Firstly, I have learned about a few turning points that took place in the war such as the Battle of Britain, the Battle of the Atlantic, the work of the code breakers and D-Day. I have found out that they all happened to stop Germany from winning the war. They are turning points because they turned around the way that the war was so each time the country winning the war changed. The battle of Britain took place because Hitler wanted to conquer Britain.
He decided that he would first have to destroy the R. A. F. Also, Winston Churchill would not give up.So, the Luftwaffe attacked British ships in the channel. In the middle of august, the Luftwaffe attacked British airfields.
Not many planes were destroyed but runways were damaged so that the planes could not take off. Although the planes could be replaced, as time went on, many R. A. F pilots were killed and they could not be replaced, so the Luftwaffe were winning the battle. The 7th of September 1940 was the turning point in the Battle of Britain. This is because Hitler changed his tactics and had London being bombed, which was called the 'Blitz'.
The Blitz actually helped the British as it gave them a chance to repair the runways, planes and give pilots a rest. Then 8 days later, on the 15th of September, the Germans sent lots of bombers and fighter planes to attack London but the R. A. F was ready.
There was a huge battle and the R. A. F won. The Battle of the Atlantic took place because Britain imported half its food and two thirds of its raw materials. Hitler ordered his U-boats to sink merchant ships sailing to Britain because he knew that if he could stop the British from getting food and raw materials, they would lose the war.
The German U-boats were under the sea and only came to the surface at night to look through binoculars to see where the English were. When the U-boats were under the sea, they fired missiles at the English boats. Because of this, the British and Americans produced fast ships that sunk U-boats. Also, anti-submarine warships called Destroyers protected the convoys of merchant ships. The Destroyers knew where and how deep the U-boats were as they had a sound navigation ranging system called 'sonar'. Also, they dropped depth charges to explode the U-boats when they were found.
After 1943, British allied planes had a radar system which they used at night as the U-boats had to go to the surface once a day. The allied planes could pick up a U-boat 6kms away. The whole of the Atlantic was patrolled looking for U-boats by long range Liberator airplanes. The other turning point I will write about is Enigma, which is the work of the code breakers. The codes were sent between the Germans to keep them all up to date of what their plans and strategies were. The codes did not make sense though, as they were mixed up letters and in German.
In England, there were Y-Stations dotted around, mainly on the coast.The Y-Stations picked up the mixed up codes and sent them to Bletchley Park, which was an important centre 50 miles north of London. In hut 6 of Bletchley Park, the people working broke the code, then it was sent to hut 3 where it was translated into English and the importance was decided. Next, the MI6 took action and passed information on to the armed forces.
The turning points are significant because they turned around the way the war was heading. Secondly, I studied D-Day. D-Day was a very significant day because it was the most important day of the 20th century and it stopped Germany from winning the war.Preparations for this day were for the British and American armies to put up a second front by attacking France, as Stalin, the Russian leader thought this would force Germany to send soldiers to France and make it easier for the Russian army to defeat Germany in Eastern Europe.
Another preparation for D-Day was building mulberries which are floating landing ports. They were built as Normandy had no channel o France. D-Day began on the 6th June 1944.The American commander of all the Allied forces, Eisenhower, gave the go ahead for the day with the simple order 'Let's go! After the go ahead, the Allies made their attack on the beaches of Normandy. This took the Germans completely by surprise as they thought the Allies were going to attack Calais. Even after the first landings in Normandy, Hitler still believed they would attack Calais as the real battle, so he held back 500 tanks.
But then it was too late, as when he eventually decided to send them to Normandy to fight, the Allies were winning the battle. D-Day was so important as it was a major turning point of the war and if it didn't happen, or it went wrong, Germany would have won the second world war.Torquay played an important role in the war as quite a lot was contributed towards it. St Mary Church was bombed and that is the most known thing that happened in Torquay, although, St Mary Church wasn't a part of Torquay then, it was its own little town. Dances were held in the St Mary Church hall for the Americans.
Most of the parks in Torquay were taken over as camps for the youth. Black Americans stayed on Torquay Community College's field and there are apparently people and tanks buried under it. Slipways are concrete ramps that were used for the landings.The slipways in Torquay are the most whole and complete slipways around the bay. They are significant because they are the most complete, they are a memory of the war and all of those who fought in it, and because they have made Torquay, Torquay.
In 2001, Torquay council applied for planning permission to demolish the slipways, despite them being listed by English heritage. In 2000, the slipways had closed due to serious safety concerns. The council said it would cost 1. 4 million pounds to carry out temporary repairs to the slipways. The council believed new slipways were needed as part of the regeneration of Torquay's harbour.
However, D-Day vetrons on both sides of the Atlantic have signed a 16thousand person petition to save them. For a history trip to gather more information in order to answer the coursework question, we were taken to Torquay's museum to talk to and ask old people about the war and the slipways. They seemed to strongly believe that Torquay's slipways are very important and they made Torquay, Torquay. They said it would be a shame to watch the slipways go. I also did a questionnaire to find out what local people think about the slipways which is at the end of this writing.
Like I said, Torbay council wanted to demolish the slipways a few years back and believed we needed more as for part of the regeneration of Torquay's harbour. To sum up what local people think, I think the slipways are significant to them as they are a reminder of the war and a memorial. The slipways today are not in a safe condition. This is because they were only designed for one day so are not stable now. They have been maintained well as they have had some structure put under them to help strengthen them although they are not strong enough to use.The redevelopment of the site has emphasised the significance of the slipways as now more people notice that they are there so more people take a look at them.
The plaque does not show the significance though. I think more could be done. I think a new plaque should be made with less, but more interesting writing. Also, there could be pictures of the slipways while they were being used on the plaque. My conclusion and answer to the question 'Are the D-Day slipways a significant part of Torquay's heritage? ' is that yes they are.
They may not mean much, if anything to some local people, but to others it is something that they do not want to see be forgotten about, or destroyed. I think the significance of Torquay's slipways only go to the extent of being locally significant, but there may be people nationally and internationally that are interested in them. I personally don't think that greater significance should be given to them in the future because in the future the people that fought and lived in the war won't be here, and I think that they are the people the slipways mean most to now, so in the future, the slipways won't mean so much to anyone.
