Two Events That Changed The Course Of World War Two
In World War 2, two events had a important impact on the ultimate outcome - the Battle of Britain and the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Battle of Britain took place in the air between August and September 1940. After the German successes, the evacuation of Dunkirk and the capitulation of France, Britain was alone facing the enemy. The Battle of Britain is probably the most famous battle of the second world war. In order to dominate the English Channel, the German Luftwaffe needed to dominate the British skies. This meant that they had to take on the Royal Air Force, led by Sir Hugh Dowding. The primary airplanes used by the Royal Air Force were the Hurricane and the Spitfire, which were powerful fighting machines. The German Mescherschmitt fighters and their Stuka dive bombers formed the foundation of the enemy forces.
At the commencement of the World War 2, Germany had over twice as many aircraft as Britain and just after France had surrendered, the German air force had three thousand planes in air bases in the northern part of Europe, which were a combination of dive bombers, bombers, fighter planes and fighter bombers. At the beginning of the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe might put twice as many planes over Britain than the Royal Air Force, who could normally gather about six hundred and fifty at any one time. The Royal Air Force had more planes than this , but a lot of them were in rather bad repair and couldn't be relied on to fly. The speed of British airplane fabrication was adequate, as the country had thrown most of it's available man (and woman) power and raw assets into the struggle - by far the most pressing problem was the dearth of trained and sufficiently experienced pilots. Many pilots had lost their lives in the war in France and fresh ones couldn't be trained in adequate numbers to replace those killed earlier.
The Attack On Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Navy mounted a surprise attack on the Hawaiian American naval forces at Pearl Harbor. This single act may have changed the result of the Second World War, which of course helped to shape the world scene after the war. Admiral Isoroku, the leader of the Japanese aircraft carriers, organized and launched the attack. It appeared that the tactic was to cripple the American naval force so that it would be impeded from attacking Japanese forces in Asia.
353 planes attacked the anchored ships, in two waves of attacks. It started at approximately 7:55 am early on the morning of Sunday December 7 and carried on for around 110 minutes. U.S. Naval operations at Pearl Harbor were commanded by Husband E. Kimmel. In the present day, the USS Arizona Memorial at the harbor floats as a memorial to more than 1,000 sailors and crew who lost their lives that day. However, the attack was to very significant repercussions. The next day, on December 8, war was declared against Japan, and three days later war was declared against Germany also.
About the Author
Peter Bruce is a freelance journalist operating out of Toulouse in France. Subject covered range from ' when was world war 2 ? ' to chess.
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