How Did The Battle Of Britain Changed America

The Battle of Britain significantly changed Americans’ opinion and promoted the establishment of Anglo-American alliance, laying the foundation of the allied victory. During the battle, many Americans accepted the view promoted by Joseph Kennedy, the American ambassador in London, who believed that the United Kingdom could not survive. Even though President Roosevelt wanted to give more American support to Britain, the American government finally decided to send few troops to Britain, even less than some small commonwealth countries. To most Americans that time, it was meaningless to help Britain. However, in the Battle of Britain, the RAF continued gaining in strength each week, and the Luftwaffe's morale in combat was definitely broken. After

returning from Britain, American journalist Ralph Ingersoll published a book, in which he concluded that "Adolf Hitler met his first defeat in eight years" in what might "go down in history as a battle as important as Waterloo or Gettysburg". His book had a large effect on the Americans. Although America was not yet ready to enter the War, its public opinion swung decisively pro-British. This not only gave President Roosevelt the ability to expand aid to Britain and proceed with a massive rearmament campaign, but also the political support to fight the isolationists, consolidating Roosevelt’s position as the American leader throughout the war. As a result, the United States could give more support to western Europe in the following wars.

The Battle of Britain saved Britain from the NAZIs, which made it possible for Britain to serve as a base for future offensive actions against Germany. After the Battle of Britain, bombers taking off from British bases kept blasting German industry and infrastructure in the war, devastating Germany’s military and logistic supplies to its forces. What’s more, in 1944, Britain served as the launching pad for the D-Day invasion of the allied forces to land in Normandy, liberating Europe from Nazi control and accelerating the downfall of Hitler. Without a free Britain, D-Day would have been impossible and the whole history of WWII might have been different. Therefore, the victory of Battle of Britain served as a contributing condition for future successes of the allied forces, laying a foundation for the final success of WWII.