Moral, Political, and Military Causes and Consequences or Luftwaffe During the Battle of Britian
In this paper, I will be answering the following question: During the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe switched from bombing military and industrial targets to bombing cities. Drawing on the reading and the lectures (including the propaganda film we watched, Frank Capra’s Why We Fight), what were the moral, political, and military causes and consequences of this decision?
Before covering the actual bombing of the cities, allow me to discuss what was supposed to happen, prior to the plan falling apart. Hitler had made a specific plan to conquer, invade, and control England. He felt if he could control England, then he could control the world. He had plans to complete this in three phases. Phase one was to knock out the royal air force and its bases. It would gain control of the air and sea across the 21 mile wide channel, destroy communication and supply / transport lines. This should have been easier than it was since Germany outnumbered air support by up to ten to one. Phase two was to destroy the coast with dive bombers, followed by air to ground parachute troops to control the air fields and beaches. This shouldn’t have been that difficult either since they should have had full air support control by now. Phase three was the actual invasion. The plan was to transport troops in high speed watercraft across the channel (with air support of course) and destroy anything in their path as the proceeding into the areas surrounding London, then finally London.
Hitler should have been able to use his Blitz technique like he had been successful with in Poland and France previously, but what he didn’t account for was spirit. The people needed spirit and “guts” as the lecture put it because they were grossly outnumbered on not only trained military, but also equipment. Britain only had one tank for every thousand square miles, and only one machine gun for every fifteen hundred miles of beach. Their navy was spread thin in an attempt to guard its food and supply lines. Britain knew there was trouble coming, and that Hitler would target all residents. This is when the civilian army was formed. All civilians also worked harder to keep factories and production ramped up. Winston Churchill, their Prime Minister told the people “We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight in landing grounds, in fields, in streets, and on the hills. We shall never surrender.”
Hitler sent the Luftwaffe, with hundreds of planes over the channel taking only 8 minutes to fly across. Through many attempts, the Royal Air Force (RAF) overcame odds and put up a good fight against the Nazi planes. They bombed the ports, while cargo was being unloaded without interruption. They attacked Southampton, Plymouth, and Dover repeatedly. He tried bombing the British airfields to destroy the planes on the ground; luckily the British were smarter and kept their planes scattered and hidden. Having been unable to defeat the RAF,