Ghastly Victories: The United States in the World Wars

[RamscoopRaider]

…The first major issue for the British war cabinet following the French Armistice was whether they should enter into negotiations as well. Foreign Secretary Halifax simply wanted to talk to Germany and Italy to see what their terms were, and then if the terms were reasonable enough bring matters to the Cabinet to see if they were acceptable or not. Churchill on the other hand was adamantly opposed to even talking to the Germans and Italians and refused to consider the possibility of any peace that was not an outright victory.

In this he found himself completely alone. Lord Halifax had stated that winning the last war had been ruinous for Britian, and that this winning this war, if possible, was liable to be even worse. Given that assumption if the cost of losing was low enough they should accept it rather than win another victory that Pyrrhus of Epirus would weep at. Churchill had no coherent argument against this, simply stating that a German and Italian victory would be intolerable and repeating the old saw that Britons shall never be slaves.

The Cabinet failed to see how simply talking would make Britons slaves and was quite plain that they would reject any such terms and would only accept minor concessions that would not weaken Britian. They wanted another Amiens to rearm in peace and prepare the knife for Hitler’s back and if Hitler and Sanna did not give them that then they would fight on until that happened or they were unable to fight anymore. Churchill still remained intransigent and threated to resign, only being talked down by his friend the Duke of York…

…On July 2nd as Hitler and Sanna were meeting at a summit in Belgium to determine French occupation policy the ambassadors of Britain, Germany and Italy sat down for negotiations in Switzerland. The British ambassador asked for what terms would be required for a ceasefire and his counterparts sent back for instructions.

The Italian ambassador responded first that they had no conditions for a ceasefire and would agree to one if Britain asked. Moving on Sanna’s preliminary peace terms were that Britain would recognize any annexations of territory made by Italy from France, that Malta would be disarmed, that Italy would have a right of refusal on the disposal of Malta and Cyprus, and certain border concessions in Africa, though the last would be open to negotiation.

The German ambassador took more time as Hitler had not left instructions as Sanna had and needed to be personally asked. Hitler had substantial preconditions before he would even agree to a ceasefire and that discussion of final peace terms could only come then. His requirement was that the blockade immediately end, that the Royal Navy return to port, that the RAF remain grounded and that the British Army demobilize, with a 250,000 strong German observer force to be stationed in Britain to enforce these terms and maintained at British expense…

…Sanna upon hearing of Hitler’s terms for a ceasefire commented that it was a bold negotiating strategy starting off with such a hardball and asked what his actual terms were. Hitler’s response was that these were his actual terms and that if the British did not accept they would made to do so. Sanna nodded, smiled and found an excuse to walk away. That night he wrote in his diary that he had made a horrible miscalculation…

…Upon receiving Hitler’s requirements for a ceasefire the War Cabinet unanimously refused them. They might be willing to accept them with German troops in London’s suburbs, but not when Germany was still confined to the continent and Britain remained well fed and in control of her sea-lanes and airspace. Hitler’s terms were seen as an insult and one that partially vindicated Churchill.

There was a brief debate on whether to accept the Italian terms, if the Italians would be willing to alienate Germany for a separate peace, but the majority of the cabinet saw the Italians as the weak link who could be beaten to receive reasonable terms from Germany. Furthermore Operation Palimpsest was already in the works…

…Shortly after the French ceasefire Sanna began intense telephone negotiations with General Mola in Spain. Mola saw British weakness as an opportunity to take Gibraltar and eliminate that centuries old irritant. Sanna however desired that Spain remain neutral so that they could serve as a hole in the blockade that goods from the outside could come in through.

In order to buy Spanish neutrality Sanna offered Mola production licenses for several pieces of military equipment and additional technical assistance. He also reminded Mola that if Sapin joined she would be the exposed weak link, whose coasts and colonies the British could attack with impunity. Better to remain neutral and profit as in the last war then get involved just for reasons of pride.

Mola was ultimately convinced to remain neutral for the early phase of the war and in doing so made himself the greatest Spanish statesman in decades, put Spain on a path to recovery and becoming the second nation of Europe…

…There are rumors that Sanna also resorted to blackmail to convince Mola to stay neutral, but there is not concrete evidence of this….

…With Britain rejecting his ceasefire terms Hitler turned to the Wehrmacht to try and force them to accept those terms. The leadership of the Heer suggested that they simply invade and occupy Britain like they had done with France the operations simply being a larger scale river crossing. The Kriegsmarine representatives responded that no, it would not be a larger scale river crossing, that Germany lacked the lift to move and support an invasion and would continue to do so until 1943, and that they would be unable to protect that invasion force if a single British capital ship captain had a touch of Nelson’s spirit. The Heer responded that the Luftwaffe would protect the invasion force, to which Von Richthofen stated that he could sink the entirety of the Royal Navy in a fortnight, or about 13 days longer than it would take them to destroy the invasion force.

Hitler was unconvinced by the arguments of the Kriegsmarine and von Richthofen and ordered that preparations be made for an invasion of Britain to occur in September…

-Excerpt From The Fall of Europe, Scholastic American Press, Philadelphia, 2005

…The War Cabinet debates and the decision to negotiate with the Germans and Italians were kept secret from the public. This secrecy was only broken in 1951 when the information was leaked during the leadup to the General Election. This revelation that the government which had loudly declared that they would never negotiate with Hitler and Sanna did in fact seek to do so saw the British public lose a great deal of trust in the government and shattered some of the halo around their wartime leadership…

-Excerpt from The End of Empire: The British Empire from 1914 to 1964, Southern Hemisphere Press, Wellington, 2005

 

[username5243]

Spain is the second nation of Europe?

I can only think of one other post-1900 TL where that was the case and that was the Anglo-American/Nazi War.

This. Will. Not. End. Well.

 

[RamscoopRaider]

Okay just a heads up next week may have a shorter update/late update or skipped update. Why? Well...

 

[Pax_Nihil]

Spain is the #2 nation of Europe? This war is going to be a glorious calamity of epic proportions....

 

[Prince Charon]

Yet again, I am reminded that the title of this history was well-chosen. Yikes!

 

[Jim Smitty]

Italy just now figures how badly they fucked up. London is going to be feeling this pain for decades to come

 

[generalurist]

Britain opens piece negotiations, only to immediately cut them off when the German demands prove totally outrageous. That's new. Even if awareness of the Nazi genocides is limited in TTL, it's Hitler the man will absolutely not have a reputation as a great statesman. Anyways, the coming battle of Britain with a much more competent Luftwaffe will be interesting.

Okay just a heads up next week may have a shorter update/late update or skipped update. Why? Well...

I don't know dune, I don't get that reference at all, I'm guessing there's preparations for a very big update in coming weeks?

 

[Steelers94]

I wonder if Sanna tries to bail later. Only for TTL's German Coup to happen an remove him from power.

 

[HistLover]

So Spain DOES enter the conflict but DOESN’T get totaled.

Also we now know the war ends by 1951 more likely 1950 at the latest.

 

[164522]

So Spain DOES enter the conflict but DOESN’T get totaled.

Also we now know the war ends by 1951 more likely 1950 at the latest.

but,as I understand, TTL would be TWO World Wars in place of OTL Second..

 

[RamscoopRaider]

I don't know dune, I don't get that reference at all, I'm guessing there's preparations for a very big update in coming weeks?

It mean's I'm going to see the 40th Anniversary limited theatrical rerelease next Sunday, and between that and having to work may not have time for updates


Or would not have time save I got an unexpected day off tomorrow due to bad weather, so probably bonus update tomorrow

 

[RamscoopRaider]

…The Fall of France was in a word disastrous for the British naval situation. Worse than the loss of the Mediterranean fleet at Malta, the surrender of France took 4 battleships, 16 modern cruisers and a carrier off the board. Worse still was the potential to add those forces to the Italo-German fleet and see Britian face numerical inferiority at sea for the first time in centuries. Even worse than that however were the geographic consequences.

With France and Norway having fallen Britain faced a set of naval geography more hostile than any since the Napoleonic wars. The English channel was once again a war zone as in the last war, but along its entire length, only the improvements in railway capacity since 1919 prevented this alone from potentially crippling the British economy and starving out London. Beyond that the fall of the French Atlantic coast provided U-Boats with much closer bases to attack British commerce, allowing even the medium Type VI’s to operate deep into the Atlantic for extended periods and not having to make a run past every base in Britain to do so. Norway supplemented this by allowing a safe staging area to make breakouts into the Atlantic easier so that U-Boats could reach France and merchant raiders could escape.

Britain had only one advantage, that she had a functional fleet and that for the moment the French were too disorganized and the German and Italian heavies were undergoing repairs. This gave her a brief window in which her navy could act with almost total impunity. During that window however many tasks were required, reinforcing the island of Malta, transferring naval forces to the Eastern Mediterranean, neutralizing the French Navy and preventing the completion of the warships in French and Dutch shipyards.

Operation Palimpsest was planned to deal with two of those problems…

…British naval construction priorities immediately changed following the surrender of France. With Britian potentially under the threat of invasion within 3 months any large construction that would not complete before then was immediately halted, including work on 6 battleships, 6 aircraft carriers, and 26 cruisers. Work on a number of destroyers, sloops, submarines and smaller escorts was halted briefly but was rapidly restarted, if sometimes at a slower pace.

Resources and manpower diverted from the larger construction were used to start on a gigantic mass of hundreds of coastal craft ranging from 180 ton steam gunboats to 15 ton motor boats. More funds would be spent on these small vessels over the course of the war than on any two of cruisers, carriers or capital ships combined and was second only to ASW escorts in expenditure costing…

…In addition to the emergency anti invasion preparations the British were forced to massively reorient their construction to ASW and Mediterranean warfare and away from their more long term global focus. The fleet carriers, light cruisers, large destroyers, sloops and large submarines of the 1941 program were cancelled, and replaced by smaller destroyers of the emergency type, escort destroyers, small submarines and many more corvettes and minesweepers. These were vessels that could be built more quickly and would be needed both to replace losses, real and projected, and to deal with the massive increase in commitments the Royal Navy had just achieved…

…While the victory at Malta and Lampedusa was heartening to the Italian fleet and nation, and far beyond expectations, it truly changed little in the medium term. The Royal Navy remained overwhelmingly large compared to the Italian one, and in the short term with the modern Italian battleships being repaired it had total freedom of action. Italian actions after the battle were just limited to a few bombardment raids on the Egyptian coast by heavy cruisers and the occasional attack on Malta by the older battleships. Instead the Italians hunkered down to protect their supply lines with airpower, submarines and patrols of torpedo craft…

…Upon the outbreak of the war Sanna cancelled plans to build a further pair of battleships in 1942 as impossible to complete in a timely manner and it being better to lay down the ships to a new design after the war had ended incorporating lessons learned. He similarly cancelled plans to lay down 4 heavy 15000 ton cruisers in 1942 and replaced them with 4 5000 ton AA cruisers of the Imperator class, stretched Capitani Romani’s with 6 main battery turrets and weaker more reliable machinery capable of only 32 knots that could be built quickly. Adding to these Sanna purchased the cruisers Taksin and Naresuan from Thailand and had them be converted to AA escort cruisers for the North African convoys, replacing their 6” turrets with 135mm DP turrets. Additional destroyers, submarines, torpedo boats and corvettes were also ordered to provide replacements and reinforcements.

Sanna expected that Britian would throw in the towel by the end of 1941, summer of 1942 at the latest, however he wanted to be prepared for a longer war just in case…

…Following the Fall of France the Kriegsmarine was in a better position than it ever expected. With bases not only in Norway but in France as well the U-Boats were in a position where they were approximately 3 times as effective as before per boat all things considered. Rather than merely inflicting pain on Britain they were now in a position to starve her out, especially when combined with airpower, merchant raiders and the use of light units in the English Channel.

By the second week of July U-boats and maritime patrol aircraft were operating out of western France and British merchant losses began a massive spike…

…After the Fall of France the Kriegsmarine received considerably more resources. These were used to accelerate the construction of U-boats, light units and destroyers. There was talk about taking over under construction ships in France and the Netherlands, 2 battleships, 3 cruisers, 8 destroyers, 10 submarines,12 torpedo boats and 6 minesweepers in France, 2 battlecruisers, 2 cruisers, 2 destroyers, 4 submarines and a gunboat in the Netherlands, but diplomatic issues prevented that for the time being. Construction of larger units, the two Wallenstein class battleships, the remaining 2 Blucher class heavy cruisers, and the 4 M class light cruisers would continue as planned, with the first six Spahkruezers to be laid down in late summer and fall as scheduled.

In the meantime officers were working feverishly on a dream fleet to start on once the war had ended. Plans called for fleets exceeding 80 capital ships and 200 cruisers by 1962, with a worldwide basing network to support it. It was brilliant madness but for a brief moment the Kriegsmarine thought that it was a real possibility…

…The Fall of France proved a potential nightmare for the United States. While uninvolved in European affairs there was still a worry that a foreign power might decide to interfere in their affairs. Hitler’s aggressively expansionist behavior and the fact that he targeted some of his rhetoric against the United States gave America a low opinion of Germany and a belief that Hitler might interfere if he could. The fall of France suddenly meant that he might be able to.

The German Navy, while far smaller than the US Navy was not insignificant, if Hitler added the French Navy and the Italian Navy as Allies, his force could equal or exceed the Atlantic Fleet. The sheer success against France gave cause for belief that he might repeat his success against Britain and add the Royal Navy, which would give him a stronger force than the entirety of the USN. That could not be tolerated and a massive building program was ordered to prevent the USN from being outmatched even in that scenario.

Already in 1941 as part of the usual program the United States had ordered the Battlecruisers Lake Champlain and Lake Erie, the Aircraft Carriers Hornet and Wasp, four Columbus class Heavy cruisers, 4 Tallahassee class light cruisers, 24 destroyers, 14 submarines, 20 minesweepers and 4 minesweeper derived patrol vessels.

On top of this was added an emergency program of 8 battleships, 8 aircraft carriers, 4 large cruisers, 8 heavy cruisers, 8 light cruisers, 8 AA cruisers, 120 destroyers, 60 submarines, 80 minesweepers and patrol vessels, numerous auxiliaries, 15,000 aircraft and massive infrastructure expansions. All of these was to be completed by the end of 1946 save for the Battleships of which only 4 would be completed with two more each in 1947 and 1948 due to slipway concerns.

2 of the battleships would be additional Ohio class vessels while the other six would be 70,000 ton fast battleships, combining the armor and firepower of an Ohio with the speed of a battlecruiser. The carriers would be additional Bonhomme Richard class vessels. The large cruisers would be 30,000 ton vessels with 9 12” guns of a new design capable of 33 knots to supplement the Battlecruisers without taking larger slipways away from battleships, six were originally desired but they were reduced to four to free up slipways for carriers. Instead the heavy cruisers were increased to eight, only four standard Columbus class with the other four being 19,000 ton stretched designs with 4 triple 8” turrets and a modified superstructure. The light and AA cruisers would be additional Tallahassee and Boston class while the destroyers would consist of 24 more improved Jarvis class and 96 larger 2100 ton vessels with a 5th 5” turret. The submarines would be 50 Grenadier type and 10 Thresher type.

This force represents an increase of battleship strength by 33%, a 70% increase in aircraft carrier strength, a 50% increase in heavy cruiser strength, a 40% increase in light cruiser strength, a 33% increase in destroyer strength and a 50% increase in submarine strength going purely by numbers. By tonnage and combat power the increase was more substantial…

…The Two Ocean Navy Act passed Congress with less than two hours of debate in early July, such was the palpable sense of panic. It was the largest single military spending bill the United States had passed to that period, dwarfing the 1916 program of WWI by an order of magnitude…

…The sheer scale of the Two Ocean Navy Act heavily constrained US capital ship building until 1944, with only two slots available for ships of 35,000 tons or larger in the 1943 program and none in 1942 program. The slips were furthermore too short to construct an Ohio class battleship or a Ticonderoga class Battlecruiser. The debate was whether to build a shorter 33 knot battlecruiser with 6-8 16” guns, a shorter battleship with 8-10 16” guns and speed of 28-31 knots, a bigger large cruiser with a dozen 12” guns or a pair of very large aircraft carriers…

…Britian had been in discussion with the United States to buy mothballed destroyers to supplement her escort forces as early as April 1941 when operations in Norway began to stretch her escort forces. The Fall of France served to add urgency to the discussions, with the loss of French escorts and the greater freedom of action of German attackers Britian needed more escort ships now. However Britain needed many things and her supply of dollars was heavily committed, making it very difficult to pay for ships with them.

Instead Britian suggested a barter deal. She would receive her ships, in exchange for giving the US basing rights in Newfoundland, Bermuda and the Caribbean. 100 destroyers were requested in exchange for bases on Newfoundland, Bermuda, the Bahamas, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Jamaica, Guyana and Antigua. This however was not considered enough by the US who argued that they might need those destroyers.

Negotiations eventually resulted in 50 destroyers, 35 Wickes and 15 Clemson, being transferred , along with 10 Lake and 10 Treasury class Coast Guard cutters. Additional basing rights in Tobago, the Falklands, Ascension Island, and the Chagos Archipelago were included, with 99 year rent free leases and the option to renew each lease for another 99 years with a payment of $10 million each.

The Agreement was signed on August 1st and the first transferred ships arrived in Halifax for refit by September 10th…

…The Destroyers for Bases deal was disliked both in the US and the UK. In the US it was seen as a violation of neutrality in favor of Britain and a weakening of US defenses. In Britain it was seen as pure extortion, sending old poorly preserved, un-refit ships in exchange for valuable basing rights. Of these the US view was closer to correct in that while technically legal thanks to a variety of maneuvers it did go against the spirit of the neutrality acts and the absence of those escorts would be sorely felt later. The British perspective ignores that they were buyers in a seller’s market and that the American acquisition of bases in the Western Hemisphere freed up some of their resources to be used in Europe…

Excerpt From A Naval History of the European War, Harper & Brothers, New York, 2008

 

[Jim Smitty]

Italy is being intelligence. So they are going to be a mother fucker to deal with when up against OTL. Germany is stoned, but damn this is going to be a hell of a battle. The British are up the creek. Those extra bases in the ITL Destroyers for Bases deal is going to be something to watch going forward, but damn the USN is getting to be a big boy.

 

[generalurist]

A non-Sunday update? Guess naval matters get you fired up! Palimpsest I hope is the plan to reinforce Malta, and not an *Mers-El-Kebir scheme. God, that one was tragedy enough OTL.

"diplomatic issues prevented [taking over in-progress dutch ships] for the time being" Suggests Germany will grab them later. The Kriegsmarine surface fleet won't be quick to be gone.

So Spain DOES enter the conflict but DOESN’T get totaled.

Also we now know the war ends by 1951 more likely 1950 at the latest.

Huh? I interpreted the text to be that Spain doesn't enter, hence why it avoids disaster. I do think Italy is going to peace out somehow later on, given Sanna's good reputation in the modern day.

 

[GrimmJow007]

Huh? I interpreted the text to be that Spain doesn't enter, hence why it avoids disaster. I do think Italy is going to peace out somehow later on, given Sanna's good reputation in the modern day.

Italy is not tied to Germany like OTL. Sanna may well make a separate peace. He doesn't need to fall with Hitler.

 

[Prince Charon]

Italy is not tied to Germany like OTL. Sanna may well make a separate peace. He doesn't need to fall with Hitler.

He's already regretting that he joined in, so the question is how soon, and whether anything significant delays him in doing so.

 

[HistLover]

Italy is not tied to Germany like OTL. Sanna may well make a separate peace. He doesn't need to fall with Hitler.

But he might pay for it if Germany still has some oomph left at that point

 

[RamscoopRaider]

…On July 12th the Battle of Britian began with the first concerted attacks on the British isles by the Luftwaffe. Just after dawn the elite Luftjäger low level attack squadrons flew in at 200 feet, below British radar and attacked the Home Ground Radar system knocking multiple holes in it. This was followed up by escorted attacks with dive bombers later in the day to finish the job and medium bomber attacks on British fighter bases in Kent. The British attempted to contest the skies, but without radar coverage were forced to maintain small standing patrols that were overwhelmed by the Luftwaffe escorts.

For the first week Von Richthofen continued this focus on radar and the few coastal airbases in Kent as the first phase of his “entpacken” or unzipping strategy. He wanted to first degrade the outer layer of the British defense before moving on. After a week he then started attacking the more inland fighter bases and coastal industrial and transportation targets, the former to degrade defenses, the latter as part of a strategy to slowly degrade British capability and to force them to come up and fight.

British losses in this phase were heavy as the Bandit turret fighter on which so much hope had been pinned turned out to be a lemon, ineffective against fighters and only marginally effective against bombers even with the uparmed turrets some squadrons received. Only the Glaive was a frontline fighter roughly equal to the German He 111 and Me 115 and notably inferior to the new He 120 that was making up an increasing amount of the German fighter force, and the Glaive had suffered very heavy losses in France including many on the ground. Glaives made up only 20% of the British fighter force, with the Bandit and Headsman making up about 30% each and other miscellaneous types including naval Headsman, Buccaneers, Bullfinches, Headhunters and American imports making up the rest. Without enough Glaives older biplane Headsmen were forced into frontline roles, as were even older Bullfinches and Headhunters, with predictably catastrophic results when they met modern German fighters.

This was made worse by a lack of proper fighter direction. The lessons of the London Air Defense Area of WWI had been lost in the interwar and replaced by a slow and inflexible system that had treated Radar as a panacea. Even with the replacement of the destroyed Home Ground radars by mobile British Army sets information took too long to arrive and even if it did arrive in a timely manner it often went to units unable to do anything about it. The RAF was forced to mount standing patrols which often had no result or resulted in having to fight at a severe numerical disadvantage.

By the end of July losses were significant enough that there was talk of withdrawing to fighter bases beyond the effective range of the He 120, which would reduce Luftwaffe escorts to FW 117s which while longer ranged were inferior to a Glaive in a dogfight. Before that could happen it was decided to bring back WWI Veterans and rebuild the London Air Defense Area…

…Among the more successful German operations in the early phase of the War was the aerial mining campaign and attacks on shipping. These campaigns exposed the German aircraft to less risk than attacking land based targets and proved remarkably effective for the resources expended. The mining campaign reduced the effective throughput of the ports in southern England while the attacks on shipping forced ships in the Channel to move only at night, compounding the problems from mining. Combined with the heavy guns of Hellfire Corner and Channel shipping tonnage dropped by over 75%...

…British losses during the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain necessitated immediate compromises in the British Aircraft industry. There was a need to maximize aircraft production at all costs and anything that could get in the way of that was tossed aside. Research and development programs were paused or even cancelled outright while the planned conversion of Headsman production to Glaive production in July was axed as it would mean a ten week loss of airframe production. Britain’s lead in jet propulsion disappeared while her new generation of bombers was delayed by as much as a year and innovative designs such as a British equivalent to the German Ta 203 Specht were canned. Further cuts were made to nonessential aircraft, production of naval aircraft outside of the Ballista ended, with Ballista production going to the RAF, and production of transports, patrol aircraft and flying boats was severely curtailed to focus on fighters and bombers.

The main debate was whether to go ahead with the deployment of the Westland Warhawk or to delay it in favor of a conventional non turret equipped version of the Bandit. The Warhawk promised an aircraft even more superior than the He 120 than the 120 was over the Glaive and had plenty of room for growth. The conventional version of the Bandit was only slightly better than the 120 and lacked that growth room, but would be available faster and could be switched over gradually through a number of intermediate variants without disrupting production. The faster entry into service and lack of disruption proved the deciding factor for delaying the Warhawk and upgrading the Bandit…

…The plans for the deployment of the improved Bandit proved overly optimistic, with changeover taking months longer than expected and only fully occurring in February 1942, about the same time the Warhawk would have been ready…

…British retaliation in the Battle of Britain first focused on the French ports which were being used for the assembly of small craft and barges, potentially for an invasion. These ports were heavy defended and between the AA guns and fighter patrols British attacks rapidly proved unsustainable. Attacks on German air bases proved similarly unsustainable and British bombers were forced to move to farther away, less defended targets. The most notable of these were the shipyards of the Netherlands and the French Atlantic coast in an attempt to destroy the vessels under construction there…

…Despite the disparity in equipment losses in aircrew the losses about even. The British, being primarily on the defensive, could parachute over friendly territory more often than the Germans, which meant their aircrew could continue to fight rather than end up in a POW Camp. Furthermore their losses tended to be single man fighters rather than multi crew bombers that made up a significant fraction of Luftwaffe losses.

Losses over the Channel while less numerous favored Germany, both due to the fact that more British aircraft were shot down there, and that the Luftwaffe had more effective aquatic survival gear and aircrew rescue programs. To even things up the British reaction was initially not to improve their own survival gear and rescue programs but to attempt to destroy Luftwaffe recovery aircraft and boats, ignoring the protection of the Red Cross they possessed. This was only stopped after the Foreign Office persuaded Churchill that this was costing them sympathy in the US and making it more difficult to obtain war material.

Losses over the Continent again favored Germany, but the British conducted far fewer operations than the Germans did so they were far less numerous.

Overall the aircrew loss situation favored Britain as the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan was more effective at turning out replacements than the Luftwaffe training program. The problem was primarily that of material rather than manpower…

-Excerpt from Airpower!, Dewitt Publishing, Los Angeles, 2010

 

[generalurist]

Alternate name for TT: What if the Royal Air Force war garbo? The scenario is believable, but seeing the Brits screw up so bad and then have to cancel all their innovative projects to get anything functional in the air hurts to read. Didn't the British air crews get pretty worn down by the closing days of OTL's battle? I worry it will be worse here despite the favorable air crew situation for now.

To even things up the British reaction was initially not to improve their own survival gear and rescue programs but to attempt to destroy Luftwaffe recovery aircraft and boats, ignoring the protection of the Red Cross they possessed. This was only stopped after the Foreign Office persuaded Churchill that this was costing them sympathy in the US and making it more difficult to obtain war material.

Oof. I suspect Churchy taking "ruthlessly pragmatic" measures that involve war crimes and piss off the United States will be a recurring theme.

 

[cortz#9]

Hey Ramscoop can you give me a basic description of the He-120? I'd like to draw a pic of it for the Alternate Combat Aircraft thread.