How important was Britains contribution to the defeat of Germany in World War Two?In this essay I will be examining the significance of Britains contribution to the defeat of Germany in World War Two, as well as comparing Britains impact relative to the USSRs activity on the Eastern Front and the USAs military contribution. The first major British contribution on land was in the North African campaign against the Afrika Korps, led by Rommel. Although Britain had lost much of its territory from Rommels advance across North Africa by late 1942, the British victory of the Battle of El Alamein in November 1942 was an important victory for the British campaign in Africa as this denied Hitler access to the oil fields and General Montgomery managed to defeat Rommel for the first time in North Africa and allowed the British to advance with a pincer movement from American forces in Morocco. Montgomerys advance in 1943 eventually forced the Germans to go to Sicily and then to Southern Italy, where British and American forces landed. Consequently, this invasion caused Southern Italy to change sides and Mussolini to be arrested, which weakened Germanys position in the Eastern and Western Front. However, it must be considered that Rommel only had four divisions in Africa, whilst Hitler used 150 divisions on the Eastern Front. In addition, Britain had also received military aid from the USA in defeating Rommel and launching invasions in Sicily and in Southern Italy. Similarly, Britain played an integral role in the D-day invasion of June 1944. Prior to the invasion, Germany was not aware of where the invasion would take place, as Britain disrupted German intelligence. In addition, Germanys knowledge of the attack coerced Hitler to shift more resources from the Eastern Front in order to build fortifications and man defences. Furthermore, the geographical location of Britain, and the Royal Navy allowed troops to be transported quickly to the beaches of Normandy. Britain also contributed to D-day by building P.L.U.T.O pipes which allowed for efficient supply routes, Mulberry Harbours which rapidly offloaded cargo and a phantom army that caused Germany to divert some of its forces toward Calais. However, Britain only attacked two out of the five beaches and sent 14 divisions of soldiers, whereas the USA sent 23 divisions of soldiers. Moreover, by the end of the war the number of British soldiers shrank significantly on the Western Front, whilst Americas grew to 60 divisions.At sea, Britain contributed heavily through technological and strategic innovations in the Battle of Atlantic (1939 1945), one of which was the convey system. The convoy system consisted of British corvette ships protecting merchant ships from U-boats, this allowed more supplies to be sent to Britain from the USA and more German resources to be denied from the Eastern Front. Another technological advancement was depth charges, and hedgehogs which helped to maintain Britains naval dominance. Furthermore, the production of the hedgehog anti-submarine weapon destroyed many German naval resources. Britains contribution to the war at sea had considerable importance as it led to naval dominance in the Atlantic, which made the D-day operation of 1944 possible, as American troops and supplies could be sent to Britain across the Atlantic. In addition, the destruction of German U-Boats forced Hitler to draw more resources from the Eastern Front where he desperately needed them.In the air, Britains first aerial encounter was against Germany in the Battle of Britain, from July 1940 to October 1940. The decisive British victory prevented Germany from having a war only on one front. However, from September 1940 to May 1941 Britain suffered heavily from the Blitz and was crippled from German bombardment. Hitlers decision in May of 1941 to stop the Blitz, allowed Britain to launch aerial attacks with the USA against Germany, although its effect is arguable. On the one hand, the British aerial attacks were initially not effective as only 1 in 100 bombs landed five miles within its target. Moreover, Sir Arthur Harris had predicted that British bombing would break German morale, however, on the account of this the British bombings can be considered a failure as German morale never broke. Furthermore, German industrial production increased between 1943 and 1944.Conversely, the use of carpet bombing was extremely effective on large cities, especially in Hamburg in 1943 where thousands of deaths occurred as a result of the bombing. Additionally, the damage caused from British aerial attacks forced Germany to divert more resources from the Eastern Front in order to prevent more damage and rebuild factories. Despite the increase in German industrial production between 1943 and 1944, the bombings caused a decrease in industrial growth and destroyed roads and thousands of homes.The significance of Britains contribution must be considered in relation to other factors, most notably the roles played by the USA and the USSR. On the Eastern Front, the USSR played a major part in defeating the German army, as by June 1944 150 divisions of the German army were in the Eastern Front and 66 divisions were on the Western Front thus making the USSRs contribution to the defeat of Germany more significant than Britains . In addition, the USSR killed more than 80% of German soldiers that fought in the war. Moreover, the USSR received less aid from the Lend-Lease programme than Britain did.Furthermore, it was agreed in 1943 that the USSR would take Berlin and ultimately elicit Germanys unconditional surrender. Consequently, in the Battle of Berlin in 1945 the USSR fought the last of Germanys forces and in doing so lost 300,000 men, a sizeable number of men.The USAs contribution consisted of monetary and military aid to the USSR and Britain, as well as sending vast quantities of airplanes and troops to the Western Front. An example of the USAs military aid to the USSR and Britain is the Lend-Lease programme, where $5.8 billion of goods was provided to Britain and $1.4 was given to the USSR in the form of goods. This prevented Britain going into starvation and also supplied troops and supplies which impacted the war.The USAs industrial resources strongly impacted strategic aerial warfare through the production of two planes: the Flying Fortress (B-17) and the Mustang escort-fighter which proved to be unstoppable against the Germany Luftwaffe. Although, Britain had severely damaged the city of Hamburg in 1943, the American Air Force ensured Allied air superiority by breaking the back of the Luftwaffe in February 1944. This in turn exposed Germany to aerial attacks and bombardment by the USA and Britain.In conclusion, I believe that Britains contribution to the defeat of Germany in World War Two was to an extent relatively important due to its crucial geographical location for the D-day invasion, technological and strategic advancements such as depth charges and the convoy system, and the defeat of Rommel in North Africa. However, Britains reliance on American supplies and forces ultimately lowers the significance of Britains impact on the defeat of Germany. Moreover, the USSRs more significant damage to the German army on the Eastern Front clearly illustrates that the USSRs contribution to the defeat of German in World War Two was relatively more important than Britains given the relative damage caused by both countries.

2By Dino Al-Shakarchi