England are in second. Great Britain during the Second World War. Britain at War: The Initial Period

Richard I the Lionheart (b. 1157 - d. 1199) King of England and Duke of Normandy. He spent most of his life on military campaigns outside England. One of the most romantic figures of the Middle Ages. For a long time he was considered the model of a knight. An entire era in the history of the Middle Ages

The modernization program was led by the 1st Lord of the Admiralty, W. Churchill. Germany responded by making battleships. The British feared a violation of naval parity.

In 1912, British navies from all over the world concentrate in the North Sea. In 1914, an attempt to regulate Anglo-German relations failed.

The Irish problem in the last third of the 19th – early 20th centuries. There were 2 main problems in Ireland:

Economic. Landlords constantly increased the price for renting land, the peasants went bankrupt. The Liberal and Conservative governments in England took a number of measures to reduce land rent (part of which was paid by the state). The events were held during the years of the “Great Depression,” when the landlords themselves tried to sell the land. Thanks to these measures, the economic problem was partially resolved, many Irish people received land and became farmers.

The problem of political autonomy from Britain. The fight for the so-called “gom rudder”. For the first time, a bill on it was introduced at a parliamentary meeting in 1886. The initiator was the Liberal Party and Prime Minister W. Gladstone. According to the project:

It was envisaged to create a 2-chamber parliament in Dublin;

Transfer of some administrative functions into the hands of the Irish themselves. Armed forces, finance, foreign policy should concentrate in London.

The project failed because... Conservatives did not support him. At the rehearing in 1892, the project was also not adopted.

Irish organizations:

Irish League Home helm. Leader - Parnell. It was believed that Ireland needed to concentrate all its efforts in order to legally pass a bill of self-government for Ireland. The League waged a legal fight, actively promoting its ideas among Irish voters.

Irish Republican Brotherhood. They believed that only by armed means could Irish independence be achieved. Leader – Devit. It was actively financed from the United States (military instructors from America taught street fighting, organizing terrorist attacks, and provided weapons).

Schinfener (“Shin Fein” - ourselves). It was believed that Ireland should be independent, but should maintain close ties with Britain. The tactics of struggle are non-violent resistance: not paying taxes, recalling your representatives from the British Parliament, etc. force England to grant Ireland independence.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, another attempt was made to pass a Home Rule Bill. The people of Ulster became worried, believing that if Ireland were to gain home rule, their social status would be reduced.

In 1912, the Liberal Party introduced a bill on Irish self-government for a hearing in parliament for the third time (the conditions are the same). An open conflict arose between the Ulsters and the Irish. If Irish self-government were recognized, the Ulstermen threatened to declare a union with Britain. They formed their own armed forces. Germany actively helped the Ulsterers (aviation, artillery). Already in 1912, the inhabitants of Ulster had a well-armed army of 100 thousand. The people of Ireland created their own armed forces from among the volunteers. Ireland was on the brink of civil war.

Britain sends troops into Ireland, but the officers refuse to suppress the Ulster people. August 1, 1914. The Irish Government Act was passed, but its implementation was delayed until after the outbreak of the First World War.

Labor movement. In late Victorian times in England, more than 10 million workers and members of their families made up the bulk of the country's population. The financial situation of English workers in comparison with the standard of living of workers in other countries has always been higher. However, real wages that did not keep pace with the rising cost of living, long working days of 10 or more hours, and grueling intensification of labor - all this was a manifestation of the high degree of exploitation of hired workers. The life of the workers was marked by poverty, instability, and unsanitary conditions.

However, the working class was not homogeneous. The elite, highly skilled craftsmen (in the terminology of the era - “the best and enlightened workers”, “a higher class”, “the labor aristocracy”) were separated from its broad masses.

Mechanics, machine builders, steelworkers and other workers in those industries where professionally complex, highly skilled labor was used were in a privileged position: a shortened to 9 hours, and sometimes shorter working day, weekly wages - not the usual, like most workers (in on average 20 shillings), and 28 and even 40-50 shillings. However, the Great Depression significantly worsened the situation for all categories of workers. The main scourge of unemployment did not spare either highly paid or other workers.

Common forms of workers' organization in England were all kinds of economic societies - mutual aid funds, insurance and loan partnerships, and cooperatives. The most influential - organizationally and ideologically - remained trade unions, strictly centralized, narrowly professional powerful unions, as a rule, covering workers on a national scale. True trade unionists were apolitical, rejected all forms of struggle, even strikes, and recognized only compromises and arbitration in the relationship between labor and capital. The trade unions were united by the British Congress of Trade Unions (TUC), created in 1868, which has met annually at its conferences since then.

70-90s of the XIX century. were marked by an important phenomenon: the emergence of “new unionism”. The hard times of the Great Depression led low-wage workers to create their own professional organizations. Then unions of agricultural workers, stokers, gas production workers, match industry workers, dockers, the Federation of Miners and others were formed. Women were allowed into the new trade unions. They also began to create independent trade unions.

“New Unionism” significantly expanded the scope of the trade union movement: before it began, the number of trade union members was about 900 thousand; at the end of the century it reached almost 2 million workers. “New Unionism” opened a mass stage of the trade union movement. The new trade unions were characterized by openness, accessibility, and democracy.

The mass movement of the unemployed, their rallies, demonstrations, unorganized protests demanding bread and work often ended in clashes with the police. They were especially intense in 1886-1887. and in 1892-1893. On February 8, 1886, the protest of desperate unemployed people in London was brutally suppressed (“Black Monday”). November 13, 1887 went down in the history of the labor movement in England as “ bloody sunday“: on this day, the police dispersed the rally with force, and there were injuries. In the 90s, the unemployed spoke out under openly political and even revolutionary slogans: “Three cheers for the social revolution!”, “Socialism is a threat to the rich and hope for the poor!”

Workers' strikes then became a constant factor in English life. The year 1889 was marked by numerous persistent strikes, especially those organized by new trade unions: strikes of match production workers, workers of gas enterprises, the powerful so-called The Great Dockers' Strike in London. The demands of the “great dockers' strike” were modest: payment not lower than that indicated here, hiring for at least 4 hours, abandonment of the contract system. The number of its participants reached about 100 thousand people. The main result is that the strike gave impetus to the movement of new unionism.

The strike movement grew in breadth, involving new groups of workers. In the first half of the 70s, the so-called “revolt of the fields” took place - a mass uprising of the rural proletariat. Women's participation in the strike movement became the norm.

In 1875, the workers achieved a partial victory: the Factories Act came into force, establishing working week at 56.5 hours for all workers (instead of 54 hours, as the workers demanded). In 1894, a 48-hour work week was introduced for dockers and munitions factory workers. In 1872

As a result of mass worker activism, laws “On the Regulation of Coal Mines” and “On the Regulation of Mines” were adopted, which for the first time in the history of the country’s mining industry limited the exploitation of miners to a certain extent. Laws of 1875, 1880, 1893 established the entrepreneur's liability for industrial injuries. In 1887, the payment of wages in goods was legally prohibited.

The desire of the proletariat to achieve political goals found its manifestation in the struggle for the election of workers' deputies to parliament. Starting with the electoral reform of 1867, it led to the creation of the Labor Representation League and the Parliamentary Committee (1869) as the executive body of the TUC. The struggle intensified in the 70s, and in the elections of 1874 two workers' deputies were elected. However, the labor parliamentarians did not become policymakers in the interests of their “own workers’ party,” but actually took the position of the left wing of the liberal faction.

In the elections of 1892, three workers entered parliament. They declared themselves independent deputies for the first time, but only one of them, J. Keir Hardy, remained faithful to the interests of his class, without turning into a “labor liberal.”

The struggle of the English in the workers V the beginning of the twentieth century. V. strengthened and acquired a more pronounced political character. At the same time, the new rise of the labor movement was based on economic reasons: the frequent crisis state of the country’s economy and the invariable accompanying it; unemployment, high degree of exploitation V conditions for the establishment of monopoly capitalism.

Wave of workers' protest V the form of strikes has already been indicated V the first years of the century. In 1906-1914. The strike struggle, the “great unrest”, as defined by contemporaries, was more powerful in England than in any Western country. It reached its highest point in 1910-1913. (impressive strike dockers in 1911, general strike of miners in 1912, etc.). Workers led the struggle also for universal suffrage: the property qualification and residence qualification deprived the right to vote V Parliament of almost 4 million men, women remained excluded from voting. A significant role in the workers' movement was played by trade unions, which were more actively involved in political action than before. On the eve of world war V their ranks numbered more than 4 million members. The reaction of entrepreneurs to the energetic activities of trade unions was immediate. The offensive against trade unions was most eloquently demonstrated by the organization of trials against them.

"The Taff Valley Case" (1900-1906) arose in connection with a strike of railway workers in South Wales (workers demanded that dismissed comrades be reinstated, shift lengths shortened and wages increased). The owners of the railroad company filed a lawsuit against the workers, demanding compensation for losses caused to them during the strike, but in fact with the goal of limiting the rights of workers to strike and organize trade unions. The highest court - the House of Lords - supported the claim of the entrepreneurs. The decision of the Lords created a precedent that applied to all trade unions. The bourgeois press launched a campaign against the “aggressiveness” of the trade unions as a “national mafia.” The event stirred up all working-class England against legal oppression of trade unions. It took more than six years of struggle to return the trade unions to their rights to full-fledged activity within the framework of the law and to conduct strikes.

This was followed by the Osborne Trial. William Osborne, a member of the Amalgamated Railway Employees' Society, sued his trade union to prevent the union from collecting contributions to a political party (meaning the Labor Party). The House of Lords in 1909 decided against the trade union in favor of Osborne. This decision seriously limited the rights of trade unions. It prohibited trade unions from contributing funds to the party and engaging in political activities. The legal battle and the workers' struggle in response lasted for five years. The Trade Union Law of 1913 confirmed, although with great reservations, the right of trade union organizations to engage in political activities.

An event of great significance in the history of the British labor movement was formation of the Labor Party. In 1900, at a conference in London, workers' and socialist organizations founded the Labor Representation Committee (WRC) to seek "means of getting a larger number of workers' deputies into the next Parliament." Its founders and members were the majority of trade unions, the Fabian Society, the Independent Labor Party, and the Social Democratic Federation.

In 1906 the Committee transformed into the Labor Party. The party considered itself socialist and set itself the task of “achieving the common goal of liberating the vast mass of the people of this country from existing conditions.” The fact of its creation reflected the desire of the workers to pursue an independent, independent policy. A special feature of the party's organizational structure was that it was formed on the basis of collective membership. The participation of trade unions in its composition ensured the mass base of the party. By 1910 it had almost 1.5 million members. The highest body of the party was the annual national conference, which elected the executive committee. His main activity was the leadership of election campaigns and local party organizations. The party gained prominence after being largely responsible for the overturning of the Taff Valley decision.

Socialist movement. Attention to socialism in England intensified at the turn of the 70s and 80s, when the “Great Depression” hit the working people hard, and the reform potential of Gladstone and Disraeli was exhausted. IN 1884 arose Social Democratic Federation, who announced that she shares the ideas of Marx. It united intellectuals and workers close to Marxism, anarchists. It was headed by lawyer and journalist Henry Gaidman. The SDF was expecting a revolution and believed that society was already ready for it. They underestimated organizing, trade unions, and rejected reform. The attempt to enter the English Parliament failed because... Gaidman asked conservatives for money for his election campaign. This put a stigma on the SDF.

Some members of the SDF (workers Tom Mann, Harry Quelch) did not agree with Hyndman’s position and already in December 1884 separated from the SDF, forming the Socialist League. She adhered to internationalism and condemned the colonial expansion of England. The League rejected parliamentary activities and began promoting “pure and honest socialism.”

In 1884 the Fabian Society arose. Its founders were young intellectuals who came from a petty-bourgeois environment. They saw the achievement of the goal through evolution. Its prominent figures were B. Shaw and the spouses Sidney and Beatrice Webb, prominent historians of the English labor movement. The Fabians proceeded from the recognition that a transition to socialism was gradually taking place in England. the main role assigned to the state, considered as a supra-class body. In their activities, they adhered to the tactics of “impregnation”. For this purpose, the Fabians joined political clubs and societies, primarily liberal and radical ones.

In general, the SDF, the Socialist League and the Fabian Society were far from the labor movement.

The results of Britain's participation in World War II were mixed. The country retained its independence and made a significant contribution to the victory over fascism, at the same time it lost its role as a world leader and came close to losing its colonial status.

Political games

British military historiography often likes to remind us that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 actually gave the German military machine a free hand. At the same time, the Munich Agreement, signed by England together with France, Italy and Germany a year earlier, is being ignored in Foggy Albion. The result of this conspiracy was the division of Czechoslovakia, which, according to many researchers, was the prelude to World War II.

Historians believe that Britain had high hopes for diplomacy, with the help of which it hoped to rebuild the Versailles system in crisis, although already in 1938 many politicians warned the peacemakers: “concessions to Germany will only embolden the aggressor!”

Returning to London on the plane, Chamberlain said: “I brought peace to our generation.” To which Winston Churchill, then a parliamentarian, prophetically remarked: “England was offered a choice between war and dishonor. She chose dishonor and will get war.”

"Strange War"

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. On the same day, Chamberlain's government sent a note of protest to Berlin, and on September 3, Great Britain, as the guarantor of Poland's independence, declared war on Germany. Over the next ten days, the entire British Commonwealth will join it.

By mid-October, the British transported four divisions to the continent and took up positions along the Franco-Belgian border. However, the section between the cities of Mold and Bayel, which is a continuation of the Maginot Line, was far from the epicenter of hostilities. Here the Allies created more than 40 airfields, but instead of bombing German positions, British aviation began scattering propaganda leaflets appealing to the morality of the Germans.

In the following months, six more British divisions arrived in France, but neither the British nor the French were in a hurry to take active action. This is how it was carried out strange war" Chief of the British General Staff Edmund Ironside described the situation as follows: “passive waiting with all the worries and anxieties that follow from this.”

French writer Roland Dorgeles recalled how the Allies calmly watched the movement of German ammunition trains: “obviously the main concern of the high command was not to disturb the enemy.”

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Historians have no doubt that the “Phantom War” is explained by the wait-and-see attitude of the Allies. Both Great Britain and France had to understand where German aggression would turn after the capture of Poland. It is possible that if the Wehrmacht immediately launched an invasion of the USSR after the Polish campaign, the Allies could support Hitler.

Miracle at Dunkirk

On May 10, 1940, according to Plan Gelb, Germany launched an invasion of Holland, Belgium and France. The political games are over. Churchill, who took office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, soberly assessed the enemy’s forces. As soon as German troops took control of Boulogne and Calais, he decided to evacuate parts of the British Expeditionary Force that were trapped in the cauldron at Dunkirk, and with them the remnants of the French and Belgian divisions. 693 British and about 250 French ships under the command of English Rear Admiral Bertram Ramsay planned to transport about 350,000 coalition troops across the English Channel.

Military experts had little faith in the success of the operation under the sonorous name “Dynamo”. The advance detachment of Guderian's 19th Panzer Corps was located a few kilometers from Dunkirk and, if desired, could easily defeat the demoralized allies. But a miracle happened: 337,131 soldiers, most of whom were British, reached the opposite bank almost without interference.

Hitler unexpectedly stopped the advance of the German troops. Guderian called this decision purely political. Historians differ in their assessment of the controversial episode of the war. Some believe that the Fuhrer wanted to save his strength, but others are confident in a secret agreement between the British and German governments.

One way or another, after the Dunkirk disaster, Britain remained the only country that avoided complete defeat and was able to resist the seemingly invincible German machine. On June 10, 1940, the position of England became threatening when on the side Nazi Germany Fascist Italy entered the war.

Battle of Britain

Germany's plans to force Great Britain to surrender have not been canceled. In July 1940, British coastal convoys and naval bases were subjected to massive bombing by the German Air Force; in August, the Luftwaffe switched to airfields and aircraft factories.

On August 24, German aircraft carried out their first bombing attack on central London. According to some, it is wrong. The retaliatory attack was not long in coming. A day later, 81 RAF bombers flew to Berlin. No more than a dozen reached the target, but this was enough to infuriate Hitler. At a meeting of the German command in Holland, it was decided to unleash the full power of the Luftwaffe on the British Isles.

Within weeks, the skies over British cities turned into a boiling cauldron. Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol, Cardiff, Coventry, Belfast got it. During the whole of August, at least 1,000 British citizens died. However, from mid-September the intensity of the bombing began to decrease, due to the effective counteraction of British fighter aircraft.

The Battle of Britain is better characterized by numbers. In total, 2,913 British Air Force aircraft and 4,549 Luftwaffe aircraft were involved in air battles. Historians estimate the losses of both sides at 1,547 Royal Air Force fighters and 1,887 German aircraft shot down.

Lady of the Seas

It is known that after the successful bombing of England, Hitler intended to launch Operation Sea Lion to invade the British Isles. However, the desired air superiority was not achieved. In turn, the Reich military command was skeptical about the landing operation. According to German generals, the strength of the German army lay precisely on land, and not on the sea.

Military experts were confident that the British ground army was no stronger than the broken armed forces of France, and Germany had every chance of overpowering the United Kingdom's forces in a ground operation. The English military historian Liddell Hart noted that England managed to hold out only due to the water barrier.

In Berlin they realized that the German fleet was noticeably inferior to the English. For example, by the beginning of the war, the British Navy had seven operational aircraft carriers and six more on the slipway, while Germany was never able to equip at least one of its aircraft carriers. In the open seas, the presence of carrier-based aircraft could predetermine the outcome of any battle.

The German submarine fleet was only able to inflict serious damage on British merchant ships. However, having sunk 783 German submarines with US support, the British Navy won the Battle of the Atlantic. Until February 1942, the Fuhrer hoped to conquer England from the sea, until the commander of the Kriegsmarine, Admiral Erich Raeder, finally convinced him to abandon this idea.

Colonial interests

At the beginning of 1939, the British Chiefs of Staff Committee recognized the defense of Egypt with its Suez Canal as one of its strategically most important tasks. Hence the special attention of the Kingdom's armed forces to the Mediterranean theater of operations.

Unfortunately, the British had to fight not at sea, but in the desert. May-June 1942 turned out for England, according to historians, as a “shameful defeat” at Tobruk from Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps. And this despite the British having twice the superiority in strength and technology!

The British were able to turn the tide of the North African campaign only in October 1942 at the Battle of El Alamein. Again having a significant advantage (for example, in aviation 1200:120), the British Expeditionary Force of General Montgomery managed to defeat a group of 4 German and 8 Italian divisions under the command of the already familiar Rommel.

Churchill remarked about this battle: “Before El Alamein we did not win a single victory. We haven't suffered a single defeat since El Alamein." By May 1943, British and American troops forced the 250,000-strong Italian-German group in Tunisia to capitulate, which opened the way for the Allies to Italy. In North Africa, the British lost about 220 thousand soldiers and officers.

And again Europe

On June 6, 1944, with the opening of the Second Front, British troops had the opportunity to rehabilitate themselves for their shameful flight from the continent four years earlier. General leadership of the allies ground forces was entrusted to the experienced Montgomery. By the end of August, the total superiority of the Allies had crushed German resistance in France.

1. The beginning of the Second World War and England. "Strange War". "Battle of England".

2. The role of Great Britain in the victory over the Nazi coalition during the war.

1. Great Britain can be considered one of the initiators of the Second World War. Firstly, this is due to the fact that already in the mid-30s. The struggle for dominance in the world is again being revived between Great Britain and France, on the one hand, and Germany, Italy and Japan, on the other. Secondly, Great Britain at the same time passively watches as Germany violates the terms of the Versailles Peace. The ruling circles of Great Britain, as well as some other Western countries, hoped that German aggression would be directed against the USSR. This is evidenced by the participation of Great Britain, together with France, Germany and Italy, in the Munich Conference of 1938, at which a treaty was signed aimed at the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia by Germany. And only after Germany violated this treaty in the spring of 1939, the ruling circles of Great Britain were forced to negotiate with the USSR regarding the creation of an anti-Hitler alliance. But the position of both the leadership of the USSR and Great Britain did not allow this task to be completed.

On September 1, 1939, the Second World War German attack on Poland. Great Britain was an ally of Poland and the latter, naturally, expected help from it. But the British government was still trying to resolve the problem with Germany diplomatically. And only on September 3, Great Britain declared war on Germany. Following her, her dominions Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the Union of South Africa did the same.

Despite the fact that Great Britain and France could curb the aggressor at that moment, they did not go further than declaring war. Until the spring of 1940, there were practically no military operations on this front, so these events were called the “Phantom War” in historiography. At this time, mobilization was just taking place, expeditionary troops were being transferred to France.

In April 1940, Germany launched an offensive in Western Europe, and in May German troops entered French territory. The offensive was rapid and British troops, after the defeat at Dunkirk, were forced to evacuate to the British Isles.

From this moment the so-called “Battle of England” begins. In Germany, the landing operation on the British Isles (“Seelewe”) was developed, but it was never carried out. The reason for this can be considered that Great Britain was in more favorable conditions than France: its geographical position, the presence of a strong navy, high resistance ability. In addition, the new government of W. Churchill took decisive measures to organize the country’s defense: the volume of military production increased, volunteer civil defense units were created, which were later transformed into civil uprising.

The “Battle of England” took on the character of massive bombing strikes. At first they were sent to naval bases and airfields, and from September 1940 - to the cities: London, Coventry, Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, etc. The goal of Germany was the destruction or significant weakening of the British navy and aviation, disorganization of the military industry, suppression of the population's desire for resistance. But this goal was not fulfilled. The German air force suffered heavy losses. It failed to destroy British industry and undermine the morale of the population. On November 3, 1940, the intensity of the raids began to weaken. The last massive air strikes on London were carried out at the end of April - beginning of May 1941. At the same time, the reorientation of military production and the distribution of material resources for the war against the USSR began in Germany, i.e. to develop its armed forces in a “land” rather than a “sea” version, which meant abandoning the invasion of the British Isles.

At the same time, Great Britain carried out military operations in Africa and other areas. The campaign in Africa (against Italy) took place with varying degrees of success, but nevertheless, by the spring of 1941, the British managed not only to drive the Italians out of their colonies, but also to oust the Italians from Ethiopia. Only in North Africa, where Germany provided assistance to Italy, did British troops retreat and the northwestern part of Egypt was occupied by the enemy.

2. The situation during the Second World War changed radically after Germany attacked the USSR on June 22, 1941. Since that time, the main events of the war took place on the Soviet-German front. The invasion of the British Isles by German armies no longer threatened Great Britain. Air raids also fell sharply.

Great Britain switched to the path of cooperation with the Soviet Union. Already on June 22, 1941, British Prime Minister William Churchill made a statement about his readiness to provide “Russia and the Russian people with all the help that we are capable of.” In other words, the British government agreed to an alliance with the USSR, which was formalized in Moscow on July 12, 1941. This was the beginning of the creation anti-Hitler coalition.

Almost immediately Soviet Union began to insist on opening a second front in Western Europe, but this problem was solved only in 1944. Until that time, the main theater of action for the British troops was North Africa. Until the autumn of 1942, events took place here with varying degrees of success. After the American-British troops landed in Morocco and Algeria on November 8, 1942, the situation changed in favor of the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, which led to the enemy’s surrender in Africa on May 13, 1943. In July 1943, the American-British troops landed on the island of Sicily and launched an offensive in Italy, which led to Italy's withdrawal from the war on the side of Germany. And on June 6, 1944, a second front was finally opened in Europe with the landing allied forces in Normandy (France).

British troops also took part in the war against Japan. After Japan attacked the American base at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, it captured many territories in a short time, including English possessions: Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaya, Burma. By approaching the borders of India, Japan created a threat to this “jewel of the British crown.” Therefore, the British command concentrated a large group of troops in the northeastern part of India. It was inactive for more than two years, and only in the summer of 1944, when Japan’s position was shaken due to the successes of the anti-Hitler coalition, did British troops invade Burma and clear it of Japanese troops by the spring of 1945.

In Europe, the Allied offensive from the west and east in 1944-1945. led to defeat fascist Germany, and on September 2, 1945, the Second World War ended with the surrender of Japan.

Thus, Great Britain took an active part in the creation of the anti-Hitler coalition, in military operations and emerged from the war as one of the winners, and Prime Minister W. Churchill, who led the country during the war, was recognized as a national hero.

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