This course will focus on the initial twelve months of
the Second World War. It will start with an examination of the immediate cause
of the war, including the policies of rearmament in both Britain and Germany,
and appeasement and its failure. It will then study the Poland campaign and the
Phoney war, examining why the Allies did nothing to help the Poles. The
campaign in the West in 1940 started with the German attack on Denmark and
Norway and nearly led to the British going to war against the Soviet Union. The
catastrophic management of that campaign led to the fall of the Chamberlain
government and the unlikely choice of Churchill as Prime Minister on the day
that the Germans struck against France, Holland and Belgium. That equally
disastrous campaign led to the evacuation of Dunkirk, the first of a series of
myths, which have become central to our national story, and will be one of the
themes of this course.
A second myth is the Battle of Britain, with the "few”
saving the "many”. Yes, Fighter Command did a wonderful job, but the Royal Navy
had a hand in stopping an invasion too! It's also true to say that Fighter
Command was bitterly divided over the correct tactics to be employed. We shall
try to get to the truth! Similarly, it is important to grasp that the Royal
Navy began its war very early and fought the Battle of the Atlantic right
through until 1945. We will look at the use of Intelligence, the Ultra secret
and the beginnings of Bletchley Park's work.
A third myth is the Blitz and the development of "The
Blitz Spirit”, much encouraged by Churchill. We will examine what actually did
happen, and how morale was maintained, contrasting that with the RAF's attempts
to bomb Germany. We will conclude by looking at the diplomatic picture as 1940
drew to a close as Britain faced the world alone, although of course that is
another myth, as she was supported by a large Empire around the world.
Reading:
James
Holland The War in the West: A
New History. Volume 1: Germany Ascendant, 1939-41. Penguin 2015
The Battle of
Britain: Five months that changed History, May-October 1940, Bantam, 2010.
Angus
Calder The Myth of the Blitz,
Jonathan Cape, 1991.
Brian
Bond (ed.) The Battle for France
and Flanders, Sixty Years On, Pen & Sword, 2001.
John
Kiszley Anatomy of a Campaign:
The British Fiasco in Norway, 1940. CUP, 2017.
John
Keegan The Battle for
History: Re-fighting World War Two, Hutchinson 1995.
Nicholas
Harmon Dunkirk: The Necessary Myth,
Hodder & Stoughton, 1980.
Nicholas
Shakespeare Six Minutes in May. How Churchill
Unexpectedly Became Prime Minister, Harvill Secker, 2017.
