the reason they chose the mine sweeper was because during the BoB Britain had layed minefileds in the channel and these ships were tasked to clear a way for the eventual invasion operation "Sealion" (Seeloewe)

Do we know what the next phase of the series is?

My guess is it will be Russian front...otherwise I'll never understand why it is called IL2 Cliffs of Dover...as there's no IL2 in the game! ;)

Ships wise I'll happily take anymore that they put in. Barges to put in the French ports for Blenheims and Wellingtons to attack at night would be nice...but if we start a list of what would be nice we'll have a very long list and no sequel ;)

I would prefer it if they finished the first project before moving on to a new one though!

I doubt they will model the pocket battleships before we get a string bag!

Given that there is a large group of people who have made a hobby over the past several years of actively making sure any potential new players avoid this sim, why would any sane company put any further work into CoD?

Its far more logical to abandon the project and its whiney spoilt user base to founder and put any new effort into a new project that can be safely detached from the current fiasco and hopefully start fresh.

For escorts in the N Sea / English channel then on the RN I would recommend the Hunt class destroyers, they were designed for the job and a lot were built.
For the German Navy torpedo boats or Minesweepers

All very well if you could actually do some gardening in the RAF types, but you can't.

('gardening' was the RAF slang for laying sea mines from aircraft)

I would recommend the Tribal Class... ;)