BBC James Holland - Battle of Britain

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Originally Posted by Sternjaeger

You see, I actually think that the RAF didn't prevent the Germans from winning: both the RAF and Luftwaffe lost around 1000 planes, but at the stage the RAF was on its knees, while the Germans deployed some 4000 aeroplanes for the Operation Barbarossa right afterwards! The Luftwaffe was far from being in the same dire conditions as the Royal Air Force. If Goering would have taken his stick out of his ar$e and listened to his commanders he would have got the aerial dominance in a matter of a few months. The real issue was that the tactics were changed halfway and it was one of the poorest decisions in the history of warfare.

The Germans had better planes, better tactics and more planes, after months of wasting resources they just decided to put things "on hold".

I very much agree with the first part of that. If Goering would have made the elimination of the RAF and RADAR the only priorities, things would have at least been much more difficult for the Brits.

Clearly, the Nazis would have had to pay a dear price for air supremacy but it would have been worth it from a strategic point of view, invasion or not.

I do not agree that the Nazi planes were clearly better or that German pilots were clearly better. The front line fighters on both sides were doing their jobs rather well, the Germans were just at a huge disadvantage in that they were near the limit of their range. Plus, the Brits were fighting at home...when they lost a plane they stood a decent chance of getting the pilot back. When the Germans lost a plane, they usually lost a pilot too. But the Germans did have the numbers advantage.

Another disadvantage the Nazis put themselves into was the inferiority of their bombers. Stukas were severely outclassed by the BoB and British planes made mincemeat out of them and other bombers. They never really developed a strategic bomber. If the Nazis had developed better bombers prior to the BoB, again the Brits would have had a much more difficult time of things.

I think arrogance played a huge role in the Nazi "defeat" in the BoB. I think it again came into play with the decision to invade Russia (never a good idea for dictators lol).

BTW, in that post it may seem that I used the terms "Nazi" and "German" almost interchangeably. I try to keep a clear distinction in my head between the Nazi leadership and the German soldiers and civilians. I understand they were not the same and hope everyone else does too. I try to use the proper term when needed, but sometimes the differences are probably not clear. Hope that makes sense.

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