Quote:
Originally Posted by winny
I'm going to be boring and say you're both right.. BoB was the first time someone stopped the Germans from doing what they wanted and had a profound effect on the Luftwaffes confidence. It was definately a turning point in the Air war. Stalingrad was the same thing but for the German army (obviously on a whole different scale). Huge turning point.
The german invasion plans had them using Paratroopers landing only near Brighton and Dover. They Had 12 Divisions penciled in to land amphibiously at 7 locations on the English south coast, Lyme Regis, Ventnor, Brighton, Bexhill, Folkstone, Dover and Ramsgate. the 2 main preconditions they needed were Air superiority and the closing of the channel by mining. The Italians were supposed to have a go at the Royal Navy in the North Sea and the Med.
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Yeah, that was pretty boring.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gilly
Yep we were doing it a good year before Russia even became involved!!!
And it was stopped, full stop! and not as you say delayed. We were never invaded- even against superior numbers!
And I mean that tongue in cheek as I appreciate the blood bath that was Stalingrad in terms of life lost.
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The Channel stopped them, along with their lacking in ability to cross it right away. (It takes time to cross that thing; I think D-Day is the best example of having delays across the channel.) But Once again, Russia is much easier to get into because it doesn't have a large body of water blocking it. (There is a reason why they called England the "Floating Aircraft Carrier".) But also, Hitler never wanted to go to war with England in the first place, because you'd be surprised on how much pro-National Socialism there was in 30s England and America actually. I read somewhere, in an old history book that Hitler actually hoped England would ally with him (or at least be on his side neutrally,) rather than fight him. Obviously that didn't pan out like he wanted it to.
And you did delay him, because if he'd beaten you guys in the first place, he could have gotten on with his invasion plans sooner against Russia, so he could get to the oilfields of Baku. (That's the real reason Hitler wanted Russia, was because of it's oil field. Which nowadays are ironically all dried up in the Baku fields. And Britain doesn't have much natural resources that Hitler wanted anyway. The Rhineland had plenty of coal for him.) Anyway, BoB was a turning point like Winny said, in the sense of the Luftwaffe being set back, but it didn't hinder them as much as you'd think. BoB might have scratched Germany on the face a bit, but didn't wound them seriously like Stalingrad did, where a whole Army was wiped out and a second one limping away like a wounded person shot in the leg. But it wasn't a major turning point in the war against Berlin like Stalingrad onwards was in the East. The real turning point, the turning point that really put a damper on Hitlers plans on the Western Front, was D-Day all the way in '44. Because from '42-early '44, all England and America had been doing against Germany was bombing it from the air (which, obviously did help the war,) but BoB was more of a stalemate delay than really anything. Because like I said, after Stalingrad, Germany started moving back to Berlin. On the Western Front, they were just toying around in Northern Italy and having bombing raids on their factories, etc.
07-23-2010, 12:44 PM
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