Cryhavoc101
Donor
When in 1940?
Battle of France (and other campaigns) or the Battle of Britain?
Arguably they had a very good airforce for the Battle of France but needed a different one for the Battle of Britain (or maybe not - more below)
The difficulty here is some one in the Luftwaffe in a position to make these changes making an airforce that is suitable for both the French campaign and a follow on Battle of Brtiain type campaign which would require a very specific foresight
Now rather than focus on aircraft types or bits of equipment etc what is actually needed for the Battle of Britain is a concise plan that they stick too and not the ever changing ADHD approach to a strategy that they had OTL
So focus on Chain home and the fighter command stations as wel as targeting the industries supporting it and keep doing it - obviously this requries a better understanding of the Fighter command system (which is arguably impossible)
Ultimately unless the Luftwaffe is 2 or 3 times sronger than OTL I cannot see it winning regardless of airframe or tactic used and in the LWs defence no one had attacked an Air Defence before and they had to make up a strategy or I their case an ever changing strategy to deal with it.
Lets face it in May 1940 they arguably had the best or one of the 3 best fighters in the world - and starting the battle their pilots and personnel had the most experiance of any airforce in the world
The one thing it did not have was depth in personnel - the LW was quite lean - there was no allowance for the rotation of pilots and crews - Bungay in his book wrote that the only way a Luftwaffe pilot or aircrew could get a break was to have their tonsils removed as this was the only 'simple' procdure that could only be done in Berlin - and this took 2 weeks - and so the only way a LW doctor could give a pilot a much need break was to claim that they needed their tonsils removed. Lots of BoB LW Pilots and crews had their tonsils removed.
I am not being critical of this, only critical that there was no system of rotation - but then this was a theme throughout the war for the LW
And because of this lack of Depth there was limited ability to replace losses and teh BoB turned into an attritional fight that the British won
So before we start suggesting German A6ms instead of ME110s or some such lets look at the above issues first - because 'better' aircraft will not over come them
A quick note on ME110 - it gets a bad rep - but then it was designed as a 'destroyer' - its job was to hunt bombers and unescorted ones at that (pretty much like the Beaufighter and Baulton Paul Defiant turret fighter both of which continued to be built during 1940) - that it (and the BP Defiant) sucked in a Interceptor Fighter heavy environment is down to lack of foresight and for me it is understandable why there was such a lack of foresight - I don't think anyone thought that France would fall liek it did and that the LW and RAF would be facing off across the Channel like it did bringing the ligher shorter ranged fighters into 'just distance' of each other.
Battle of France (and other campaigns) or the Battle of Britain?
Arguably they had a very good airforce for the Battle of France but needed a different one for the Battle of Britain (or maybe not - more below)
The difficulty here is some one in the Luftwaffe in a position to make these changes making an airforce that is suitable for both the French campaign and a follow on Battle of Brtiain type campaign which would require a very specific foresight
Now rather than focus on aircraft types or bits of equipment etc what is actually needed for the Battle of Britain is a concise plan that they stick too and not the ever changing ADHD approach to a strategy that they had OTL
So focus on Chain home and the fighter command stations as wel as targeting the industries supporting it and keep doing it - obviously this requries a better understanding of the Fighter command system (which is arguably impossible)
Ultimately unless the Luftwaffe is 2 or 3 times sronger than OTL I cannot see it winning regardless of airframe or tactic used and in the LWs defence no one had attacked an Air Defence before and they had to make up a strategy or I their case an ever changing strategy to deal with it.
Lets face it in May 1940 they arguably had the best or one of the 3 best fighters in the world - and starting the battle their pilots and personnel had the most experiance of any airforce in the world
The one thing it did not have was depth in personnel - the LW was quite lean - there was no allowance for the rotation of pilots and crews - Bungay in his book wrote that the only way a Luftwaffe pilot or aircrew could get a break was to have their tonsils removed as this was the only 'simple' procdure that could only be done in Berlin - and this took 2 weeks - and so the only way a LW doctor could give a pilot a much need break was to claim that they needed their tonsils removed. Lots of BoB LW Pilots and crews had their tonsils removed.
I am not being critical of this, only critical that there was no system of rotation - but then this was a theme throughout the war for the LW
And because of this lack of Depth there was limited ability to replace losses and teh BoB turned into an attritional fight that the British won
So before we start suggesting German A6ms instead of ME110s or some such lets look at the above issues first - because 'better' aircraft will not over come them
A quick note on ME110 - it gets a bad rep - but then it was designed as a 'destroyer' - its job was to hunt bombers and unescorted ones at that (pretty much like the Beaufighter and Baulton Paul Defiant turret fighter both of which continued to be built during 1940) - that it (and the BP Defiant) sucked in a Interceptor Fighter heavy environment is down to lack of foresight and for me it is understandable why there was such a lack of foresight - I don't think anyone thought that France would fall liek it did and that the LW and RAF would be facing off across the Channel like it did bringing the ligher shorter ranged fighters into 'just distance' of each other.