Word: british
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...ever to be fought entirely in the skies, anxiously watched by ordinary citizens below. Goring had roughly 1,400 bombers and nearly 1,000 fighters, the R.A.F. defenders fewer than 900 fighters. The opposing planes were roughly equal, the German Messerschmitts with a slightly faster rate of climb, the British Spitfires and Hurricanes more maneuverable. (The British also had some secret weapons: a radar warning system that the Germans greatly underestimated, and the Operation Ultra computer that broke most German military codes, particularly those of the Luftwaffe.) The outnumbered British fought with a kind of desperation that inspired Churchill...
...ashore on a front extending 200 miles from Ramsgate to Lyme Bay, to be followed by 170,000 more troops within two days. But the navy balked. It did not have enough ships for such a broad front, and those it did have would be overwhelmed by the stronger British fleet. And who had control of the skies? If there was any doubt, said Goring, his Luftwaffe could smash the Royal Air Force within a few weeks. Hitler thereupon ordered the Luftwaffe "to overcome the British air force with all means at its disposal," so that the invasion could begin...
...German invasion fleet being assembled in France. On one September night 84 barges were hit. Hitler was finally convinced. On Sept. 17 he formally decided "to postpone Sea Lion indefinitely." But the Battle of Britain went on. Between July and November, the Germans lost 1,733 aircraft, the British 915. Though the blitz continued until the following spring, costing about 30,000 lives in London alone, the essential result was that for the first time, Hitler's military power had been beaten back...
...remained stoutly neutral, isolationist. Though most Americans favored the British, polls consistently showed that 75% to 80% strongly opposed U.S. involvement in the war. The U.S. did appropriate $13 billion in Lend-Lease aid to Britain in 1941, but when Churchill asked for 50 obsolete World War I destroyers to replace those lost in the Battle of Britain, he had to sign over Western Hemisphere bases in exchange. Besides, the U.S. was embarrassingly weak, boasting an Army of barely three divisions and an Air Force with just over 300 fighters...
Chief of Staff Halder testified after the war that the German generals were ready to overthrow the dictator if the Czechoslovak crisis of 1938 led to actual fighting. But when the British and French caved in at Munich, so did the German generals. Assassins, too, narrowly failed on several occasions. In November 1939, for instance, Hitler made a speech in Munich, then left ahead of schedule -- just 13 minutes before a time bomb went off and killed several bystanders...