In the second world war, two events were to have a important effect on the eventual result - the Battle of Britain and the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Battle of Britain took place in the air between August and September 1940. After many German successes, the retreat from Dunkirk and the surrender of France, Britain found herself alone against the enemy. The Battle of Britain is perhaps the best known battle of the second world war. In order to control the English Channel, the German Luftwaffe needed to control the British skies. This involved taking on the Royal Air Force, led by Sir Hugh Dowding. The primary craft used by the Royal Air Force were the Hurricane and the Spitfire, which were versatile flying machines. The German Mescherschmitt fighters and their Stuka dive bombers formed the foundation of the enemy forces.
At the beginning of the World War 2, Germany had over twice as many planes as the United Kingdom and just after France had surrendered, the Luftwaffe had three thousand planes based in Northern Europe, which were a mixture of dive bombers, bombers, fighter planes and fighter bombers. At the beginning of the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe would put twice as many aircraft over Britain than the British forces, who could only muster about six hundred and fifty at any one time. The British air force had more airplanes than this , but many were in rather poor repair and couldn't be relied on to fly. The speed of British airplane construction was adequate, as the country had put most of it's available man (and woman) power and raw assets into the fray - by far the most pressing trouble was the dearth of well trained and sufficiently knowledgeable pilots. Many pilots had lost their lives in the war in France and fresh ones couldn't be trained in sufficient numbers to take the place of those killed in earlier battles.
The Attack On Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on the Hawaiian American naval base at Pearl Harbor. This particular act may have influenced the result of the Second World War, which also heavily shaped the post-war world. Admiral Isoroku, the leader of the Japanese aircraft carriers, organized and implemented the attack. It appeared that the strategy was to maim the American naval force so that it would be stopped from attacking Japanese forces in Asia.
353 planes attacked the anchored ships, in two attacking waves. It commenced around 7:55 am early on the morning of Sunday December 7 and went on for around 110 minutes. The American Naval operations at Pearl Harbor were commanded by Husband E. Kimmel. In the present day, the USS Arizona Memorial at the harbor floats as a memorial to over 1,000 sailors and crew who lost their lives that day. nevertheless, the attack had very far reaching repercussions. The next day, on December 8, war was declared against Japan, and a few days later war was declared against Germany also.
Author Resource:-
Peter Bruce is a freelance journalist operating out of Toulouse in France. Subject covered range from 'when was world war 2' to Pearl Harbor
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.ambravallo.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites