Battle of Britain Presentation

[Vassili Zaitzev]

So my teacher is going to talk about the Battle of Britain for a short while in my WWII class. I asked to help present and he said no problem. I'm thinking about making a powerpoint. What major points should I address?

 

[renrich]

If you want to be accurate, you must make the point that Hitler was never really committed to invading Britain and most of his commanders knew that an invasion was not feasible because of the RN. The BOB was important because, at least in world opinion the Nazis had been turned back for the first time and it was a boost in morale for Great Britain.

 

[Waynos]

If you want to be accurate, you must make the point that Hitler was never really committed to invading Britain and most of his commanders knew that an invasion was not feasible because of the RN. The BOB was important because, at least in world opinion the Nazis had been turned back for the first time and it was a boost in morale for Great Britain.

That, plus it meant that Britain stayed in the war, allowing everything that followed on the Western front to come to pass.

I think that when Hitler threatened to invade, he meant it when he was ranting, but at all other times he just wanted Britain to back off and leave him to puruse his own war. As you say, his commanders always knew it was never going to happen. If only we had the same luxury

 

[vikingBerserker]

You have to mention the Germans switch from military targets to civilians ones (after the Britished bombed Berlin) It gave time for the RAF to rebuild.

 

[Vassili Zaitzev]

All good points guys. I'll keep that in mind as I set my presentation up, thanks.

 

[imalko]

I always thought how ironically it was that entire business of bombing cities started because of a mistake of few German bomber crews and look into what it escalated by the end of the war.

I'm not sure about exact circumstances, but I know I've read somewhere how few German bomber crews which were on a night bombing mission to some military targets during BoB lost their bearings and bombed residential areas of London by mistake instead. Infuriated Churchill ordered bombing of Berlin as a retaliation, then Germans answered by deliberate bombing of British civilian targets and so on, so this started chain of events which ended with Hiroshima and Nagasaki five years later.

 

[magnu]

The way in which each side prepared and fought the battle
The British Well prepared and with a few exceptions e.g, fighter formations thoroughly professional
The Germans Very haphazard with poor intelligence and unmethodical e.g. assuming a target had been destroyed and then not following up with more attacks to ensure it was.
The difference in the quality of leadership from the top

 

[Njaco]

1. Failure by Germany to recognize importance of radar.
2. Failure to recognize industrial capacity of the UK "They only have 50 Spitfires left!"
3. Already mentioned, switching from a military to civilian target.
4. RAF had enough planes but pilots were weakened severely.
5. Luftwaffe escorts made to stay close to bombers instead of free-ranging.
6. Operational time over combat area by Bf 109s was only 30 minutes, reducing effectiveness.
7. Most historians put the battle in 4 phases.

 

[renrich]

The Germans bombed cities before London. Guernica and Rotterdam and the Japanese did also in China.

 

[imalko]

The Germans bombed cities before London. Guernica and Rotterdam and the Japanese did also in China.

Yes they did. Don't forget also Warsaw which was heavily bombed in 1939.
I was talking in the context of BoB which truly paved the way for terrorist bombing of civilian targets as standard policy later in the war.

 

[Waynos]

Arthur Harris came to that belief all by himself

 

[timshatz]

Mention that Joe Kennedy, US Ambassodor to the Court of St James, thought the Brits would lose and moved his family out of London. Add that he also thought Hitler was a guy he could do business wtih.

The whole act pissed Roosevelt off so much that he replaced him.

Add that Bill Donovan (later founder of the OSS, which morphed into the CIA) was sent to England around that time on an intelligence mission that was really a diplomatic mission. First time in our history that somebody was sent as a spy to do diplomatic work, at least to my knowledge. He was there, he was told to form an opinion if England would survive the Luftwaffe attacks or not. Donovan came to the conclusion they would and told Roosevelt as much.

 

[Nikademus]

So my teacher is going to talk about the Battle of Britain for a short while in my WWII class. I asked to help present and he said no problem. I'm thinking about making a powerpoint. What major points should I address?

You probably want to highlight the planning and just as importantly, the expectations that were set by both sides.

UK:

1) Pilot training and replacement program/cadre (including Aux air force)
2) Overview of RAF organization with OOB summary
3) Defense network (including radar and sector stations)
4) industrial preperation
5) Adjustments made and lessons learned during course of battle (might touch upon the "Big Wing" controversey)

Ger

1) Overview Luftwaffe OOB
2) Ger objectives and expectations
3) German intel failure (key point)
4) escort issue (109 range and 110 escort failure)
5) Stuka vulnerability and early exit
6) German tactical shift at height of battle
7) German top leadership failure (Goering's failure coupled with continuation intel failures which did not inform Germans of successes they achieved nor the true situation with pilots or plane production
8 ) impact of course of battle on plans for SeaLion

Overall:

You'd probably want to highlight several key battles including 'Eagle Day', Black Friday? (sorry away from bookage!), the misques which led to city bombing exchanges and it's impact on Hitler's decision to focus on terror bombing. I'd really stress the intel failure angle. The germans crippled themselves from day one by failing to appreciate the depth and detail of the RAF defense network. Without this, they basically groped around while suffering a battle of attrition. Even when they were succeeding, they didn't realize it! Failure to appreciate the importance of the sector stations was if anything even more critical than the radar towers (which proved extremely hard to knock out anyway)

 

[Airframes]

I'd suggest at least a quick scan read of 'The Narrow Margin', if possible, which will give you an idea of the chronological order of the five phases of the Battle.
Often missed in summaries, is the breathing space afforded Britain by the German's delay in launching any serious attacks immediately after the fall of France and the withdrawal of the BEF from Dunkirk. This was important in that it allowed some time for the RAF in particular to re-group, replace (some) losses, and pilots.
Also, the fact that the Luftwaffe had the capabiliity, later in the Battle, to use drop tanks on fighters, but these weren't in supply, or authorised. This, allied to Goering's adjunct for the fighters to stick close to the bombers, proved to be a major downfall in the possible effectiveness of the Jagdwaffe, reducing loiter time, and combat capability dramatically.
Another major point often missed is the ability of the RAF to learn what the German's intended before it happened, by the interception of radio traffic, decrypted by 'Y' section. This fact, kept secret until the late 1960's/early '70's, was a vital factor in the Intelligence, and therefopre the planning, of the Battle ,for the British.

 

[Vassili Zaitzev]

All good stuff guys, I'm gonna have to cut some of it though, I can only talk for about ten minutes.

 

[Airframes]

Yep, it's a tough one to relate in a short time frame. Even two plus hours for the movie struggled!

 

[renrich]

Sic em, VZ!

 

[Markus]

One important point you need to make about the BoB is that the Brits were the top dogs not the underdogs. They and everybody else had taken the German PR-BS at face value. For example, the Germans claimed a "production" Me109 could make app. 470mph and the British and French swallowed it hook, line and sinker, even though their own fighters were making 360mph or less(usually less).

As a result, the Brits intensified their aerial rearmament effort tot such a degree that they were actually ahead of the Germans in terms of fighter production.

Also important is the fact that the LW had no chance of winning the BoB. The best the LW could have done was force one out of three RAF fighter groups to make a withdrawal to bases north of London. Once there they would have been out of range of anything but unescorted bombers, while they could have easily reached the Channel coast in case of an invasion.

 

[Vassili Zaitzev]

All good, presentation is next week. I'll see how much I can squeeze in, thinking about making a powerpoint. I'll let you guys know how it goes. I've got two more presentations these semesters. One is Coral Sea/ New Guinea, the other Operation Overlord.

 

[Njaco]

Do you need picks for the Powerpoint? I just found this last night.