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

[MikeC1980]

The battle of Britain did have huge consequences.

If Hitler had defeated the RAF, he would have given the order to invade Britain. He would have eventually defeated Britain.

Without a free Britain, there would have been nowhere for the United States to amass forces for the invasion of Italy and more importantly the D-Day invasion of France. An invasion fleet sailing all the way from the east coast of the US to Europe could not have happened in such great numbers. And also Britain was vital as a launching point for years of bombing raids that struck at Germany's manufacturing capability.

Now here is the bit nobody has thought of.

Without the D-Day invasion, the Russian forces would have had to fight the Nazis on their own... and eventually would have forced them back to Berlin... and beyond.

There is no reason to think the Russians would have stopped at Germany.

The Soviet Iron curtain would have covered the whole of Europe.

The entire history of the world would have been very, very different.

Its (almost) all down to those men in their flying machines!

-Mike C

[MikeC1980]

Originally Posted by cheesehawk

Remember, Germany had just carried out an invasion of Norway, which did give them practice at surprise invasions, so they at least had a taste of what they'd need, but not at the scale that most agree it would have taken to defeat the much better armed and prepared UK.

After the defeat of the French and the British Expeditionary Force, wasn't a lot of the UK's equipment left burning on the road to Dunkirk? I don't think the UK was at all ready to fight off the undefeated German army.

[David Hayward]

Originally Posted by MikeC1980

After the defeat of the French and the British Expeditionary Force, weren't a lot of the UK's equipment left burning on the road to Dunkirk? I don't think the UK was at all ready to fight off the undefeated German army.

That is meaningless if the Germans don't have a way to get past the British navy.

[Al Schlageter]

It would take the German invasion fleet 1 to 3 days to reach the invasion beaches (depends on their start points for each sub-fleet). The invasion fleet had a speed of ~3Kts. The tides in the Channel could be at least twice that speed.

The RAF was continually monitoring the invasion assembly ports.

The Royal Navy would attack the German fleet at night! Stukas and other German bombers would have a hard time bombing the RN as it decimated the invasion fleet.

Any resupply of any German troops that managed to get ashore would take at least 3 days to return to the beaches.

RAF BC would not be sitting idly by letting RAF FC do all the fighting. They would be attacking the beaches, the barges in the Channel and the ports in France, Belgium and Holland. The LW would have to dilute their fighter force to cover these threats.

[Al Schlageter]

Originally Posted by MikeC1980

After the defeat of the French and the British Expeditionary Force, wasn't a lot of the UK's equipment left burning on the road to Dunkirk? I don't think the UK was at all ready to fight off the undefeated German army.

That is what is said but the Brits were not that bad off. A little digging will turn up the statistics on what the Brits had.

[MikeC1980]

Originally Posted by Al Schlageter

RAF BC would not be sitting idly by letting RAF FC do all the fighting. They would be attacking the beaches, the barges in the Channel and the ports in France, Belgium and Holland. The LW would have to dilute their fighter force to cover these threats.

That's why Hitler decided the Luftwaffe should wipe out the RAF before he would give the command to invade Britain. When the battle took longer than expected, and the favourable weather/season passed, Hitler's attention turned elsewhere.

Here are some good points I found elsewhere:

Germany couldn't defeat the British Air Force to the degree where they could have air supremacy. Invading a country without it is suicide.

Originally Hitler targeted only British airbases. Things were going well, at one point the English air force was down to only 200 planes.

Then a flight of German bombers accidentally bombed London. In retaliation Churchill ordered Berlin bombed. Hitler wigged it and ordered the destruction of London which gave the beleaguered RAF time to rebuild and change strategy.

After suffering heavy losses and causing little strategic damage to the British war machine the Germans finally gave up on the idea of invading England and turned their attention to the Soviet Union's oil fields, as Germany's oil supply was running low.

[Al Schlageter]

Originally Posted by MikeC1980

Originally Hitler targeted only British airbases. Things were going well, at one point the English air force was down to only 200 planes.

Where did you find that nonsense of 200 planes.

Number of immediately available fighters, according to "The Battle of Britain" by Peter G. Cooksley (Ian Allan Ltd., 1990)

Hurricanes Spitfires

----------------------------

21 August 615 326

30 August 580 287

8 September 530 275

15 September 472 256

2 October 482 281

18 October 512 285

[Viking]

“Battle of Britain represents a fight between the free world Democracy and Nazi Germany”

Probably not as most countries on both sides where imperialists with little or no desire for democracy in the nations they controlled or tried to gain control over by this war.

Viking

the most appalling thing is that most people forget that "nazi" is an abbreviation in German language fashion for national-socialism, which actually meant a lot of good for the Germans. Germany saw years of incredible recover after the First World War and many remember the pre-war years as times of wealth and happiness.

[rakinroll]

Originally Posted by MB_Avro_UK

Hi all,

Battle of Britain represents a fight between the free world Democracy and Nazi Germany.

Let's not forget that.

And that the RAF was made up of men from around the world. From memory, over 20% of pilots were not British.

This simulator represents a huge battle. And similar to Stalingrad in it's result.

So let's forget our issues with Frame Rates etc. Just for a moment.

Best Regards,
MB_Avro.

I do not care about England or RAF but Luftwaffe. I am happy if game runs smoothly. It is pointless to me your post.