England are in second. How England fought in World War II

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. The armed forces, finances, and foreign policy should be concentrated 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 the third time for hearing in parliament (the conditions are the same). An open conflict arose between the Ulsters and the Irish. If the Ulsterians recognized Irish self-government, they 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 meeting 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, workers achieved a partial victory: the Factory Act came into force, establishing a work week of 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 “labour 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 Workers' 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 England's colonial expansion. 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 was 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.

On September 30, 1938, in Munich, Great Britain and Germany signed another agreement - a declaration of mutual non-aggression, which was the culmination of the British “policy of appeasement.” Hitler quite easily managed to convince British Prime Minister Arthur Chamberlain that the Munich Agreements would be a guarantee of security in Europe.

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, a parliamentarian at the time, 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 the “strange war” was waged. 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.”

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, England's position became threatening when fascist Italy entered the war on the side of Nazi Germany.

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 at 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. The overall leadership of the allied 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.

Events unfolded in a different vein in December 1944 near the Ardennes, when a German armored group literally pushed through the lines of American troops. In the Ardennes meat grinder, the US Army lost over 19 thousand soldiers, the British no more than two hundred.

This ratio of losses led to disagreements in the Allied camp. American generals Bradley and Patton threatened to resign if Montgomery did not leave leadership of the army. Montgomery's self-confident statement at a press conference on January 7, 1945, that it was British troops who saved the Americans from the prospect of encirclement, jeopardized the further joint operation. Only thanks to the intervention of the commander in chief of the allied forces, Dwight Eisenhower, was the conflict resolved.

By the end of 1944, the Soviet Union had liberated large parts of the Balkan Peninsula, which caused serious concern in Britain. Churchill, who did not want to lose control over the important Mediterranean region, proposed to Stalin a division of the sphere of influence, as a result of which Moscow got Romania, London - Greece.

In fact, with the tacit consent of the USSR and the USA, Great Britain suppressed the resistance of the Greek communist forces and on January 11, 1945, established complete control over Attica. It was then that a new enemy clearly loomed on the horizon of British foreign policy. “In my eyes, the Soviet threat had already replaced the Nazi enemy,” Churchill recalled in his memoirs.

According to the 12-volume History of the Second World War, Britain and its colonies lost 450,000 people in World War II. Britain's expenses for waging the war amounted to more than half of foreign capital investments; the Kingdom's external debt by the end of the war reached 3 billion pounds sterling. The UK paid off all its debts only by 2006.

For many people, Great Britain and England are consonant concepts, synonyms that are used to name the same state. But in reality, everything is not so simple, and there are serious differences between them, which we will talk about later in the article.

What is Great Britain

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the full name of an independent island state located in northwestern Europe and occupying its largest territory.

Great Britain was founded in 1801. It includes such territorial units (the so-called “historical provinces”) as northern Scotland and the Principality of Wales, which have sufficient autonomy and their own parliaments.

England is also one of the “provinces” of Great Britain (by the way, the largest in the country). It was, in fact, around it that the formation of the modern state initially took place. But, unlike other parts of the kingdom, it does not have its own legislative and executive powers, and their role is performed by the national parliament of Great Britain.

In addition to the named territories, the United Kingdom owns three more Crown Lands - the islands of Jersey, Maine and Guernsey, as well as fourteen overseas territories, which include, for example, Gibraltar, Bermuda, Falklands, etc.

England: information about the country

Despite the large number of dependent lands, England, we repeat, is the historical core of the United Kingdom, and its population accounts for 84% of all residents of Great Britain.

The English language was “born” here, and the formation of a powerful state began from here. This began with the Angles and Saxons, who conquered this territory at the beginning of the ninth century, displacing the Britons who inhabited it. In 825, King Egbert of Wessex united most of the smaller kingdoms into one, giving it the name England (this translates as “Land of the Angles”).

But when Scotland became part of the state in 1707 and the United Kingdom was formed, it was decided to call it Great Britain so as not to infringe on anyone’s pride. After all, the name, for example, Great England (Great England) would be absolutely unacceptable for the Scots.

Some features of the British government

While the meaning of the word “England” in our minds is closely intertwined with the meaning of the word “Great Britain”, and even some explanatory dictionaries list these names as synonymous, a cultured person should still understand what their internal difference is.

Of course, the role of England for the whole state cannot be overestimated. After all, its legal, legal and constitutional innovations were adopted by many states of the world. And it was this part of the United Kingdom that became the cradle of the Industrial Revolution, making Great Britain the world's first industrialized country.

In fact, the United Kingdom has a rather complex government system, which, however, does not prevent it from being an example in maintaining democratic relations within the country.

Interestingly, Great Britain does not have a single constitution. It is to some extent replaced by a set of acts of a different nature, rules of common law, including many judicial precedents, and some constitutional customs. The most important of them include (signed back in 1215), as well as the Act of Succession to the Throne.

Why does England not have its own parliament?

Due to the fact that England is the only part of Great Britain that does not have its own parliament and government, a movement has formed in the country in support of its creation. After all, if decisions concerning Scotland alone can be made by the Scottish legislative bodies, then decisions regarding England are made by Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish deputies who are members of the national parliament.

But in response to this, representatives argue that if the largest part of the UK receives independent authorities, this will lead to the fact that the remaining small territories will sharply lose their importance, and this, in turn, could lead to the collapse of the Kingdom.

Revisiting the differences between England and Great Britain

We hope the article helped to finally understand how England differs from Great Britain. And in order to finally systematize the information, let us once again recall their main differences:

Great Britain is an independent state, which includes England as an administrative unit;
England has no foreign policy relations, and Great Britain is an indispensable member of international organizations (UN, NATO, European Union, OSCE, etc.) and the “arbiter of destinies” for the countries dependent on it;
England does not have its own currency, armed forces and parliament;
The territory of England is only a small part of the whole of Great Britain.

Great Britain was not occupied by Germany during the Second World War, but this did not save the country from destruction, loss of population and resources. The aviation and navy of the Third Reich regularly attacked the cities of the British Isles, sank ships and submarines, and ground military equipment. The British also died on the fronts of World War II, as the country's government sent its soldiers to the Middle and Far East, Japan, Asia, the Balkan and Apennine Peninsulas, the Atlantic, Scandinavia, India, and North Africa. The British took part in the invasion of Germany in the last months of the war, the capture and occupation of Berlin. Therefore, the consequences, outcomes and results of the Second World War were difficult for Great Britain in economic, social and political terms. The country's government declared war on Hitler and Germany on September 3, 1939, immediately after the capture of Poland, and until September 2, Britain was at war with the Third Reich. Only after the surrender of Japan was the war over for the British state and its population.

Economic and political conditions in the late 1930s.

Before entering the war, Great Britain plunged into a protracted crisis that paralyzed the economy, foreign markets, trade, and the work of enterprises. As a result, workers constantly took to the streets with demonstrations, refused to go to work, enterprises stood still, and British products did not reach the markets. Because of this, capitalists lost huge sums and positions in the global economy every day.

At the head of the government was Neville Chamberlain, who sought to create a strong country capable of competing with Germany, as well as cooperating with it. This foreign policy course was supported by monopolists who had their enterprises in many English colonies. Plans to get closer to Germany are evidenced by the fact that already at the beginning of 1930, representatives of the political forces of England and major industrialists regularly gathered in the house of the Astor family (British millionaires) to develop a plan for cooperation with Hitler. The secret society was called the Cleveland circle, the existence of which only a select few knew. The country's citizens did not support the government's plans, so rapprochement with Germany should have become a fait accompli for them.

In the 1930s England, like its ally France, tried to adhere to the policy of “appeasement,” essentially turning a blind eye to Hitler’s actions in Central Europe. By signing the Munich Agreement in 1938, N. Chamberlain, like E. Daladier, hoped that Germany would continue to seize the East of Europe.

After this, declarations of non-aggression were signed and commitments were made that England would support Germany in the event of war.

Chamberlain, under pressure from British society, was forced to begin anti-German negotiations with the Soviet Union and France. Representatives of the political circles of England, France and the USA gathered separately. Such actions did not end with anything concrete, which is why Hitler launched the invasion of Poland.

Britain at War: The Initial Period

Having declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, Neville Chamberlain tried to keep the country from direct participation in hostilities. Until May 1940, a “strange war” was fought, which ended with the capture of Belgium, Holland and France. After this, Chamberlain's government began to prepare for war. To prevent Hitler from using the French fleet to attack Britain, the British attacked first. The target was the harbor of Mers el-Kebir, located in Algeria. Having destroyed a huge number of ships, England captured many ships that were stationed in British ports. In addition, there was a complete blockade of the French fleet in the port of Alexandria (Egypt).

At this time, Hitler began to concentrate troops on the banks of the English Channel, preparing for the invasion of the British Isles. The first blow was delivered not from the sea, but from the air. In August 1940, German aircraft carried out a series of attacks on military factories, enterprises, and airfields in Great Britain. Large cities were also affected. The raids were carried out mainly at night, which led to the death of a significant number of civilians. The targets of the bombing were streets, residential buildings, cathedrals, churches, stadiums, and factories.

British air power, supported by Canada and the United States, carried out retaliatory strikes. As a result, in September 1940, both Germany and Britain were exhausted by constant raids, many people died, equipment was damaged, which made the planned German invasion of the British Isles impossible. Hitler's carefully planned Operation Sea Lion was shelved because there were not enough aircraft to break the resistance of Britain, which was fighting the Third Reich alone. The United States did not provide military assistance, but only provided combat ships from which British planes took off.

British Army Forces

The basis of Great Britain's power was the fleet, which was one of the strongest in Europe. In 1939, the number of military personnel of various ranks in the army was about 900 thousand people, and another 350-360 thousand soldiers were stationed in the colonies. The main forces of the state were concentrated in the British Isles - regular divisions and brigades - territorial, infantry, cavalry, tank. In reserve there were seven regular divisions and many separate brigades formed on the basis of the British and Indians.

Before the war, the number of aircraft units that were transferred to the army's balance increased sharply. Aviation was reinforced with bombers, and the navy with battleships and aircraft-carrying ships.

Events of 1941-1944

Hitler's attention was diverted from Britain in the summer of 1941 due to the attack on the Soviet Union. Germany's situation became significantly more difficult after the United States entered World War II. Hitler could not conduct military operations on two fronts, so he threw all his efforts into the fight against the USSR and the resistance movements that arose in the occupied territories. While Germany was capturing the USSR and establishing its own rules there, Britain and the USA agreed to cooperate, as a result of which secret German documents and radio communications were intercepted, and supplies of food and raw materials were established to the British Isles.

British troops lost several battles on the Asian front in 1941; only the British colonies in India survived. The British also suffered losses in North Africa, but the strengthening of the army by the Americans made it possible in 1942 to turn the situation in favor of the Allies. Hitler withdrew troops from Africa in 1943. Then the Italian islands were gradually recaptured, including Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, which forced Mussolini to capitulate.

In November 1943, it opened with the work of the first anti-Hitler coalition, which was carried out in Tehran. It was attended by Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt, who agreed on the liberation of France and the opening of a second front. In June 1944, the allied forces began to gradually liberate Belgium and France, displacing the Germans from the occupied territories. The Third Reich lost battle after battle. The situation was worsened by the offensive of Soviet troops on the war fronts.

Surrender of Germany

In 1945, Anglo-American troops began to advance towards Germany. German cities and enterprises turned into ruins as bombers constantly attacked various objects, many of which were unique monuments of history, culture and architecture. Civilians also became numerous victims of the strikes.

At the end of winter - beginning of March 1945, British troops, as part of the Allied forces, helped push German troops beyond the Rhine. The offensive took place in all directions:

In April, the German army located in Italy surrendered;
In early May, fighting intensified on the northern flank of the Allied front, which contributed to the liberation of Denmark, Mecklenburg, and Schleswig-Holstein;
On May 7, the act of surrender of Germany was signed in Reims, signed by General A. Jodl.

The Soviet side opposed such actions, since the document was drawn up unilaterally at the American headquarters of D. Eisenhower. Therefore, the next day, all the allies - the Soviet Union, Britain, the USA and France - were gathered on the outskirts of Berlin, and the act of surrender was re-signed. At the end of May 1945, the British, under pressure from the USA and the USSR, arrested the German generals who commanded in the British zone of occupation.

In 1945, the British army took an active part in military operations in Southeast Asia, liberating Burma from Japanese troops. The British did not ignore the Far East, where the offensive was carried out by the Pacific Fleet, formed by Britain in the fall of 1944.

Thus, the British Army took an active part in all important operations of the final period of the Second World War, supporting the actions of the Allies and individual states.

Results and consequences of the war for Britain

Historians assess the results of World War II for England ambiguously. Some believe that the country lost, while others believe that it emerged victorious. The main results of the conflict for the British Isles include:

Loss of superpower status;
She found herself in the camp of the winners, although at the beginning of the war she was on the verge of occupation by the Third Reich;
It retained its independence, avoiding occupation, like many European states. The economy was in ruins, the country was in ruins, but the internal situation was strikingly different from Poland, France, Denmark, Holland;
Almost all trade markets were lost;
The colonies of the former British Empire began to gain independence, but most of them continued to maintain economic, trade and cultural relations with London. This became the core of the formation of the future Commonwealth of Nations;
Production fell several times, which was returned to pre-war levels only in the late 1940s. The same applied to the economic situation. The crisis was overcome gradually, only in 1953 was the card system finally abolished in Britain;
The size of sown areas and agricultural land has been halved, so in the British Isles almost one and a half million hectares of land have not been cultivated for several years;
The payment deficit of the British state budget has increased several times.

In World War II, England lost, according to various estimates, from 245 thousand to 300 thousand killed, and about 280 thousand maimed and wounded. The size of the merchant fleet was reduced by one third, causing Britain to lose 30% of foreign investment. At the same time, the military industry was actively developing in the country, which was associated with the need to ensure mass production of tanks, aircraft, weapons and weapons for the needs of the army, as well as with the significant influence of technological progress.

Given the current situation, Britain was forced to continue to use the Lend-Lease program. Equipment, food, and weapons were imported into the country from the United States. For this, the States gained full control of trade markets in the Southeast Asian region and the Middle East.

This internal and external situation in Britain caused concern among the population and government. Therefore, political circles headed for strict regulation of the economy, which included the creation of a mixed economic system. It was built on two components - private property and state entrepreneurship.

Nationalization of enterprises, banks, important industries - gas, metallurgy, coal mining, aviation, etc. – allowed already in 1948 to reach pre-war production levels. The old industries were never able to occupy key positions as they had before the war. Instead, new directions and sectors began to emerge in the economy, industry and production. This made it possible to begin solving the food problem, attract investment to Britain, and create jobs.

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

"Strange War"

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.”