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With the French army collapsing, it is very doubtful that the BEF could offer anything more than a token resistance. As such their bargaining chips at the diplomatic table are very limited. The US troops arriving won't matter all that much as it was primarily the French that supplied them with...

If I suspected this could become a 'serious' thread without the usual 'vociferous minority' shouting down any proposal that might lead to a succesful invasion, I'd gladly co-operate. I've compiled a list of thigns ( mostly concerning hardware or manufacturing adaptions- the only thing I have...

I find it odd that the Lend Lease program nearly always gets associated with the US. IMO the British early LL is what kept the Soviets up in 1941/42 and without that there probably wouldn't have been a Soviet Union to send US Lend Lease to anymore afterwards. Without the British lend Lease (...

Were there Royal Marines stationed in Scapa Flow? Or do you mean the Navy personnel? AA defences were neglible and there wasn't an RAF base (yet) nearby. Land defences were non- existant. Still, it would have been an extremely difficult operation with the attackers having no posible way of...

The same they did with reinforced concrete bunkers In Eben Emael? I've been there several times and the destruction those hollow charges wrought is almost unbelievable. A warship's hull would simply split open, especially if used from the inside. How much fighter cover was there over Scapa?

How many RN personnel was there in Scapa Flow in 1939/40? And how many Army troops?

The whole idea about the He 162 ( and some others) was truly stillborn. Barely trained pilots were supposed to take to the skies in a matter of weeks. The plane itself surprisingly showed some really good flying characteristics and could have been even further developed into a truly superior...

Could the FuG 203 have been ready in time for Sealion? And the propulsion system? OTOH how about the predecessor of the HS 293 glide bomb? That was available in 1939 and might have been further developed in time for BoB and Sealion. Of course it would have been just a glide bomb but with enough...

Going back to the original question of 'fixing' Sealion. Under which conditions would an - attempted- Sealion have been feasible? Let's look at the individual requirements and see if we can come up with solutions. Persononaly I would prefer to stick with plausible developments for anything that...

I'm sorry Ian, but the He 112 has nothing to do with the He-100 except that they came from the same drawing table and that one was a logical successor to the other.The He 112 and the He 100 are often mixed up, but they were different types. The confusion is quite understandable however since...

That was the HE 100 V8 specially built for the world speed record. The engine used on that machine was a 2700Hp Db 601R The stats are for the (ex He -113) He 100D-1 production plane. Only 15 were built, (3 He 100-0's and 12 He 100 D-1's) but that's a little beside the point isn't it? It could...

According to my sources a DB601Aa,rated at 1175Hp. Both Gunston and Philpott give the same performances. It was a very 'clean' airframe which might explain the speed difference between the HE 100 and the Bf109. A quote from Gunston: In 1939, it was reputedly one of the most advanced fighter...

I've got slightly different numbers here. Fully loaded the HE 100 tipped the scales at 2499Kg whereas the Bf 109 (E3 version) weighed in at 2505Kg. Maximum speed for a loaded HE 100 was 660+ Kmp at it's best operational height (somewhere between 4800 and 500 meters) Compared to the Bf 109's...

Just remembered: What if the He 100 was further developed in 1938? Perfectly doable aside from the 'political' decisions. Even in 1938/1939 it had a performance envelope that was slightly superior to the early FW 190's in most respects. Most importantly, it had a much better combat range than...

Still in 1940 it would have meant squaring of 2 RN battleships ( Only Valiant and Resolution were available at that time) and 2 carriers against at least 4 Italian BB's ( and possiby 6) I believe the cruiser and lighter forces were somewhat evenly divided? Could have gone either way.

Certainly not Portugal ( alledgedly Britains oldest ally- which it isn't- but that's a much older story) which was almost openly pro-fascist. In fact the Portugese president was one of the three heads of state that actually send condolences on Hitlers death. The Azores might have been a...

Too unpredictable IMHO. It all depends in what state Force H would be after the 'taking' of Gibraltar, something which I personally don't think was feasible in that given time frame. The Vichy French as well as the Italian Air Forces bombed Gibraltar to no great effect. Operation Felix was a...

I don't think the merchant fleet capability was much of a problem. According to British documents the Germans had about 5.000.000 GRT available in 1941. That 's including tankers and smaller cargo ships (less than 1000 tons) but excluding the French merchant fleet. I'm not sure what the number...

So you just charge into the unknown, without bothering about minefields , U boats and other unfriendlies making sure that your assets arrive one by one or at the best in small groups? If there ever was a recipe for disaster this must come very, very close. It's not dithering Matt, it's all...

Attacking the first wave would, by necessity, have been a series of largely uncoordinated attacks. Any High Command worth his salt, and the RN must have been one of the best obviously, wouldn't risk that. I maintain they would have gone for the second wave of supply ships. The comment about...