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Alexander's Horse
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Panmunjon, hands up!
Jan 1970 time: 15:30
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quote: Hence my caveat that the Luftwaffe would have to have complete air superiority over south-eastern England. The Brits knew that if the RAF was beaten, they were done for. |
If you wargame this the Krauts can take Britain easily even without defeating the RAF or the Royal navy. But Prussians don't like getting their feet wet.
Hitler was surprised by the French collapse and expected Britain to make peace so he dithered over the invasion until it was too late in the year to launch. Then he turned his attention to Russia believing it would be an easy victory.
Britain was virtually defenceless on land in 1940. A paratroop assault to seize a port close to Calais followed by a quick insertion of troops by boat and ship under Luftwaffe air cover is quite feasible in July or August 1940. Once the Germans had a foothold neither the RAF nor the Royal Navy could have stopped them from building it up, though they could have caused losses, possibly serious losses, which Hitler was not prepared to accept.
The journey by barge, boat or ship from the Calais area to the British channel ports is only 2 or 3 hours. Dunkirk showed that air attack was ineffective in stopping troop movements across the channel.
In 1940 however Hitler was still looking for easy victories and passed up the opportunity to finish off Britain.
One factor was poor German intelligence about how strong British defences were but decisive was probably the aversion of the German Army to operating over the water. The German Army did not want to go into seaborne ops they had no experience in or tradition for.
The Battle of Britain was a decisive battle in WWII but it is quite clear the German side did not appreciate its true significance. Their invasion preparations were halfhearted and neither Hitler nor Goering paid much attention to the battle until in the case of the latter he began to see his own prestige and that of the Luftwaffe as being at stake.
Hitler pretty much ignored the whole thing and was already engrossed in planning for the attack on Russia before the Battle of Britain concluded. The German side did not even see the air battle as a loss. Hitler shrugged off the cancellation of the invasion without disappointment. He seemed rather pleased to move on to Russia.
Last edited by Alexander's Horse on 19-01-2005 at 02:46
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