Germany did not lose the Battle of Britain

[planespotter]

New article by Heinkill:

While the British regard the Battle of Britain as an epic struggle which resulted in a resounding victory, there is evidence that it barely registered in German consciousness in 1940 and is still of only minor significance today.

The first thing that strikes you researching German language internet or published sources about the Battle of Britain, is how scarce they are.

Partly, this can be due to the old adage, “History is written by the victors”, but it also signals that this is a chapter in German history which German historians and even aviation enthusiasts, do not regard the same way British scholars do.

How can this be? Read more!

http://www.freewebs.com/heinkill/booksfilmssites.htm

[SlipBall]

Originally Posted by planespotter

New article by Heinkill:

While the British regard the Battle of Britain as an epic struggle which resulted in a resounding victory, there is evidence that it barely registered in German consciousness in 1940 and is still of only minor significance today.

The first thing that strikes you researching German language internet or published sources about the Battle of Britain, is how scarce they are.

Partly, this can be due to the old adage, “History is written by the victors”, but it also signals that this is a chapter in German history which German historians and even aviation enthusiasts, do not regard the same way British scholars do.

How can this be? Read more!

http://www.freewebs.com/heinkill/booksfilmssites.htm

I think that air superiority was attempted by the German high command, without the sucess being achived there was no sence to continue

[NSU]

“History is written by the victors”

yes this is right and most forget!
and many german documents lost at the end of the war!!

what remains is much propaganda and storys on both sides!

[mungee]

Originally Posted by SlipBall

I think that air superiority was attempted by the German high command, without the sucess being achived there was no sence to continue

That sums it up for me!

Putting it another way:

"Great Britain's "victory" in the Battle of Briatin, was achieved by denying victory to the Germans!"

[ElAurens]

A victory by any means is still a victory, no matter how the Luftwaffe apologists paint it.

[Asheshouse]

Stephen Bungay 2000, p368 -- Fighter Command's victory was decisive. Not only had it survived, it ended the battle stronger than it had ever been. On 6 July its operational strength stood at 1,259 pilots. On 2 November, the figure was 1,796, an increase of over 40%. It had also seriously mauled its assailant. In a lecture held in Berlin on 2 February 1944, the intelligence officer of KG 2, Hauptmann Otto Bechle, showed that from August to December 1940 German fighter strength declined by 30% and bomber strength by 25%.

A fairly compelling argument I think.

[Crumpp]

Unfortunately many gamers want to place the significance for England's victory on the simplistic concept of their favorite game shapes performance. That is simply not true as design contemporaries did not have the performance gaps required to play any significant in combat.

It is the same silly a notion as Americans claiming the P-51 or any other USAAF designs performance won the air war in Western Europe.

It is arguable that the Battle of Britain was lost long before the Second World War started.

By providing the proper economic and logistics basis for realizing these plans, the air staffs had also established the foundation for increasing Allied air superiority as the war progressed. This is not to say their prewar planning was without flaws. Indeed, at a tactical and operational level, the Luftwaffe enjoyed self-evident advantages. However, by getting the fundamentals right and being prepared to learn from painful early reverses, the Royal Air Force placed itself in a significantly stronger position than the Luftwaffe to fight the Battle of Britain.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...4/ai_74582443/

In terms of aerial combat losses, Fighter Command took a mauling. In the air, the RAF pilots just did not have the training, tactics, or experience to deal with the Germans. Dowding recognized from the beginning though that all FC had to do was survive.

It did not have to maul the Germans in the air. The Germans lacked a logistical system that could replace their losses at the same pace as the RAF. Thus overtime, despite their training, tactical, and experience advantage as an organization the Luftwaffe fewer losses had a larger impact.

What makes this all the more surprising is that Fighter Command's operational losses were significantly higher than those suffered by the Luftwaffe's fighter force (Figure 4). This was equally true for the Battle of France as it was for the Battle of Britain. Thus, for 4 months, July-October 1940, Fighter Command lost more than 900 Hurricanes and Spitfires [37] compared to 600 Bf 109s recorded by the Luftwaffe quartermaster returns. [38]

Not only was FC superior in numbers of single seat fighters and pilots, they flew many more sorties. On average, they had more fighter airplanes in the air and outnumbered their German opponents at the tip of the spear.



None of the facts change the emotional and cultural views taught in English school history. "The Few" grossly outnumbered in their elegant Spitfires and flying circles around the invading evil Nazi's is an image that will forever inspire us.

[brando]

While the British regard the Battle of Britain as an epic struggle which resulted in a resounding victory, there is evidence that it barely registered in German consciousness in 1940 and is still of only minor significance today.

Epic struggle....yes. Resounding victory... no, unless you compare it to the spectacle of the years preceding it.

I'd have to add that what registered in the German consciousness back in that year was entirely what the Nazi party wanted to register and wasn't necessarily the whole truth.

Most of the Air Marshals, Goring, Harris, et al, were operating according to the maxim espoused in Douhet's book published in the 30s; to whit, a country could be brought to its knees by aerial bombardment alone. That philosophy prevailed almost throughout the war, but the truth is that it doesn't work unless you can follow up with armies on the ground. Only the advent of the A-bomb in 1945 brought Douhet's prophecy somewhere near the truth, though even that is contested.
In reality it was submarine warfare that prevailed, viz. the Americans ability to sink nearly every oil-tanker before it reached Japan, thereby cutting off the Japanese from that vital resource.

Had it not been for the British resisting the Luftwaffe's attempts to knock them out of the war, everything might have played out very differently in the following years. There is a very strong case for suggesting that the U.S. might never have involved herself in the European conflict if Britain had not hung on - and it's clear that the second front couldn't have been mounted without Britain as a springboard.

It'd be interesting to know where you get the notion of resounding victory from. While wartime British propaganda unsurprisingly hailed the conflict as a victory at the time, much research into the subject has been made since the war years and the overwhelming consensus is that it was "a damned close-run thing". Yet from that stubborn resistance came a glimmer of hope that grew in so many ways as to eventually overturn the Nazis' ambition towards total domination.

Maybe you're trying to see this history in little chunks - when a step back would reveal the whole ebb & flow.

B

[Jughead]

"there is evidence that it barely registered in German consciousness in 1940 and is still of only minor significance today."

I would have to think that they reconsidered that on June 6th, 1944.

[Feuerfalke]

Just as much as Dunkirk is described in many British documents as a great military rescue operation against an overwhelming force. I saw very few British documents, that took note Hitler stopped his troops from crushing the British at the beach, hoping Britain would note this as a friendly act and strengthen the chances for a peace later on.