Good morning, now on to World War II and an episode from the series World War II in Numbers. This is an episode about the Battle of Britain and Operation Barbarossa. The run time for this episode is 45:02.
Britain evacuated thousands of troops from Dunkirk and was now squarely the target of the enemy. Adolf Hitler was planning a full-scale invasion of Britain. Once the British were defeated, he would turn his eyes to Russia. However, his plans hinged on the Germans achieving air superiority. Unfortunately for Hitler, the Brits had other plans for the battle of the air. How did the Royal Air Force manage to defeat the German Air Force in the skies? World War II introduced another new area of warfare: the air. Before World War II, an army had to have control of the seas and the land. With this new mode of warfare, the enemy had to conquer the air as well. Hitler planned Operation Sea Lion which would help the Germans invade Britain by sea, land, and air. The Luftwaffe commander boasts that he would control the skies over Britain in four days. The Germans had over 900 airplanes at their disposal and the British only had over 500. Goering believes that he has the numbers to conquer British skies and would be able to replace all airplanes that would be lost in the battle of the skies. In addition to battling in the skies, the Luftwaffe needed to clear the seas of the British Navy. The German Air Force has done their work. All they needed to do was conquer the skies… However, the battle for the skies is delayed. Why? Hitler believes that Churchill will surrender and gives him time to surrender. However, the British government refuses to surrender. This gives the Royal Air Force time to train up new pilots, build new planes, and repair other aircraft. The British also had another advantage: radar. Radar stations were built all over Britain and provided an early warning system for the British. When the first attack is launched, the Germans Air Force is stunned when they lose so many planes on the day. German intelligence believes that the British have lost over 700 planes, however in reality the British Royal Air Force has lost over 300. Britain’s combat plane production is keeping up with the losses. The Germans do not even know it. The British public turned out in force to help build up the Royal Air Force. However, on clear days, the German air force continues to pound the British Air Fields. These losses demoralize the Air Force. Phase two of the invasion plan starts and the Germans have one target: London. The London docks are the first Nazi target. More than 30,000 tons of bombs are dropped on British soil over a period of eight months. However, the British public remains unbowed and defiant. They cleaned up their streets and pressed on. Goering continues to send the planes. On September 15th there was a 19-hour battle over the skies and there are heavy German losses. This convinces Goering that the battle for the skies of Britain was not going to be worth it in the end. As a result, Hitler has his eyes on another target: Russia and Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine would provide the resources and space for Hitler. Once the German army conquers Russia and Ukraine then the British would have to sue for peace. Hitler sees the Russians as a paper tiger and should be easy to conquer. The war in Finland gave Hitler the confidence that the Germans could invade Russia with little resistance. The Russians had lost over 1,000,000 soldiers in that campaign. Moscow was going to fall in three months and Hitler put all his eggs in the basket of conquering the Soviet Union. How fast would Russia fall to the blitzkrieg? Would Hitler succeed in conquering Russia and Ukraine? Tune into the rest of the episode to find out. Hopefully, one day Lucy Worsley’s Blitz Spirit will be posted on Timeline because the first half of this episode would pair very nicely with that section of the episode. It could have been a better episode if they would have split the Battle of Britain and Operation Barbarossa into two separate episodes. Operation Barbarossa was well done and could carry an episode on its own.
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