Britain Defences

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Britain Defences

• By Jack Layton

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Reasons for the defences

• Britain was positive it was going to be
  invaded mainly because of the vast expanse in
  Europe that the Nazi force had invaded and
  conquered so far. Britain were surrounded so they
  needed to think of a plan and solution. They did
  and it was to prepare to be invaded.

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The Home Front

• As Britain had all their main soldiers out
  fighting abroad there were no other soldiers left
  to defend the land. So the country called on all
  the men too old for the army and the teenagers
  about 14 and older to join the home front. This
  is a mini army left to defend the country. They
  had no weapons as all the guns were already in
  use, but they did use the anti-aircraft guns to
  help the Battle of Britain. They were very
  successful shooting down over 10 fighter planes
  per night.

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The channel on Fire

• Many attempts to defend the country were a
  little absurd. Like this idea, to set the channel
  on fire. This was to try and stop the German
  u-boats from attacking our boats. Also as the
  Germans were only a few miles away and could see
  England the fire was a way of blocking their
  view.

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Barbed wire

• Many of Britain's Defences involved barbed
  wire. One attempt was to put barbed wire over key
  (A) roads. This was to stop German lorries from
  getting around Britain easily, unless they knew
  their way around the country.
• Also, the barbed wire would stop German planes
  landing on the long straight strips

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Signs

• The British also painted over all the signs to
  make it even harder for the Germans to find their
  way around the country if they did invade. Again
  this had no effect on the British for they did
  not travel around much in the war, and if they
  did it was usually to do with evacuation so it
  was supervised by the military.

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Pillboxes

• Pillboxes were very common in WWII they could be
  found just about everywhere in Nazi occupied
  Europe. The British installed many pillboxes
  around Britain when they were under threat of
  invasion. Pillboxes are large concrete bunkers
  with a mounted machine gun inside which would
  shoot out at any enemy infantry.

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Battle of Britain

• Probably the most famous defence technique
  used by the British in world war II was the
  Battle of Britain. This was a huge air battle
  trying to fight off the German Luftwaffe whilst
  they were trying to bomb London and key military
  bases. It was a huge help in the war effort. For
  more information go to Battle of Britain.

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The Consequence

• No matter how ludicrous some of the plans were
  to defend the country, it showed that Britain
  felt there was a very real threat of invasion and
  if the Germans had invaded, the British wouldve
  been prepared.