Re: THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN: Did it really save Britain in ww2
aussiejohn said:
Did the German High Command really want to invade Britain in 1940?
Depends on which part of the High Command you ask
.
The army was keen to invade, or it was until they found out the logistical capability of the Navy, or lack of it, to be more accurate.
The air force never saw the need to invade, they were convinced they could bring Britain to its knees without an invasion.
The navy considered an invasion of Britain would be little more than suicide, but its leaders were too cowardly to admit this to Hitler. So they just went along with it, but pointed out the problems and hoped that everyone involved would realize it was madness without them having to admit it to Hitler. Fortunately this proved to be the case
Was the RAF nearly on its knees? Did the Luftwaffe make a terrible mistake in shifting from bombing airfields to the major cities?
No, on the 6 September 1940 the RAF's Fighter Command had 725 serviceable fighters and 1,381 pilots available, an increase of 150 planes and 200 pilots from the beginning of the Battle in July.
The Luftwaffe wasn't even coming close to winning the war of attrition
As for lack of pilots at no point during the BoB did Fighter Command operational pilot strength drop below 1,000 pilots. The number of trained, operational pilots actually increased at all stages during the BoB, from 1,094 on June 15 to 1,422 by August 31 to 1,737 by October 19. By October 12, the RAF actually had a surplus of trained operational pilots, with not enough operational squadrons to send them to.
While the RAF at the height of the battle did suffer from a loss of experienced pilots,( to act as Flight Commanders and Squadron Leaders) and this did cause Dowding some concern, people often fail to notice that the Luftwaffe fighter arm was suffering from the same problem. On the 20 August Erdard Milch began a five day tour of the air force in France, during it the Luftwaffe fighter arm complained that new pilots were being sent to them who had only done ten landings in a Bf 109, had never fired their cannon, and were unable to navigate.
On the 5 September Air Vice-Marshal Park commander of 11 Group spoke to his Chief Controller Lord Willoughby de Brooke " I know you and the other controllers must be getting worried about our losses" Park said "Well I've been looking at these casualty figures, and I've come to the conclusion that at our present rate of losses we can just afford it. And I'm damned certain the Boche can't. If we can hang on as we're going, I'm sure we shall win in the end"
On the 7th September the Luftwaffe blinked, they bombed London
Was it "their finest hour" as Churchill put it?
Yes.
Britain could have cut a highly favorable deal with Hitler, and left the rest of Europe to its fate, but they didn't.
ps, here a light hearted look at the problems the Germans faced with Sea Lion
http://www.flin.demon.co.uk/althist/seal1.htm