The Complete History of the Second World War Part II
Part II..
Churchill received a warning that the invasion was underway, but despite significant damage, the RAF continued to hold out against the Germans, who were joined by Italian aircraft contingents. By September, Fighter Command was at its weakest point in terms of men and machines. However, British fighter production ramped up, outstripping Lawson's, and newly trained pilots began to join the fight. The damage to the airfields proved problematic, but Hitler was unaware that the RAF was growing in strength and was taught by Goering that it was barely able to put any aircraft into the air. After British bombers hit targets in Berlin in response to an accidental bombing by German aircraft of London, Hitler ordered his bombers to turn their attention away from the airfields to devastate London and other British cities, believing that British morale would be so shaken by these terror attacks that the country would collapse, forcing Churchill to surrender and making an armed invasion unnecessary. This was a colossal mistake. Fighter Command effectively rebuilt and reorganized itself, and by the time Hitler realized his mistake, the summer was coming to an end, the weather was worsening, RAF Fighter Command was still a potent threat, and the country's defenses had been built up to where it was no longer practical to invade. While the Germans had successfully captured the British Channel Islands, Britain herself was spared, just as it had been in the First World War. The outbreak of war in Europe again saw the fighting spill over into the territories, but European imperial powers held control of elsewhere around the world. Britain and France held territory across Africa, which Italy's Mussolini eyed jealously. When Italy declared war on Britain and France in support of Germany, it gave him the opportunity to invade those territories from Italian possessions, such as Ethiopia, Somaliland, and most significantly, Libya, which bordered British Egypt. Egypt was vital to British interests because of the Suez Canal, which linked Britain to its Far East possessions, such as Hong Kong and India, as well as the oil-rich Middle East, which both sides desperately needed access to. On September 13th, 1948, alien forces launched an invasion in Egypt. With Britain herself still preparing for an invasion, it was left to the small contingent of British and Commonwealth troops stationed there to defend the large border against the numerically superior Italians. At first, the Italians made good progress, eventually capturing the important airfield at Sidi Bharani. However, when Hitler was forced to cancel the invasion of Britain, fresh troops and equipment began to be mobilized for North Africa under the command of Lieutenant General Sir Richard O'Connor. Firstly, however, they would have to make the perilous sea voyage down the North Atlantic and into the Mediterranean, where the Italian fleet was still the dominant air force after France's surrender. Heavily outnumbered, the British concocted a daring plan to attack the Italian fleet while it was still moored in Port Toronto. Using obsolete Fairey Swordfish biplane bombers on the night of November 11th, 1940, the force of Swordfish bombers took off from HMS Illustrious and caught the Italians completely by surprise. The attack inflicted severe damage on a large number of the Italians' capital ships, taking them out of the war for several months and severely hampering Italy's efforts to disrupt supplies to North Africa. Unfortunately, the British still had to contend with air and submarine attacks. The task of expelling Italian forces from Egypt seemed immense in late 1914, yet the newly arrived British forces managed to achieve just that. The British retook Sidi Bahrani, and by January 3rd, 1941, were already pushing forward into Libya. In two months, a British force comprising just two whole divisions had advanced 500 miles, destroyed 10 Italian divisions, and taken 130,000 prisoners, as well as capturing over a thousand tanks and artillery pieces. Operating from Italy, the German Luftwaffe began supporting the Italian operations from the air, but things on the ground continued to go badly for the Italians, with British forces capturing the strategic port of Tobruk on January 22nd. Confident of Italian defeat, Churchill began his plans for helping to defend Greece and the Balkans from a joint German and Italian invasion. However, Germany decided to send two of its own divisions to help shore up Italian forces in North Africa, which would form the nucleus of its Africa Corps under the command of Erwin Rommel. Rommel was a gifted leader and tactician who understood tank warfare better than most generals in 1941. The plans of North Africa were ideal for tank combat, and Rommel's influence was almost immediately felt. He attacked El Agheila on March 24th and then pushed east across Libya back towards Egypt. However, he failed to retake Tobruk and instead laid siege to the British garrison there, which held out for a staggering 240 days, providing a severe.
