Revision Diary

Battle of Britain and the Blitz

 

Battle of Britain; the Blitz and air-raid precautions.

  

  

    

Overview

If Hitler was going to invade Britain, his Luftwaffe would have to first destroy Britain's air defences, so the Battle of Britain began with a battle for control of the skies.

     FIRST, Hitler attack the radar stations - his FIRST MISTAKE was that they were not knocked out.

     SECOND, he attacked the RAF fighter planes ('dogfights').   After almost a month, the Luftwaffe was winning - many British pilots had been killed and the rest were exhausted.

     BUT THEN, too soon, he made his SECOND MISTAKE and spent a few nights bombing London - giving the RAF time to recover.   When he tried a huge daylight raid on 15 September (Battle of Britain day), the RAF won.

     FINALLY, Hitler switched to night bombing ('the Blitz').   This was his THIRD MISTAKE.   It wrecked London, but it did nothing to win the war because it did NOT break the Londoners morale

 

Facts

Battle of Britain

1.  Hitler called his campaign to conquer Britain: 'Operation Sealion'.

2.  Churchill said of the young fighter pilots: 'Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few'.

3.  The RAF lost 1,173 planes and 510 pilots and gunners.   The Luftwaffe lost 1,733 planes and 3,368 airmen.  

  

Blitz

1.  Many people built a corrugated iron 'Anderson' shelter in their gardens.

2.  TWO main kinds of bomb: High Explosives ('HEs') and fire bombs ('incendiaries')

3.  During air raids the ARP enforced the 'Blackout', and the Women’s Voluntary Service handed out tea and blankets.

 

 

  

  

Revision Focus

This is a Paper 1- World War Two  topic, so think about how you will USE the information to answer sourcework questions.  

You will need:

1.  A GENERAL UNDERSTANDING of 'what was going on', so you can make intelligent comments on the purpose of the sources.

2.  Some FACTUAL KNOWLEDGE so you can assess the factual accuracy of the sources.

  

This paper is ALL sourcework questions, so make sure you know how to do them.

  

NOTE PARTICULARLY that there is no choice of questions on this topic - so...

     YOU MUST LEARN EVERYTHING.

  

  

Links

More key facts on the Revision Sheet.  

  

  

To find out more, read the e-book pages on the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.