second world war – Explaining History Podcast

The Battle of the Atlantic

The Battle of the Atlantic was a key conflict during World War II, lasting from 1939 to 1945. It was a struggle for control of the Atlantic Ocean between the Allied powers (primarily the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada) and the Axis powers (led by Germany).

Neville Chamberlain’s world view, 1937

British Prime Ministers in the 1920s and 1930s inherited a world created for them by David Lloyd George between 1919 and 1923, and were unable to cope with its challenges, complexities and risks. In the case of Stanley Baldwin, who ruled for most of the period as leader of a Conservative or National Government, theContinue reading “Neville Chamberlain’s world view, 1937”

Churchill and Greece

Throughout the Second World War, Winston Churchill favoured a ‘Mediterranean Strategy’, believing that the ‘soft underbelly’ of Hitler’s Europe was Italy, Greece and the Balkans. By 1945, as the German occupiers of Greece withdrew in the face of a possible Red Army invasion Winston Churchill prioritised a British occupation of Greece to ensure that thereContinue reading “Churchill and Greece”