Originally Posted by zapatista (Post 167499)

the British navy in those other events was able to have those success only because neither force could have a significant permanent number of planes over their enemy, or have exclusive air dominance)

Originally Posted by zapatista (Post 167499)

its uncertain the navy could have been a decisive factor in blocking the invasion, however valiantly it would have tried to delay it

once the germans had air supremacy over the south of england (and most of the rest of england presumably therefore), any major shipping action by the British in the channel would have been easy prey to torpedo attack and dive bombers
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Originally Posted by Asheshouse (Post 167513)

At Crete the Luftwaffe had total air superiority yet failed to stop the destruction of the sea borne invasion fleet by the RN. The Luftwaffe and Italian Air force had total air superiority for much of the time during the Malta siege but failed to prevent Malta being resupplied and re-armed.

The Luftwaffe could effectively keep out naval forces during daylight but could not stop action during hours of darkness. Naval forces kept north of the Thames and west of Isle of Wight would have been out of effective reach during the day but still close enough to intervene off the invasion beaches at night. Forces based at Harwich would take 2hrs to reach Dover at 25knots (depending on tides). Any German attack on Harwich would be outside of range of effective fighter cover.

Originally Posted by Zorin (Post 167516)

1. Crete and Malta would have been not supplied if mainland Britain had been isolated. -- Germany had no way to isolate Britain without invading.

2. The U-boats would have made sure no British ships even got close to any German landing operations.

Originally Posted by janpitor (Post 167440)

And also sometimes you would like to skip take off for time shortage.

Originally Posted by zapatista (Post 167499)

its uncertain the navy could have been a decisive factor in blocking the invasion, however valiantly it would have tried to delay it

once the germans had air supremacy over the south of england (and most of the rest of england presumably therefore), any major shipping action by the British in the channel would have been easy prey to torpedo attack and dive bombers

whatever glorious action the British navy had in the previous locations mentioned (except for dunkirk which was a special case, because the germans largely delayed their final push including massive air commitments on channel shipping and evacuating troops on the beaches), the British navy in those other events was able to have those success only because neither force could have a significant permanent number of planes over their enemy, or have exclusive air dominance)

iirc wherever navy action was a dominant in ww2, it almost always meant it was far out of reach of enemy lands (except of course in the pacific where the aircraft carrier strategy was decisive in naval battles, but even there yet again whomever had air supremacy or dominance over enemy shipping, it could pretty much sink them at will)

i more or less concur with the current main view of history, Brittan might have "won" BoB, but it was largely because of german mistakes (not constantly targeting radar, switching from enemy airfield targets to civilian terror attacks etc..). the 6 months delay it caused in a potential invasion also allowed the evacuated troops to get reorganized, and then potentially be able to repel the invading forces (also uncertain, but more plausible then the navy doing it on its own).