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Originally Posted by macker33
First off the british didnt have an endless supply of ships,royal navy in the channel=fish in the barrel for the luftwaffe.
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No they didn't. But, they had several hundred ships of destroyer size and larger. They had 36 destroyers alone specifically assigned to anti-invasion duties and initially home ported in Channel ports. After the Luftwaffe made hundreds of air strikes on these ships in harbor and damaged (note that) several, the British moved them to ports just north and south of the Channel where this did not happen.
Quote:
Originally Posted by macker33
Who would win?a destroyer or 12 stukas?
The RN could have got past calais with just one or two losses and maybe they could have halted the invasion but it would have been the end of the RN,at the end of the day airpower beats naval power.
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Given the historical evidence: The destroyer. If you look at the losses off Crete most occured for one or more of the following reasons:
The ship was at anchor (like off Dunkirk) and loading troops.
The ship ran out of antiaircraft ammunition. This occured several times at Crete where there were no replenishment dumps nearby like there would be in a cross-Channel invasion.
The ship suffered other damage.
The ship was travelling alone and was overwhelmed by 50+ aircraft.
You have none of these things present in a cross Channel invasion except possibly the last one.
Then there is that little problem called NIGHT. The Luftwaffe can't fly at night to attack ships. The RN can move a destroyer from over 100 nm away from the Channel into the Channel at NIGHT create all sorts of havoc for several hours and then withdraw again before sunrise. The RN has radar on most of their ships and they can fire star shell as well. The RAF could also illuminate targets for the RN.
Since there are ZERO examples of the Luftwaffe attacking any ship after dark during this period (and for well over a year thereafter) there is no evidence that can be presented they could have managed such a feat if they tried.
On the other hand, the Luftwaffe pilots have ZERO knowledge in ship identification and there are alot of German ships of all sorts in the Channel for a Seelöwe. Amicide is very likely. Compounding this issue will be the German crews and soldiers who will be very trigger happy simply due to fear of British air or naval attack.
As I have pointed out before one British ship opens up on an invasion convoy at night and it is likely the convoy will start shooting at each other far more than the British ship.
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Originally Posted by macker33
They only thing the KM could have done is guard the approaches ond maybe knock off a few RN ships.
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If that. The KM was planning on most of the escort vessels having nothing larger than a 3.7cm cannon aboard with no fire control system outside a ring sight. Basically, their escort was cosmetic at best.
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Originally Posted by macker33
Tactically the luftwaffe were better than the RAF ,if the invasion did kick off then facts and figures from the BoB are of no use,the luftwaffe would be flying different missions over a smaller area,completely different ball game altogether.
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I severely doubt this. By the BoB the RAF was about on par pilot-wise with the Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe was also outside Von Richtofen's VIII Flieger Korps not trained in or equipped to perform tactical air support missions. The system in place for such missions required that the request travel up the Army chain of command to army level were the Luftwaffe liason officer forwarded it to the Air Force for
consideration. If the mission was accepted then the strike was generally planned for the next day.
The Wehrmacht wasn't going to get a lot of useful air support from the Luftwaffe on those beaches.
Quote:
Originally Posted by macker33
And as for the actual land battle of GB did something magic happen to make the british army better than they were in france?
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The BEF in France fought well. It was the French collapsing around them that caused their defeat. Certainly Arras showed the Germans that the British could launch an armored assault and cause serious problems. The British simply didn't have the numbers in France to take on the Germans alone.
A similar attack on a German beachhead to Arras would have been disasterous. The Allies later in the war when faced with such a problem used their overwhelming naval gunfire support to stop such attacks. The Germans have no naval gunfire support to speak of so they are doomed in that situation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by macker33
Also people keep going on about beach landings,why?whats wrong with capturing a port and bringing over troops and supplies that way?
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First, you have to capture a port big enough to supply the troops you landed. The three the Germans initially proposed to take Folkestowe, Dover and, Ramsgate were all small ports that in perfect condition could have only supplied a fraction of the initial landing force.
The British knowing that the Germans would try and take ports had the ones on the Channel coast wired for demolition and had block ships in place. Had the Germans actually tried to land and take these ports they would have found them largely useless.
Worse yet, the Germans have ZERO means at their disposal to repair a demolished and blocked port. So, they would be back to landing reinforcements and supplies over the beaches.