Let's Put this Battle of Britain thing in Historical Context..

[Moggy]

On a related subject, does anyone remember the name of the book (might of been 2) the Germans had which listed British subjects they wanted to capture\arrest in case they invaded? Were they the red and black books?

[Wutz]

Originally Posted by Moggy

On a related subject, does anyone remember the name of the book (might of been 2) the Germans had which listed British subjects they wanted to capture\arrest in case they invaded? Were they the red and black books?

I think the books you are looking for are mentioned here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih5GG...eature=related

uhmmm I dunno fellas, there are a lot of things to keep into account..

Provided the Luftwaffe gained an air superiority on the southern part of England (cos that was the range of the fighters), it would still have been quite a feat to invade the UK from the sea.

Operation Overlord happened 4 years later and with an unprecedented logistic strain, something that the Germans would have never been able to achieve in 1940. Hitler's idea to look for a truce (he slowed down Guderian's advance in France and allowed the brits to leave relatively undisturbed from Dunkirk) was probably in view of the fact that an invasion of the UK was way harder that one might have thought and he was still sensible enough to understand it himself. It was no Operation Merkur, the UK is a big ass island

The only way would have been to use a massive amount of paras, establishing a bridgehead and slowly advance, but the bottleneck of the Channel link would have caused serious disruptions. If they didn't decide to do the foolish mistake of Barbarossa then MAYBE they could have managed an invasion, in hindsight it was easier to keep a truce with the Russians than trying to find a deal with Churchill, but hey, that's all guesswork.. fascinating pub topic though!

[SYN_Flashman]

When trying to guess what might have happened if a part of history changes, it gets very difficult the further you get away from the original change.... and the BoB is one of those subjects and is especially difficult.

There is so much contraversy with even with the BoB. After all, despite the legend, in reality the Luftwaffe where fighting 11 group in the main, not the whole of the RAF.

Had they destroyed 11 Group would the germans have invaded britain? How determined was Hitler that Britain should be invaded?

Would the Royal navy have managed to destroy the german naval forces as they tried to launch the invasion? The Royal Navy would undoubtably have attacked the invasion fleet no matter what the odds......

Even with air superiority there is no gaurantee that the Luftwaffe would have been able to prevent the Royal Navy destroying or severly hampering the invasion fleet.

In terms of number, especially compared to later battles, the BoB was only a small to medium air battle. During the pacific war there where often much larger air battles with much higher casualties... with the USN fighting off carriers alone!

In terms of its signifcance... who truly knows. I think it was a turning point (one of many admittedly!) but the first victory for the forces fighting totalitarianism and the first battle that ensured at least a good part of Europe has enjoyed freedom and democracy ever since.

[Gribbers]

Originally Posted by MadTommy

Err what historical context are you attempting to put it in? As i see no historical context in your post.

This game represents a tiny battle nothing like Stalingrad. It was important but it certainly was not huge or even large.

Errrrrrmmmmmmm, doubt it. It was the largest aerial battle of the war...look at the stats on Wiki....literally double the numbers involved. "Tiny" indeed....tut

Plus, it was the last stronghold of Europe (exc Russia) and a morale kick in the b0llocks for the Germans...they finally realised they couldn't trample all over the continent doing what they wanted and getting away with it.

[bongodriver]

Plus, it was the last stronghold of Europe (exc Russia) and a morale kick in the b0llocks for the Germans...they finally realised they couldn't trample all over the continent doing what they wanted and getting away with it.

I think alot of 'Germans' already felt that way, it was a kick in the B0llock for Hitler

[Gribbers]

Originally Posted by bongodriver

I think alot of 'Germans' already felt that way, it was a kick in the B0llock for Hitler

True true...

[swiss]

Just a few thoughts:


- the defeat of the UK means no British-American alliance

- no British colonies(they would now be German, lol) to protect in Southeast Asia or Africa
[this also means unlimited supply of fuel for the new owners]

- no oil embargo against Japan, no Pearl Harbor, therefore no war between USA and Japan or Germany.
[I'd be easier for the Nips to get oil from Germany than declaring war on the US]

- Japan conquers the better part of China

- without US supplies Stalin's Army is doomed.

- Before 1950 one of the assassination attempts on Hitler is finally successful

[Gribbers]

Anyone ever read Philip K Dick's book 'The Man in the High Castle'.

A bit random, but an interesting read.

[Moggy]

The gerat thing about the Battle of Britain and the what if scenarios is that you can look at it in many different ways and come up with a variety of different outcomes. My personal favourite is the likely outcome of the initial airborne invasion.