Revision Diary

Battle of Britain and the Blitz

 

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

 

 

ISSUES

1.  The heroism of the pilots - and how close Britain came to defeat in the Battle of Britain.

2.  The Blitz was GOOD for Britain's war effort, because it gave the RAF time to recover.

3.  The mechanisms of coping with the Blitz- blackout/ shelters etc.

4.  Did the Blitz wreck morale?   Churchill and the newsreels of the time said no; Nazi propaganda (and some facts turned up by historians) suggest all was not as well as Churchill said.

  

5.  How valid were wartime newsreels and films of the Battle of Britain?

6.  How valid are fictionalised representations of the Blitz such as the film Hope and Glory?

   

Read the e-book pages on the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.

  

  

  

FIVE FACTS

Battle of Britain

1.  Radar was the key to Britain's success - so the Luftwaffe attacked the radar stations first, but FAILED to put them out of action.

2.  Churchill put Lord Beaverbrook, owner of Daily Express, in charge of aircraft production.  

3.  The young pilots were called ‘Dowding’s chicks’, after Air Chief Marshall Dowding   The RAF lost 1,173 planes and 510 pilots and gunners.   The Luftwaffe lost 1,733 planes and 3,368 airmen.  

4.  The turning point came on 2 Sep, when Hitler switched the Luftwaffe to bombing cities.  

5.  15 Sep major Luftwaffe raid repulsed.   Sealion called off. 

  

Blitz

1.  FOUR kinds of shelter: Anderson / Morrison / Underground and ‘trekking’ to the fields

2.  FOUR kinds of bomb: HEs / ‘Molotovs’ / Parachute bombs / ‘Carpet- bombing’

3.  Coventry was so badly bombed that the Nazis coined the word: ‘coventrate’

4.  Baedecker Raids on tourist and historical sites.  

5.  EIGHTS ways of helping: Firemen/ Fire-watchers/ Rescue workers/ Blackout/ ARP/ ‘ack-ack’/ Bomb disposal/ Local Defence Volunteers  (‘Dad’s Army’)/ Women’s Voluntary Service.

 

 

  

  

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.