HUM 3343: WWII in Europe through History, Literature and Film
Summer 2014
Lecture 3: Britain at War, 1939-1942
ARP (Air Raid Precautions), gas masks, the Blitz, Anderson shelters, tube sleeping: all became
popular phrases during WWII
Gas masks were first issued during the Munich crisis of 1938, including baby respirators; fear of
bombers coming to England to strike at the great cities and destroy population centers; Munich
crisis jolted all but most complacent out of complacency
ARP—Air Raid Precautions; trenches carved across London’s parks and sandbags stacked
around public buildings; question of evacuating children from London and from England as a
whole: where to send them? LCC made plans to eventually evacuate 637,000 children
1939: hope for peace among general populace; influx of refugees made it difficult to ignore the
problem, 29,000 by 1939, mostly from Germany; growth of public shelters but government
opposed to deep shelter or using the underground
Anderson shelter: 2 curved sections of corrugated steel, bolted at the top and sunk 3 feet into the
ground of an entrance protected by a steel shield and earth embankment; covered by at least 18
inches of earth, it could protect anything up to a direct hit for a max of 6 adults; there were
drainage problems and they could only be installed in homes with gardens; they were free until
October 1939 when a small fee was charged for those with an income greater than 250 pounds
Mass observation; growth of Warden Service to 200,000 (16,000 full time and paid a measly 3
pounds/week); appearance of barrage balloons, initially 40 of which 5 promptly broke away
August 24, 1939: Emergency Powers (Defence) Act passed by Parliament—shut down TV
service, single BBC channel; 1st grindings of the machine that would eventually evacuate 4
million women and children had begun; putting out of lights and imposition of blackout
conditions
September 3, 1939: 1st indication that country was at war given in 11 am radio broadcast; 1st air
raid triggered at 11:27 by an off course French bomber
Battle of Britain
Herman Goering had promised Hitler that the Luftwaffe would be able to destroy British ability
to resist invasion. Air Fleets 2 and 3 had been moved to the coasts of Belgium, northern France,
and Normandy in the weeks after the fall of France
RAF (Royal Air Force) Fighter Command was defending its own territory, enjoyed the use of
better and more effective radar, and had a higher output of fighters than did the Luftwaffe. Pilots
were a key shortage with the Germans having a far larger pool of pilots: the RAF never had
shortage of planes but did have an extreme shortage of pilots
Attacks on shipping and on English South coast towns of Plymouth, Weymouth, Falmouth,
Portsmouth, and Dover; sunk some shipping (40,000 tons) but RN (Royal Navy) remained intact;
wanted to force British to the negotiating table
Channel Battle: July 10-August 12
Operation Eagle: August 13-August 18
Fighter Command’s airfields prime targets: August 24-September 6
Battle of London: September 7-30
Minor raids: October 1-October 30
Next phase was destructive but strategically ineffective attacks on population centers such as
London, “the Blitz”
October/November: switch to nighttime bombing; the “Few,” 2500 pilots of RAF Fighter
Command, were mostly British but contained members from all over the empire and from
Ireland, America, Czechoslovakia, and Poland
August 11-September 7: British fighter losses exceed production of new planes/aircraft; one
chance for the Luftwaffe to win the battle
U-boat war begins in November 1941: Battle of the Atlantic in attempt to cut off supplies for
England; real battle in Europe involved in battle between U-boats and convoy escorts; average
size of WWII merchant ship was 5000 tons
Capture of French ports would change the sinking capabilities of German subs overcome by US
production, convoys, radars and improved depth charges