Why couldn’t the Royal Navy build good battleships?

RN also had 20+ years figuring out how to conduct flight operations from carriers, compared to the Luftwaffe -infinite number of days

No question there, and it's one of the reasons why a "naval Luftwaffe" never happened, but we are discussing hypoteticals, so I compared the 2 fighters operating over water against each other.
 
Ask the RN crews handling the Spitfire, which also landed fast with a narrow gear.
The RN had, by that point, 20+ years of experience in such matters. And still found it rather challenging. The poor sods in the Luftwaffe will be lucky if they're given twenty weeks to learn this before being sent out into the North Sea.

Ninja'd by the Bear.

Edit: but your hypothetical Me-109s aren't operating in a vacuum. They're taking off from, and landing on, the GZ. We can't pretend that this isn't a factor.
 
Last edited:
No question there, and it's one of the reasons why a "naval Luftwaffe" never happened, but we are discussing hypoteticals, so I compared the 2 fighters operating over water against each other.
The RN had, by that point, 20+ years of experience in such matters. And still found it rather challenging. The poor sods in the Luftwaffe will be lucky if they're given twenty weeks to learn this before being sent out into the North Sea.

Ninja'd by the Bear.

Edit: but your hypothetical Me-109s aren't operating in a vacuum. They're taking off from, and landing on, the GZ. We can't pretend that this isn't a factor.
Not to mention, they'll be training in the relatively calm Baltic, and will then be thrown into the North Atlantic.
Wouldn't be surprised if half of the airgroup face planted onto the deck when attempting to land.
 
Top