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The RAF would not be playing that big a role if luftwaffe plans were on track - also driving away the royal navy lest they suffer the fate of PoW and Repulse. Under the protection of the Luftwaffe, german shipping could have delivered supplies as well - an adequate logistical base could very well have been established. Seized airfields would in turn become bases for the Germans on British soil. They were massing hundreds of barges and other craft for their makeshift invasion fleet. It would have been an ugly amphib invasion, just as the invasion of Norway was an abomination. However, this could likely have worked if eagle day and the ensuing battle went the germans way.
Also keep in mind...
1 - the invasion army would not likely have been heavy in mech or armor units - at least not initially
2 - stukas would be augmenting german divisional arty, and as usual be relied upon heavily as mobile arty batteries.
I have seen interviews of British soldiers saying the supply issue post dunkirk was pretty bad - there was training going on w/o weapons and such. You can't equip Bn after Bn overnight.
Didnt the Luftwaffe resupply of the surrounded units at Stalingrad not live up to promises? Not because of the scale of the supply that had to be done, but poorly planned loading manifests meant vital supplies were not being delivered and high attrition rates greatly reduced the sortie rates?
I dont even think the Allied resupply of the troops in Market-Garden were effective, and that was using lots of aircraft with air superiority.
It was not that supplies were not getting in, but rather that that the wrong supplies were being sent. As my Grandfather who was in Stalingrad told me he remember getting a package of boots and upon opening them saw that they were tropical issue.
By Aug 1940, it looks like the BA had recovered enough to be a credible force to reckon with. By summer 1941, they had been completely rebuilt.
sys - we can discuss the military aspect later - but there's much flawed logic in your post, probably based on that you don't fully grasp military tactics or planning. I don't have time to do it right now though.
I'm sorry but that is utterly wrong.
Have a read through the biography about Monty one day, you will see how much BS that statement is.
Syscom - before you talk about the military in the way you do... join it! You can't re-equip div after div overnight! Cripes - they abandoned massive amounts of equipment. I've read accounts that there was not proper equipment for the reserve type units - maybe Home Guard maybe it was?
Due to the Wehrmacht's limited amphib capability - it rested fully upon clearing the RAF out of the skies. Didn't happen. However, if it did, then the Germans would have had a fighting chance to invade britain.
It would have faced many difficulties - but the point is that you blanketly dismissed the german capability to invade based upon their lack of amtracs, amphibs, and other landing craft - which is just an erroneous assumption to make. Norway should have failed too, by your reasoning - it was ugly as hell, but succeeded.
You earlier said an allied invasion in 42/43 would have failed for logo reasons - yet what about sicily, italy, N African campaigns, in addition to the numerous pacific ops?
After the Battle of France the English were in pretty sorry shape equipment-wise and were depending on convoys from the States for a lot of stuff. Britain's manufacturing certainly didn't pump up and replace it all in short order. With the U-boat ring that surrounded the Isles not much was getting through. You don't abandon weapons, ammo, vehicles, supplies, and other equipment for 300,000 men and not miss it or replace it easily.
Let's not forget paratoopers from Ju-52s either. All they'd have had to do is take a couple RAF fields and the Luftwaffe would no longer be at a disadvantage with the 109. The RAF would be no better able to defend at night than the Luftwaffe could attack at night either.
The simple fact that Hitler intervened and changed the Luftwaffe's thrust from attacking the RAF on the ground along with radar facilities is what saved them. Switching to civilian targets gave the RAF the breathing room it needed. Had he left things alone RAF fields and facilities would have continued to be pummeled. It's is pure speculation if continued it would have ultimately given air superiority to Germany. But they were originally on the right track.
Any semblence of aerial advantage if not complete superiority would have proved very beneficial to an invading German force.
The Japanese were the only combatants in the conflict that had long-range plans which included the specific use of landing craft going back to the mid 1930s. They fortified their islands and conquests over many years with the express idea of defending them to invaders and developed naval specialty craft to expidite amphibious landings long before anyone else. The coastline of GB was in no way similar to the sophisticated labyrinth of defenses that Japanese islands were.
If the German mentality was on par with the Japanese they could have done it had they so chosen. Logistics and geography simply downplayed the need for German craft like the Japanese had. Why invest in a major military and industrial development when there was no foreseeable use?
Since this whole scenerio is another "what if" there is no reason not to imagine if Hitler had put out the word in 1937, that German technology and manufacturing could not have come up with the proper vehicles and equipment by 1940.
However - there was a possibility for it to work after Dunkirk providing the Luftwaffe cleared out the RAF in the 4 weeks they stated. The British Army would still be in rugged shape, and they would have had a fair chance at making another Norway style invasion work. After the BoB though, not a chance. The whole kicker is that it absolutely required German control of the air.
They do, it splits in the middle and one goes to the left and the other to the right like normal double dorrs...