Quote:
Originally Posted by robday
As far as I am aware, the Germans had no purpose-built landing craft, only converted Rhine barges with improvised bow-ramps that would have been towed across the chanel by tugs and other ships! In anything but the most benign of weather this would have been hazardous to say the least! If the Royal Navy had got in amongst this lot I believe carnage would have been the result.
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Why do you lot actually believe they would have launched an invasion? It was part of the act to convince the British that an invasion was planned. There have been uncounted numbers of made-up plans, operations and of course you needed to convince the enemy by throwing them a bone or two.
If Hitler really would have wanted to invade Great Britain, he would have done, mad as he was. But that was never his plan, he hoped for the British to settle on a surrender, just like France.
He switched from bombing airfields and such to terror bombing and the lot to get results. He had a master plan and that did not include Britain be that stubborn to give in. He could have easily continued bombing airfields and leveling every airfield in the south of England to the ground, but it didn't produce the results he was after.
Terror bombing and the dawn of an upcoming invasion were the means he thought good enough to brake the British moral and force Churchill into an agreement. Though as we know, that never happened and Hitler turned towards Russia, leaving Britain behind. He must have had great faith, due to the very successful early u-boat campaign, that they would starve sooner or later anyway.
And up till 1942 there was little coming out of Britain to concern him. Occasional raids and all that but no major effort, expect the shot in the foot called Dieppe Raid, but that was it. Only as the 1000 bomber raids started, he must have regretted not putting Britain under heavier pressure and postponing Barbarossa.