The Luftwaffe continues bombing airfields the few fail?

At a crucial stage in the Battle of Britain, The Luftwaffe were wearing down our air defences and knocking out airfield then a luftwaffe pilot ditched bombs on a civiliam area of London before returning home. Churchill ordered a retaliatory raid on Berlin and Hitler enraged ordered the Luftwaffe to concentrate on cities and London in particular.

What if the luftwaffe pilot had ditched his bombs elsewhere? What if Hitler had remained calm.

Would the Luftwaffe have gained air superiority and if so what next. Germany still faced the most powerful navy in the world if an invasion was planned and most of the surface fleet was either sunk, building or under repair crucially the destroyers had been virtually wiped out at Narvik.Duinkirk had already happened so we would have had a considerable defending force. Would the outcome of the war have been different
 

Markus

Banned
At a crucial stage in the Battle of Britain, The Luftwaffe were wearing down our air defences and knocking out airfield ...

1. What few? The RAF had roughly as many single engine fighters as the LW when the BoB started.

2. The LW was putting pressure on just one of four fighter groups, two of which were out of german fighter range.
 
The RAF does exactly what they planned and withdraw north.

The RAF rests and increases in strength while the Luftwaffe continues to exhaust itself and take losses from anti-aircraft artillery, wear and tear, accidents, resurgent RAF activity...
 
according to documentaries. The problem was a lack of pilots. There were enough fighters, new or repaired but the number of pilots to fly them become critical. Also, according to this documentaries the continiuos bombing raid s on airfields wear the RAF pilots mentaly down.
So if the LW continued there would be some air superiourity for them in the South of the UK and around London.
The question is what would German High command do when their pilots start to report that they experience less and less counter atttacks from RAF fighters and suddenly the LW raids would not see a fighter at all.
 

Markus

Banned
Pilots was a problem but in the long run the RAF was in the better position as it fought over home turf, which allowed most pilots to rejoin the fight rather quickly. And there´s always the two northern Groups that could have been cannibalized for trained pilots.
 
In the event of a shortage of fighter pilots, bomber command would have been stripped of pilots and co-pilots, same with transport command and coastal command. University air squadrons and anyone in private flying clubs if things got really bad.
 

Orry

Donor
Monthly Donor
according to documentaries. The problem was a lack of pilots. There were enough fighters, new or repaired but the number of pilots to fly them become critical. Also, according to this documentaries the continiuos bombing raid s on airfields wear the RAF pilots mentaly down.
So if the LW continued there would be some air superiourity for them in the South of the UK and around London.
The question is what would German High command do when their pilots start to report that they experience less and less counter atttacks from RAF fighters and suddenly the LW raids would not see a fighter at all.

I thought that, due to bad weather, that was partly what happened - the LW thought the RAF was down to its last 2-300 planes - then the weather over the RAF airfields cleared and the 'Big Wing' turned up.

The sudden revelation that the RAF could put up a 'big wing' (even if it was not that effective in combat) struck the LW morale. After all those attacks and losses it seemed the RAF was as strong as when it started.

The RAF always had the option to move north whilst continueing to repair the airfields in the south. If the Germans stop attacking them the rested aircrews can come back quite quickly. If the Germans keep attacking them they suffer losses for little practical gain.

If the Germans ever try the un-namable sea-mammal the RAF could afford 50%+ losses to smash it (in the short term such loses would be acceptable in defence of 'blighty') - it was so late in the year that if the first attempt failed there could be no repeat until the next spring anyway.
 
Andrew Hudson

I would agree with the other posters. If the Germans keep up the pressure on the airfields and No. 11 group takes too many losses Britain can withdraw it out of range. The Germans have to keep attacking air bases, radar stations and other targets, hence taking losses, or their simply maintained and strengthened and in a short period a rested and strengthened Fighter Command heads south again.

If the Germans are really unfortunate Goring reports the lack/decline of opposition to Hitler, proclaiming the success of the Luftwaffe as promised and Hitler orders Sealion. The Germans then get totally stomped in bitter fighting which loses them any ground units sent across, much of the navy and transport facilities committed and large numbers of a/c desperately trying to support the invasion. Don't forget that once the ships are at sea and/or troops landed the Luftwaffe is busy trying with a pretty small number of short-ranged fighters to defend the ground forces, the ships transporting and supplying them and the bombers trying to give ground support. Furthermore, except for the bombers, its got to perform that role continually throughout the day at least. It basically is stretched several different ways and loses the initiative as the RAF can largely decide when and where to attack and overwhelm isolated Luftwaffe forces. Furthermore Britain continues to have larger military production, more pilots in training and the advantage of fighting on home ground, which means we get a lot more of our downed pilots back and damaged planes have more chance to reach an airfield.

Alternatively, if the Germans keep up the attacks on the airfields in worsening weather, always feeling on the verge of 'victory' without actually achieving it, they continue to bled. There was an interesting documentary on the BBC a week or so back which looked at information from the German side and they were under markedly more stress than the RAF, some pilots flying 6 missions a day.

Steve
 
This discussion centres upon the myth that the Lutwaffe's decision to hit London rather than the RAF's airfields saved the RAF. The fact is the Germans were losing the Battle of Britain before they changed their tactics and would have lost if the change had not occurred, the reason being that the RAF held too many aces-Park, Dowding, the whole air defence system etc. As for the issue of pilots, the Luutwaffe was suffering badly as well. Indeed,the chances are that the Luftwaffe would have been forced to reduce the intensity of its operations due to losses had it continued to raid the RAF's airfields.
 
This discussion centres upon the myth that the Lutwaffe's decision to hit London rather than the RAF's airfields saved the RAF. The fact is the Germans were losing the Battle of Britain before they changed their tactics and would have lost if the change had not occurred, the reason being that the RAF held too many aces-Park, Dowding, the whole air defence system etc. As for the issue of pilots, the Luutwaffe was suffering badly as well. Indeed,the chances are that the Luftwaffe would have been forced to reduce the intensity of its operations due to losses had it continued to raid the RAF's airfields.
Totally agree :)
The claim that the RAF was saved by the change of target to London by the Luftwaffe is one of the greatest myths of WW2. In fact, RAF Fighter Command had 150 more serviceable Spitfires and Hurricanes and 200 more operational pilots at the time of the change, than it did at the start of the battle ;)
 
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