Posted on: March 5th 2020
In history, Form 6 has been studying World War 2. The children have reflected upon four key turning points in the war and the significance of their importance: The Eastern Front, The Battle of Britain, Pearl Harbour and the withdrawal from Dunkirk.
Below are two short extracts from two of the pupils in Form 6 detailing what they learnt about these key turning points in World War 2.
The Battle of Britain
'The Battle of Britain was an extremely important battle in the second world war. After Hitler and Nazi Germany had conquered most of Europe, including France, the only major country left to conquer was Great Britain. However, standing in their way was the Royal Air Force, so Germany tried to bomb Great Britain to try and destroy their Air Force.
The battle began on July 10th 1940 and lasted many months as Germany was desperate to invade Britain and would not stop bombing. Its name comes from a speech that Winston Churchhill made, saying “ The Battle Of France is over. The Battle Of Britain is about to begin.”
Germany needed to prepare for their invasion of Britain, so they first attacked towns and Army Defenses on the southern coast. However they soon realised that the British Royal Air Force would be a real problem. So they soon focused their firepower on The British Planes, firing bombs at Airport Runways and British Radars. Although the bombing continued, the British kept pushing and fighting back. Hitler began to get frustrated at how long it was taking to invade Britain.
So he soon switched tactics and started bombing large cities such as London. As some people like to call ‘The Battle Of Britain Day’, was when The Nazi’s launched a large bombing on the city of London, however, much to the Germans annoyance, The Air Force took to the sky’s. The British planes shot down many German planes and pushed them back. This just showed that Britain was not defeated and Germany were not succeeding, this gave Britain hope. Although the Nazi’s continued to bomb Britain, their attacks became slow and they knew that they were losing momentum.
Although the Germans had more planes and pilots, the British were able to fight them off because they had the advantage of fighting over their homeland. They also had Radar so they could tell when the German planes were coming. That was the Battle of Britain.'
By Sidney Embleton
The Eastern Front
'During WW2, Russia was ruled by a man named Joseph Stalin. Germany was ruled by a man named Adolf Hitler. They had a lot of similarities. For example, they were both dictators, so they decided to not invade each other but there was only one problem. Both countries wanted to take over all of Europe and if you know anything about dictators they don’t share no matter what, so Adolf Hitler sent soldiers marching into Russia.
The Russians were extremely unprepared. There were 4 million Germans. The Germans stopped at Stalingrad. Stalin said we can’t let the Germans take over Stalingrad because it has his name on the city name. The Germans fought fiercely against Russia, Stalingrad became a war zone but then the winter happened. The temperatures skyrocketed down to -35 degrees celsius. Their clothes weren’t used to cold conditions and the oil to their vehicles were freezing.
On the other hand, the Russians were used to the cold conditions, their clothes were fit for the winter. Stalin asked the smartest scientists in Russia to create an oil that can withstand cold conditions. The commander told Hitler that we have to retreat but Hitler said no to that. But the Russians kept pushing the Germans back and eventually they pushed the Germans back into Europe making the invasion unsuccessful.'
By Shun Shoda
