100,000, no air force, tanks or submarines Loss of land = Loss of Sudetenland and Polish Corridor. Rhineland demilitarised.

By 1939 army risen to 3,700,000.

Re-armament figures GB 897,000 troops 640 tanks. French 5,000,000 troops, largely conscripts.

Polish army 1 million men thinly spread + 1000 ish aeroplanes V 2 million Germans and 2000 aeroplanes!




The Phoney War: (not really much fighting missed Poland so waiting for next German attack rapid war preparation)

Iron ore in Norway and airfields in range of Britain.



9th April 1940 10 German destroyers carrying 2,000 mountain troops arrived at Narvik.

Failed British landings At Narvik in Norway.

Norway (surrendered 9th June) meant 300,000 German troops being kept there.

Russo Finnish War 30th November 1940. Russians 1 million men, Finnish 175, 000.

Actions at Sea Battle of River Plate Graf Spee

In the Air RAF Mine Laying




Blitzkrieg –France, Belgium and Netherlands

Use of Stuka dive bombers and mobile infantry fast and furious

German army and airforce(Guernica) now experienced good ground to air training college



Manstein plans Sickle Stroke

Panzers had advanced 40 miles into France in 4 days. France capture in just 6 weeks

French army, mostly conscripts 101 divisions.

BEF 5 regular units 5TA. Slow well armoured Matilda tanks.

Dunkirk 3rd June, 45,000 expected to be evacuated, 328,000 actually were!

BEF at end of French defence 68,000 casualties, 64,000 vehicles and 2,500 guns left

558,000 evacuated altogether from all French ports etc.




Battle of Britain Summer 1940.
Britain had to control the skies over Britain in order to stop the Germans being able to launch an invasion across the channel!

Hugh ‘Stuffy’ Dowding 60 fighter squadrons. Only 2,000 anti-aircraft guns.

Goering’s Luftwaffe 2500 V RAF 1000



By Germans bombing British shipping bomber command compelled to fly 600 sorties a day when trying to build up resources.

Stage 1 =Airfields/Ports then mistake = move to bombing civilian targets (Blitz) allowed airfields and RAF to recover!

Between July 10th and August 10th 1940, British inflicted more casualties than received themselves, 217 German aircraft to British aircraft 96.

August 10th 3,000 German aircraft.

sturdy Hurricanes and Spitfires manoeuvrability →Messerschmitts, Heinkels and Dorniers short range over Britain

Country split into Groups to aid Fighter command Group 11 South East England.

Use of new technology RADAR although basic saved precious time.

August 12th 6 major raids. 6 radar stations attacked. 5 knocked out, Germans 31 aircraft lost, British 22 lost.

7th September switches to London. 300 German bombers escorted by 600 fighters.

9th September 200 bombers, intercepted only reach half of targets, 28 German aircraft shot down, for loss of 19.

400 British fighters lost their lives.




HOMEFRONT
TheBlitz
TheBattle of Britain turns into the Blitz as Hitler orders the attacksaway from airfields and onto the cities.

Preparation during ‘phoney war’ Shelters dug, gas masks issued, identity cards issued, air raid practices

1st day of Blitz 7th September 1940– 430 killed in London

Coventry- Nov 1940 500 bombers 900 incendiaries massive firestorms and devastation.

LONDON: 1.4 million made homeless, 20,000 killed, 3000 died in one night, bombs landed daily Sept Nov 1941, 18,800 tons of bombs dropped on London, Height of Blitz 177,000 civilians sheltered in London underground.

60,000 total civilian deaths.

127 raids on U.K. altogether.

Ends May 1941. But the V1 and V2 raids later mean more Blitz!

2-3 million evacuee children sent to the countryside.




DigFor Victory Campaign
Huge shortages offood due to dependency on shipping in food from abroad and the Uboats blowing up the boats.

1939, preparations for war Ministry of Food set up Lord Woolton imported 55 million tons in readiness for war.

Battle of Atlantic! In 1942 Dry Cargo reaching GB was reduced from 68mill tons to 22mill.

Rationing required: bacon, butter and sugar then all meat, jam, biscuits, breakfast cereals, dairy products and canned fruit.

Other foods were just unavailable eg: Bananas, some Chocolate etc

Pamphlets, posters, slogans etc all introduced to help make the people save and not waste (Squander bug) as well as grow food where ever possible (Doctor Carrot and Potato Pete).

Other things were rationed too eg: from September 1940, petrol rationing and Clothing from1941 (slim line fashion).

Rationing didn’t completely stop until 1954!




Women
Bevanpressed for Women to join up from March 1941. They had a choice:Armed Services, Factory work or Land Army BUT from December 1941Women were conscripted!By1943 all women between the ages of 18 and 50 were registered atemployment offices.


Women’sLand Army
Wedesperately needed to up our food production and release the men togo and fight.

WW1 near disaster, 3 weeks only of supplies left after successful German naval attacks.

Battle for Wheat Farmers paid £2 per hectare for land ploughed.

Shortfall of 50,000 workers.

80,000 women went on the land the farmers were suspicious could they do the job.

Loneliness, foreign environment (City girls), lack of creature comforts all had to be coped with.

Lady Denman in charge made things better with grouping girls into Hostels.

Females paid only 28 shillings a week; (males 80 per week).

Long hours a week: 48 winter, 50 summer

1950 100,000 members disbanded.

Special Double Summer time time - was introduced so could work later (and also to help with black out accidents)

The Government took control of farming grants were given and targets set: The Horse gave way to the tractor Nos. quadrupled: 1939 = 50,000 - 1945 = 200,000. Underperforming farms were commandeered.

The 1943 harvest recorded the biggest amount of wheat and barley ever! It was twice the amount of the pre-war years!








Womenin the Factories

Released men to join armed forces and get war production up more bullets, tanks, spitfires etc

Skilled women earned £2.15 a week. (Unskilled men earned more!) after a few protests(Rolls Royce Factory) pay did increase to the equivalent of semi-skilled males.

Eventually 3 million married women and widows were employed--almost double pre-war figures.

WVS Women’s Voluntary Service = fire fighters and refreshments

1 million members of WVS by 1943.

WVS group in Portsmouth in one month collected enough scrap metal to fill four railway carriages.

Aircraft production went up and up doubling then doubling again. Workers put in massive overtime. 1942 Betteshanger miners(males) could take no more they were overworked and went on strike illegally!

In Britain by 1948 there were still 683,000 more women in industry and over 750,000 more women in trade unions than before the war.

The number of nurseries rose from 100 before the war to a peak in 1943 of 1,450 local authority day nurseries with places for 65,000 children. This was still far short of what was needed.




Women in theForces (non combatant!)

ATS Auxiliary Territorial Service (Army) July 1942 217,000 women.

WAAF Women’s Auxiliary Air Force,

WRENS Women’s Royal Naval Service

ATA Air Transport Auxiliary piloting aircraft to bases no bullets dangerous at times!

Secret Agents - SOE Special Operations Executive. Violet Szabo

By End of 1945 460,000 in military service.




HomeGuard LDV(Local Defence Volunteers)

First week after May 1940 250,000. then 500,000 by July.

17 65 year olds.

Eventually 2 million men had joined.

Early days 1 gun for 10 men.

Churchill changed name to Homeguard

Local men to defend their local areas many ex WW1 soldiers!

November 1944 disbanded.




NorthernAfrica and Italy (only land fighting against Germans until D Day!)

Italians Mussolini (Hitler’s ally) kicks start by trying to rebuild Roman Empire threatens than attacks parts of British Empire.



War in the dessert 5th April, 1941, 60,000 allied troops sent to defend Greece from Italian invasion.

Three weeks for Germans to capture Greece.

British Army loses 12,000 troops in Greece.

Italians falter in desert Germans come to their aid Rommel the desert Fox (very good)

Toing and froing 1941 Wavell(GB), Rommel (Ger), Auchinleck(GB) - 1942 Rommel (Ger)

We must protect Egypt and Suez Canal!

Breakthrough -El Alamein Nov 1942→ Montgomery. 8th division army, consists of 7 divisions El Alamein costs Germans 4 divisions + Italians 8. We should have won reinforced, retrained British army - 195,000 men and 1,300 Tanks vs 103,000 men and 500 tanks.

1942 Americans arrive (Eisenhower and Patton): Tunisian Campaign 400 German aircraft taken from the Russian front. American Industrial Might helping new tanks (Shermans) etc we are now building better tanks too!(Churchill tanks)

Two years of dessert wars German and Italian soldiers, one million soldiers killed or captured.




ItalianCampaign ‘Softunderbelly of Europe’

Tunisia Sicily Italy (Competitive commanders Patton and Montgomery racing!)

Operation Mincemeat’ i.e. ‘the man who never was’ TRICK caused one panzer unit sent to Greece from France.

39,000 German troops, 70,000 Italians evacuated from Sicily.

160,000 men killed/captured in Sicily.

September 1943 Italy signs a secret armistice with Allies: Helps the allies to land on the toe of Italy unopposed! Germans then realise and take over the defence of Italy. Landings at Salerno and Tarranto push up Italy.

Gustav line halts advance Anzio Landings –Clark lands 60 miles north of Gustav lines too slow and cautious -Lucas loses 1700 Texans killed. Allies and Germany lost 100,000 soldiers each in the Gustav campaign. Churchill wanted a wildcat but got a whale! Monte Casino monastery bitter fighting.

26 German divisions were occupied nick name D-day dodgers. Some disagreements between commanders Clark seen as flawed.

Rome taken on June 6th 1944 –same day as D Day which was now the main allied focus!




StrategicBombing.

A planned strategy to win the war by bombing Germany into submission. (Different to tactical bombing which is bombing a military target in battle eg: some enemy tanks or bunkers)

Britain/USA not fighting on land in Europe until D Day - this was their only way of pulling their weight (Russians’ suffering high casualties)

Bomber’ Harris convinced he could win the war through bombing but he is allowed to do things as he wants.

1942 1000 bomber raids Cologne, third largest city in the Reich burned. first raids more about morale boosting for us hitting back not really 1000 bombers aircraft scraped together many out of date.

2 types of target Industrial and Civilian

Lord Cherwells Report 1941; “Of those aircraft attacking targets over the Rúhr, one in ten got within 5 miles.”

Dresden 27th July 1943 40,000 killed. Firestorms 1000°C 150 mph.

American USAAF mostly daylight industrial RAF mostly Night time Civilian (remember the blitz no American town had been bombed difference in opinion.

America enters the War Autumn ’43, USAAF, loses 20% of USAAF. USA even stops raids at one point because casualties too high!

USAAF; B17’s 6000lbs. RAF, Lancasters, 22,000lbs.

PSI Mustang = fighter that protects bombers larger fuel tanks→ all the way to target.





2 million men manning German anti-aircraft guns aided Russian front. (slave labour brought in to keep up production levels)

February 1944 Luftwaffe lost 450 fighters + in March, never recovered.

600,000 civilian deaths, 6 million homes destroyed.

1941 700 aircraft failed to return back.

German production in 1943 reduced by 9%. 1944 17.40%.

20th 28th May 1944 500 locomotives destroyed. Railway traffic declined 55%.




Battleof the Atlantic
"Theonly thing that ever really frightenedme during the war was the U-boatperil"Churchill

Germans switch to U-boats, cargo reduced from 68 million tons to 22 million tons.

October 1940 20/34 ships in a convoy destroyed by a wolf-pack.

Convoys introduced March, 1941, cost the Germans, 5 U-boats to sink 19 ships.

1941 USA in war - May 1941 U boats attacked- lights even on! 111 ships sunk in May alone. Now just a small ‘Black gap’ where there is no air protection against U boats

U.S. Naval construction 200 ships a year between 1941 1945.

April 1943 45 U-boats destroyed.

Increase in technology destroys the uboat Flying boats (Catalina), Catapults, longer range(Liberator) Then Radar and Hf-Df (Huff Duff), Depth charges Hedgehog

Enigma ULTRA able to understand German codes

Donitz calls off battle 23rd May, 1943.

Battle of Atlantic 75,000 88,000 allied seamen killed.








EasternFront Barbarossa

22nd June 1941 Germans attack Russia = Operation Barbarossa

Stalin orders ‘scorched earth’, 40 miles behind enemy lines burnt.

Germans 3 million men, 3,400 tanks.

October 1941 German troops 15 miles from Moscow.

100,000’s of T34 tanks were produced by Russians. Wider tracks, successful in Winter weather.

1942 Russian army outnumbers German.

Stalingrad fierce street fighting huge casualties

Paulus ordered not to retreat. Russian winter. 70 tons a day Luftwaffe dropped; needed 300 a day.

150,000 German soldiers killed during campaign.

Germans stopped and pushed back by sheer Russian numbers

Hitler doesn’t help by issuing an order not to give up any ground commanders could not regroup or choose the battleground!




D-Day→ Berlin

America enters War 1941 war budget raised from $9 billion to $166 billion.

1st action is in the desert but real focus is on D Day

Lessons learnt from Sicily/Italian and Failed Dieppe raid

Practice exercise accident Slapton Sands, 700 killed by raiding german E-boats problem with Radio codes

Operation Overlord D-Day 6th June 1944, 156,000 troops landed. U.S. 88,000. British (& Canadian) 91,000. Free French troops also used. Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno Sword Eisenhower (USA) in charge but had British commanders underneath Montgomery (land) Leigh- Mallory (Air) Ramsey (Sea)

Omaha beaches, biggest casualties; 6,603 deaths overall 10,000.

End of July 100,000 German casualties.

The Break out: Operation Epsom = capture of Caen then Operation Goodwood (Brit) and Operation Cobra (USA), hard going and high casualties- WW1 levels.18th July; 5 Sherman tanks lost to every Tiger. Allies lost 41 tanks, attack stalls. Bocage hedgerow fighting.

Falaise pocket remaining German army squashed between Brits and Americans and destroyed.

Push up to Holland and Germany




Op. Market Garden September 1944 500 gliders 1,500 aircraft. Montgomery’s plan to break into Germany through Holland and end the war in 1944. Idea is to drop parachutists and glider borne troops to capture a series of bridges along a thin advance Americans wanted to slog forward as one big wide front but war would have to go on to 1945! Idea was good and very nearly worked!

Eindhoven Nijmegen Arnhem and into Germany

Nine leading vehicles hit on “Hell’s Highway”; takes 40 minutes to go again.

End of 1st day, British advanced only 7 miles from start line. 2nd day→ 20 miles in a few hours.

1,500 dead 6,500 POWs.

Couldn’t quite get to Arnhem! a series of incidents stopped the plan working - a unit of tanks resting up in the Arnhem area problems with supplies and drop zones and the relief tank column getting delayed.




Battle of Bulge 16th December 1944 (Ardennes offensive).

Last ditch attempt to win the war big surprise to allies! Germans had scraped all their reserves into one last offensive lots of new King Tiger tanks etc attack was over Xmas snow poor flying conditions so no allied air cover. Americans were thinly spread and had some new inexperienced troops in the area hit hard Germans felt like 1940 Blitzkrieg all over again. Plan was to drive apart the 2 allies and capture Antwerp –port on the coast make the Brits have another Dunkirk.

17th December Malmédy massacre 72 American POWs murdered.

As soon as the allies realised they attacked the bulges’ flanks and waited for air support once the planes could fly the Germans had no chance.

It held the allies up and shocked them but it was the Germans last chance.










Crossing the Rhine march 1945
Once Eisenhower had seen Market Garden end in Failure he let sidelined Montgomery and followed the American strategy of a full slow advance on a wide front– 1st problem was to cross the Rhine River.

60 bridges were blown up by Germans

Ludendorff Railway bridge at Remagen was blown up but not completely lasted several days before collapse

Use of Parachutists and Gliders to hold bridgeheads for troops to cross the Rhine is big and it was like D Day all over again. There was also a massive artillery barrage beforehand.




The End Game

Russians pushing from east ‘Operation Bagration’

Russians 1.5 million men, 4000 tanks. sheer numbers overwhelming Germans and the size is always growing

Germans 500,000 men, 600 tanks.

June 1944 Russians advance 200 miles!


Allied armies meet on The Elbe Torgau

Allies agree to the Russians taking Berlin already an agreement to carve up Germany and Berlin into sectors.

Fall of Berlin Russians attack with 2.5 million troops, 6000 tanks and 40,000 artillery guns.

Germany try to get ready, fire 1 million shells against Soviets. - 30,000 Soviets die.

100,000 Germans captured marched to labour camps.

250,000 people died in last three weeks of World War Two.

The Rape of Berlin revenge



Reasons for the Germans losing the war or the Reasons why the Allies won:

Hitler himself making poor tactical decisions

Might of the USA industrial output and man power

Strategic Bombing effect on industry (and morale?)

Successes on land since D Day

Russian sheer manpower

Winning the air war to get control of the skies

Winning the war at sea.

Germans stretching themselves too far.

Knocking Italy out of the war

Development of new Technologies

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