The Germans never won what Churchill called
the battle of the Atlantic.
On land Britain at first won spectacular victor-
ies in Africa during General Wavell’s campaigns
against the Italians in the spring of 1941. With
the help of Dominion troops from South Africa,
Australia and New Zealand as well as Indian
troops, a much larger Italian army was defeated
and chased out of Libya and Cyrenaica. In East
Africa Abyssinia was freed and Haile Selassie
restored to his throne. Hitler responded by
sending General Erwin Rommel and an Afrika
Korps to assist the Italians in the western desert.
Wavell was forced back to the Egyptian frontier.
Britain had weakened her forces in the
Middle East by sending an expedition to Greece.
Mussolini had attacked Greece in October 1940
to show Hitler that he too could act independ-
ently. Unfortunately he could win no battles
and soon the Greeks were chasing the Italians
into Albania. In April 1941, Hitler came to
Mussolini’s rescue once more. By the end of the
month the Greeks were defeated and the British
expeditionary force withdrew. Britain’s last forces
were defeated in Crete which was spectacularly
captured at the end of May 1941 by German para-
troopers, who, however, suffered heavy casualties
in the operation.
The second strand of the period from June
1940 to the end of 1941 is formed by the
growing informal alliance between Britain and the
US. During Britain’s ‘finest hour’, it did not
stand alone. Besides the forces of its European
Allies who had formed new fighting units in
Britain it enjoyed, from the beginning of the war,
the full support of the Dominions, all of whom
had chosen to stand by Britain. Only Eire
(Ireland) declared its neutrality. The support of
the Dominions and empire was an important
addition to Britain’s ability to wage war. But
without the US Britain’s survival would have been
problematical. Until the fall of France, President
Roosevelt was convinced that to make available
the capacities of American industry to provide war
supplies to Britain and France would be sufficient
to ensure an Allied victory. In the mid-1930s
Congress had attempted to prevent the US from
playing a role similar to that of the First World
War by passing the Neutrality Laws in 1935,
1936 and 1937 so that the US would not be
‘dragged’ into war. This legislation denied bel-
ligerents the right to purchase arms and muni-
tions or secure American credit for such purposes.
In November 1939, Roosevelt secured the repeal
of some of its provisions. Belligerents could
now obtain arms and munitions provided they
paid for them and transported them home in their
own ships (‘cash and carry’). Britain and France
took immediate advantage of the opportunity.
Germany, lacking the means to transport pur-
chases to Europe, could not do so.
The collapse of American neutrality was rapid.
Roosevelt was determined to help Britain in every
way possible to continue the war against Germany
once he became convinced in July 1940 that
Britain was not about to be knocked out of the
war. Congress, concerned to keep the US out of
the war, was the major impediment. Bypassing
Congress, Roosevelt agreed in September 1940 to
Churchill’s repeated pleas for fifty First World War
destroyers in return for leases on naval bases in the
British West Indies. He also obtained a formal
promise from the British government never to sur-
render the British fleet to the Germans. But he felt
it politically essential during the presidential elec-
tion of the autumn of 1940 to promise the
American people simply, ‘Your boys are not going
to be sent into any foreign wars.’ When the votes
were counted in November, Roosevelt’s victory
was decisive.
Following the election, Churchill appealed to
Roosevelt for all-out aid. He wanted arms and
ships and planes if Britain were to match
Germany’s strength. Roosevelt did his best to mar-
shal American public opinion, declaring in a speech
on 30 December 1940 that the US would become
the ‘arsenal of democracy’. The Lend-Lease Act
(March 1941) made all these goods available to
Britain without payment. By May 1941 Roosevelt
had concluded that the US would have to enter the
war, but given the attitude of Congress and of the
majority of the American people he wanted
Germany to fire the first shot. Hitler did not
oblige. He cleverly avoided treating the US as a
hostile state even though the US navy was now
convoying merchant vessels – British, American