Search results

The OP doesn't need to, as they have said it doesn't matter how it happens the question is what would happen in a German/Soviet war without Britain in the fight. This can happen in many different ways not just with an invasion of Britain.

Disclaimer: This post is not an attempt to prove that the Germans could have won the Battle of Britain but is more about trying to give a better picture of Fighter Commands position after the first week of September 1940. Modern historical consensus is still that Fighter Command was in a...

Just a quick check... Seems Wever cancelled the Ural Bomber programme just prior to his death in favour of the Bomber A which resulted in the He177 (mainly because he wasn't happy with the designs not because he didn't believe in heavy bombers). Kesselring delayed further development of Bomber...

I might be wrong but I believe Wever cancelled or at least postponed the 4 engine bomber programme before his death which makes his death irrelevant. As I say I might be remembering things wrongly but it might be worth a check.

This thread relates to the flexibility of the 'Dowding System' and what might have been had certain scenarios had occured. The System - Main Infrastructure The beating heart of the system was the Filter Room at Bentley Priory. Data came into the Filter Room, was analysed and rationalised and...

Personally I don't buy in to the kill/loss ratio BS as it doesn't make any sense and is an unachievable moving target. I.e. we, the Luftwaffe, have lost 100 fighters therefore the British must lose 400 fighters for us to win... or we, the Luftwaffe have lost 850 fighters therefore the British...

Sorry for my late reply to this thread, I recently moved house after almost 10 months of trying (Damn you Covid) and throughout all that time all my reference material and research notes have been in storage. The points you make here are so valid and relevant and are also part of the reason I...

Just want to pick up on one point, less need for the Spitfire. Just prior to the BoB there were already plans to replace the Hurricanes in several squadrons with Spitfires, at least two of them were in the process of conversion but as the fighting increased in July they reverted back to the...

Lets take those points in turn… a) The Dowding system relied on fixed assets not mobile assets, it was after all a defence system and therefore didn’t need to mobile. The available radar was Chain Home with a range of 80-100 miles which was restricted to forward facing detection only (ie out...

Please excuse my ignorance but I didn’t necessarily follow all your arguments here, you appear to be applying late war technology to an early war scenario in part. So my interpretation of what you have written is as follows (please correct me if get anything wrong): It was easy to locate and...

It was very rare in fact for the Luftwaffe recon flights to be intercepted or turned back, very few of them were shot down. If you have ever seen any of their photographs you'd be surprised at the level of coverage and detail. Photos of airfields had defined landing grounds, lengths of landing...

Sorry, think you may have misread what I wrote or I didn't write it very well. I'm not saying in any way shape or form that Fighter Command was in decline, it remained at a reasonable strength throughout. All I was saying is that the closest the Germans got was to force Fighter Command to get...

It's a weird one that, they were close to breaking the back of Fighter Command who had just 2-3 days worth of reserves left in the first couple of weeks in September but that doesn't equate to a British defeat. It's only the beginning of what might be a rapid collapse or a slow decline but no...

That's not actually what happened at all. The German plans took on three phases as follows. First they set out to explore British defences whilst attacking British shipping and make the Straits of Dover too dangerous for the British to operate in. This allowed building up forces and...

Really wish it wouldn't... many a promising BoB discussion gets all too quickly sidetracked/hijacked by Sealion!!

What's a German victory? They already had superiority over the Channel but would need superiority over southern England and supremacy over the Channel. I'm not one of those that thinks the Luftwaffe did an awful job I actually think they did as well as they could have done given the...

In my opinion there is a high degree of naive optimism in most of this. The 109 may have a typical single engine fighter range for the time period but in the main needed no more, the 110 was not put to the best use but was still dangerous as an escort and the twin engine bombers could still...

As far as I'm aware Fighter Command was at its limit or at least close to it, it's doubtful they could have increased the number of sorties. That being said with a possible increase in Luftwaffe sorties the chances of the two side meeting in combat does become more likely.

Not true. During the period 27th May to 2nd June Luftwaffe fighters flew 2000 sorties OTL, that's fewer than two sorties per aircraft over a seven day period. The bombers flew even fewer sorties OTL, less than 1.5 sorties per aircraft over the seven day period. The only aircraft that did more...

Okay in order 1. What is the point here? I think you’re failing to understand the reason of this thread, it’s not to prove or disprove how effective the Luftwaffe were at hitting fast moving, slow moving or stationary targets but to try to have a sensible conversation about the effects...