Friday 2010-06-25 Dev. update and Discussion Thread

[badfinger]

Originally Posted by philip.ed

I think differently...they could have forced the country into submission, but an actual invasion verged on impossible. It could never have been achieved via paratroopers, and an invasion via the sea would have been better except this, too, would have been impossible.
I read a book by, i think, Derek Robinson about this which is extremely interesting it certainly brings to mind the flaws in sea-borned invasions.
However, the RAF's defeat would have been demoralising and so this could have led to submission.
Thankfully we'll never know!

The book was "Invasion 1940", and Robinson is quite clear in his opinion that the Germans weren't prepared for launch a real invasion, and if they had been, the invasion would have been at night (this was the German plan). Meaning neither the RAF nor the Luftwaffe would have been a factor. However, the RN would have destroyed the invasion fleet, since the German navy consisted of 5 destroyers, and assorted E-boats.

I don't think anything would have lead to an invasion, or submission.

binky9

[robday]

Originally Posted by binky9

Robinson is quite clear in his opinion that the Germans weren't prepared for launch a real invasion

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.

[Zorin]

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.

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.

[SlipBall]

I had thought that the first bombing of civilians was an accident. Then the ones that followed, were revenge raids.

[major_setback]

Originally Posted by SlipBall

I had thought that the first bombing of civilians was an accident. Then the ones that followed, were revenge raids.

You just summed up human nature.

[BadAim]

I'm not even sure how relevant the invasion argument is here, but since it's going anyway, I'll jump in. Believe it or not, I have to throw my lot in with Zorin. I've long been of a mind that Hitler had no intention of defeating Britain in the first place, but only to back them into a corner and get them to see "reason" and get with the program and send a bunch of blond haired blue eyed boys to fight alongside his blond haired blue eyed boys against the communist horde. Sea lion was a half-hearted plan at best, and probably was never meant to actually be executed. The U-boats did a very good job of suppressing England as a base for any attacks against Europe, right up until the outcome of the war had already (arguably mid '43) been decided, so had all of Hitler's grandiose plans come to fruition as planned, England would have never been more than a minor nuisance. Unfortunately for Hitler, he didn't seem to realize that he was messing with two places where they produce people equally as stubborn and stoic as the Germans, and also there was the minor problem that he was batshit crazy and hindered his own plans more than anyone else could have.