They also took the brunt of the losses in the bombing campaign because they bombed during the day to ensure they struck their target. While this caused a better success rate of missions, it led to far more American deaths. The bombing campaign did not win the war, but it aided in the invasion of Germany. If Germany had not been invaded, the war would have continued.
To destroy the Nazi forces, Berlin would have to be captured. All three of the Allies would open fronts against the Germans in the East and West. With Russia suffering the most casualties at 29 million. On land, Britain made two major contributions in the war. The first British contribution on land was in the North African campaign against the Afrika Korps led by Rommel. Britain had lost much of its territory due to Rommel’s advance across North Africa in late 1942. But the British victory of the Battle of El Alamein in November 1942 was an important victory for the British campaign in Africa. It blocked Hitler’s access to the oil fields.
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The North Africa campaign was seen as insignificant to the Germans, but it led to the invasion of Southern Italy, and the fall of Italy as an axis power. It was a large blow to Germany, they stood against the combined forces of the Allied powers. However, Germany put little resources into the Africa campaign, with only four divisions under the control of Rommel. The second contribution from Britain was D-day. Britain helped retake France from the German army. On 6 June 1944, Britain landed on the Beaches of Normandy, for the biggest land campaign of the western front.
Britain was instrumental in the planning of D-day; they disrupted the German intelligence, making Hitler believe the invasion would begin at France’s Pas de Calais region 150 miles northeast of Normandy. Britain was the launch point of the invasion, and if Britain had fallen in the war D-day would be impossible. However, Britain was not alone. For the initial invasion, they only attacked two out of the five beaches and sent 14 divisions, compared to the USA’s 23 divisions. And by the end of the war, the number of British soldiers decreased on the Western Front, whilst America’s grew to 60 divisions. But the aim of D-Day was to create a second front to draw German troops away from the Eastern Front, the single largest battle in the war.
It claimed the lives of 29 million Russians, both soldiers and civilians. Total War was never more evident in the East when invading Russia, Germany would kill soldiers who tried to surrender. Captured Russians were executed; German POW camps had policies for the deliberate mistreatment of Russians which led to 3.5 million deaths. This brutality caused the most devastating battles: the battle of Stalingrad, 400,000 people Russians died (more than the number of British casualties in the whole war); the battle of Kursk had 860,000 casualties; the Siege of Leningrad lasted 872 days, and resulted in the deaths of 1.
5 million people.