Germany against Britain ,one on one.

[claymore]

If the 2nd world war had been fought one on one, Britain against Germany, would Germany have invaded or would England have been forced to negotiate a truce before that happened? Admittedly the RAF handed the Luftwaffe a bloody nose during the battle of Britain but German reserves [ had they not been held back for the invasion of Russia ] would have eventually worn England down.

[seekeerz]

Are you serious at this hour of the morning ?? what sort of negative, scare-the-pants-off-us thought is that for early on a Monday - have you been up all night dreaming that up ??

[Quizmonster]

Had it been truly one on one, the Germans would not have been just across the Channel in France, Belgium etc...ie these countries would not have been defeated and under German control. The logistics in such circumstances would have made invasion rather a different matter. Given that they were just across the Channel, they still didn't quite get around to it, did they?

[vehelpfulguy]

Hitler had a grudging respect for England and her Empire. It is rumoured that this is why he did not invade England.

I think he hoped that now Germany had their "Empire" (France, Holland, Belgium etc) that Germany and Britain could somehow live in peace with their respective Empires.

I think he also knew that invading England would bring the whole Empire against him (Canada, Australia, India etc) as well as probably the USA.

So I do not think he wanted to invade England and was hoping for some sort of peace agreement between the two countries.

[seekeerz]

see, I told you, nothing to worry about - can you see the Brits letting that lunatic into Britain - but a word in your ear, vehelpfulguy - us Aussies were already there helping out.

Seriously though - could you imagine what this world would have been like if Germany and Japan had won - now that is scary !!!

[4GS]

In 1974 the surviving General Staff from the UK + German armies held a war game at Sandhurst to see whether an invasion would have worked, and if it would have succeeded, using the forces that were available to both sides in 1940 it was concluded that:

The Royal Navy would disperse, half to the west of the English Channel, half to the east of the Channel (the german navy was not powerful enough to take on the Royal Navy, then the 2nd largest fleet in the world) and attack any landing force on two sides in the Channel, the RAF would also intervene against the landing craft, and attack the Luftwaffe's aircraft.
Landing beaches on the UK were mined and booby trapped, of the coast at Dover the Army were preparing to pour petrol into the sea and roast the invaders alive. The only place the Germans could land safely and establish a secure beach head was not suitable to deploy tanks/armour.

A series of defensive positions were established by the British across the country where the defenders could fight, then withdraw to the next prepared position and it was agreed by both sides that the Germans would be beaten and would have to evacuate after up to 3 weeks intense fighting.

[Pootle]

A grudging respect and he did not want to destroy the British hence the reason why Hitler halted the Panzer Divisions which led to the rescue at Dunkirk and allowed for the British army and much of the French to be evacuated.

[4GS]

One reason Hitler halted the tanks was Goering's promise that his Luftwaffe would finish off the allies on the beaches, thankfully the RAF kept most of them at bay also the soft sand meant that the explosions from bombs dropped into the sand was absorbed causing minimal casualties

[123everton]

Hitler made a mistake in not pressing home his advantage in Dunkirk, he later tried to pass it off as tactical ploy but he knew he'd made a mistake.
The failure of the Luftwaffe to destroy the R.A.F put paid to any invasion of Britain that was already unlikely after the Kriegsmarine's heavy losses in the Naarvik campaign.
Claymore I'm sure you're a 5th columnist! ;-)

[Hugh Spencer]

Not one of you gives credit to the untiring efforts of RAF Bomber Command. Granted in the early days the results were dependent on the quality of equipment they were given but remember this - Bomber Command was constantly attacking the enemy on their soil from the first day of the war and was consistently over their territory depending on the weather. Fighter Command beat back the German attackers but if the German industry had not been attacked they would have built up their reserves in no time at all.

[4GS]

Hugh,
It's not widely known by the general public the sterling work done by Bomber Command in the early days of the war, as far as I was aware, bombers were dropping propaganda leaflets on Germany and didn't start bombing military targets until September 1940.
I've recently finished reading 'Finest Hour' written by Tim Clayton & Phil Craig and there is no mention of Bomber Command.
They do however mention that after the evacuation of Dunkirque the RAF took a lot of 'stick' for not keeping the Luftwaffe away from the troops waiting to go onto the ships but people were not aware that the fighter squadrons were flying mission round the clock and those aircraft attacking the troops were the 'lucky' ones that got through the RAF's top cover.

[Hugh Spencer]

Hi 4GS,
You have been reading up on RAF activities but you have not come across some of the following.
4 Sept 1939 - warships were bombed at Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbuttel
29 Sept - warships bombed in the Heligoland area.
3 Dec - repeat of 29 Sept
18 Dec - shipping bombed at Wilhelmshaven
20 Dec - minesweepers attacked
So you see, besides searches for shipping and leaflet raids Bomber Command was active although the government set limits as to targets.

[4GS]

Hello again Hugh
I take it the limits set by the Government was to keep civilian casualties to a minimum? I imagine that attitude would have changed when the Luftwaffe started bombing London.

For my Degree I interviewed a lady who lost her husband before Dunkirque, he was a bomber pilot shot down over Germany dropping propaganda leaflets. As far as she was aware that's all the RAF bombers were doing until the Battle of Britain, and, that's where I made the assumption too.

Have you posted a petition in the past for the efforts of Bomber Command to be recognised by issuing a campaign medal? I think I signed an on-line petition for such a medal to be struck.

[Hugh Spencer]

All the information I gave earlier comes from 'The Bomber Command War Diaries' by Middlebrook and Everitt. Yes, I have signed petitions, I have going from one website to another deploring the fact that a campaign medal has not been forthcoming and there is another effort being made on
www.mfipb.com/index.php?mforum
To give you all an example of the sacrifices that were made in January 1943, 628 aircrew, young men between 18 and 25 years of age, were either killed or were POW.