World War 2: The Most Important Events Of World War II

by King, Tom

  Dunkirk

  After war was officially declared between Germany, Great Britain, France, and eventually the Soviet Union, many other countries rushed to take sides. Several powerful nations - including Italy, Belgium, Spain, and the U.S. - immediately declared their neutrality, unwilling to become involved in another war so soon after the last one. With many countries understandably hesitant to get involved, Hitler was free to follow his warpath, leaving death and casualties in his wake. Unfortunately, France was one of the first nations on his list, though the defeat of several smaller countries had to come first.

  Beginning with the low countries, Germany first targeted the Netherlands and sent its forces in by parachute, targeting key bridges and roadways to aid with mobilizing its own ground troops. By May 13, Queen Wilhelmina and her government left the Netherlands, leaving the Dutch people with no choice but to surrender to the Germans. Incredibly, German troops were invading Belgium at the same time, landing in several key areas of the nation on May 10th. As quickly as the following day the Belgian front was broken, allowing the Germans to push through and force the British and French armies back. Before long, Germany had control of the lower countries, which allowed the nation to focus entirely on conquering France. Though the French army was supported by the British, the Germans were a formidable foe and promised a fearsome battle.

  The German invasion of France began with the Germans successfully acquiring the southeastern border of Belgium, which was quickly followed by their access to the Franco-Belgian border, overlooking the Meuse River, on May 12. One particularly important aspect of the German invasion was the nation’s early advance through the Ardennes forest, led by General Paul Ludwig von Kleist. This advance allowed the German army to surround and effectively cut off the Allied troops, and though the Allied army attempted several counter-offensive maneuvers, they were never quite successful. Unfortunately, the lack of French troops simply made a counter-attack impossible; the German army was far too strong. With what seemed like a limitless supply of infantry available to relieve their soldiers, the Germans were capable of overwhelming ground that the French did not have definitively covered. Thus, the Germans quickly overwhelmed various areas of France, giving the French troops reason to fear for the survival of their nation. The Germans marching across Aisne on May 15 was particularly terrifying for the French, especially the French commander-in-chief, Maurice Gamelin, because it meant that Paris was in danger. France did not have enough troops to cover Aisne, and they knew that Germany’s presence in the area meant that Paris could be compromised. In response, the French Premier, Paul Reynaud, decided it would be safest to move the capital from Paris to Tours, worried that the Germans had advanced far enough to threaten the safety of the capital. When more accurate reports of the front reached Reynaud, however, he realized that moving Paris to Tours was a mistake and the Germans were not making as much progress as they professed. Irritated that France’s commander-in-chief had prematurely raised the alarm, Reynaud took advantage of the opportunity to remove Gamelin from his position, sending for General Maxime Weygand from Syria to replace Gamelin as commander-in-chief. Meanwhile, Reynaud informed the people that the decision to move Paris to Tours had been an absurd rumor, hoping to dispel any concerns and maintain whatever morale remained. However, France’s situation was still dire, particularly because Gamelin’s replacement, Weygand, would not arrive in France until May 19th, leaving the Supreme Command without direction for three full days.

  Then, in the next major stage of the German invasion, German troops raced for the English Channel, cutting off Allied forces in Belgium and making their way quickly across France. Advance troops managed to cross Oise on May 17, reaching Amiens two days later and then arriving at Abbeville by the 20th, which effectively managed to block communication between northern and southern France. With Germany’s motorized divisions forming a defensive flank along the line of their conquest, it was nearly impossible for the Allies to break through, forcing the Allies to surrender or retreat to the coast. Though John Gort, the commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Forces, wanted to retreat by water, he was ordered to take his troops south and fight long range against the Germans. Unfortunately, with his limited resources, Gort could not easily launch an offensive, leaving him with only two divisions in Arras to use for an attack. In spite of their limited resources, the Allies decided to launch the offensive in Arras anyway, beginning on May 21st and managing to do some serious damage on the Germans in the short duration of the offensive. Apparently British light tanks held up well to German antitank weapons, and the resilience of this small operation momentarily shook German High Command. The efforts of the offensive at Arras, however, were not enough to do any long-lasting damage. Before long, the Allied forces in the north were rushing to the English Channel to retreat, though whether or not they would make it to the coast before the Germans arrived was another question.

  After the Belgians sued for armistice on May 27th, Weygand made one last attempt to salvage the situation in France and sent troops to fill the crack that the Germans broke through the Allied defensive line, but it was too late. The German army could not be stopped. Unfortunately, Weygand’s efforts were also partly thwarted by his outdated tactics and inability to keep up with the new terms and technology of the Second World War. This led many soldiers to believe that Weygand was ill-prepared to lead in the second war, a belief that was never really remedied over the course of the war.

  Even before Belgium’s fall and Weygand’s final attempt to hold the line, the British prepared to launch Operation Dynamo, a final operation which would evacuate the British Expeditionary Forces and other Allied troops by sea from Dunkirk. Both the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy were assigned to cover the fleeing troops and keep the Germans at bay, but in spite of the assistance, most people assumed that the operation would be only 25% successful at best. Bertram Ramsay had overall command of the operation, and William Tennant had tactical oversight. When Tennant arrived in Dunkirk on May 27 to assess the situation, however, he was met with distress. The Luftwaffe had managed to destroy all of the port’s facilities, leaving the retreating soldiers with minimal resources for evacuation. Thus, Tennant quickly called upon all manner of ships or boats available to help, taking everything from the British Navy’s destroyers and battleships to civilian yachts and fishing boats. Tennant also determined that using Dunkirk’s eastern breakwater for picking up the troops would be less time consuming than having the ships retrieve troops from the beach, and this effort indeed saved a considerable amount of time during the evacuation. Of the 330,000 troops evacuated during Operation Dynamo, 200,000 used the eastern breakwater to board the ships, while the rest had to be picked up from the beach.

  Beginning on May 26, the evacuation of the Allied troops from Dunkirk was finally complete on June 4th, with Tennant radioing in the initial completion of the evacuation on June 2nd. After Tennant radioed Ramsay at the Doer post for Operation Dynamo, saying the BEF had officially been evacuated, the final commanders conducted a last roundup for any straggling soldiers and officially declared the evacuation complete on June 4th. Overall, 198,000 BEF troops and 140,000 Allied troops, mostly French soldiers, were evacuated by the end of Operation Dynamo. Since the British imperial staff had expected less than 25% of the troops in France to be successfully evacuated from Dunkirk, the resulting 330,000 rescued troops was a significant victory for Britain and far exceeded everyone’s expectations for Operation Dynamo.

  Ironically, the primary person who brought about the miracle of Dunkirk was Hitler himself, who called his troops back the moment they were set to invade Dunkirk. There are several reasons cited for this unusual decision, starting with Hitler’s overestimation of the British fight at Arres, which meant that he relocated an unnecessary amount of troops to the Arres front when the Allied forces there managed to hold up as well as they did. Another reason cited was voiced by one of Hitler’s highest generals, General Gerd von Rundstedt, who reminde
d Hitler that Germany needed to conserve armored divisions for the next stage of battle, making a pursuit of fleeing soldiers an unnecessary waste for the Germans. Additionally, the German air force commander insisted that he could handle the troops at Dunkirk with his squadron alone, allowing Germany’s ground troops to be deployed elsewhere. Hitler also had personal experience with the marshy lands of the north, and he feared that sending a ground force into Dunkirk would result in a giant mess of stuck tanks and lost resources. Lastly, some of Hitler’s closest generals claimed that Hitler intentionally allowed the Allied troops to escape at Dunkirk, believing that the British would only make peace with Germany in the end if they were not forced to disgracefully surrender. Regardless of the reason, Hitler made it possible for the Allied troops at Dunkirk to retreat to England almost without any interference from the Germans. It was a significant win for the Allies.

  In spite of the miracle of Dunkirk, however, the reality of the situation could not be ignored; Dunkirk was still a retreat and still represented significant defeat for the British. While many troops were saved, all of their weapons and supplies had to be left behind on the beaches, leaving the soldiers with little to use in later battles. Additionally, 50,000 troops were captured or killed leading up to the evacuation, and most of those captured would remain in German prisoner of war camps until the war officially ended several years later.

  The Battle of Britain

  Shortly after Germany defeated France in June of 1940 and the miracle of Dunkirk had taken place, Hitler targeted southern England with a major air campaign that he hoped would lower the nation’s defenses. Though he originally assumed that the British would want to make a peace settlement with Germany once the French were defeated, Hitler soon discovered that the British were determined to keep fighting, making it necessary for him to target the homeland if he hoped to get them to surrender. Thus, Hitler put his air campaign in motion, intending to secure the air over southern England before conducting an amphibious invasion to overwhelm the nation’s coast. Titled Operation Sealion, the amphibious invasion would hopefully result in British surrender, ending Germany’s war with Britain and allowing the Germans to focus all of their attention on the Soviet Union. But in order for any of that to happen, Hitler had to take out the British Royal Air Force first, and that was no small feat.

  The British Royal Air Force, or the RAF, was developed in 1918 as an independent branch of the British air force. Though the branch started out small and took it’s time growing, the RAF eventually boomed in the 1930s, which was mainly in response to the development of Nazi Germany. Then, in 1936, RAF Fighter Command Leadership fell to Air Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, after whom the Dowding System was named. The Dowding System, a new system for tactical planning, brought ground defense, technology, and fighter aircraft into a unified system that was previously unparalleled in war. The Dowding System was especially valuable for allowing massive amounts of information to be processed in a short period of time, enabling Fighter Command to fully utilize every last one of its valuable and relatively limited resources. Additionally, the British Royal Air Force boasted of a seamless defense system, which was organized to ensure the best response time possible. First, the defense was split into four geographical areas called “groups,” with each group divided into sectors with one main airfield per sector. Then, the airfield’s sector station, equipped with an operations room, directed fighters in combat and gave them constantly updated information on the frontlines. Finally, the British had a considerable technological weapon at their disposal; the radar. Radar, or Radio Direction Finding, allowed the British to track the movements of the Luftwaffe, eliminating the element of surprise for the Germans’ attacks. With the radar patching directly to the Observer Corps, any valuable information on incoming raids was then passed to the Filter Room at Bentley Priority’s Fighter Command Headquarters. Once the information about the raid was processed, it was distributed to the relevant group’s headquarters before being sent on to the sector stations that directly scrambled fighters into action. From there, each sector station received information from radio as it became available, allowing the pilots to be radioed constant updates as events in the battle unfolded. These advances, combined with the fact that the British were hosts to two of the best fighter airplanes in the world; the Hawker Hurricane, and the Submarine Spitfire; made the RAF very difficult to beat. In spite of the powerful aspect of the RAF, however, the German Luftwaffe made for a considerable enemy. Though Germany was banned from building an air force, Hitler disregarded that policy when he came into office and quickly made the Luftwaffe the largest and most formidable air force in the world. Even after the battle with France, the Germans managed to salvage their Luftwaffe and appeared to be coming at Britain stronger than ever. Thus, the Battle of Britain was almost entirely a test of strength between the Luftwaffe and the RAF, and the best squadron would definitely win.

  The Battle of Britain was fought between July and October of 1940, with Germany beginning the offensive by targeting coastal targets and British shipping operations in the English Channel. From there, the Luftwaffe planned to move inland, focusing on airfields and communication centers. The first surprise airborne raid, launched by the Germans on July 10th, 1940, targeted a British shipping convoy on the English Channel. Though the British suffered some severe damage under the Luftwaffe, the Fighter Command did not budge and offered stiff resistance to the Germans, forcing them to intensify their attack. By the last week of August and the first week of September, the Germans were directly targeting the Fighter Command, making those few weeks a critical part of the battle with Britain. Miraculously the British managed to salvage most of their airfields and keep them operational, even with the Luftwaffe wreaking considerable havoc. Unfortunately, August 31st witnessed the worst day of casualties for the Fighter Command, and the Luftwaffe sincerely believed that they were winning and that Fighter Command was finished. Yet again, the British proved they were not to be underestimated, and the Fighter Command, though shaken, was not broken. The RAF soldiered on and war continued, but with every passing day, extreme levels of exhaustion and lack of preparation increased for both nations. In many cases, pilots were flying several missions a day without respite, or were even fighting after as little as nine hours’ worth of training. There would have to be a shift in the battle soon as neither side was equipped to fight for much longer.

  Then, on the 7th of September, the Luftwaffe made a critical mistake by shifting their attacks from RAF fields and communication zones to the city of London. Though the Luftwaffe caused serious damage in London, the momentary respite from their battle with the RAF gave the fighters time to recover and come back to Great Britain’s defense. It was this mistake that may have cost Germany the war. When the Luftwaffe attacked again on September 15, the British fought back and managed to inflict serious damage on the Germans; damage from which they could not recover. All of a sudden, it was becoming imminently clear that Germany was not going to win the battle against Britain, and Hitler postponed Operation Sealion indefinitely. Operation Sealion would never be addressed again.

  Though the Royal Air Force was only comprised of 3,000 men - of whom Churchill said, “never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”- they were a powerful, international few with members from all over the world. And the few were not alone; they had the overwhelming support of the ground crew, factory workers, Observer Corps, anti-aircraft gunners, and searchlight operations working to make sure that everything went as smoothly as possible. In addition, the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and the 1.5 million men who joined the Local Defence Volunteers aided the cause of the RAF, turning ‘the few’ into ‘the many.’ These individuals’ collective efforts were truly what saved the day and won the battle against Germany.

  With the Luftwaffe having sustained severe damage from the battle that even surpassed the damage the British received, the Germans were forced to cut back their invasion and change tactics.
In spite of its previous number and force, the Luftwaffe was devastatingly crippled, and it would take an invaluable amount of time to return the air force to its previous strength. By the conclusion of the battle, the Germans lost over 1,700 planes; nearly twice as many as the British lost in combat. Overall, this battle proved to be one of Britain’s most significant victories in WWII, both for the damage it caused the Luftwaffe, and for the confidence and fighting spirit it gave to all of Great Britain. Even though Germany’s blitzkrieg over Britain did not end until May of 1941 and killed over 40,000 people in the process, Hitler turned his attention briefly to the Soviet Union. For the moment, Britain had won.