Military history of the United Kingdom during World War II
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United Kingdom in World War II | |||
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1939–1945 | |||
Monarch(s) | George VI | ||
Leader(s) | |||
Chronology
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The military history of the United Kingdom in World War II covers the
The United Kingdom and allied countries signed the
There were eventual hard-fought victories in 1943 in the North-African campaign, led by General
The Pacific War, fought primarily between
For the domestic history see United Kingdom home front during World War II.
Background
Although the UK had increased military spending and funding prior to 1939 in response to the increasing strength of Germany under the Nazi Party, its forces were still weak by comparison, especially the British Army. Only the Royal Navy – at the time still the largest in the world[1] – was of a greater strength than its German counterpart. The British Army only had nine divisions available for war, whereas Germany had seventy-eight and France eighty-six.[2][page needed]
Nonetheless, "Britain was a very wealthy country, formidable in arms, ruthless in pursuit of its interests and sitting at the heart of a global production system from its empire."
Beginning of the conflict
Anticipating as German attack, the Polish Navy implemented the Peking Plan in late August and early September 1939, moving three modern destroyers, Burza, Błyskawica, and Grom to Britain; the ships served alongside (and under the command of) the Royal Navy for the remainder of the war.
On 3 September, the UK and
The British Army immediately began dispatching the
During the Phoney War, the RAF carried out small bombing raids and a large number of propaganda leaflet raids (code-named "Nickels") and the Royal Navy imposed a coastal blockade on Germany.
The British army began the war with a paper force of 900,000 men 232,000 active regulars, 185,000 regular reserves, 34,000 in the militia, 428,000 in the territorial army and 21,000 in the territorial army reserve however of the many non active regular formations a total manpower amount of 480,000 was available in September 1939 thus the actual force was 700,000 and this figure includes those who were in training or fulfiling non-combat roles at the outbreak of hostilities.[15]
Western and northern Europe, 1940 and 1941
Norwegian campaign
British troops made amphibious landings at
In central Norway, Royal Navy aircraft-carriers and RAF fighter squadrons could not keep the established bases secure, and the British had to evacuate them. In the north, the Germans were driven out of Narvik after they had captured it. However, as Luftwaffe aircraft came into range with the German advances, it was again found to be impossible to sustain bases in the face of aerial threat. British forces in Narvik were withdrawn as well.[18]
As a consequence of the loss of Norway and Denmark, the Royal Navy commenced a pre-emptive
On 10 May 1940, the Royal Navy occupied Iceland to install naval and air bases on this Atlantic island.[19]
The Battle of France
Following the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, the British Expeditionary Force was sent to the Franco-Belgian border in mid-September. The first deployment was completed by 11 October 1939 at which point 158,000 men had been transported to France.[20] Over the next few months, troops, materials and vehicles continued to arrive in France and Belgium and by 13 March 1940 the BEF had doubled in size to 316,000 men.[21]
This period leading up to 10 May 1940 was known as the Phoney War, as there was little combat apart from minor clashes of reconnaissance patrols. The Allied generals believed that time was on their side, and hoped to weaken Germany by blockade before going on the offensive.[22]
On 10 May the stalemated Phoney War ended with a sweeping German invasion of the
Despite failing to destroy the BEF, the Germans had succeeded in cutting off British formations from reaching the evacuation at Dunkirk. They were; the Saar Force, chiefly composed of the
As a result of the Germans'
During the Battle of France, the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned, to be replaced by Winston Churchill, who had opposed negotiation with Hitler all along.
The war at sea
The Royal Navy was far more powerful than the German Kriegsmarine.[30] Its main roles were to keep:
- the North Atlantic open, despite German submarines
- the Mediterranean open to the Allies and closed to the Germans and Italians
- routes open through the Indian Ocean to India and Australia
The Japanese Navy was stronger than the German naval forces, however, and in the Pacific it confronted primarily the United States Navy while dealing sharp blows to the Royal Navy in 1941–42 in the area from Singapore to Ceylon.[31]
Opening moves
At the start of the war the British and French expected to have command of the seas, as they believed their navies were superior to those of Germany and Italy. The British and French immediately began a
Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic was the contest between merchant ships, usually in convoys, and the German submarine force. The battle ebbed and flowed, until the Allies gained a decisive advantage in 1943 using destroyers, destroyer escorts, air surveillance, new depth charges, and Ultra intelligence that revealed the location of German wolfpacks.[34][35]
First 'Happy Time'
With the
By 1941, the United States and Canada (a British Dominion) were taking an increasing part in the war. British forces had
More American help came in the form of the
In addition, personnel training in the RN improved as the realities of the battle became obvious. For instance, the training regime of Vice Admiral
Second 'Happy Time'
The Japanese declarations of war in December 1941 made it a global war. German
Success against the U-boats
The institution of an interlocking convoy system on the American coast and in the Caribbean Sea in mid-1942 created an enormous drop in attacks in those areas. Attention shifted back to the Atlantic convoys. Matters were serious, but not critical throughout much of 1942.
The winter weather provided a respite in early 1943, but in the spring, large "wolf packs" of U-boats attacked convoys and scored big successes without taking large losses in return. However, in May 1943 a sudden turnaround happened. Two convoys were attacked by large wolf packs and suffered losses. Yet unlike earlier in the year the attacking submarines were also mauled. After those battles merchant ship losses plummeted and
Arctic convoys
The Arctic convoys travelled from the US and the UK to the northern ports of the Soviet Union – Arkhangelsk and Murmansk.
85 Allied merchant vessels and 16 Royal Navy warships were lost. The Germans committed significant naval and air assets and lost one
The Mediterranean
The Royal Navy battled the Italian Navy for three years for control of the Mediterranean. The Germans also took part in the campaign, primarily by sending U-boats into the Mediterranean, but latterly by controlling the few remaining Axis naval forces after the Italian surrender.
At the outset of the war, the area was numerically dominated by the British and
At Alexandria, relations between the French and British commanders, Admirals
Battle of Taranto
The Italian battle fleet dominated the centre of the Mediterranean and so the Royal Navy hatched a plan to cripple it. On 11 November 1940, the Royal Navy crippled or destroyed three Italian
Battle of Cape Matapan
The first fleet action of the war in the Mediterranean was the Battle of Cape Matapan. It was a decisive Allied victory, fought off the Peloponnesus coast of Greece from 27 March to 29 March 1941 in which Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy forces, under the command of the British Admiral Cunningham, intercepted those of the Italian Regia Marina, under Admiral Angelo Iachino. The Allies sank the heavy cruisers Fiume, Zara and Pola and the destroyers Vittorio Alfieri and Giosue Carducci, and damaged the battleship Vittorio Veneto. The British lost one torpedo plane and suffered light damage to some ships.[41]
Yugoslavia, Greece, and Crete
Germany launched its invasion of Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941, winning a quick victory but delaying the much larger planned invasion of Russia (Operation Barbarossa).
The
In the aftermath of the German invasion of Greece, only the island of Crete remained in Allied hands in the Aegean area. The Germans invaded in a combined operation and forced the evacuation of the British forces. Of more than 40,000 Allied soldiers, fewer than 20,000 managed to escape. The evacuation was also costly to the Royal Navy. It lost 4 cruisers and 6 destroyers sunk during the evacuation. Admiral Cunningham was determined that the "navy must not let the army down"; when Army generals feared he would lose too many ships Cunningham remarked "It takes three years to build a ship, it takes three centuries to build a tradition".[42][43]
Malta
Malta, which lies in the middle of the Mediterranean, proved a standing thorn in the side of the Axis. It lay in a perfect strategic position to intercept Axis supplies destined for North Africa. For a time it looked as if Axis aircraft flying from bases in Italy would starve Malta into submission. The turning point in the siege of Malta came in August 1942, when the British sent a very heavily defended convoy code named Operation Pedestal. Despite the sinking of about half of the ships sent, the convoy managed to deliver enough food and aviation fuel to enable Malta to hold out until the siege was lifted. With the aid of Ultra, Malta-based aircraft and submarines sank crucial Axis shipping to North Africa immediately before the Second Battle of El Alamein of October–November 1942. Following Allied territorial gains in Libya and in the Western Mediterranean, the siege was lifted. For the fortitude and courage of the Maltese during the siege, the island was awarded the George Cross by King George VI in early 1942.
Large-scale invasions
In late 1942 Operation Torch, the first large Allied combined operation, was launched. The British and Americans landed in force invading French North Africa, but far enough west that the Germans were able to invade Tunisia (owned by France) and make it their base of operations.[44]
Torch was followed by Operation Husky the invasion of Sicily, and Operation Avalanche, the invasion of southern Italy. Again the naval forces escorted the invasion fleet and heavy cover was provided against Italian interference. In the aftermath of Avalanche, the Italian surrender was announced and the British naval forces escorted the Italian fleet to Malta under the terms of the surrender. The main threat to Allied shipping around Italy during these invasions was not the Italian fleet but German guided weapons which sunk or damaged a number of Allied units.[45]
After the surrender of the Italian fleet, naval operations in the Mediterranean became relatively mundane, consisting largely of supporting ground troops by bombardment, anti-submarine missions, covert insertions of agents on enemy coast and convoy escort.
Aegean sweep
The one major exception to mundane missions occurred in late 1944. Due to their garrisons on the various islands of the Aegean, the Germans had maintained control over the Aegean Sea long after they had lost other areas of the Mediterranean to Allied control. In late 1944, that changed as an Allied carrier task force moved into the area. Composed entirely of
Operation Overlord and the Normandy landings
The five assault divisions crossed the channel in five great assault groups, there were two task forces, the Anglo-Canadian Eastern Task Force and the American Western Task Force. Coastal Command secured the western flank of the invasion route against interference by German
On the whole the assault went well, although disaster came nearest to occurring for the Americans at Omaha Beach. There the naval forces provided crucial backup for the assaulting forces, with destroyers coming in very close to the beach to blast the German defences. British losses to enemy attack both during the initial assault and the building of the bridgehead were comparatively small. Virtually no ships were sunk by German naval surface forces as this force was largely destroyed prior to the invasion.
Two of the ports used by the German light forces were heavily bombed by the Allied air forces. The larger German ships based in France, three destroyers from Bordeaux were defeated in a destroyer action well to the west of the main assault area. Larger problems were caused by U-boats and especially mines, but the U-boats were hunted down and the mines swept effectively enough to make the invasion a success.
The East
Indian Ocean disaster
Though the
The major operations in the Indian Ocean took place in early 1942 and 1944/45.
British forces in the Singapore region were reinforced by the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse in December 1941. However, on 10 December those two ships were sunk by Japanese aircraft, with HMS Prince of Wales becoming the first battleship in history to be sunk strictly by airpower while at sea and fighting back.
Japanese forces captured
Following successes over American forces in the
Fortuitously, or by design, the main British fleet did not make contact with the Japanese and thus remained available for future action.
Indian Ocean retreat
Following those attacks, the British fleet retreated to
One exception was
Indian Ocean strike
It was only after the war in Europe was coming to an end that large British forces were dispatched to the Indian Ocean again after the neutralisation of the German fleet in late 1943 and early 1944. The success of Operation Overlord in June meant even more craft from the Home Fleet could be sent, including precious amphibious assault shipping.
During late 1944, as more British aircraft carriers came into the area, a series of strikes were flown against oil targets in Sumatra to prepare British carriers for the upcoming operations in the Pacific. For the first attack, the United States lent USS Saratoga. The oil installations were heavily damaged by the attacks, aggravating the Japanese fuel shortages due to the Allied blockade. The final attack was flown as the carriers were heading for Sydney to become the British Pacific Fleet.
After the departure of the main battle forces, the Indian Ocean was left with escort carriers and older battleships as the mainstay of its naval forces. Nevertheless, during those months important operations were launched in the recapture of
Blockade of Japan
British forces consistently played a secondary but significant role to American forces in the strangling of Japan's trade. The earliest successes were gained by mine laying. The Japanese minesweeping capability was never great, and when confronted with new types of mines they did not adapt quickly. Japanese shipping was driven from the Burmese coast using this type of warfare.
British submarines also operated against Japanese shipping, although later in the war. They were based in Ceylon,
The North African desert, Middle East, and Africa
On 13 September 1940, the Italian Tenth Army crossed the border from the Italian colony of Libya into Egypt, where British troops were protecting the Suez Canal. The Italian invasion carried through to Sidi Barrani, approximately 95 km inside Egypt. The Italians then began to entrench. At this time there were only 30,000 British available to defend against 250,000 Italian troops. The Italian decision to halt the advance is generally credited to them being unaware of the British strength, and the activity of British naval forces operating in the Mediterranean to interfere with Italian supply lines. There were Royal Navy seaports at Alexandria, Haifa, and Port Said. Following the halt of the Italian Tenth Army, the British used the Western Desert Force's Jock columns to harass their lines in Egypt.
The Offensive
On 11 November 1940, the Royal Navy crippled or destroyed three Italian battleships in the Battle of Taranto.
Then, on 8 December 1940, Operation Compass began. Planned as an extended raid, a force of British, Indian and Australian troops succeeded in cutting off the Italian troops. Pressing their advantage home, General Richard O'Connor pressed the attack forwards and succeeded in reaching El Agheila (an advance of 500 miles), capturing tens of thousands of enemy troops. The Italian army was virtually destroyed, and it seemed that the Italians would be swept out of Libya. However, at the crucial moment, Winston Churchill ordered that the advance be stopped and troops dispatched to defend Greece. Weeks later the first German troops were arriving in North Africa to reinforce the Italians.
Iraq, Syria and Persia
In May 1941, to add to British troubles in the area, there was a
When Iraqi forces came to Habbaniya, they surrounded the base and gave warning that any military activity would be considered as hostile, leading to an attack. However, the RAF training aircraft took off and bombed the Iraqi forces, repelling them from the base. Columns were then set out from Habbaniya, Palestine and Basra to capture Baghdad, and put an end to the coup. They succeeded at relatively low cost, but there was a disturbing development during the campaign.
A Luftwaffe aircraft was shot down over Iraq during the advance on Baghdad. The nearest Axis bases were on Rhodes, and so the aircraft had to stage through somewhere to be able to get to Iraq. The only possible place was Vichy-controlled Syria. This overtly hostile action could not be tolerated. Consequently, after victory in Iraq, British forces invaded Syria and Lebanon to remove the Vichy officials from power there. Vigorous resistance was put up by the French against British and Australian forces moving into Lebanon from Palestine. However, pressure there eventually overwhelmed, and when this combined with an advance on Damascus from Iraq, the French surrendered.
The final major military operation in the war in the
of Persia was somewhat pro-German, and so would not allow this. Consequently, British and Soviet forces invaded and occupied Persia. The Shah was deposed (removed from power) and his son put on the throne.Ethiopia
The Italians declared war on 10 June 1940 and in addition to the well known campaigns in the western desert, a front was opened against them in Africa. This front was in and around the Italian East African colonies: Ethiopia, Italian Somaliland, and Eritrea.
As in Egypt, British forces were massively outnumbered by their Italian opponents. However, unlike Libya, Ethiopia was isolated from the Italian mainland, and the Italians were thus cut off from resupply.
The first offensive moves of the
After their offensives petered out, as in Egypt, the Italians adopted a passive attitude and waited for the inevitable British counter-attack. Attention then shifted to the naval sphere.
The Italians had a small naval squadron based at Asmara, Eritrea, called the Red Sea Flotilla. This was a threat to the British convoys heading up the Red Sea. It consisted of a few destroyers and submarines. However, the squadron was not used aggressively and mostly acted as a "fleet in being". As supplies of fuel decreased, its opportunities for action also decreased. The Italians made one major attempt to attack a convoy, and they were roundly defeated in doing so. Following that attack, most of the surface ships of the squadron were sunk, and the submarines that escaped travelled around the Cape of Good Hope to return to Italy.
British forces were thin on the ground in East Africa, and the two nations that made the greatest contribution to victory on land were
Another important aspect of the campaign to retake Ethiopia was
The regular push to take Ethiopia began once reinforcements arrived from Egypt. The arrival of the first Australian division in North Africa had allowed the release of the
The Italians made a final stand around the town of Amba Alagi, before they were finally defeated. Amba Alagi fell in mid-May 1941. The last significant Italian forces surrendered at Gondar in November 1941, receiving full military honors.
After December 1941, some Italians launched a limited
War in the Western Desert
After Rommel's first offensive, a reorganisation of British command took place. In November 1941, the
Rommel took the offensive again in January 1942. He had been instructed by his high command to only conduct a limited offensive against British positions. However, he disobeyed orders and exploited the British collapse.
An operation had been planned to take Malta, and thus reduce its strangulation of Rommel's supply lines. However, with his new offensive, Rommel was consuming materiel meant for the Malta attack. It came down to a choice of attacking Malta or supporting Rommel; Rommel's attack won out. At the time Malta seemed neutralised, but this mistake was to come to haunt the Axis later.
Confusion in British ranks was horrendous as attempts to shore up the position failed time and again. After the Battle of Gazala, Rommel not only drove the British out of Libya, and somewhat into Egypt, but he pushed deep into the protectorate. Tobruk fell quickly, and there was no repeat of the epic siege that Rommel's last advance had produced. A prepared defensive line at Mersa Matruh was outflanked, and disaster beckoned. Ritchie was dismissed as Eighth Army commander and Claude Auchinleck, the Commander-in-Chief Middle East Command, came forward to take command of it himself. After Matruh there was only one more defensive position before Cairo itself; El Alamein.
Auchinlek managed to stop Rommel with the First Battle of El Alamein.
A new command team arrived in the Middle East, with Lieutenant General Sir
Operation Torch and El Alamein
8 November 1942 saw the first great amphibious assault of World War II. In Operation Torch, an Anglo-American force landed on the shores of Algeria and Morocco. However, even in Algeria, despite having a large British content, the allies maintained the illusion that this was an American operation in order to reduce possible resistance by the French.
After the attack by
The resistance did not last long. The French surrendered and then shortly afterward joined the Allied cause. One of the main reasons for the quick switch of sides was because the Germans had moved into unoccupied France, ending the Vichy regime, shortly after the North African garrisons had surrendered.
Once resistance in Algeria and Morocco was over, the campaign became a race. The Germans were pouring men and supplies into Tunisia, and the Allies were trying to get sufficient troops into the country quickly enough to stop them before the need for a full-scale campaign to drive them out occurred.
Just before
The Second Battle of El Alamein saw enormous use made of artillery. Rommel's forces had laid large numbers of mines in the desert, and the terrain of the area prevented his position being outflanked, and British naval forces were not powerful enough to land a significant force directly behind Rommel to cut his supply lines directly at the same time as Operation Torch. Consequently, the German lines had to be attacked directly. However, that did not mean that Montgomery did not try to use feint and deception in the battle. "Dummy tanks" and other deceptions were used liberally to try to fool the Germans where the stroke would fall.
The main attack went in, but it was turned back by the extensive minefields. Montgomery then shifted the axis of advance to another point to throw the Germans off balance. What had formerly been a spoiling attack was developed into the new major thrust. Through a grinding battle of attrition, the Germans were thrown back.
After El Alamein, Rommel's forces were pursued through the western desert for the last time. Cyrenaica was retaken from Axis forces, and then Tripolitania was won for the first time. Rommel's forces, apart from small rearguard actions to hold up Montgomery's men, did not turn and fight again until they were within the Mareth Line defences of southern Tunisia.
Battle for Tunisia
As British forces swept west through Libya and Anglo-American forces closed in from Algeria, the Axis began to pour reinforcements into Tunisia. A new command under Colonel General
Rommel turned to face Montgomery's forces who had caught up with the Panzerarmee Afrika at last at the Mareth Line. The Mareth Line was a series of old French border defences against Italian forces from Libya. Rommel took them over and improved them greatly. It took a major effort for British forces to break through. However, by this time Rommel had left Africa, never to return.
It was decided that First Army should make the main thrust to destroy Axis formations in Africa. II Corps was moved from the south to north of the front, and the
The final offensive began at the end of March 1943, and by May, Axis forces had surrendered. 250,000 men were taken prisoner, a number comparable to the battle of Stalingrad.
The Italian campaign
The
Invasion of Sicily
On 10 July 1943, Sicily was invaded. The operation, named Operation Husky, was directed from Malta. British forces attacked on the eastern flank of the landing, with the British Eighth Army's XXX Corps coming ashore at
The Eighth Army eventually battered its way past the German defences and enveloped Mount Etna; by this time the Germans and Italians were retreating. By 17 August all the Axis forces had evacuated the island, and Messina was captured that day.
Surrender of Italy
After operations in Sicily, the Italian Government was teetering on the brink of collapse. Italian dictator
On 3 September 1943, the first attacks were made directly across the Straits of Messina by Eighth Army in Operation Baytown. V and XIII Corps carried out that attack. Montgomery's forces leap-frogged up the toe of Italy over the next few days. A subsidiary landing, Operation Slapstick, was also made on 9 September at the Italian naval base of Taranto by the 1st Airborne Division.
Also on 3 September, King Victor Emmanuel and Marshal
The main attack, Operation Avalanche, was delivered on 9 September at Salerno. Salerno was chosen for the site of the attack because it was the furthest north that the single-engined fighters based in Sicily could realistically provide cover. Escort carriers also stood off shore to supplement the cover given by land-based aircraft. A subsidiary landing, Operation Slapstick, was also made on the same day at the Italian naval base of Taranto by the British 1st Airborne Division, landed directly into the port from warships. News of the Italian surrender was broadcast as the troop convoys were converging on Salerno.
The Germans reacted extremely quickly to the Italian surrender. They disarmed the Italian troops near their forces and took up defensive positions near Salerno. Italian troops were disarmed throughout Italy and Italian-controlled areas in what was known as Operation Axis (Operation Achse).
The landings at Salerno were made by the U.S. Fifth Army under Lieutenant General Mark Clark. It consisted of the U.S. VI Corps landing on the right flank and the British X Corps landing on the left. Initial resistance was heavy, however heavy naval and air support combined with the approach of Eighth Army from the south eventually forced the Germans to withdraw. By 25 September a line from Naples to Bari was controlled by Allied forces.
Further relatively rapid advances continued over the next few weeks, but by the end of October, the front was stalled. The Germans had taken up extremely powerful defensive positions on the Winter Line. There the front would remain for the next six months.
About two months after his ouster, Mussolini was rescued by the Germans in
The Winter Line, Anzio and the Battle of Monte Cassino
The linchpin of the Winter Line position was the town and monastery of
With no sign of a breakthrough it was decided to attempt to outflank the Winter Line with an amphibious landing behind it. Operation Shingle involved landings at Anzio on the West coast on 23 January 1944. The assaulting formations were controlled by the U.S. VI Corps, but as with Salerno, there was a substantial British component to the assault force. The British 1st Infantry Division and 2nd Commando Brigade formed the left flank of the assault.
Again, like Salerno, there were serious problems with the landings. The commander, Lieutenant General John P. Lucas, did not exploit as aggressively as he might have done and was relieved for it. Lucas believed that if he had pushed too far, his forces could have been cut off by the Germans, but the whole purpose of the invasion was to attack the German lines behind Monte Cassino and break out into the Italian areas which were undefended. The Germans came even closer than Salerno to breaking up the beachhead. They pushed through the defences to the last line before the sea. Again massive firepower on the Allied side saved the beachhead.
After the initial attack and after the German counter-attack had been repulsed, the Anzio beachhead settled down to stalemate. The attempt at outflanking the Winter Line had failed. It was May before a breakout from the beachhead could be attempted.
Breakthrough to Rome
By May 1944, U.S. VI Corps had been reinforced to a strength of seven divisions. In the Fourth Battle of Monte Cassino (also known as Operation Diadem), a concerted attack was made at both Anzio and the Winter Line. The German defences finally cracked.
The front had been reorganised. V Corps was left on the Adriatic, but the rest of Eighth Army was moved over the
British forces were not well handled during Diadem.
Rome fell on 5 June, and the pursuit continued well beyond the city, into northern Italy.
The Gothic Line and victory in Italy
By the end of August 1944, Allied forces had reached Pisa and Pesaro on each coast. As with the previous year, the advance then slowed greatly. The composition of the forces in Italy had changed again with the withdrawal of the French forces for the invasion of southern France, Operation Dragoon. The U.S. IV Corps had been activated to replace the French in Fifth Army. Eighth Army was composed of V, X and XIII Corps of the British forces, Canadian I Corps and Polish II Corps. However, during this period, XIII Corps was temporarily placed under the command of the U.S. Fifth Army.
Between August and December, the Eighth Army slowly progressed up the east coast. The Polish II Corps captured the important port-city of
After December, operations ground to a halt for the winter. The only major event that took place during this period was the removal of I Canadian Corps from the Italian front to reinforce
On 2 April 1945, the attack was launched and the advance was again slow at first.
By 20 April,
On 28 April, Mussolini and a group of fascist Italians were captured by
On 29 April, Marshal
The progress in May was rapid. The American forces mopped up in the upper Po Valley and captured Genoa, the Polish forces captured Bologna, and the British forces cleared the lower Po and reached the Yugoslav and Austrian borders.
On 2 May, the German forces in Italy capitulated. This occurred shortly before the main German surrender on 8 May.
The liberation of Europe
Operation Overlord
The
The British formations were assigned to the eastern end of the beachhead. The 6th Airborne Division landed to secure the eastern flank of the assault forces. The first Allied units in action were the glider-borne troops that assaulted
The United Kingdom was the main base for the operation and provided the majority of the naval power. Nearly eighty per cent of the bombarding and transporting warships were from the Royal Navy. Airpower for the operation was a more even divide. The United States contributed two air forces to the battle, the Eighth Air Force with strategic bombers, and the Ninth Air Force for tactical airpower. All the home commands of the RAF were involved in the operation. Coastal Command secured the English Channel against German naval vessels. Bomber Command had been engaged in reducing communications targets in France for several months to paralyse the movement of German reinforcements to the battle. It also directly supported the bombardment forces on the morning of the assault. Air Defence of the United Kingdom, the temporarily renamed Fighter Command, provided air superiority over the beachhead. The
The operation was a success. Both tactical[citation needed] and strategic surprise were achieved.
Most of the initial objectives for the day were not achieved, but a firm beachhead was established. It was gradually built up until offensive operations could begin in earnest. The first major success was the capture of Cherbourg.
In the east, the first major British objective was Caen, an extremely tough nut to crack. The battle for the city turned into a long drawn-out battle. It eventually fell in July.
Controversies
After the war Montgomery claimed that the battle for Normandy progressed largely as he had planned the operation at St. Paul's school in Fulham, London, supported by American generals, General Eisenhower, General Bradley and Australian war correspondent Chester Wilmott, amongst others. Eisenhower stated three years after the war in his memoirs, Crusade in Europe, that the plan "was never abandoned, even momentarily, throughout the campaign".[48] The basic plan was for the British to draw in, hold, and destroy German armor in the east, not acquiring territory, while the US forces in the lightly defended territory to the west built up their strength and break out in Operation Cobra.
Montgomery did not overly publicise some of the points of the plan for fear of lowering the morale of British troops, who would take on the brunt of the experienced German armored forces to allow American troops to break out. Montgomery understood that high morale facilitated superior battlefield performance, especially in non-regular soldiers.[49] The mix of forces in the British and Canadian ranks indicated this with great emphasis on tanks and vehicles. Prime minister Churchill asked why there was so many vehicles in relation to infantry troops in the British armies, as vehicles required a larger logistical backup, which diverts men away from fighting duties. Montgomery told Churchill every vehicle is needed and that he would not allow him to interrogate his staff on the matter, otherwise he would resign. Churchill wept and left the room.[50] Montgomery claimed that Eisenhower, although giving approval, did not fully understand the plan in detail as laid down in St. Paul's School.[51] General Bradley fully understood and confirmed Montgomery's original plan and intentions, writing:
- "The British and Canadian armies were to decoy the enemy reserves and draw them to their front on the extreme eastern edge of the Allied beachhead. Thus, while Monty taunted the enemy at Caen, we [the Americans] were to make our break on the long roundabout road to Paris. When reckoned in terms of national pride, this British decoy mission became a sacrificial one, for while we tramped around the outside flank, the British were to sit in place and pin down the Germans. Yet strategically it fitted into a logical division of labors, for it was towards Caen that the enemy reserves would race once the alarm was sounded".[52]
Post war a number of Americans authors argued that Montgomery's generalship was flawed and that the battle had to be fought differently from planned because Montgomery promised more than he could deliver. This was mainly based on that the British forces did not aggressively pursue territory.[53] Author and military officer Stephen Hart analysed the 21st Army Group in 1992 and finds that Montgomery's emphasis on the reduction of casualties which would maintain morale and a higher fighting performance in non-regular soldiers, which most soldiers were, were the primary influences on his operational conduct. Hart concludes that Montgomery was the most competent British general in Europe for he understood Britain's war aims. His concern with his units' morale was legitimate, recognizing that the British had an infantry manpower problem as emphasis was on armoured vehicles to counter superior German armour. Both factors influenced his handling of the 21st Army Group. Hart destroys the myth that Montgomery was unnecessarily cautious.[54]
Breakout from Normandy
The British and Canadian forces largely destroyed German armour in the east of Normandy allowing the American forces to break out in late July 1944 in Operation Cobra. Allied forces began an envelopment of the German forces remaining in Normandy. Hitler ordered a counter-attack on the seemingly vulnerable strip of territory that the US forces controlled on the Normandy coast, linking the First and Third Armies.
As American forces swept round to the south, British, Canadian and Polish forces pinned and then pushed the Germans from the north. A German pocket formed to the south of the town of Falaise when the two allied forces met. Up to 150,000 German soldiers were trapped and around 60,000 casualties were inflicted.
As arranged before the Normandy invasion, General Eisenhower took over as Ground Forces Command from Montgomery on 1 September, while Montgomery continued to command the British 21st Army Group, now consisting mainly of British and Canadian units.[55]
Following the Normandy battle there was little German resistance left in the west. British forces swept north entering Belgium on 2 September 1944,[56] while American forces swept east. Paris fell at the end of August 1944 to brigadier general Charles de Gaulle's Free French troops and American forces. By the end of September much of France had been liberated.
Logistical difficulties then caught up with the Allies as all supplies had to be transported from Normandy. Because of thinly-stretched supply lines, the American fast broad-front advance could not be sustained, grinding to a halt in
Riviera invasion
Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France in August 1944 was carried out almost entirely by American and Free French troops, though British naval forces took part in bombardment duties and air protection of the beachhead. The only British land forces to take part were the 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade. They landed without much opposition, and rapidly took their objectives. The quick success of the operation allowed them to be withdrawn from the line and redeployed to Greece where they were urgently needed to help quell the civil war.
Operation Market Garden
Montgomery and Eisenhower had long been debating the merits of a broad front attack strategy versus concentrating power in one area and punching through German lines. Eisenhower favoured the former, and Montgomery the latter. However, in late 1944, logistic problems meant that the former was temporarily out of the question. Montgomery conceived Operation Market Garden to implement a narrow front strategy. The idea was to land airborne forces in the Netherlands to take vital bridges over the country's various rivers. Armoured formation would then relieve the airborne forces and advance quickly into Germany.[57]
American paratroops were dropped at intermediate points north of Allied lines, with the
The 1st Airborne Division held the Arnhem bridge for four days, and had a large force over the river for a total of nine days, before finally withdrawing in a daring night escape back over the Rhine. Of the more than 10,000 men who flew into the Arnhem operation, only about 2,000 returned. 1st Airborne Division was essentially finished as a fighting formation for the duration of the war without having achieved the original objective.
In the aftermath of the attack, the salient's flanks were expanded to complete the closing up to the Rhine in that section of the front.
Walcheren
Following Market Garden, the great port of Antwerp had been captured. However, it lay at the end of a long river estuary, and so it could not be used until its approaches were clear. The southern bank of the Scheldt was cleared by Canadian and Polish forces relatively quickly, but the thorny problem of the island of Walcheren remained.
Walcheren guarded the northern approaches to Antwerp and thus had to be stormed. The dikes and dunes were bombed at three locations,
Battle of the Bulge
After December 1944, the strategy was to complete the conquest of the Rhineland and prepare to break into Germany proper en masse. However, what happened next completely caught the Allied staffs by surprise.[59]
The Germans launched their last great offensive in December, resulting in the Battle of the Bulge. In an attempt to repeat their 1940 success, German forces were launched through the Ardennes. Again they encountered weak forces holding the front, as the American formations there were either new to the war or exhausted units on a quiet sector of the front rehabilitating. There were however also some important differences to 1940 which resulted in the German offensive ultimately failing. They were facing enormously strong Allied airpower unlike in 1940 when they had ruled the skies. The opening of the offensive was timed for a spell of bad weather, aimed at removing the threat of the Allied airpower, but the weather cleared again relatively soon.
Most of the forces that took part in the Battle of the Bulge were American. Some great feats of staff work resulted in the
By the end of January, the salient had effectively been reduced back to its former size, and the temporarily aborted mission of liberating the Rhineland recommenced. First Army returned to 12th Army Group, but Ninth Army remained under the control of 21st Army Group for the time being.
Crossing the Rhine and final surrender
The penultimate preliminary operation to close up to the
Following the reaching of the Roer, Second Army shifted to the mission of pinning German forces opposing it. Ninth Army in Operation Grenade and First Army in Operation Veritable began a great pincer movement to destroy the remaining German forces west of the Rhine. The only British forces to take part in the main part of this offensive was XXX Corps, which was part of First Army.
By 5 March 1945, British Empire and American forces had closed up to the Rhine in all but a small salient on their sectors of the front. That salient was reduced by five days later.
On 23 March, the operations to cross the Rhine in the north began. The British Second and
By 18 April, First Army had reached the coast in much of the
The Far East
On 7/8 December 1941, the
Disaster in Malaya and Singapore
The outbreak of war in the Far East found the United Kingdom critically overstretched. British forces in the area were weak in almost all arms. On 8 December 1941, the Japanese launched invasions of Thailand, Malaya and Hong Kong.
On 10 December 1941, the first major setback to British power in the region was the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse by Japanese land-based planes. The sinking of these ships was triply significant. It represented the loss of the last Allied capital ships in the Pacific left after the Pearl Harbor disaster. The Prince of Wales and the Repulse were the only Allied modern or 'fast' battleships to be sunk in the entire war. It was the first time that a battleship had been sunk by enemy aircraft while underway at sea.[62]
Reverses in the air and on the ground soon followed. Japanese forces had naval superiority, and they used it to make outflanking amphibious landings as they advanced down the Malayan peninsula towards Singapore. Japanese assaults from the ground and air soon made the forward landing grounds that much of the RAF's only real hope of defending Singapore from the air rested upon untenable. The RAF took a toll of Japanese forces, but there were never enough aircraft to do anything more than delay the Japanese offensive. Indian, British, and Australian army forces in Malaya were larger in numbers than the other services. But they were equally ill-prepared and ill-led. They were committed in numbers both too small and too poorly positioned to counter the Japanese tactic of outflanking strongpoints through the jungle. Over a period of several weeks, the Allied ground forces steadily gave ground.
In early 1942, Singapore was critically unprepared for the assault that came. It had been neglected during the famine years for defence of the 1930s. It had then suffered during the war as British efforts were focused on defeating Germany and Italy. The colony was run by a Governor who did not want to "upset" the civilian population. Military neglect was exacerbated when he refused to allow defensive preparations before the Japanese arrived.[63]
Following Japanese landings on Singapore, intense fighting occurred over several days. But the poorly led and increasingly disorganised Allied forces were steadily driven into a small pocket on the island.
On 15 February 1942, General
Burma Campaign
The Burma Campaign pitted forces from the British Commonwealth, China, and United States forces against the forces of the Empire of Japan, Thailand and the Indian National Army.
In Burma, Commonwealth ground forces came primarily from the United Kingdom, British India (which included present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh), East Africa, West Africa and Nepal (Gurkhas).[64][page needed][65] The British Commonwealth air and naval units and personnel deployed were primarily from the UK, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada.
Forced out of Burma
In Burma, the Japanese attacked in January, 1942 – shortly after the outbreak of war. However, they did not begin to make real progress until the fall of Malaya (31 January 1942) and of Singapore (February, 1942). After that, Tokyo could transfer large numbers of aircraft to the Burma front to overwhelm the Allied forces.
The first Japanese attacks were aimed at taking
By the start of March, Japanese forces had cut the British forces in two. Rangoon was evacuated and the port demolished. Its garrison then broke through the Japanese lines thanks to an error on the part of the Japanese commander. The British commander in Burma, Lieutenant General Sir
With the fall of Rangoon, a British evacuation of Burma became inevitable. Supplies could not be moved to maintain fighting forces in Burma on a large scale, since the ground communications were dreadful, sea communications risky in the extreme (along with the fact that there was only one other port of any size in Burma besides Rangoon) and air communications out of the question due to lack of transport aircraft.
Besides the Japanese superiority in training and experience, command problems beset the Burma campaign. The
The problems with the Chinese were never satisfactorily resolved. However, after the dissolution of ABDA, India retained control of operations in Burma until the formation of
Burcorps retreated almost constantly, and suffered several disastrous losses, but it eventually managed to reach India in May 1942, just before the monsoon broke. Had it still been in Burma after the monsoon broke, it would have been cut off, and likely destroyed by the Japanese. The divisions making up Burcorps were withdrawn from the line for long refit periods.
Forgotten army
Operations in Burma over the remainder of 1942 and in 1943 were a study of military frustration. The United Kingdom could only just maintain three active campaigns, and immediate offensives in both the Middle East and Far East proved impossible due to lack of resources. The Middle East won out, being closer to home and a campaign against the far more dangerous Germans.
During the 1942–1943 dry season, two operations were mounted. The first was a small scale offensive into the
Under the command of Major General Orde Wingate, the Chindits in 1944 penetrated deep behind enemy lines in an attempt to gain intelligence, break communications and cause confusion. The operation had originally been conceived as part of a much larger offensive, which had to be aborted due to lack of supplies and shipping. Almost all of the original reasons for mounting the Chindit operation were then invalid. Nevertheless, it was mounted anyway.[67]
Some 3,000 men entered Burma in many columns. They caused damage to Japanese communications, and they gathered intelligence. However, they suffered dreadful casualties, with only two thirds of the men who set out on the expedition returning. Those that returned were wracked with disease and quite often in dreadful physical condition. The most important contributions of the Chindits to the war were unexpected. They had had to be supplied by air. At first it had been thought impossible to drop supplies over the jungle. Emergency situations that arose during the operation necessitated supply drops in the jungle, proving it was possible. It is also alleged by some that the Japanese in Burma decided to take the offensive, rather than adopt a purely defensive stance, as a direct result of the Chindit operation. Whatever the reason for this later change to the offensive, it was to prove fatal for the Japanese in Burma.
Kohima and Imphal
As the 1943–44 dry period dawned, both sides were preparing to take the offensive. The
In Arakan, a British advance began on the XV Corps front. However, a Japanese counter-attack halted the advance and threatened to destroy the forces making it. Unlike during previous operations, the British forces stood firm, and were supplied from the air. The resulting Battle of Ngakyedauk Pass saw a heavy defeat handed to the Japanese. With the possibility of aerial supply, their infiltration tactics, relying on units carrying their own supplies and hoping to capture enemy victuals were fatally compromised.[68]
On the central front, IV Corps advanced into Burma, before indications that a major Japanese offensive was building caused it to retreat on Kohima and Imphal. Forward elements of the corps were nearly cut off by Japanese forces, but eventually made it back to India. As they waited for the storm to break, the British forces were not to know that the successful defence of the two cities would be the turning point of the entire campaign in south East Asia. HQ XXXIII Corps was rushed forward to help control matters at the front and the two corps settled down for a long siege.
The Japanese threw themselves repeatedly against the defences of the two strong points, in the battles of Imphal and Kohima, but could not break through. At times the supply situation was perilous, but never totally critical. It came down to a battle of attrition, and the British forces could simply afford to fight that kind of battle for longer. In the end, the Japanese ran out of supplies, and suffered large casualties. They broke and fled back into Burma, pursued by elements of Fourteenth Army.
Burma retaken
The recapture of Burma took place during late 1944 and the first half of 1945. Command of the British formations on the front was rearranged in November 1944. 11th Army Group was replaced with
Some of the first operations to recapture Burma took place in Arakan. To gain bases for the aircraft necessary to supply Fourteenth Army in its attack through the heart of the country, two offshore islands,
Fourteenth Army made the main thrust to destroy Japanese forces in Burma. The Army had IV and XXXIII Corps under its command. The plan envisaged that XXXIII Corps would reduce Mandalay and act as a diversion for the main striking force of IV Corps, which would take Meiktila and thus cut the Japanese communications. The plan succeeded extremely well, and Japanese forces in Upper Burma were effectively reduced to scattered and unorganised pockets. Slim's men then advanced south towards the Burmese capital.
Following the taking of Rangoon in May 1945 some Japanese forces remained in Burma, but it was effectively a large mopping up operation.
Malaya
The next major campaign was planned to be the liberation of Malaya. This was to involve an amphibious assault on the western side of Malaya codenamed Operation Zipper. The dropping of the atomic bombs in August 1945 forestalled Zipper, though some of its landings took place after the Japanese capitulation of 15 August 1945 as the quickest way of getting occupation troops into Malaya. Under Operation Jurist, Penang was retaken on 2 September 1945, while the Japanese garrison in Singapore formally surrendered on 12 September under Operation Tiderace.[69] The rest of Malaya was liberated over the following weeks.[70]
Okinawa and Japan
In their final actions of the war, substantial British naval forces took part in the
During the final strikes against Japan, British forces operated as an integral part of the American task force.
Only a small British naval force was present for Japan's surrender. Most British forces had been withdrawing to base to prepare for Operation Coronet, the second part of the massive invasion of Japan.
The air war
Battle of Britain: 1940
The "Battle of Britain" in the autumn of 1940 involved German plans for an invasion called Operation Sea Lion. First the Luftwaffe began operations to destroy the Royal Air Force (RAF). At first the Germans focused on RAF airfields and radar stations. However, when the RAF bomber forces (quite separate from the fighter forces) attacked Berlin, Hitler swore revenge and diverted the Luftwaffe to attacks on London. Using the Luftwaffe's limited resources to attack civilians instead of airfields and radar proved a major mistake. The success the Luftwaffe was having in rapidly wearing down the RAF was squandered, as the civilians being hit were far less critical than the airfields and radar stations that were now ignored. London was not a factory city and British aircraft production was not impeded; indeed it went up. The last German daylight raid came on 30 September; the Luftwaffe realized it was taking unacceptable losses and broke off the attack; occasional blitz raids hit London and other cities from time. In all some 43,000 civilians were killed. The Luftwaffe lost 1733 planes, the British, 915. The British victory resulted from more concentration, better radar, and better ground control.[71]
Strategic bombing theory
The British had their own very well-developed theory of strategic bombing, and built the long-range bombers to implement it.[72] Before 1944, however, the main German industrial targets were out of range, so the RAF bombers concentrated on military and transportation targets in France and Belgium.[73][74] The Allies won air supremacy in Europe in 1944.[75] That meant that Allied supplies and reinforcements would get through to the battlefront, but not the enemy's. It meant the Allies could concentrate their strike forces wherever they pleased, and overwhelm the enemy with a preponderance of firepower. This was the basic Allied strategy, and it worked. Air superiority depended on having the fastest, most maneuverable fighters, in sufficient quantity, based on well-supplied airfields, within range. The RAF demonstrated the importance of speed and maneuverability in the Battle of Britain (1940), when its fast Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane fighters easily riddled the clumsy Stukas as they were pulling out of dives. The race to build the fastest fighter became one of the central themes of World War II.
Expansion of the RAF
The RAF underwent rapid expansion following the outbreak of war against Germany in 1939. This was aided by the Ottawa Agreement (also known as the Riverdale Agreement, after its chair,
Another 43 squadrons were formed during the war out of aircrews from
Combined bomber offensive
The combined bomber offensive was born out of the need to strike back at Germany during the years when the United Kingdom had no forces on the continent of Europe. Initially the bomber forces available for attacks were small, and the rules of engagement were so restricted that any attacks that were made were mostly ineffective. However, once France had fallen in the summer of 1940 that began to change.[76][77][78][79]
During and after the Battle of Britain, bomber forces pounded the invasion fleets assembling in channel ports. However, they also flew a raid against Berlin after German bombs had fallen on London. The attack on Berlin by Bomber Command so enraged Hitler that he ordered the deliberate and systematic targeting of British cities in revenge. Throughout 1941, the size of the raids launched by Bomber Command slowly grew. However, due to the German defences raids could only generally be flown at night, and the navigational technology of the time simply did not allow even a large city to be accurately located.
The entry of America into the war in December 1941 did not initially change much. However, what did alter matters was the appointment of Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Bomber Command in early 1942. Harris was a zealous advocate of the area bombing of German cities. He put a new fire and drive into the operations of Bomber Command. During the summer of 1942, the first 1,000 bomber raids were launched on German cities. However, at that time, such large numbers of aircraft could only be put over the target by stripping training units of their aircraft temporarily.
Other important advances occurred in the technical field. The first navigation aid,
By early 1943, American forces were beginning to build up in large numbers in the UK. Bomber Command was joined in its bombing efforts by the Eighth Air Force. Where Bomber Command operated by night, the Eighth flew by day. Raids were often coordinated so that the same target was hit twice within 24 hours. Hamburg was the victim of one of the most destructive air raids in history during 1943. The city was easy to find using radar, being located on the distinctively shaped Elbe estuary. It was devastated in a large raid that ignited a firestorm and killed some 50,000 people.
The destruction of Hamburg was not to be repeated during the rest of 1943 and 1944. During that winter, Berlin was attacked a large number of times, with heavy losses being sustained by Bomber Command. A further force also joined the fray, with the Fifteenth Air Force and No. 205 Group RAF beginning to fly from Italy. During early 1944, the emphasis began to change. As the invasion of France drew closer, the independent role of the bomber forces was considerably reduced, and eventually were placed under the direction of General Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force. Harris and his American counterparts fought hard against being placed under Eisenhower, but they eventually lost.
Bomber Command heavily bombed targets in France and helped to paralyse the transport system of the country in time for the launching of Operation Overlord on 6 June 1944. Following Overlord, further direct support was provided to the troop, but Harris eventually succeeded in detaching his command from Eisenhower's control. The striking of German cities resumed.
By the winter of 1944, the power of the British and American bomber forces had grown enormously. It was now routine for 1,000 bomber raids to be mounted by both American and British forces flying from the UK. American forces flying from Italy could also put several hundred aircraft above a target. Accuracy had improved, but it was still nowhere near good enough for 'precision bombing' in the modern sense of the term. Precision was not a single building, it was at best a district of a city. The RAF and American AAF dropped two million tons of high explosives bombs on 60 German cities, killing more than half a million citizens (many of them prisoners forced to work in German munitions factories), and leaving 80,000 airmen dead.[80]
As the amount of territory controlled by German forces decreased, the task of Bomber Command became somewhat easier, as more friendly territory was overflown during missions. The German night fighter defences were also reducing in strength due to the crippling of Germany's fuel supplies by American bombing of synthetic oil plants. There remained one last great controversy during the war which would blacken the name of Bomber Command and surpass the firestorm of Hamburg in both destruction and casualties.
In February 1945, as Soviet forces closed in on the German city of
Bomber Command was destined to play no further large part in the war. A large number of RAF bombers were being prepared for deployment to
Airfields
See also
- Air warfare of World War II
- British Army during the Second World War
- British Army Groups in WWII
- British Armies in WWII
- British Corps in World War II
- British Divisions in WWII
- British brigades of the Second World War
- British Empire divisions in the Second World War
- British Empire in World War II
- Civil Resettlement Units
- Demobilisation of the British Armed Forces after the Second World War
- Destroyers for Bases Agreement
- History of the British Army
- History of the Royal Air Force
- History of the Royal Navy
- Lend-Lease
- Military history of Britain
- Military production during World War II
- Military structures
- Political Warfare Executive
- Royal Sussex Regiment
- Special forces
- Auxiliary Units
- British Commandos
- Chindits
- Long Range Desert Group
- Special Air Service
- Technology during World War II
- Timeline of the United Kingdom home front during World War II
- United Kingdom-United States relations in World War II
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{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ Stephen Bungay, The Most Dangerous Enemy: The Definitive History of the Battle of Britain (2010)
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{{cite web}}
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- ^ Andrew Roberts, The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War (2011) p. lxviii
Further reading
- Allport, Alan. Britain at Bay: The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1938–1941 (2020)
- Butler, J.R.M. et al. Grand Strategy (6 vol 1956–60), official overview of the British war effort; Volume 1: Rearmament Policy; Volume 2: September 1939 – June 1941; Volume 3, Part 1: June 1941 – August 1942; Volume 3, Part 2: June 1941 – August 1942; Volume 4: September 1942 – August 1943; Volume 5: August 1943 – September 1944; Volume 6: October 1944 – August 1945
- Churchill, Winston. The Second World War (6 vol 1947–51), classic personal history with many documents
- Edgerton, David. Britain's War Machine: Weapons, Resources, and Experts in the Second World War (Oxford University Press; 2011) 445 pages
- Harrison, Mark Medicine and Victory: British Military Medicine in the Second World War (2004). ISBN 0-19-926859-2
- Hastings, Max. Winston's War: Churchill, 1940–1945 (2010)
- Roberts, Andrew. Masters and Commanders – How Roosevelt, Churchill, Marshall and Alanbrooke Won the War in the West (2008)
- Schneer, Jonathan. Ministers at War: Winston Churchill and His War Cabinet (2015).
- Todman, Daniel. Britain's War: Into Battle, 1937-1941 (2016) 848pp
Army
- Allport, Alan. Browned Off and Bloody-Minded: The British Soldier Goes to War, 1939-1945 (Yale UP, 2015)
- Atkinson, Rick. The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943–1944 (2008) excerpt and text search
- Buckley, John. British Armour in the Normandy Campaign 1944 (2004)
- D'Este, Carlo. Decision in Normandy: The Unwritten Story of Montgomery and the Allied Campaign (1983). ISBN 0-00-217056-6.
- Ellis, L.F. The War in France and Flanders, 1939–1940 (HMSO, 1953) online
- Ellis, L.F. Victory in the West, Volume 1: Battle of Normandy (HMSO, 1962)
- Ellis, L.F. Victory in the West, Volume 2: Defeat of Germany (HMSO, 1968)
- Fraser, David. And We Shall Shock Them: The British Army in World War II (1988). ISBN 978-0-340-42637-1
- Graham, Dominick. Tug of War: The Battle for Italy 1943–1945 (2004)
- Hamilton, Nigel. Monty: The Making of a General: 1887–1942 (1981); Master of the Battlefield: Monty's War Years 1942–1944 (1984); Monty: The Field-Marshal 1944–1976 (1986).
- Lamb, Richard. War In Italy, 1943–1945: A Brutal Story (1996)
- Thompson, Julian. The Imperial War Museum Book of the War in Burma 1942–1945 (2004)
- Sebag-Montefiore, Hugh. Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man (2008)
- Barnett, Corelli. Engage the Enemy More Closely: The Royal Navy in the Second World War (1991)
- Marder, Arthur. Old Friends, New Enemies: The Royal Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy, vol. 2: The Pacific War, 1942–1945 with Mark Jacobsen and John Horsfield (1990)
- Roskill, S. W. The White Ensign: British Navy at War, 1939–1945 (1960). summary
- Roskill, S. W. War at Sea 1939–1945, Volume 1: The Defensive London: HMSO, 1954; War at Sea 1939–1945, Volume 2: The Period of Balance, 1956; War at Sea 1939–1945, Volume 3: The Offensive, Part 1, 1960; War at Sea 1939–1945, Volume 3: The Offensive, Part 2, 1961. online vol 1; online vol 2
Air war
- Bungay, Stephen. The Most Dangerous Enemy: The Definitive History of the Battle of Britain (2nd ed. 2010)
- Collier, Basil. Defence of the United Kingdom (HMSO, 1957) online
- Fisher, David E, A Summer Bright and Terrible: Winston Churchill, Lord Dowding, Radar, and the Impossible Triumph of the Battle of Britain (2005) excerpt online
- Hastings, Max. Bomber Command (1979)
- Hansen, Randall. Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany, 1942–1945 (2009)
- Hough, Richard and Denis Richards. The Battle of Britain (1989) 480 pp
- Messenger, Charles, "Bomber" Harris and the Strategic Bombing Offensive, 1939–1945 (1984), defends Harris
- Overy, Richard. The Battle of Britain: The Myth and the Reality (2001) 192 pages excerpt and text search
- Richards, Dennis, et al. Royal Air Force, 1939–1945: The Fight at Odds – Vol. 1 (HMSO 1953), official history vol 1 online edition Archived 6 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine vol 2 online edition Archived 6 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine; vol 3 online edition
- Shores, Christopher F. Air War for Burma: The Allied Air Forces Fight Back in South-East Asia 1942–1945 (2005)
- Terraine, John. A Time for Courage: The Royal Air Force in the European War, 1939–1945 (1985)
- Verrier, Anthony. The Bomber Offensive (1969), British
- Webster, Charles and Noble Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, 1939–1945 (HMSO, 1961), 4 vol. Important official British history
- Wood, Derek, and Derek D. Dempster. The Narrow Margin: The Battle of Britain and the Rise of Air Power 1930–40 (1975) online edition