Allied Jets May 1940

[Derek Jackson]

It has been mentioned that the technology for jets was known. Could twenty primative jets have been enough to prevent the fall of France?

[Kurt_Steiner]

Bearing in mind that the Gloster E.28/39 only began to flew in April 1941 -and only for seventeen minutes- and that the development of the Meteor did not begin till November 1940, I dunno how to hurry the British jet proyect.

[Johnnyreb]

Neither the French Air Force nor the RAF component of the BEF had the command control setup with radar etc to allow of offensive and defensive fighter practice. They would waste their time flying combat patrols.

Twenty primitive jets might have had a local success or two but most of them would surely have been destroyed on the ground. Even the successes would have been tangling with Me 109s at medium altitude, rather than stopping the blitzkrieg's Stukas. Also German front-line flak was very efficient, as witness the disastrous British and French air-raids against the Meuse bridgeheads.

Even with a bigger force of jets I suspect the French army could not have coped with the German tactics, even though the principle of blitzkrieg had been common knowledge for at least three years.

[17inc]

You have to pull all stops in the mid to late 1930s on R&D for the RAF to get a jet by may of 1940

[whatisinaname]

It would have made a difference in the Battle of Britian.
Jet powered Spitfire/Hurrcane with the Merlin being a Jet rather that a piston engine.

[NHBL]

I don't think 20 of anything short of a Korean War Sabre Jet would have been enough to save France--but I'll admit I'm no expert on this sort of warfare.
But 20 would have had some dramatic successes, if they'd got into action.
Result: Germany now knows they NEED a jet fighter, and that need might even be enough to overcome the irrationality of calling the ME 262 a bomber. It gets developed as both a fighter and bomber conurrently.
Meanwhile, in Britian, it gets put intoseries production as fast as possible.

Perhaps the British jet fighters bring an early end to the Battle of Britain before either side takes too many losses, as the Germans discover that daylight raids in jet-patrolled airspace are a loosing proposition.

Both sides will, IMVHO, have jets for defensive purposes. This could have an adverse effect on the daylight bombing campaign over Europe. Note that the early jets were short ranged, and not suitable for bomber escort.

Just a few rambling thoughts for peple to play with if they want to develop the timeline.

[stevep]

Originally Posted by 17inc

You have to pull all stops in the mid to late 1930s on R&D for the RAF to get a jet by may of 1940

Depends on when you start the POD. Whittle's initial patent was from the early 30's. He only took that out because the RAF decided not to support the work, in which case it would have been very secret and less information available for potential competitors. If a relatively small amount of resources had been made available for development Britain could have had jets by the start of WWII. [Presuming it starts in 39].

Steve