The Battle of Britain Was The First Defeat For The German Luftwaffe.

[robtek]

To add a bit O/T thoughts, i believe that the german LW would have been able to gain enough local air superiority to sink any fleet in reach of the 109's during the first part of the BoB.

[Sternjaeger II]

here's a working link to Lund's reference (the one that doesn't work in the original pdf)

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/ETO/...man/index.html

[csThor]

The weakness of the Kriegsmarine is not really relevant in that equation. Every sane person would know that such an operation would have to substiture naval power with air power ... The Kriegsmarine had only three factors to contribute (besides providing the transport vessels): torpedos (from E-Boats and submarines), destroyers (plus a few cruisers) and most importantly mines.

EDIT: I think it's a gross misconception just to count the british capital ships and park them in the middle of the Channel. Such a concentration of force is unwieldy and would have serious trouble maneuvering. And maneuver they'd have to ... to evade the hail of bombs. Damage would most certainly accumulate over time and at some point they'd have to withdraw - even if they'd just run out of ammo (which would be a lot sooner for the important destroyers and light cruisers).

[Al Schlageter]

dictionary

battle: a hostile encounter or engagement between opposing military forces