WWII List of British blunders which would have had a serious impact

Gamelin was full of shit; the germans were already across the Somme and their army had barely been touched.

France on the other hand had lost their best mobile formations and possessed no formations remaining capable of countering the three german panzer corps

to say nothing of the RAF's demonstrated disaster in operating without an early warning system over territory being rapidly overrun by the germans (ie pilot losses were permanent and the germans were overrunning landing grounds)
 
I like your subtle ways of putting a point across.

It is worth mentioning that Brooke was dead against anything in France after Dunkirk. His second trip turned into saving what can be saved.

Churchill finally gave into Dowden and stopped any more deployment of RAF, but Churchill was not happy about it.

I think very few wanted to realise that the mighty French army had been defeated. Churchill being one of them.

We have been discussing the Pursuit not long ago, and clearly Gamelin was wrong. France was gone.

However, it still stands: WI Churchill had kept on pumping RAF squadrons across to France?

RAF would have to have had bases in France, which surely would have been overrun or bombed.

Pilot losses in France alone would have been a really bad.

And that would have had an impact on BoB (oh no, no sea mammal here).

Ivan
 
With heavier losses in France come the Battle of Britain 11 Group would have soon found it impossible to opperate and have had to pull back further noth than it actually did. Fighter Command would have had to draw in pilots from other commands which would have effected those commands opperations, and rush pilots near the end of their training into service early. 12 Group would have had to take a larger part in the battle which would have shown one way or another the Big Wing worked. The biggest result would have been the inablity to rotate squadrons out of the combat zone to rest and refit which in turn would have led to increased combat losses.
 
Yes, Park and 11 group would have been even more flattened.

However, the big wing might have worked for 12 group, but, due to the shorter distance and the need to get flights up, not for 11 group.

Was Park ever against big wing? not as far as I know, but he rightly saw that 12 group had time to get organised, get in the air, assemble, drive to heights, etc. His group didn't have that luxury.

Have we had a discussion if 11 group applied big wing tactic? probably.

If Park had put more fighters up, he might have shot down more bombers, but his own losses could also have been higher.

As long as Germany bombed something non-essential, he could husband his resources.

The thing is: if he had started with far less, how would he have fared?

Ivan
 
Biggest blunder I know of? Relying on the BAMS code.:eek::confused: (B-Dienst read them as easily as the Admiralty.)

Related: Admiralty still relying on pen & paper cyphers, rather than machines.:confused:

Slightly related: not adopting a combined U.S.-British naval cypher machine, even tho there were indications the Germans were reading Allied messages, because the seniors were convinced the cypher was unbreakable.:rolleyes: (To which somebody should have said, in a very loud voice, "Bletchley Park".:rolleyes::mad:)
 
Biggest blunder I know of? Relying on the BAMS code.:eek::confused: (B-Dienst read them as easily as the Admiralty.)

Related: Admiralty still relying on pen & paper cyphers, rather than machines.:confused:

Slightly related: not adopting a combined U.S.-British naval cypher machine, even tho there were indications the Germans were reading Allied messages, because the seniors were convinced the cypher was unbreakable.:rolleyes: (To which somebody should have said, in a very loud voice, "Bletchley Park".:rolleyes::mad:)

the overestimation of your own signals security whilst simultaneously breaking enemy signals is one of the great ironies of ww2

germany forced italy to use enigma machines because they thought the italian cipher system was broken (even though italy used one time pads (popular with the kgb in the 70's and 80's) which were completely and utterly secure)

germany forced italy to do that; and themselves overrelied on their enigma machines when they had broken 33 diplomatic codes, the transatlantic telephone cable and various other "secure" forms of signals

germany even used enigma when land line telephone was readily available :rolleyes:
 
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