homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Battle of Britain + Battle of Britain II Here's what happened (Continued)

Folks,

Ultra Magnificent Z2:

Have ye been spending way too much time down at the Green Dragon or at the Cricketers Arms on Portrack Lane me lad? All the best writers o' fiction be drunks thou knows.

London braces for the attack as the dark fingers of fate roll across country to reach for her throat.

Supply or die. Clearly in an invasion the priority is to make your beachead secure, get your men and material on the beaches and off them again as quickly as possible.

After the breakout one must then move vast amounts of supplies ashore to supply that force as it moves inland. Never is an invasion force or its supplies as vulnerable as when they are coming ashore or on the beaches.

The Germans had very little experience with such an invasion. Naturally something always goes astray. As with Montgomery's 'Operation Market Garden' later on in the war where troops desperate for ammunition and food were dropped replacement uniforms and caps by mistake, the German boys are messing about with too much of what they don't need and too Little of what they do.

Interesting that you bring in the ill-fated HMS Hood. She was the pride of the fleet wasn't she? A year later in 1941 she had a fateful rendezvous with Bismark and only 3 of her crew survived the encounter. Of coarse some lowly 'Stringbags' (air power again) crippled Bismark so the RN could take their just revenge.

Your scenerio is far more balanced and perhaps much more likely however if I were playing a war game I would be kicking the RN into high gear very early. I'm no naval tactician and this may smack a bit of taking the side of the RN rather than the RAF however it seems to me the British Admiralty is being a bit mean with their capital ships. OK, I'm agressive.

The RN must have cover from the over-taxed RAF however do you think that in a life and death situation such as this invasion they might have committed more resources sooner perhaps in a 'go for broke' attempt to catch the enemy stranded on the beach? Unlike corporal Hitler who probably couldn't swim, Churchill knew all about naval warfare. He was after all a former First Sea Lord and therefore he might have given the RN a little push early on.

Yes, as First Sea Lord he screwed up big time at Gallipoli and lost his job, however he was brave and brazen to the bone. At the PM's urging the Navy might have come out en mass and gotten sunk or blasted a big hole in Hitler's er...plans.

Like the French Navy after Paris fell, the RN intact still ain't worth much if London falls is it? And unlike those French ships, every destroyer, cruiser, battleship and lifeboat would have been scuttled rather than surrender it to the Germans.

Keep it up for this is absolutely fascinating. You have captivated my attention on a daily basis. Your story is so packed with detail that this is a bit like what it was to sit down in front of the wireless on a dark fall evening to listen to exciting dispatches from the English invasion front. Bravo.

What's that you say Dux? It didn't really happen so no one ruddy well sat in front of their bloody radio and listened to anything about any damn invasion of England.........

Really?

Oh, yes, right you are. Sorry about that, there I go forgetting one minor detail again.