The Battle of Britain Essay

By acknowledging the potential military disaster, catalyzed by another country, Churchill emphasizes the significance of the successful withdrawal of his troops, inspiring a sense of immense nationalism and pride in his audience. He perfectly seizes the opportunity before him, as he knew that he had to stir his people to rise up and rebuild in order to win his war. Churchill’s ultimate goal was to keep fighting until either his country was destroyed or had vanquished his enemies, and this escape, solely due to German error, provided a chance to bring the British to victory. He knew the situation was still dire for him and his country. The British were vastly outnumbered, and the loss of the Belgian army dealt a blow to the Allies. The speech was meant to prime the British people for what was to come

In Winston Churchill’s speech, ‘We Shall Fight On the Beaches’ he presents a powerful call to action directly to the British House of Commons in the year of 1940 on the forth of June. Winston uses the techniques of figurative language to capture his audience’s attention in a way they could understand the importance of his message, without disregarding his high level of intellect. In order for one to truly understand Churchill’s message one must understand the difficult task he was coined with prior to delivering this powerful message.

Document 2 shows how society had to change itself in order to deal with the war. In the speech by Churchill, he constantly talks about how urgent the battle is, dropping heavy weights on the people by warning them that failure will result in a “Dark Age.” It’s important to consider that this speech is written for the British citizens, so although it has a sense of urgency, it is supposed to be comforting to the audience and to ensure that they don’t lose their way. Through the speech, however, he does make heavy claims, telling the citizens to “stand up” and “brace ourselves to our duties” although no one is prepared to make these changes, should the attacks happen. The heavy burdens put upon the British people are finally seen in the picture in Document 4, with dozens of children huddled up in a shelter for Christmas. Christmas is usually supposed to be a close, quiet, time with family, but instead the effects of the war have forced people to change their traditions and make a compromise: celebrate underground due to the havocs of war. The immediate impacts of the war clearly made the British citizens uncomfortable, yet they were pushed into taking action by the government and their own need for

Britain knew that they could not longer prolong their role as the major influence in Europe, a role they had played for nearly 200 years. They needed one of their strong allies that would maintain their ‘Western' views, and that ally was America. In a hurricane of events of diplomacy and politics, author Don Cook described it as: "the most crowded and decisive peacetime years of the century"(3). This chain of events led to the formation of the North Atlantic

Secondly, militarism is the next to fall. As seen in Document C it is clear that the army

The Battle of Britain as a Turning Point in the Defeat of German in World War Two

In this essay I will explain why I think The Battle of Britain was the

On the 1st of August 1940, Hitler gave this official order, “The German Air Force is to overcome the British Air Force with all means at its disposal, and as soon as possible.”(Shirer, William L. The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich) This order was suppose to set Germany up for Operation Sealion. The Battle of Britain was Hitler’s next step in world domination.

On May 13, 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave one of his popular speeches called Blood, Toils, Tears, and Sweat. This speech encouraged hundreds of people to stay strong during the time of Hitler and his Nazis. During his speech, he kept things logical and straightforward to try and keep his people calm. WW11 took many lives and Churchill couldn’t figure out if he wanted Britain to fight or not. But then he told his people this: “Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength”(Parkinson).

Churchill helped lead a successful allied strategy with the USA and the Soviet Union to defeat

Secondly, Churchill also reflected upon Britain’s past and used events that defined them. “Therefore, we must regard the next week or so as a very important period in our history. It ranks with the days when the Spanish Armada was approaching the Channel, and Drake was finishing his game of bowls; or when Nelson stood between us and Napoleon 's Grand Army at Boulogne.” This passage is because he reflected upon some of the greatest accomplishments that the British went through. By reflecting on the past Churchill motivated the British people to look at themselves and compare themselves to the people who went through these situations. He allowed them to reflect on how these individuals were brave and resilient, and how they won despite the odds against them. That in such remarkable situations, little Britain won . In addition, Churchill through this passage compared the German army and air force to the Spanish Armada and Napoleon’s army. He implies that even at their grandiose scale the British people of the past defeated them easily . Therefore, when Churchill looking at these past events, he implied that England was already at an advantage because they previously defeated the great Spanish Armada and Napoleon and his grand troop, so in essence Germany, in his mind, could be easily defeated too.

In addition even if Hitler had achieved his aim of destroying the RAF, Germany might still have failed to establish a foothold after any invasion, because the British Royal Navy was enormously strong, and very capable of repulsing German troop ships. Suppression of the British air force would have been the first difficult step to a German victory, but it was not the only factor, and the British would have found they had plenty more tricks up their sleeve. There was nothing to stop them from withdrawing their aircraft northwards, out of range of the German fighters, if they started to lose the air battle, keeping the aircraft in reserve to counter an attempted German invasion. The combatants

Winston Churchill’s “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” speech is arguably one of the most memorable and inspirational speeches by a top leader in the Second World War. Churchill delivered the speech to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on June 4, 1940, approximately four weeks after he was made prime minister of Great Britain. The speech itself was a report for the House of Commons on how the warfront proceeded, regarding all aspects of the British armed forces. Prior to the speech, Britain had suffered a major military loss in France and Belgium, after assisting Belgian people to defend their country from German intrusion. Unfortunately, the British’s attempt to protect Belgium was unsuccessful as King Leopold of Belgium later surrendered to Nazi Germany, leaving thousands of French and British soldiers stranded at the harbour of Dunkirk in northern France.

Despite great efforts, Hitler seemed to be an unbeatable force. This was the mindset which much of Europe unfortunately succumbed to during WW2. Churchill’s speech “So Few” was made to address this very mind set and dash its validity, but not before addressing the sound reasoning behind it. Churchill is able to use logic to explain the issue of Hitler’s army to his people, for one must first know his enemy before he is able to defeat him. He is then able to articulate the strategy by which they shall overcome the enemy. While presenting the

In order to fully understand how Britain’s decision to go to war against Germany is best explained one must engage into the debate revolving around the question of the extent to which Britain and other countries were responsible for causing war. This helps explain the intention Britain had for war which is vital in understanding their decision making process to cause war in the first place. Some schools of thought have come to the conclusion that it was everybody or nobody- the continent “slithered over the brink into the boiling cauldron of war without any trace of apprehension or dismay.”1 That analysis will be considered in this essay as will the widespread thesis that it was Germany’s aggression which not only created the preconditions for war, but also triggered Britain into war with the political imbalance of power being created from the growing naval and colonial expansion of Germany. Other factors that help explain why Britain went to war against Germany